Madcap Radio

​This episode’s question is from a woman who’s showing her 16-week-old puppy in the AKC’s 4-6 month Puppy competition. She’s worried because her puppy wants to put her paws up on the judge and lick the judge’s face. What kind of training should she do to stop this behavior? I’ve brought along many, many, puppies, and a 16-week-old puppy that is happy to see a judge is a very positive sign for that puppy’s show career. And I have enough experience to know that this is a behavior that will wane as the puppy grows to an adult and becomes habituated to the show experience. Sure, you need to gently mold the puppy over time, but by the 100th time a judge or handling instructor approaches them, they’ll be old enough and hungry enough to ignore that person. So it’s not like you really need to do any special training or program for this issue. It’s more about accepting it as normal. But puppy owners don’t always have that long view, and they seek ways to “fix” this perceived problem. And we have to honor the emotional needs of puppy owners and give them some training to do. Because if we don’t give them some positive training techniques, they’re liable to fall prey to aversive training for their wiggly puppies. So, in this episode, I talk about what you can do specifically to work on this behavior, what training programs we offer for this, and also the reasons why this is a self limiting problem IF you don’t do the wrong thing and create bad feeling for the puppy with ill-advised handling and corrections. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

​This episode is a big one on young puppies who guard their possessions from humans. The breeder is stumped. She’s never seen resource guarding or aggression in any of her puppies, and it’s understandably upsetting that she now has a 7 week old puppy that suddenly turned on the breeder when the breeder tried to take a chew object away from the puppy. I unpack the emotion around this phenomenon and why, if you do the right protocols with young puppies that display resource guarding behavior, your chances are very good for an excellent outcome - meaning zero resource guarding and a puppy that you can confidently place in any home. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

​This episode is inspired by a fan comment on Episode 51 - Teaching Show Puppies to Sit: Will The Real Show Stack Please Stand Up? "I have found that even thinking about sitting in a breed like mine (Lakelands) leads to a slight relaxation of the tail, which must be vertical or with a slight curve toward the head when baiting in the ring. It's a minor thing, but can make the difference between Winners and Reserve" What a great comment. She’s not wrong, if your puppy is thinking about sitting in the show ring, there’s going to be that bit of relaxation in the tail. But, why is your puppy thinking about sitting in the ring? Plot spoiler, it’s not because he has learned to sit on cue ;). Tune in for my recommendations for and analysis of the “ups and downs” of puppy tails. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

We’re continuing our conversation about why puppies get returned to breeders — and what we can do to help prevent that from happening. This episode is about the perspectives breeders shared in response to the original question. It’s a wide-ranging discussion covering topics from whether breeders should offer refunds when a puppy is returned, to unexpected connections between pure positive trainers and Prozac, to how to give puppy owners the benefit of our wisdom without making them feel we're overstepping our bounds. The breeder comments on this thread were thought-provoking and brought us to some slightly uncomfortable places, which I really enjoyed.  I think you’re going to enjoy listening to it just as much as I enjoyed recording it! Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

Puppy returns are an unpleasant reality of being a breeder. At the end of the day, no matter how well you screen, you're going to get puppies back if you breed dogs. This week's episode is a response to a breeder who got a puppy back from a puppy owner who ignored the breeder’s explicit written instructions regarding training and veterinary care/medication, and disaster ensued. The puppy is going to be OK but the breeder is wondering, could she (the breeder) have done something differently? The people seemed so nice, how could the breeder have gotten this placement so wrong? In this episode I address this question, talk about what is an is not within our control as breeders, and share some resources for stacking the deck in your favor when it comes to puppy placements. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

This episode’s question is about teaching show prospect puppies to sit: "What do you do with your show prospects for stacking? I am worried about the puppy automatically sitting in the ring and for the judge…" Direct answer - we teach all of our puppies to sit, and we’re on our ninth generation of homebred champions, so it’s safe to say it has not held any of them back. But the bigger question is, why is this still a question? Not only will teaching your puppy to sit or mand not hold him back, it will help him stack more confidently in the ring. Putting aside the actual merits of the dog as a specimen of their breed, there has never been a champion-worthy dog that did not get their championship because they could not learn how to stack or move around the ring at home. But there are thousands and thousands that never got their championship because of profound behavioral issues, stress at shows or refusal to be handled by a judge. Teaching your dog to communicate with you through manding, and teaching him some operant tricks to call on when he’s feeling pressured, can boost your puppy’s confidence when he really needs it. That tackles a much more real threat to your puppy’s show career than the outside chance that he might sit in the ring. Tune in for more conversation about how and why teaching your show puppy to sit and even (gasp) sniff will make him a better show dog. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

There’s a lot of confusion about good fungi and bad fungi for dogs, and in this episode I’m joined by certified mushroom expert, Magda Chiarella to untagle this confusion. The fungi kingdom includes mushrooms and yeasts that are super beneficial for us and our dogs. Mushrooms have properties that boost whatever food your currently giving your dog. Certain yeasts, such as the yeast found in Kefir scoby also have the ability to boost the nutritional content of other foods. But mold is also in the fungi kingdom, and mold often is quite harmful. So those good mushrooms and yeasts sometimes get a bad rap by association. But that’s just a misunderstanding. Tune in and find out more about beneficial mushrooms, yeasts and how to safely prepare and feed them to your brood bitches, puppies, and dogs. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

This episode’s question is from a breeder who’s frustrated by puppy seekers who seem to be just shopping for the lowest price: "I'm a small breeder, one or two litters a year. I'm in a rural area so most of my puppies travel to their homes, but because of how I raise them I have people happy crossing the country for them. But for every person who sees the value, there's 30 that don't… I find myself spending way too much time justifying [my pricing]…If I'm going to continue, I need to find a better way of dealing with the pricing issues…" Plot spoiler, if we want more puppies raised in a forward thinking and humane way, we have to support the breeders and caretakers who are raising the puppies that way.  And by “we,” I mean the puppy buying public. There is a cost and a value to raising puppies this way, and if we as a society value it, we need to be willing to pay for it. But it falls to the breeders to communicate that value, and we could do better in that area. In this episode I explore those issues and also share some truly awesome suggestions for how breeders can help educate puppy seekers about the value proposition of a puppy that’s been raised with the “meaty” training and protocols in Puppy Culture. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

We Hit 100K Downloads 🎉 Thank you, listeners and all the folks who write in with the great questions that keep us curious! We could not produce such a great podcast without your insightful and interesting questions. Here’s to the next 100K downloads! To celebrate, I’m re-releasing our runaway top episode - “Dogs Eating Poop: One Species Evolutionary Meat is another Species Evolutionary Poison”. Somehow, that hit a major cord with everyone. Not sure if that says more about dogs or us, but it’s for sure a hot topic🐶 🍽️ 💩😅 ***** So, your dog eats poop.  Is it deviant?  Or an elegant evolutionary solution?   In this podcast, Jane and Mark look at the research and talk about the possible functions of poop-eating, what works and does not work to stop it, and why.   We won’t say you’ll come away happy that your dog eats poop, but for sure you’ll see it in a different light. Visit our website, madcapradio.com for further reading and studies referenced in this episode.

This episode is about when and if you should use vitamin and probiotic supplements for raw fed puppies and dogs. One of my students asked me what supplements were necessary when weaning puppies onto raw. Another student in the same thread said she had read that raw diets are often deficient in vitamins D and E and asked if she should be supplementing those vitamins. The answers to these questions strike at the heart of what it means to be a raw/natural feeder, and why breeders often struggle with this. Natural feeding is not an ideology, but it does require us to release some deep-seated ideas that are based on presumptions that are not relevant to raw/natural feeders. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.