 a cure dog talk. I am your host Laura Reeves and this is a conversation that I am incredibly excited about and I think you guys are going to be as well. The American Kennel Club has started a program called the Breeder Symposiums and I participated in one of these in January in Chicago with the Schomburg shows with the International Kennel Club of Chicago and I'm joined today by Vanessa Scow and Erin Myers and they are the team that's sort of leading this charge and I'm thrilled. I just think this is such an amazing program that the AKC has pulled together and I am so excited to talk to these two young women. So welcome you guys. Hey. Thank you. So Vanessa, let's have you start and you're the Executive Director of Breeder Development Erin you are the project analyst for ICG. So Vanessa why don't you start with your 411. Tell the listeners all about you and your background. I think the American Kennel Club sometimes we lose sight of the actual people that make up the organization. So I have been working for the American Kennel Club now for about eight years. I've been in my current role for over two years and I came I'm from originally from New Zealand. I came to the United States to learn about professional dog handling and I never left and was a professional handler myself and upon my retirement went to work for the AKC which was fabulous. I'm a third generation breeder and I currently breed West Highland White Terriers with my husband in Indiana and yeah that's about it. Still very much participate in the hobby of showing dogs. I love that. Absolutely. Erin. Let's see. I am Erin Myers. I've worked for AKC now for two years and my role in ICG I think is unique. It's the internal consulting group and that's sort of the department that gets thrown special projects to see what people like to do. What sticks against the wall right. And so before coming to work for AKC I was a professional dog handler. I'm also a third generation dog breeder. I currently breed Vigilas and English Cockers occasionally and Malamutes occasionally. But yeah like Vanessa was a pretty successful dog handler and we're just really excited to be kind of in the nitty-gritty here with AKC getting some cool stuff done. And to me I just think this is one of the most exciting developments I've seen come from AKC oh wow. And so I really want you guys Vanessa maybe you can start as the executive director and tell us a lot about what the breeder symposiums are about. Where they're going to be. What they're going to be. I just it's such a great program. So back at the end of 2022 the AKC was approached by the International Kennel Club of Chicago to try to put together an educational portion of their show. They were trying to capture attendees to come to the show as well as gate. And with that Erin was very heavily involved and her brain kind of went to what if we know she's been involved also working where she and I'll let her speak on that later but she's been involved working on a grooming similar grooming program in a large part of what they do in the grooming program is education. And in the breeder world that I work in I feel that and I think Erin can reflect this as well that education is that one thing that kind of it puts us all on the same playing field. We all can learn. Whether you're first litter you're a hundredth litter whether you're being doing this for 50 years or you know six months education is kind of that common denominator that we have that we can all gain insight from. So basically this the symposium we were able to coordinate with Scott file and put on a three day symposium. We had two classrooms running simultaneously. We were able to coordinate some fantastic speakers. I don't know if it was the time of the year. We were just really fortunate. We had a very small window to organize this event. We had yourself speaking which was wonderful. I got my call like a week ahead. I'm like sure. Yeah. It was definitely some last minute coordinating. But we got Dr. Marty Greer who's obviously veterinary village up in Wisconsin to come speak on reproduction. We had Eddie Zook from OFA who brought along three veterinarians who each was a cardiologist a radiologist and ophthalmologist and they gave a deep dive on OFA and what their requirements are and going deep of further into like what they're looking for when they're doing those exams. We had our own Dr. Jerry Klein who's our AKC veterinarian on staff. And we had some we also had you know in some of the other classes as well. But so we were able to coordinate this together and had a couple of classrooms going on as a sit simultaneously. And we sent out invites and charged people to attend and create and attend these classes which I think went really well. I don't know if Aaron you want to go on a little bit further than that. Absolutely. I think that you know I was in breeder development before I moved to ICG. And like Vanessa said you know I was really struck when talking to breeders that like that truly is what we are all after is education and that that's what unites us all. And it's so hard to find really trustworthy sources. And I mean we see it every day you know people turn to social media. And they'll ask an innocent question and be jumped on by 50 people. And so what I saw in attending some grooming trade shows was how these groomers could come together sit in classrooms without their dogs and everybody could just learn in a in a scenario where you're not being judged and you can unite and network and really elevate everybody. And so that was like my vision when we when I heard breeder symposium at IKC I'm like oh my god this is our opportunity to prove the concept and to show you know the people that we work for you know that are above us like hey there's an opportunity here to elevate the entire industry because you know when you go online and you research there isn't a lot of great websites and there isn't a lot of books a lot of books are dated you know so truly I mean if you're a breeder and you're just getting into it you're navigating a lot of the waters alone. And I mean a lot of time people say hey find a mentor but that's not easy to do and you know people are busy and it's intimidating to just like walk up to somebody and say hey I want to get involved but how do I find a mentor? There's a huge chasm there and I think that this is an opportunity to kind of close that gap. So we're really excited about it. Pure dog talk I have said all along education is the answer to everything. And I do my bit but I'm one little meat, having the force of the American Kennel Club and just the weight of the organization behind this concept. I mean I'm doing a happy dance because this is what I've been begging for and pushing for and trying to fill in those tiny little gaps right? And so I just I just think it's amazing. So I know you guys I at least I am told that you are planning another symposium with the IKC in August. Yes. We're actually not gonna be doing it in Chicago in August. We are going to try and do it again in Schomburg in January. Okay. We are planning a symposium to coincide with Houston in July and then Columbus meet the breeds in October. And we have an early bird special if people want. I think you can we can add that link maybe. We will drop the link in the show notes for sure. We will make sure everybody has how to get into these. Yeah. Yeah. And at least to sign up for our newsletter because this year we're doing two next year. We want to do more and eventually and we can get into this. We think that this is going to all tie into an even bigger program. Talk to me about the bigger program. Come on. Here we go. Breaking news. Breaking news on Pure Dog Talk. Well the bigger program is that we're just in the beginning stages of kind of working through us accolade similar to Breeder of Merit where breeders can earn credits and to become an educated breeder. So it doesn't matter what sport you're involved in. If you have toy dogs and you know it's going to be for everybody. And we're just going to track the courses that you take. Make sure you're taking your breed standards form and function all the basic stuff. And then from there you know once you reach a certain amount of credits you'll be awarded this educated breeder badge which we haven't named yet. And I probably shouldn't even be talking about it. But I think that everything's going to be really excited. And I'm the kind of person that likes to you know build up momentum like I love it. I think it's a really amazing and Vanessa I'd like you to speak to it you know from the Breeder Development Department. Specifically we started talking about education. But it is the rising tide raises all but right everywhere. Yeah. And what we're finding is how do we combat animal rights movements right. How do we combat them. How do we all you know we all say we want to stick together and we should unite together. And I think education is one way we can. And we can prove to you know Mr. and Mrs. Puppy Buyer that you know I've not only am I doing my health testing and you know trying to do the best job breeding. I'm also educating myself going forward as well and to be able to prove to those puppy buyers no matter what as I said no matter what kind of breeder you are you could be breeding a hundred litters or five litters or whatever that you're going above and beyond to make yourself a better entity to make an ultimately and make better puppies right that's what their goal is and so we can't as fanciers we can't keep them all so we make those better puppies for those puppy buyers and those pet buyers how wonderful was that. And I you know and to be honest I am there's some friends of mine who are having difficulties breeding and don't know where to turn and so to have this education to be able to walk them through some scenarios or have somebody you know and maybe a speaker that they connect with or also the networking opportunities at these symposiums where it even happened in Schomburg where two breeders met they happen to have the same breed they started talking I mean who knows where that so maybe those mentorships are created from these symposiums as well and those that's where we do learn the most is from other people's experiences because they always say you know if you've been in this long enough everything's happened to you but I haven't personally I haven't been in this long enough so everything hasn't happened to me yet but I want to be prepared and how else do you be prepared but with education. Well and I think you know one of the things that I said when I did my presentation I'll talk to you for 20 or 30 minutes but then let's talk amongst ourselves because I 100% agree that it is that sharing of information asking questions feeling safe and like a safe space right. Yeah to ask your question and get real information I mean your point that you said earlier about social media and the yeah keyboard warrior mentality that exists there from people who really are not necessarily subject matter experts. Great well and I always think like anything what works for you doesn't work for somebody else and how dear you tell me what works for me and so education should be able to teach us that you know here's the what could work here's your five options and maybe you pick one of those things that works for you and I think that's very American spirit to have in general and but I think when you're learning in person and not these when we do these symposiums and eventually become something not everything will be in person we do hope to eventually be able to record these sessions have them available online as well so I don't want to you know make sure that is mentioned that it's not going to you don't have to attend event the great part about attending an event is that networking and that safe space among you can don't doesn't matter if you you know ask a silly question kind of type thing because it's nothing silly in this world because breeding is as we know it's all stupid questions and I want to point out to them some of the symposiums are going to coincide with confirmation dog shows but we really really want to expand outside of that you know the meet the breeds in Columbus in October I think it's going to be really unique to get people from all sports all all walks of life to come and you know realize that like you do have a place at AKC just because you're not showing your dogs in confirmation doesn't make what you do any less valuable you know we all want healthy dogs we all want dogs that have great temperaments and I mean I think that this is just the very beginning of strengthening our community as breeders. We are at the Kentucky on a cluster of dog shows and I'm talking to Dr. Karen Potter. She is a German wire hair pointer breeder Trupanian breeder and she's also a veterinarian and Karen's going to talk about what Trupanian means to her as a breeder and also what it means for her as a veterinarian. When I became a Trupanian breeder and I sent my letters out I knew that they were going with 30 days of coverage had one of my owners have an emergency with them. That's comforting to me as a breeder to know that they can get help. As a veterinarian there are many cases where we have to make decisions on how to treat things based on financial restraints and when the financial restraints come into play we can't always do absolutely everything for that pet. So if my puppies are covered at least for those first 30 days I know that if they get sick they can get the best possible care. And I love that and I I really really love the passion that you two young women are able to bring to this. Long time people in the sport dog breeders real dog breeders like with passion and to just I just love that it is sometimes it is sometimes something that we don't see as much as we'd like to. Yeah and I think something that Erin and I have as we are in it personally Erin and I are in the trenches we currently both probably have litter I know I have two litters on the ground and so we have personal experiences that we're like oh wouldn't it be great to have a class on this so because those are the questions I have as well. So if I'm having them I'm sure somebody else is having them and that's kind of where we bring our our personal experiences into the play into play. I love it I I know I'm pure dog talk I half of my episode topics are something just happened to me and I call somebody and say hey can we talk about this thing right because it's happened to me and so let's talk about it. So I do think that that hands-on real active involvement in in the sport of dogs in dog breeding brings so much to your respective departments right in terms of you know we're really doing it. Yeah yeah we're not just trying to court we're not just trying to coordinate something here we're you know selfishly you know I wish I selfishly I wish I could attend half of this you know the classes that we had but unfortunately we had to be out front but because I do think it's great information that you all gave during you know that Schomburg event and we hope to have it for Houston and Columbus. And so question and I think I asked you about this before Erin those are recorded the ones we did are they available for people who didn't sign up like can I go there and purchase Marty's up talk that was at the same time as mine and if you do that again I'm gonna cry. Yes it's Marty come on man. I know um I was in the same boat because I was up against was I up against Claire and I'm like oh man I want to listen about DNA and I can't because I got to give my own presentation but um yes some of the courses will be available um on canine college three of them are already live um it's just you know awesome education is extremely strapped as far as bandwidth I mean there's so much that we're trying to do all the time um I mean in AKC as a whole but slowly but surely they're coming out and but that doesn't mean to say like you shouldn't attend one of these events in person and the cool thing is is um you know when we go to Houston like I got we got lucky for AKC in Chicago um because you know that's where I grew up I knew a lot of the speakers personally um and it was really cool to be able to get local people that were really well respected like Marty I mean come on Marty Greer is a legend in the Midwest if you're a veterinarian of the year yeah yeah um I mean she she's done um she did a frozen semen breeding for me from like 15 year olds um sperm with this English cocker dog from Europe and I to even today I have great-grandkids from that litter and so I mean she's touched so many lives and so to get her to come is great and what I think is interesting back to my point was um when we go to other parts of the country it gives us an opportunity to find those great people in that part of the country and really speak to that region and so I like that I like that and so do you have kind of a a preliminary idea what the Houston event is going to cover can we talk about that or we're not there yet no I think we can um we have a couple cool things Adam King is going to be down to do um a talk on ophthalmology again um and I mean he's got an immense amount of wisdom on breeding too um so I'm hoping I can kind of leverage him to do some more stuff um Kathy Rust she's the one whose courses are available on canine college now um she is an incredible um experienced breeder um if you guys don't know who she is uh she's a platinum like double platinum breeder of merit in um Vigilas and so much talent there and she has this brilliant way of like breaking down pedigree analysis and um discussing male lines and why it's important that we all keep stud dogs and like it it kind of comes back to the shortage of stud dogs within our breeding world um anyway she'll be there she gives a great class on breeding 101 too because we want to be able to offer beginner and advanced tracks for people so um if you've never bred a litter you're absolutely welcome to come if you've bred 100 liters we're gonna have stuff for you um so yeah and then we do want to really focus on some socialized socialization and enrichment because we know how important that is for the development of puppies and um I mean I could go on and on Vanessa who am I forgetting um I think because every we're still going through is we do have Eddie Zook again who is from OFA who's going to attend um and um Dr. Claire Wiley who is from our AKC DNA department is going to talk about DNA in depth and then hopefully also about a new DNA product that will be out shortly so that should be really exciting and I do want to remind there are you know there's um some of these classes obviously have costs involved whether it be per class or per day or per weekend or per three days but there are some free classes as well and so um those free classes would be um we have a class on the breeder toolkit which is AKC's online um system to be able to log in your dogs litters and and see everything actually which um I just realized the other day I could go get even look at my dog in the breeder toolkit and see how many points it had so I didn't have to navigate the way through akc.org anymore which is fabulous and then we'll also now that right there now I might sign up it's great to use it and it's amazing so we have a great Kelly Kuzelski from AKC is a great teacher um and so she's going to be giving free classes on that um and then we're also going to have our head of inspections Marcus Buck give a class on inspections because as breeders we're all kind of nervous are we going to get inspected what happens when we get inspected and I think just to be able to have a class that people could sit in on and ask them questions so they're better prepared and to realize it's not a big scary thing as well so there'll be some free classes on offer as well for people that are attending and I think um you know it's important to remind you guys that like any revenue that comes in is going right back into breeder development projects which I think is like this really cool thing that we've kind of created that way it's like you know I don't want anybody to think like oh it's just another thing I like this Aaron that's awesome because again it's like back to the proof of concept of like we know breeders want this and we we're going to be able to fund the whole project because we know that like it's exactly where we need to be and for the Houston symposium we are trying to lean on Texas A&M they have a great vet school and so we're hoping to bring in some vets from there yeah awesome I like it and I I have recently been involved in some working with vet students so I wonder if we couldn't like maybe get some of the vet students and like do some cross education definitely definitely I'm saying definitely yeah definitely open to that excellent all right well I I am just I can't tell you how much I appreciate you guys doing this and um how important it is I think um based on my own experience with the with the audience that you're reaching to the it is this is needed and it is valuable well as the last thing I kind of like to point out as part of being part and you know ahead of breeder development is without breeders AKC doesn't exist AKC sports don't exist and no matter what the sport is um and so encouragement of new breeders to even dip their toe in the water or you know those breeders that are having a hard time and getting downtrodden and and feel like they're fighting against the tide like anything we can do to encourage all of them because at the end as I said at the I may have said this before at the end of the day that not all of them are going to keep at the end of the day those puppy buyers or what really is what matters right they're the ones that love that dog for the rest you know for its lifetime and make our hearts feel warm and fuzzy and so we get to have our dogs to you know play with and show or performance whatever it may be but in the end of the day we make so many people happy with that puppy and so if we can do such a good job to make everybody have a good experience to me that's that's my job and that's why I take seriously I mean it's a well set all right well I think the family that we develop right all of us when we sell our place our puppies um it's it's important yeah so he's tearing up she is tearing up she's tearing up that's cute tearing up uh right in the middle of a family thing so I'm saying it yeah family matters and yeah and um being able to develop great dogs that go into great families that become part of your family I mean I mean yeah people are my family so yeah I agree so all right well thank you very much ladies I really really appreciate it you will send me some links that I will drop in the show notes listeners you're gonna get to go to the website and learn more so I will see you all soon right everybody's going to be a garden yeah I'm here I'm already in the wrong about me all right all right I'll be there I'll be there soon all right you guys thank you very much thanks