 time to welcome our first guest in a segment we call Dog Mom Biz. The planet had more knowledge and experience in the realm of high-end purebred dogs than Laura Reeves. Laura is an AKC breeder of merit, AKC judge, and the host of the Pure Dog Talk podcast. She is a retired member of the Professional Handlers Association under the Scotia Kennel Banner. Her podcast just celebrated its, listen to this, 600th episode, hashtag goals. And she joins us now from Grant's Pass, Oregon. Laura, welcome to the show. Welcome. Thank you, Karina. I sure appreciate it. That is such an intro. You have such incredible experience and I can't wait to unpack it all with you. But we want to start in the beginning, Laura. Where did your love for dogs come from? I have had dogs my whole life. I grew up with dogs. I, my parents had dogs. We had all kinds of dogs. And when I was a kid, my, I was sort of shy and retiring and lacked people skills. That was my mother's definition. And so she rolls me in dog care for age. And clearly it worked out okay for me. Obviously, you know, and hey, we're all in process, right? And those experiences have made you who you are today. So I love that. And dogs change all of us for the better, right? I mean, that is just the bottom line. Now, you said you've, you've spent pretty much a lifetime working with talking about dogs and then judging purebred dogs. So how were you first introduced into the world of purebred dogs? So when I was a child growing up, we had horses and my father got sick of hauling hay and building fence basically. And he said, if you'll just get rid of these horses, I will buy you any purebred dog you want. And so I got my first English setter. My mom got a clumber spaniel. My dad had had field trial lab. So we just were basically surrounded by dogs. Wow. Now you had an English setter and I had an Irish setter. So how are they different? Well, the differences are in color or automatic, right? So the Irish setters always red. The English setter can be many colors of spotted on white. My English setter was lovely, but she English setters are really good at beautiful. They're not always as smart as some of the other dogs that I involved with. That's honest. And I love it. And that was the same thing about Sean too. I mean, he was a happy dog, just not the smartest dog. That's okay. But we love him. She ate slugs. I mean, come on. Oh my, yeah, that's next level, isn't it? That's okay. We love him anyway. Now, I'm amazed by this. You spent 25 years as a professional dog handler. I want to know just kind of some of the ins and outs of presenting and then handling dogs at such a high level. Right. So you drive a lot. Basically, I put 50 or 60,000 miles a year on my vehicles driving from dog show to dog show all around the country. And I personally would carry what we think of as a pretty light load. I'd only have 10 or 12 dogs at a time. And usually I'd have a helper like a teenage kid that helped me. And we would go from point A to point B and break down and set up. It's almost like, it's almost like a circus. If you think of it, it would be a circus with me. I would just need you to tag along to make it very calm and cool and selected. That is amazing. Now, you typically set up under the American Kennel Club, right? Right. So I show dogs, I breed dogs under the working with the American Kennel Club under the auspices of the American Kennel Club. AKC is what's considered a club of clubs. Okay, so I am not a member of the AKC, but the clubs that I belong to are. So that's the way that works. Now, I know that you've also had opportunities to sit on the other side of the table and actually judge dog shows. And we've all seen the dog shows on TV. But can you explain for our audience exactly what the judge is doing when inspecting and also watching the dogs? Absolutely. I just got back from judging the National Specialty Show for my breed, German-Werner Pointers. So that was a really great, great, exciting opportunity. But basically, the judge is looking at the dogs, touching the dogs, feeling the dogs, looking at the dog structure, their confirmation, their movement, and how it meets the standard of the breed. Each one of our 200 and somewhat registered breeds with the American Kennel Club has a specific written standard. So it's not just, you know, who's the prettiest or who's the flashiest, it is literally which dog most closely meets the written standard. Okay, I'm amazed at the depth of knowledge that you have to have to do this. Have you ever had a moment where it was hard for you to make a decision? I mean, obviously the dogs are all incredibly beautiful. Everybody's really cute. But yeah, I mean, you have to make hard calls, right? Which one's more important? Which, which feature, which quality, which we like to think that we judge on a positive basis, right? So which part of what makes a wire hair pointer or wire hair pointer is more important than the other part. And so those kind of fine lines, it's, it can be a challenge for sure. I'm sure. And you just look at how trainers and handlers put their heart and soul into all of this. And I'm just amazed every time I watch these dog shows at the level of caliber and professionalism and how everything comes together. That is so neat how you've been able to be on both sides. It is, it is a journey. And I you were talking about the professionalism and the and the amount of time it takes. I am good friends with a another judge who is also a PhD. And he will tell anybody that will listen, right, that it took him longer and cost him more to earn his all breed judging license than it did to get his PhD. Wow, perspective. What a commitment. I love that. Okay, so you go 25 years as a professional dog handler about that. And you're looking at some of the world's most prestigious dog shows, you have such depth in your experience. What made you want to apply all of that to the podcasting world? Well, honestly, it was that my I was getting older. My body wasn't it's a dog handling is also a very, very physical job. The driving, the running, the lifting, the bending, the all the things and my many of us who show dogs professionally have body parts that wear out sooner than than authorized. So the podcast was an opportunity to do something to give back to provide an educational platform about topics that I really felt very strongly about. And I thought it was an area that was just missing at that particular point in the world of purebred dogs. Did it come easy to you? Or was it challenging? Were you shy or? No, I did not. I met a gal at some dog shows. And she and I started talking about different educational opportunities that we kind of were investigating. And she is a stunt coordinator in Hollywood. And right. And so she's a little more, I don't know, what would you say, technology forward than I am, kind of a Luddite in reality. And she's like, Well, I want to do a podcast. And I'm like, what's the podcast? I never heard of it. Literally never heard of a podcast. And she told me what it was. Well, she's like, and I want you to host it. I'm like, Oh, no. Oh, no, no, I couldn't do that. Let me write your script, because my background is journalism. Yes, exactly. There you go. So you're like, that comes easy. But it sounds like she was born tough. And she pulled that out of you and helped you see where you had that talent and ability. And it has been a really talk about growth. We're always we're always progressing. We're always growing. This has definitely been a journey from I had done some work in the past. Before I was handling full time, I worked freelance marketing advertising, public relations, community and I had written scripts for self guided audio driving tours for national parks and national forests. And I was working for one of the top audio design guys in the country, frankly, and he taught me how to write for the ear, which is very, very different than writing for a newspaper, which is where I had started in journalism. And you write a lead, it's a real different thing who went where I how then engaging someone right in the audio environment. And so that background combined, and it just kind of is a serendipity thing, I think. That's great. All things work together. And you see how all your experiences in life kind of build, right? And took you in that direction. I love that so much. And now look at the success of this podcast. This is incredible. Pure dog talk. Just celebrate it. It's 600th episode. As we said, congratulations to you, first of all, for that achievement. That's a really big deal. It is a really big deal. And to be to be honest, it is somewhat shocking. Podcasts, particularly independent podcasts like this, we're not talking, you know, NBC News and all the big famous ones. Little indie podcasts like this generally don't make money. That's not a thing. And less than 10% of the people who do it succeed. And I am able to do that by good fortune and good grace. So there you go. And if you can do spirit, I love that about you, your tenacity. You started this in 2016. So what were some of those hurdles or challenges that you had to overcome? Did I mention I'm a Luddite? So trying to figure out, right, like, just the technology, like I, I could talk on the phone, I could type on the computer, right? But figuring out a WordPress site, figuring out audio that I mean, I had just pushed the button on the recorder when I was working with my audio guy, I didn't do any of the rest of it. So it's a blessing and a curse, you know, and what works one day might not work the next. It's like you had a troubleshoot so often. We have lots of we have lots of redundancies built into the system at this point, for sure. Wow. I mean, you've had so many downloads and listeners what something like 1.6 million downloads and more than 300,000. Yeah, we're up right about 300. It goes up all the time, right? And there's new listeners come in all the time. I mean, that's the great thing about it. And so we're at about, I don't know, 330,000 unique listeners, which is an amazing number because it is more than the American Kennel Club has breeders of merit. That yeah, that's that's a huge stat, right? So that's pretty fun. So what do you attribute to the growth? What do you attribute to the popularity? As you said, this started is pretty much an indie thing. So how did you get traction and and become so successful? It is definitely an indie thing. And I think I routinely, regularly, weekly, sometimes daily, hear from listeners who have been listening since the beginning or have just started listening or what have you. And the basic concept is that there is a lot of information that they can't get any other place or that costs money to get somewhere else or what have you. I I am fortunate because I know a lot of people, right? It's not what you know, it's who you know, I'm a who you know kind of girl. And I was able to leverage relationships and knowledge and experience and all of that. And the superintendents, right, the people who put the dog show information so that people can enter the dog show with their dogs, they were like the very first sponsor. And so there's a clickable link on each one of those places. So that was a really great opportunity. And it's just word of mouth, social media. It was information that people wanted. Yes. And you mentioned social media. And I don't know about you, but I feel this way sometimes so many people want to pretend to be the expert, you know, they don't really necessarily have the experience, but they have a passion, you know, and I can't fault them for wanting to do what they love. But here's what we know about you. You actually brought so much depth and experience to the table and people know and people see it. And I mean, just from your wide range of experiences, I mean, really, you would have a lot of topics to pull from, right? Yes. So I mean, how do you even go about deciding what to do and how much do you value that authenticity as you're even deciding who to have on your show? I'm really, really, really picky about the guests that I bring on. I know this goes back to who you know. I know who's real and who's not. And I only bring people who are legitimate experts in their areas. And we cover topics from veterinary to breeding to, you know, showing the dogs to training to grooming to the different sports that you can do besides the dog show. Literally every piece of the spectrum of purebred dogs we cover or have covered or will cover at some point over the course of time. And that, you know, deciding what it's going to be, I get listeners send me ideas, you know, I social media, I see something, it's a hot topic, we talk about it, right? So it's, it's so with such part of the instigation for why I wanted to do the education piece is what you mentioned before, right? The keyboard warriors, right, sharing a lot of knowledge that isn't really knowledge. So it's a reliable place for people to go and providing serious, legitimate information that when you see that Facebook argument break out, you can just drop a link and say, Hey, guys, I can solve this for you. It's right here. There's a podcast for that. And people love it that they they feel like you're credible, they know you're credible, but also you're not wasting their time, their effort and their energy. You know, you're putting your heart and soul into it and sharing that valuable information, which can't be beat. It's awesome. Is there an overarching theme, would you say for your podcast, or maybe what are some of the issues you're most passionate about? You know, we do a lot of discussion about specific breeds. So we have love the breeds, often a month long group of different breeds that we're going to talk about rare breeds, maybe or northern breeds or hounds or, you know, whatever we're going to do. And then a lot of veterinary and topics. I have a phenomenal partnership with Dr. Marty Greer from the veterinary village in Lomero, Wisconsin, and she comes on once a month. And the number of people who have quite literally called and said that we saved their life, their dog's life is shocking. It is truly, truly shocking. And so that's amazing. I just government relations talking about some of the issues within the industry in terms of whether it's breed specific legislation or it's breeding legislation that's anti-breeding. It's a lot of stuff out there in the world that impacts ownership and the ability to create your new best friend. That's right, your best friend. That's the truth. And I don't know if it gets more rewarding, Laura, than hearing you saved my dog's life. I mean, that just has to fill you up. My goodness. It makes all the hard work worth it, doesn't it? Yeah, it really does. It really does. It does. It's the best. Thank you. I want to do some pure dog talk with Laura Reeves right now. And I want to know, get ready here, Laura. I know you're a champ. So we're just going lighting around and you can bring the answers. So we'll start with this. What are some of the benefits of investing in a purebred dog? Okay. Purebred dogs bring a couple of things. Number one, they are living history. They are literally a four legged conduit to our past and to our future. Every single purebred dog represents a very specific people and place and time. And the pedigree and the breeding that has continued over hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, you literally have living history in your house. The fact that it's purebred means that it's predictable. It is predictably the size, the shape, the color, the temperament, the coat, all of those things. Because it is purebred, particularly if it's purebred and it's produced by a preservation or a responsible breeder who's really dedicated to this, you can be sure that when you read about that dog in a book and you go to buy that dog, it's actually going to be that. Right. And that's something that, you know, if that's important in your life, you can't find that any other way. Now, as a potential buyer, what are the some of the expectations that we should have when choosing a responsible breeder? That's key. It is key. It is absolutely key. First thing up, these are not toasters. You don't get to just pull it off the shelf and walk out of Walmart with it. Okay. That is the most important thing that I can really encourage. If you're working with a responsible preservation breeder, it's going to take a minute. I mean, let's just be realistic. We have one, maybe two litters a year. So you're going to wait for a second. If you are anxious to have something right now, you might consider looking at pure bread rescue. Every single one of the 200 breeds has a parent club, a national specialty parent club. Each one of those clubs has rescue that works specifically with that breed. So if a baby puppy isn't really what you're looking for and or you really want to have a dog in your home right now, rescue is something to consider specifically the pure bread rescue. You're going to want to look for a breeder that will guarantee health of their dogs that will guarantee that the dog will always be able to come back to them for any reason at any time. I have taken dogs back at nine years old. That is super, super important. We preservation pure bread breeders do not and have no interest in contributing to shelter numbers. Our dogs are wanted and they're always wanted with us. I love that dedication nine years. He will take a dog back after nine years. That is pretty incredible. I did my house. A good fit. You want to make sure that that dog is set up for a wonderful dog too. Somebody's life changes. There's a death in the family. A job change. You know, life happens and I am more. It is more important to me that that dog come back to me and I know that it is safe than anything else. There is no judgment with that. I get it. Life happens. So that's right. So much. You know, many of the people in our audience are familiar with the Christopher guest movie Best in Show. One of my favorites personally. How close does the movie get to reality in your opinion? I'm telling you, I get asked this question all the time and I am going to tell you fact. It is legit. It is seriously legit. Most of the like supporting actors and the and the cast that was around. Those were real dog people in Canada. And actually one of my clients funny story one of one of my clients had called me up and said, Hey, come up. They're shooting a movie in Vancouver. Come up and and help me with this dog. And I'm like, nah, man, I'm too busy. I can't make it. I lived in Washington at the time. It would have taken me like two hours. Oh, well, you know, my goodness. And you could have been you could have been in it or play. Yes, absolutely. The dog that was from the breeder that that I work for is you can see it in the movie. I'm like, that could have been me. Oh, my goodness. It's just really honestly, one of the best. And I can't tell you how happy it makes me to hear you say it's pretty accurate in your opinion. I mean, like, cried everything is an exaggeration, right? But the type typecast, right? I know every single one of those people at some level. Do you relate most to any of the characters? Um, you know, they all make sense to me. I just I love I can never remember his name, but the guy with the comes with the bloodhound. That's kind of my guy. Great. And then the commentators, too. Well, look at him going out like a piece of ham. You know, it's like the ones the one the one that I have mostly had as my clients is the one with the whimer runner and the busy bee. I can't tell you how many of my clients are those people. Would you apologize to the dog, please? I once facetimed an owner in Mexico so that she could talk to her dog. That is not a joke. Oh, Laura. And for you dog moms who haven't seen this movie, you're welcome. You need to go and see. Yes, Karina, you have to. And if all else fails, FaceTime your dog, I'm to say. That's right. You'll never go wrong. You'll never regret it. Awesome. Laura, thanks for being a true bird. Thanks for sharing your time and your experience and your expertise. It's been such a joy to spend this time with you. How can our audience keep informed of what's going on with you? What's the best way to do it is go on anywhere that you get your podcast from iTunes on down the list. Go to pure dog talk. Click follow the show. You'll be able to get all the episodes as they drop every Monday. You can also visit the website. We've got albums for the archives. You can keyword search by topic and pure dog talk com will keep you up to date on everything that's going on. All right, we'll make it a point. Laura Reeves, thank you so much. You take care. Thanks Karina.