Q&A: The Series Ends… But Something Bigger Begins

In this celebratory episode of The Breeders Brew, Sara and Isobel wrap up the Q&A series with your burning questions and one BIG announcement. If you’ve ever felt frustrated by vague answers, outdated advice or social media noise, this episode reminds you that you’re not alone.

✅ Irregular Seasons & Missed Matings – Is there a pattern in season unpredictability lately? And how do you support bitches that are late or inconsistent?

✅ The Royal Jelly Lowdown – What it is, who needs it, and why your supplement strategy might be missing the mark if you’re not considering derivatives, dose and duration.

✅ Stud Trip Survival Guide – From progesterone timing to Airbnb stress, learn how to plan a long-distance stud visit like a pro.

✅ DNA Carriers & Stud Dogs – Why ruling out carriers could limit your programme, and what truly matters when choosing a male.

🔥 Ready to Level Up? Join the Brew Crew
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✨ Whether you’re planning your first litter or refining your fifth, Brew Crew membership gives you:
 ✔️ Real-time support from Sara & Isobel
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Transcript

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (00:00)
Pop the kettle on, it's our birthday. It's me, Sara And in this episode of The Breeders Brew, Isobel and I are celebrating one year of honest, no fluff breeder chat. We're wrapping up a Q &A series with your questions, our thoughts, and a big announcement. The Brew Crew is here. If you are ready for more support, real talk, and smarter breeding, this one's for you.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (00:47)
So firstly, just a big thank you for being here and we hope you enjoy your time with us as much as we do with you.

Obviously, the whole point of this is, and Isobel, you need to jump in at any time because you know what I'm like, but we are celebrating, we are celebrating the Breeders' Brew first birthday, which seems to have come around really, really quickly. I know we had a little bit of a hiatus in the middle.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (01:00)
I will, you know me.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (01:14)
But that was mainly because we wanted to test the waters and see who enjoyed it, who didn't enjoy it, how we could shake it up a bit, how we could improve it.

We've come to the end of the Q &A series and we thought there's no better way to celebrate a birthday and to celebrate the end of a series than to go live live and talk to you guys direct.

And yeah, just to have that open as always as Isobel and I do having these open and honest we probably should do is introduce ourselves because not everybody might know or have been totally up to speed with their background. So if we do a quick hi who we are.

And then we can get started with some of the Q &A's. And this gives you guys some time to think of some questions to ask us.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (02:00)
Absolutely.

So as Sara said, thanks a million. Obviously for those of you that don't know, I am Isobel the canine nutrition coach. And I've been very fortunate to be working alongside Sara for many years now. Probably one too many years, to probably admit. What's it about five years do you reckon now, Sara? We've been working together now for...

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (02:02)
you

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (02:19)
It's been a fabulous journey and I couldn't wish to be working alongside such a talented industry professional that has such an open mind to learning. And I really enjoy our open and honest chats because we constantly are pushing the boundaries with every discussion we have, every bit of research we're planning on with. yeah, it's fantastic. For those of you that maybe don't know my background very much.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (02:36)
you

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (02:43)
without boring you all to sleep, it started a very long time ago when I was at university. I went away and studied biomedical engineering and tissue engineering and got my wonderful fandangled masters and everything else. But unfortunately, the more I learned at university, the less I wanted to know because the pharmaceutical industry is quite the beast and a fantastic place to work if you are incredibly profit driven. However, unfortunately,

my morals were a little bit too strong so that I had to take a of a different route off the back of my masters which ultimately led me to discovering how the body works, how we can keep the body as healthy as possible, not to mention of course my ongoing passion for the Dachshunds and breeding so the two worlds have absolutely collided over the last decade and here I am now working obviously as the canine nutrition coach alongside the canine family planner.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (03:34)
that's my job

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (03:36)
So that probably leads me in quite nicely to saying, I'm welcome to

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (03:40)
Lovely introduction and Yeah, hopefully you know me by now. I'm sort of the straight-talking Grassroots kind of breeder. I feel fortunate and I have

lived with dogs since I was six. I bred my first litter at 13. There's a lot of the grey stuff now that gives away my age, unfortunately. I love dogs, I'm obsessed with dogs, I'm a weird dog person. I tried to pretend to not be as weird as they possibly are, but ultimately I am. Yeah, everyone, well, if you don't know my story, I fell into bulldogs. They are

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (04:10)
Ha ha.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (04:17)
notoriously difficult breed. Yeah, I just fell into that by pure chance. So I've had difficulties in dog breeding from the beginning. I've learned a lot. And I've exhibited across Europe. I'm an international kennel club judge. What else can I say? Oh, I'm like, all right. So obviously 10 years, it's 10 years.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (04:35)
loads, keep going.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (04:38)
It's 10 years since I founded Homescan, which is my face-to-face dog breeding services. Then I set up Canine Family Planner, which is the advise side of my dog breeding services. an author of two books, the third one in the making. And yeah, I won't bore you to death. yeah, thankfully, Isobel and I crossed paths five years ago. I tainted her with the

dog craziness. mean, she was already dog crazy anyway, but then I lured her in and said, Ooh, look at all these. Look at all these other things you could do. And I've

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (05:07)
slippery slope. Other things we could

be doing to be even more busy because our lives weren't busy enough already. Hey, let's do a podcast.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (05:17)
Unfortunately, are both,

unfortunately, we are both for Aquarius's which means we come up with these crazy ideas. And then I'm like, yeah, let's do this. And then Isobel never says no. And then we end up doing this crazy stuff. That's why we're here. But yeah, ultimately, the whole point is that we have a lot of depth and breadth of experience. And really what we've only discovered today, Isobel, is that when people

take any of our advice, you're kind of getting a two for one, because Isobel's got this amazing scientific brain and all this, yeah, natural, well, yeah, it is natural, because your natural understanding of complex situations and being able to convert that into simple talk. So simpletons like me can understand it. But having this really strong scientific background, and then I tend to have this really strong

practical background of going, yeah, the book says that, but the book's not right. Or that podcast said that, but that podcast not right. Or that vet said that, but the vet's not right. So I think it's really nice. We're almost like this little yin yang of opinions that nicely, they are different, but they still fit together. So we do agree on many things. And then not just that, but also the breadth of the breeds that we have. Like I'm bull breeds, I've got the Labrador now, so she's taught me a lot.

Isobel knows tons. I mean, you've got previous working dog, gun dog backgrounds anyway from when you were younger. And then add on that what the breeds that you've got now being the miniatures and toys. So I think between us, we've got quite a lot covered. And I think that's why we get quite good feedback on what we're doing and how we're doing it. And I am all for trying to counter.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (06:41)
Yep.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (06:59)
status quo because if just because it's what's happened doesn't mean it's the best thing to happen now. We need to keep up today with modern breeding practices and it's very easy to fit in, slide into habits that aren't necessarily the best. So I think like that was the whole reason why the breeders brew was born

because me and Isobel have all these opinions. So we thought actually let's share it with you guys and see if you agree or not. And what all for people not agree with us, as if you listen to the podcast, I mean, look how hot under the collar Isobel got about puppy rails and pig rails. I've never seen her so angsty, so funny. But yeah, like at the end of the day, you can...

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (07:23)
Yep.

Yeah, absolutely. It's how we all learn.

again like you said it's the difference

in breed isn't it? it's... that's exactly what makes it so enjoyable though is we are all in this with the same mission together which is provide the best care possible for our girls and pups yet we can have such polarising opinions on something as simple as... pig rails. pig rails. it's just crazy really so yeah.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (07:53)
for episode.

What else do need to say Isobel? We've done all the things.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (08:01)
Well, really, it'd just be nice to sort of summarise, I think, you have done beautifully there is why we're doing what we're doing. And ultimately, the biggest reason is to bust some myths really, because the amount of misinformation that is being spread online is quite shocking. And I think it ruffled a few feathers with us, didn't it, Sara? Which was one of the major reasons more to the point why the Q &A series in particular came to fruition was because there are people online

that are willingly giving out information that may not be factually correct, which is quite dangerous. So we just wanted to kind of offer a different opinion and a bit more information really to just try and counteract some of the misleading, misinformed and misguided information that is circulating in a lot of groups out there really. So we're just hoping to sort of build this like-minded community of proactive owners like everyone that's on tonight. And we're just here to sort of help really.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (08:55)
Yeah, it's Facebook. feel like the Facebook breeding groups have really picked up momentum since the pandemic. They've just like a fire got put under them and they've just blown out. But the craziness that's going on in them. then as soon as someone starts with no hate, but I let's have a reader this.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (09:07)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (09:18)
And then anyone

knows me, I am brutal. If any of you search me, I try not to get involved, but I am not pussy-footing around because ultimately, you're accountable for your dog. It's not acceptable that you breed your dog and you have no knowledge and you're just relying on random people who equally could have no knowledge to bail you out.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (09:32)
Yep.

that have bred one litter, maybe

two litters max, exactly, that have literally bred one, maybe two litters of a completely different breed of dog, potentially from a different country that have different breeding practices, different ethical standards, and they're giving out information as if they are doing it as a profession.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (09:44)
Yeah.

Yeah, so I totally get why the vets feel like they wanna smash their head against the wall, because they must have it all the time, and I guess doctors are the same, somebody looks in with them, go, but I've read online. Okay.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (10:08)
Yep. Here we go!

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (10:13)
Yeah, exactly. So I can feel the frustration, but it is slightly scary. And that's the whole point is that we thought let's talk. Isobel and I can have our opinions, but actually, let's talk about the stuff that's going on in the Facebook groups, because that in reality is the questions that people have at the moment, which is all which is all good. But come on, right, Isobel, let's we start with some Q &A's.

question because we haven't had any come.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (10:35)
Absolutely. Well, we've got

a mountain to get through so I think the sooner we start the better. I've been quite surprised at how many we've got in actually.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (10:42)
any of you guys that have got questions that are.

Okay then, right, let's go with the emailed question first then.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (10:48)
Okay.

yeah, if you, yeah, as I saying, I'll wait for you to pick one. Yeah, yeah, pick one. Go for it. Fire away.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (10:52)
Okay,

I've got I had one already lined up ready to go. So okay, right. From the inbox, it says, my girls have been having really irregular seasons recently. And I had my first ever miss mating a few months back. Have you noticed more bitches been unpredictable lately? Or is there anything you suggest to help help them get back on track? That's from Zil.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (10:57)
Go for it.

Okay, interesting. That's a great question to start with. I'm quite excited about that one. I'm not obviously not excited for him. That's frustrating if you've got irregular girls, especially on a breeding season. Nothing worse than a little curve ball when you're waiting for someone to come into heat.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (11:19)
But it is...

Nah.

Right, so I'm going to give.

So I've got some back context on this because I know who this person is and he crossed paths with me at least eight years ago. So when I first saw this message, I thought, do you know what? You've done really lucky to have your first miss and you're nearly eight, 10, probably if not 10 years into dog breeding. So.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (11:40)
Okay.

It's unheard of. Unheard of.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (11:53)
So I think you need to remember that not every female is going to conceive when you breed them. That's my bulldog getting involved. Well, not today. So when I first read that email to me, I was like, mate, you've done so lucky to get this far down the line and this be your first miss. However, if it's not his usual

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (12:06)
Hahaha

of gremlins.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (12:19)
have a gremlin of a bulldog

So what's your thoughts on that? Because to me, statistically, I reckon he was overdue a miss. But that isn't nice to hear when you're the dog breeder.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (12:27)
I... I... yeah, I agree.

No, it's not, but I completely agree with what you're saying. The odds were stacked against him at that point. I mean, eight years without a miss is absolutely unbelievable. And that's unbelievable even if you're following every correct protocol and progesterone testing and you're doing things by the book.

I completely agree. Basically, he should be entering the lottery. If you're managing eight years without a miss, then crikey-o Riley, he's doing something right with his luck. There's a few things to break down, obviously going back to the question. I would say there has been a little bit of a pattern recently of quirky seasons. From what I've seen, I've heard of my, obviously.

breeding nutrition clients. It seems to be quite a generally reported thing. I'd say in the last, maybe since November time, there seems to have been a skew on when girls were due in and when they've been coming in. I don't know if you've seen the same skew, Sara.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (13:21)
Well, to first off say that I know for a fact that Zil will progesterone ovulation test. So he is actually doing all that he needs to do in regards to identifying ovulation. From my understanding, he's always picked really fertile dogs that recently had litters or they've been fertility tested. So he's ticked off some major basics there. In regards to patterns, I have seen a slight quirkiness.

Yeah, I think it has been a bit quirky. You're right from November till now. I don't know if it's because we haven't had in the UK at least we haven't had any really really cold weather. I think I had one that one morning where I woke up to frost and like the weather is a huge impact on animals a huge impact. So I don't know if that's that's weird. And now it's gone all really mild. mean, I mean, technically.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (13:53)
Mm.

massive.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (14:13)
The clocks have changed now, so it's not summer on its way, nor the rest of it. But I think it's just been really mild, and that may have thrown some Seasons and then out of sync, definitely. Really interesting that Julie said about, it the moon? And yeah, this is all vibrations, natural seasons, doing natural rhythms of nature and reproduction.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (14:36)
Yeah.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (14:37)
So I do think, I don't want to be a weirdo and go like global warming is impacting our dogs. But I do feel that because we haven't had, I mean, it's pretty much what all the, you know, many people say about our country, England's great because you have all the seasons. Well, we're having less of all the seasons, aren't we? We're just having this like summer's never really summer anymore. It's all just a bit mild and then it just gets really wet and then it just gets a bit drier again.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (14:44)
Yeah, but it is.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (15:03)
So yeah, no, I totally agree with you on that point, Isobel

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (15:06)
we've not had the winter cold snap. We've definitely not had the winter cold snap and I think that's made a big difference because normally you'd have the girls that were due in

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (15:06)
all right.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (15:14)
autumn time that would have traditionally come in before the cold snap, you'd then have the cold snap, things warming back up and then girls coming back in depending on where they sat in that cycle. We've now not had that defined change in season so I think that's where things have now skewed either way and the fact that it's now warmed up so quickly I also think is going to make a big difference and I think that could bring girls in now that maybe wouldn't be due in for a little bit later.

it wouldn't now surprise me if girls come in earlier because of this now, some warm up in weather as well. So I reckon weather's had a big impact here, potentially for Zil. Having said that, that's, I don't believe that's the cause of his miss. I just think that there is a pattern here that he's asked about and I'm merely reflecting on the pattern that we're seeing. So different in answer to his question. So going back to question, I think we've sort of like covered the pattern part, which

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (15:52)
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Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (16:06)
Yes, there is a pattern that we've seen, albeit I've not seen any more misses than normal off the back of these patterns. So I don't believe this change in season is linked to any decrease or change in bitch fertility at all, personally.

Have you seen anything different, Sara, with these irregular seasons and misses or not?

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (16:24)
Not knowingly, no.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (16:26)
No, I wasn't sure if you'd scanned any more misses but if not, then no. So, he said, what was the question? Sorry.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (16:33)
Have you noticed any more bitches being unpredictable lately? Is there anything you suggest to help them get back on track? Just to note some people that have said in the chat, so somebody's just said about it took two years for her female to have her first litter and no, took, my bitch took two years after her last litter to have a first proper season. So that's interesting because she's done everything typical and conceived and had pups.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (16:33)
or can get it in the

That's atypical.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (16:58)
Yeah, okay, so they are asking about supplements, we probably were going to mention about for Zil as well. And then somebody just again about

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (17:05)
I'm, yeah, we're gonna have to mention for Zil.

because it's in, that's...

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (17:08)
Yeah and then just somebody else Francesca has said about her mini mini golden doodles the bitch that she's kept back because turn one hasn't had a season yet yet all her litter mates have and should we be worried the vet says no and this is where I think pack dynamics can have an impact the more dogs you get

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (17:29)
Yes,

massively.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (17:31)
the more difficult breeding can

become because they have their own relationships with each other where they sit at the top of the tree. And I think if this is the case where Francesca's kept mum, she has mum and she's kept daughter, not necessarily saying that's a bad relationship, but there becomes this hierarchical point. And I've found just generally when you keep a puppy you bred, they are immature for longer.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (17:45)
Yeah.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (17:56)
and because mummies about, they tend to be a little bit bratty because they never had that eight weeks, let's go to a new home, this is all super scary.

but yeah, so I so I think that's also like we don't know Zil could have more dogs than what he did mean, I've gone from two dogs to six dogs in what like 14 months, so

That's nothing to do with that bitch in isolation, but when you step back and look at the bigger picture, that could be having an impact on her and her seasons. So I'm just checking that one in.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (18:27)
Well, there

we might as well go down that rabbit hole while we're here because it is part of the same parcel. There have been studies to suggest that there will always be. And when I say alpha, I don't mean alpha as in sort of dominance. I'm not talking about dominance hierarchy here necessarily, but in terms of just a leader, there have been studies to suggest alpha

bitch in a group will lead a season cycle and as i said caveat i'm not talking about dominance there just will always be a bitch that will bring

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (18:57)
is effective.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (18:59)
Naturally, the cycle is in for everybody else and everyone else will come into cycle with that alpha bitch. There's been studies done on it in various different species of mammals. In fact, humans are exactly the same. So for those of you that, you know, when you're at school and you had your best friend group, there's been studies about women working in the same office, that their menstruations will start to all line up at the same time. And it is a phenomenon that we do exhibit as mammals. So absolutely living in a pack.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (19:17)
Thank

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (19:27)
changes the frequency, duration and cycle status of a female in comparison to whether that female was taken out and put in isolation. So prime example is litter sisters. If those litter sisters have gone and as you said, they've gone and lived away, potentially has no new dog, mommy's not around, they've grown up a little bit quicker, they will be naturally eating different food, drinking different water and lacking a pack dynamic.

their seasons will be different to a bitch that is kept in a pack dynamic, particularly with mum or more established females. So it's likely to have a huge impact. I wouldn't necessarily worry that a bitch hadn't come into season by one, especially a girl that you've kept back. I think that also comes into play here.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (19:55)
Thank

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (20:13)
So it doesn't surprise me. It's something that I wouldn't be at all worried. However, there would be things I would do if you're creeping past that one year threshold. I would be looking at supporting her with specific supplements that are particularly beneficial to the ovum and sort of the ovaries as a whole, just to ensure that she's got the nutrients she needs to actually, you know, go through puberty as such and become more mature and then obviously go into a natural cycle.

So there are supplements I would recommend at this point.

So, immature bitches, which is what we're sort of going down that conversation there. I would specifically be looking at a royal jelly-based supplement because, well, I might as well answer it in question, in sync with Zil's question as well. It's a...

I literally call it the queen bee of energy because quite literally it's what a queen bee in a beehive is solely surviving on. She lives longer than the rest. She's the only bee in the whole hive that's fertile. Obviously I'm not suggesting our dogs are bees, nor we are. However, the stuff is magic. It's absolutely packed with bee vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants and specific bioactive compounds as well.

without going into too much much depth royal jelly in particular is brilliant because of the spectrum of nutrients that actually contains So it's going again for example the B vitamins. They're great for hormone regulation Your amino acids are literally the basic building blocks of what are needed for reproductive hormones as well Not to mention. I'm sure you guys have all heard about antioxidants. It's something that's

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (21:24)
like that.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (21:46)
is amazing for us as well at the best of times, but particularly for mammals undergoing, you know, or needing a fertility boost, I should say, because they do reduce the oxidative stress, which is kind of like the dirty clutter that builds up in the body. So it does give a bit of a spring clean really. And obviously egg quality is hugely affected by oxidative stress. there's a lot.

to take in there, but essentially the benefit of royal jelly is it's supporting sort of her hormones, bring them into balance, give her the boost in vitamins that are the most vital for fertility and particularly actually ovulation. So.

If someone ever said to me, what do I do about an irregular bitch or a bitch that hasn't had a season and is immature? The number one thing I'd be saying is royal jelly because it helps bring a hormones into balance. It should support a more healthy and regular season cycle and encourage ovulation as well. So it's also a good one for anyone with bitches having split heats or silent seasons as well. So it's a bit of a secret weapon that not many people know about unless they've done the research and are lucky enough to sort of

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (22:34)
Thank

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (22:51)
know much about royal jelly really. yeah whistle stop tour on that one that would just be the first thing I'd suggest to Francesca and also Zil there. Worth me mentioning as with any supplement ever the 3Ds are so important.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (23:02)
So I reported

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (23:03)
So your duration, your dose and your derivatives. So if you're not giving it for the right amount of time, you're not ticking the box. If you're not giving it in the right dose, you're not ticking the box. And it goes on saying the derivatives matter, the quality of the actual ingredients of that supplement

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (23:04)
that you're in the window. So you're not leaving it quite around the time. You're not giving it in the right dose. You're not keeping it in the no one's saying you can't just pack it in the corner. The quality is actually really good.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (23:18)
are.

just as vital as any other part. your duration of Royal Jelly, if you've got a really problem girl, you want to be looking at three months before she's due in her ideal season and get her on it for the three months, her got time to metabolize that goodness. Your dose, obviously it's going to depend on her body weight. So that's pointless me saying here, but take into account body weight because obviously it's got to be the therapeutic dose you're hitting for it to actually have any benefit and derivatives. So not all Royal Jelly is

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (23:27)
.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (23:46)
same that's like me saying all water is the same all water isn't the same you can have filtered water you can have tap water you can have sparkling mineral water it's also water on the packet but it's it's hugely different in terms of what's in that water how safe it is to drink so imagine your supplements are exactly the same you don't want a royal jelly that's just packed full of fillers and it's got little to no active ingredient otherwise again you think you're giving royal jelly you think you might be paying for it and frankly

If it's not high enough in sort of the quantity of actual ingredient in there, again, there's no point doing it. So anyway, that's a rant I could go on all day. So I'll just stop there.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (24:22)
Yeah, I think that's No, yeah, but I think that's

really value point especially all the stuff that I see on the tintonet and Facebook groups and there'll be an argument for and against whether supplements work blah blah blah But they are really three key things is the dosage right is the duration right and what's the derivatives is what's the purity of the product?

because you could be given supplements, but if you're not given the right amount for the right dosage at the right amount for the right amount of time, and it's a rubbish quality product, of course it's not going to work. So just because you tick the box that you're given folic acid doesn't mean you're given the best or right folic acid. My little bugbear there, sorry. OK. And I just want you to talk about peas.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (24:56)
No, it's not, it's...

Yeah, yeah exactly that. yeah. I love that Jackie chipping in there.

Peas, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we should talk about peas as well. was just saying that Jackie's jumped in at the perfect time there saying that the royal jelly really helped, but conscious of time. I think once you've seen it and the benefits, yeah, I personally would never breed a girl not having used it.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (25:10)
Just very quick. I'll go on.

I tell you now. Yeah.

I've not had all the people that I've recommended it to, they've all been more than favourable about the benefits that brings. So yeah, I don't think they would do that for fun.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (25:34)
we might as well sort of summarise up that question. yes, we've seen the pattern.

Yes, the supplements you kind of should be doing. that's the exact reason when you would be using royal jelly. So that ticks that box. I'd also be looking at organic wheat, gem oil because of the, how high it is in antioxidants and vitamin E, which is the literally the fertility vitamin. So I'd be definitely going down that route and diet. I'd just be really consciously looking at the packaging of your dog's diet. Make sure that you're not feeding a diet high in photoestrogens and foods that are high sources of that.

legumes is a really obvious one, some pulses are quite high in it, some sources of protein can be as well, so just be conscious of what you're feeding because not all dog food, I mean what I would say to my people is if your dog food is from a pet shop, it's designed for a pet, that means it's designed for the average pet dog sat on the sofa, it's not for a breeding female, it's not for a working stud dog,

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (26:07)
Good

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (26:30)
it's just a maintenance diet that is suitable for a pet. So it's not going to be formulated with the ratios of vitamins and minerals that a breeding animal needs, which is so different to us humans as a diet. And this is why prenatal supplements exists for us when we're pregnant. It's exactly the same concept. So pet food isn't complete for...

That's life stage, it's just complete for a pet dog. So diet's a big one, which is why supplements exist, why you should be doing them. And just be conscious of the certain things you want to be avoiding really.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (27:03)
you

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (27:04)
You me?

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (27:05)
Yeah, yeah, no, I was just trying to read the chat because I missed out on some that's all trying to subtly go, okay Right. Have you got another question?

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (27:09)
Okay. Love that.

Yes I'm sure we have. Let me have a quick look. We've had some come through on YouTube and Facebook as well I believe so let me just have a look and make sure we're getting a fair spread of everyone because it's not fair if people are on there and we can't see them. Let's have a quick look.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (27:19)
Yeah, so I'll

Just quickly looking at the comments.

Yeah. someone did you someone has just talked about selenium. How important is over?

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (27:30)
We've had quite a few come in actually. Goodness. I've had quite an interesting one here.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (27:37)
I was just going to say, Julie was just asking about selenium. Well, how important is selenium really, Isobel? Wow, selenium. I think I can.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (27:40)
Read out what

What was the question? How important selenium? Selenium is absolutely vital.

It's vital for life. It's a vital nutrient. That is why if you look at animal feeding guidelines, as in the manufacturer's guidelines, that they have to manufacture food too for it to be called complete, have a minimum amount of selenium that that should have in it because that's how vital it is. However, there is a minimum that...

complete food has to hit and it's a really really really low minimum really low like really low to the point where if you were feeding that complete food over that dog's lifetime would I be supplementing with a good dietary source of selenium? Yes I probably would on some of the complete foods. We did a study not so long since actually of comparing some of the most common types of kibble

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (28:09)
you

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (28:33)
and some of them were so low in selenium, you would actually be shocked that it was called a complete. So deficiencies in selenium are obviously bad. They can cause a whole plethora of health issues, but obviously we're talking about breeding specifically. If you have a female that is low in selenium levels, it has been linked to reabsorption. It has been linked to missed pregnancies and quite shockingly,

fading puppy syndrome as well. So it's one of those boxes I always say to people, unless you are a little bit of a dog geek, like I self-admittedly am, and I'm happy to look at packages and work out exactly what quantity of every nutrient my dog's getting in their diet, unless you wanna sit down and do that, well, by all means do, I can assure you you're going to quickly realise that it's deficient in selenium for a breeding bitch. So I would eat my

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (29:05)
Thank

You may.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (29:29)
if anyone was ever to able to show me a complete dog food that was high enough in selenium to meet a particularly bitch's selenium requirement for that journey. So that's why selenium is so

important because the risk of being low is catastrophic.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (29:45)
Okay, okay, that's cool. Right, have you got a next question?

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (29:51)
I found a really interesting one. was someone traveling for studs and I thought it was a bit different. Someone called, what's her username, Debbie, said, I'm planning to breed my collie in May and will need to travel to Manchester for the stud. Season's due around the 15th. Any advice on timing fertility checks and managing the trip as I'll have to book an Airbnb or something?

Okay, so the question is, any advice on timing fertility checks and how to manage a stud trip basically? I just thought it was a bit different. I quite like that.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (30:23)
Yeah, well, what was the breed?

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (30:25)
Collie.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (30:25)
Collie, okay. So at least they're talking about ovulation fertility testing, because it seems more popular in some breeds than others. And I would say in Collie's, tends to be low down on the level of priority. So it's good that she and when you're traveling, just I mean, if you've got your own dog and bitch, then okay, fair enough. But if you're traveling to use a stud dog, then it's

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (30:37)
Yes.

Yeah.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (30:52)
crazy that you wouldn't because the inconvenience it can cause everybody and it's just not worth not doing it. So at least she's talking about fertility ovulation testing. Obviously, I'm always going to back progesterone ovulation testing because it is the best form of testing. I see again in the groups the growing wave of cytology and it

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (30:59)
do, Tanya.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (31:17)
it gets, it winds me up a little bit because I know there are fertility clinics offering cytology because they can't do the bloods and but it's naughty because they're the people that they're not saying, I only do cytology because I can't offer you progesterone. They just go, no, yeah, cytology's ovulation testing, I can do that for you. So they're not really giving the people the full picture.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (31:18)
Yes.

Yes, exactly.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (31:43)
So I think that's a little bit naughty. And the problem with cytology, it's just inaccurate the bigger the dog gets. And I know every, like you'll see even these ovulation sticks, which won't even go, these strips, we won't even go into that. But what people need to remember

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (31:56)
don't get me started. There is no science.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (32:01)
Even if you use a substandard fertility ovulation method, it may seem like it works because by the laws of probability averages, some bitches will catch regardless.

The bigger the dog, the less accurate cytology is. So to me, if the dog's bigger than a French bulldog, don't even bother with cytology. And even if there's French bulldog or smaller, it's only as good as the person doing it. And my recommendation is if you do cytology, when that person says that dog's ready to be bred,

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (32:26)
Yeah.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (32:38)
You then do a progesterone test to confirm that that person is right or not. Because I was called to assist with a breeding to Labradors. When I was there, we had a conversation and she was like, no, she's been cytology tested. She's good to go. that's weird. Anyway, I said, I recommend that you progesterone ovulation test that to confirm that is the case. We tested, she was

Progesterone ovulation tested and she hadn't even ovulated. We've just done an assisted mating and she wasn't even fertile. Absolute waste of time. And I, if I remember off the top of my head, did she get bred like six days later? I think it was two tests or maybe, or maybe three, maybe, maybe five days later just to play it safe. So.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (33:02)
Lo and behold.

I'm sure it was some crazy number like that because I nearly fell off my chair when you told me.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (33:27)
Somebody had she had paid for a service she had Been doing everything that she had been told to do how she was being advised by that particular clinic She was sent off for a breeding and that bitch hadn't even ovulated Make I would be spitting feathers if that was mine So no wonder they didn't get the breeding because the bitch wasn't even ready like that's why they I had to get drafted in on the bitch She wasn't even ready to be bred. It's ridiculous so

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (33:54)
Yeah.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (33:54)
If you're

traveling for a step that like, we've hopped on about this before, but really, if you are traveling for a stud dog, you need to be progesterone testing And we've already covered in other podcasts, I'm sure about the quality of different blood testing machines and that kind of thing. but all I can say is do all the research before she's in season. Because

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (34:09)
Machine.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (34:16)
Once she's in season and you're running around like a headless chicken, you're pretty much backed into a corner of the opportunities that you've got and you will convince yourself that what you're doing is the best choice for you in that state. Which it probably is, but if you've done a bit of research beforehand, that might not even have been an option that was on the table.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (34:35)
Yeah, absolutely. So Sara, just because obviously I know this and you know this, but other people listening may not. What exactly does progesterone testing give us? obviously this lady, Debbie, is talking about traveling to stud. So in this specific instance, why is it so beneficial to progesterone test? Obviously without saying, we get the timing right, but to what window are we talking? You know, like how is this going to help her make her plans?

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (35:01)
Well, the whole point of ovulation testing, regardless of the method, is that you confirm ovulation. So equally, if you do whatever form of testing and you stop testing before ovulation has been confirmed, you've basically wasted your money. You shouldn't have bothered testing anything full stop because you're not following the advice of testing until ovulation is confirmed. But the whole point of ovulation testing

is to confirm ovulation. Progesterone is a nice way to confirm that because it is a sample of blood that's spun down. Red blood cells are ignored and it's just run on the plasma or the serum, which basically has the hormones in. When that hormone gets to a certain level, that's indicative that ovulation has occurred. And we like progesterone because it only goes up on a typical female. It only goes one way.

So it's clear whether you've missed ovulation or if she hasn't yet ovulated. And so the whole point is you want to catch ovulation and then two days after ovulation is the optimal time to breed your female. If it's a dog to dog breeding, if it was a TCI breeding where the semen is put through the cervix, then you would do it three days after ovulation. But literally it's that, like that as textbook as it can possibly come.

when it comes to breeding of just knowing once she's ovulated in two days time, we're doing the breeding. And the benefit of that as well is that you actually know when she's full term because full term is 63 days, nine weeks from ovulation. Totally forget about when you your breedings is from ovulation. So you also know at the other end, technically when your bitch is overdue or not.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (36:45)
Yes, and I had that exact question from somebody only this morning in a panic. Yeah, and I just thought it's nice to give a bit more of a holistic overview for anyone that is newer to ovulation testing or progesterone testing. Awesome. So I think we've answered that question quite nicely, which is progesterone test, find out when she's ovulated, and that gives you literally a 24 hour window in which she's most fertile to be breeding her. So they can fly up there. Do I say fly up there? I don't know where she's going from. Shoot up there from wherever. Go do her breeding.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (36:46)
Is that the answer you wanted?

That's... that's...

Yeah, well.

Yeah,

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (37:13)
The other benefit obviously

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (37:13)
Isobel.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (37:14)
is you've only got to the one thing.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (37:17)
I was going to say for us it is always up that's why we're always going fly up there. Very rarely where south are we going in we're not. Another thing to bear in mind is yeah out the country but another thing to bear in mind is also if you're traveling a distance with your female then obviously of progesterone testing but bear in mind about how your bitch travels because you don't want to stress her unnecessarily at a time.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (37:21)
Yeah, up there. No, we're not France.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (37:45)
where you want her to be content and comfortable to conceive. So I know for a fact, Jackie, when she bred her female, she actually stayed over the night. And again, this person has said about her Airbnb-ing, Some dogs might freak out about just not being in their bed for one night and others won't.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (37:55)
yet.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (38:04)
I think stress needs to be an important factor. And we've already talked about that also in regards to canine dynamics, because bitches can be stressed by other dogs in their household by changing circumstances. A house move can be a huge thing as well.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (38:09)
Yep.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (38:20)
Yeah, there's all sorts of different things you need to know your female as to whether they would find that stressful or not. I would, my preference is I do a breeding, I drive there, I drive, we do the breeding, I drive back, I wouldn't generally stay over anywhere. Because bulldogs, as you can hear, just want to snore on the sofa. But I think that's worth bearing in mind. And also about having a backup plan. Because to go all that way, and then you

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (38:40)
Yeah.

Yes.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (38:46)
Don't get a breeding. And I know I've had many a panicky people where studs down here and someone's traveled a long way to them and they can't get the breeding done. So just make sure that your stud has the ability or has the connections. If a natural mating doesn't occur that you can still get semen into your bitch to acetone pregnancy.

So I think there always needs to be a backup plan, regardless of the breed, regardless of the experience of the stud dog, regardless of the experience of the stud owners, you just need to make sure there's a backup plan as well.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (39:12)
Yeah.

Absolutely, no that's very true indeed. Brilliant that was another good question. Do want to pick the next one?

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (39:27)
Oh,

And just from Julie. So Sara, I went to my bitchy scan yesterday with a well known repro vet six puppies. And she said the progesterone test in gestation is 61 days.

Well, yeah, 61 days from mating.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (39:42)
Well, yeah, technically, well, no, that's correct.

61 days from mating. Yeah. So when you think of, I understand why that's, like, that's why they say gestation, you think from, like, technically, when you think of what gestation is, it's from fertilisation to birth. So in someone's head, they think, well, the egg can't be fertilised until the semen's in, until the semen meets the egg, fertilisation can't occur. So technically,

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (39:48)
Yeah.

Yes, yep.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (40:07)
Yes, gestation is 61 days because that's 61 days from the egg being fertilised by the sperm cell, which is completely correct, so it is 61 days. However, it's 63 days from ovulation because as you mentioned earlier, the bitch ovulates, the eggs are released and those eggs take 48 hours for those to mature to then be able to be penetrated and fertilised by the sperm cells. So it's 63 days from ovulation.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (40:15)
Yeah.

Yeah, which if any, if anyone's.

Yeah, if anyone's seen one of these, because someone, it's my pregnancy and puppy predictor. It's amazing. Everyone should have one. But on here, literally, I had that conversation. Every stud owner should be giving these out to their bitch owners because it will save you a thousand questions, that's for sure. But literally, I had somebody ask me yesterday and they said,

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (40:36)
Yes!

Yeah, I've got them stuffed in every pocket, every drawer.

Yeah.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (40:57)
I've got your predictor, but I didn't know what date to set it from. Because on here it's got from ovulation or from mating. I said, look, if you know ovulation, then you always use ovulation. But if you don't know when she ovulated, you use mating date. Because for the exact reason that you said, we know she was mated on that date. So we assume that fertilisation is going to happen straight away. But that ovulation is what makes this the most accurate it can possibly be.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (41:05)
Yep.

Yes. Yeah.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (41:25)
And for mating with no testing, there's always still discrepancy. But yeah, you should get one of these if you haven't. Did we answer all the things? and actually, the only other thing I was going to say in regards to this reading is that what she hasn't factored in is that she could have a chilled semen shipment. So imagine that she did have a bitch that was super stressy and just doesn't travel full stop. She could ovulation test.

And as long as the stud is all up to speed and with modern practices that can happen nowadays, they could literally collect from the dog, chill it down, stick it in the post, and then it'd be woken up, her end, and the bitch inseminated. So that's always an option that's definitely not used enough in the UK, that's for sure. But yeah, if just for instance, I don't know, she didn't drive or, like, there was a calendar clash and all that kind of stuff, then.

chilled semen is always a huge domestic shipping is super, super easy.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (42:20)
Love it. I think we answered that question answer.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (42:21)
Right.

What should we do, Isobel? Right, let's...

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (42:22)
to pick one last question or should we open

to the floor just once more? What do you want to do? Conscious that some people might be losing interest from listening to our ramblings and rabbit holes.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (42:28)
Well, let's, it's Eddie.

Yeah. I

mean, we want to give you a party bag. So if you got a question, ask us now if we if we could get a super I have got a super quick one that's come in that I could ask. So this is just a quick one about stud dogs.

So basically said, which DNA test would you recommend as an essential for stud dogs?

So obviously, I don't know what brief that is. And there's lots of different DNA tests that you can do because they're just specifically asking for DNA tests. I think what it's worth bearing in mind as a stud owner and as a bitch owner looking for stud dogs is knowing that if you haven't tested your bitches,

that you need to be using DNA clear dogs. If you have tested your bitch, and I think you should really, because say you have tested your bitch and she's clear, then it does mean that you could open up your potential studs to include carriers. And now we should definitely, in all breeds, we should definitely be using

carrier stud dogs because there's nothing that will lose breed type quicker than disregarding a huge proportion of good top quality dogs just because they happen to be a DNA carrier for one tiny condition that if you were to use in your bitches clear, none of your pet owners will ever have a dog with any of those symptoms. So I'm quite an advocate for bitch

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (43:54)
have you.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (44:07)
Bitches should be tested, bitch owners should be tested and you should be using carriers if they're of a good enough quality because basically I wouldn't have that dog there. His dad is a HUU carrier and he actually is a carrier. His brother, we tested both of them, his brother isn't. both of those will be, if they're good enough, which think they will be, they will be on the stud market.

And so if he gets enquiries and the bitch is a carrier, then obviously they can use the brother. But I cannot emphasise enough, and basically the reason I've got him is he's sire that I bred, basically sired a crufts best the breed with her in my breed and the top, bulldog. So it'd be crazy to go on and that bitch, the female was clear.

And so just be crazy. So I think there needs to be some big education. When I sell my pups, never said I'm not worried about being hereditary clear. And all the puppy owners care about is their dogs won't suffer those symptoms. That's cool. I guarantee you your dogs won't suffer the symptoms because I've tested both parents. So I think whatever their tests are, don't bin the baby with the bath water. And yeah, you're probably going to get less stud work.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (44:54)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (45:20)
having a carrier, but everyone should understand the importance of them as well as clear dogs, DNA clear dogs. Anything to add to that, Isobel?

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (45:27)
Yeah, I missed

I completely agree with everything you're saying there's so much more to choosing a suitable pairing than a genetic result. And it blows my mind and is it leads on really nicely to a conversation about COI as well as a conversation I have a lot with people. And I feel like that's another huge

massive kind of worms that we probably don't have time to open but I feel that that's another topic that could do with a lot more education around it that people are chasing this nought nought

percentage COI pairings and that blows my mind itself when we're about breed type and stuff. yeah, there's so much more to it all than just what's on paper. So yeah, consider every aspect of a stud, consider the owner, the support, like Sara said, does the owner have the backup facilities in place that if you can't get a breeding it will be okay, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the more research you do in advance, easier the process is gonna be frankly.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (46:18)
Yeah, for sure. even, yeah, well, we have a lot to say about COI.

there's many more questions and opinions is about and I have into the, it literally is the grassroots practical side. You can't read this stuff in a textbook. I mean, I've written...

I'm at 120 blogs, aren't I, Isobel? And I think I can't release 120 blogs in one year for people to digest, but I definitely have a lot of opinions of what I see.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (46:43)
You are, it's very impressive.

What more can a girl

What more can a girl do? 120 blogs for the world.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (46:50)
well I could I

know 120 blogs that is a bit crazy all of these blogs funny enough is because I look at something on the Facebook group and I go

I'm going to answer that the right way. So there are plenty more. But if anyone wants to read a blog, that's the link to the blogs. But what we've realized is there are people, fabulous people like you, that want to continue the conversation. And we've got an invite. Well, in your party bag, basically, that we're virtually going to give to you. We've got an

invitation I suppose, what do we call it, like your party favours?

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (47:27)
Yeah, your party favors!

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (47:27)
do you want to go any

So if you've been on the Breeders Brew website, you may have seen little things happening in the background. And we've actually started a Brew Crew membership and we're launching it here. So this was part of our one year celebration was to also launch our

membership and what basically is called the Brew Crew because we're going to be a crew of people. Doing things right basically.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (47:55)
So essentially we've set this up to create a community where you can access backstage conversation like you've seen tonight, unedited, unfiltered chat from me and Sara, our own personal guidance, learn from our mistakes, our pitfalls, our professional backstories,

The whole point is we were here to lift each other up. We're here to support everyone on their journey. And it isn't right that there aren't communities that exist where the knowledge is always checked and shared with a commitment to the general cause that is ethical breeding. So we're super, super excited to have launched this officially tonight. And you guys are the first to be hearing about it in your party bags.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (48:26)
in the right time.

as you say we've launched this membership what we've decided to do because we get a lot of feedback people going when I listen to the podcast it's like I'm in the room with you and

Yeah, like the people basically want more of that. So the we don't want to just keep producing more and more podcasts because as much as is about and I like talking we talk a lot between us. So we want more people to join us. And so part of being a member of the brew crew is that we're going to be holding fortnightly and we've decided to call them bitch and brew catch up calls. So you can bitch if you want.

You can sit down with a cuppa or a pint. we thought, yeah, let's keep the conversation going. If you want us to support you while you're breeding your dogs on every facet of dog breeding from beginning to end, from food to ovulation testing to pack dynamics to even if you want our input on what stud dogs you should be using.

The end of the day, I'm a kennel club conformation judge. I know our dog should walk, move, how it's put together. I can read pedigrees. We haven't even talked about COI's So there's so much more to this than just the basics of dog breeding. So we're like, if we were to put together fortnightly bitch and brew calls, and then also carry out some mini master classes, which we've called as spotlight sessions.

So monthly we want to go, look, we're going to deep dive into this one specific part of dog breeding I've come up with some crazy stuff that we get asked about puppy pricing all the time. How much should I sell my pups for? And it's always been really difficult because how do you articulate to somebody how much something should be worth? Until one day I said to Isobel, I think it's this, this and this. And Isobel's like.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (50:04)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (50:25)
Yeah, I think that's a good place to start. my brain is always trying to put patterns to things. And now I understand how to price a puppy. And it's not just because you've bred this dog to this dog, there's a lot more than that. Or this dog is a popular dog, there's way more to it. And it's not just because you've had to breed 10 years or this that or whatever. So

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (50:36)
Yeah.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (50:45)
We thought, well, hold these spotlight sessions where you can really deep dive into really minutiae detail of dog breeding that people seem to struggle with. And then still on top of that, because we've set up like a tap room, we're going to have a load of resources in there. So we've already put together some breeder briefs. And what I mean, these are deep dive chunky audio files for you to listen to, to work through, and then to pick our brains apart.

And if you like that kind of stuff, then you definitely need to get involved. And that's going to be forever going. All the cool archives will be going in there. There'll be bigger discussion that calls more topics to be created. So it's just the beginning of, but we're really keen to get a group of people that are really focused on breeding quality dogs, finding quality puppy owners and doing a quality job because there's so many people out there that aren't.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (51:37)
with quality support.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (51:38)
that's my two peas worth.

Yeah, we quality and like I've said before, you're getting two for one here. And I don't really think you could get a more balanced approach because it's easy to fall into biases. And I'm forever. I mean, the good thing about my job is I'm forever. I have such a broad network of people and even today, I know how much my breeds studs fees are.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (51:46)
Absolutely.

No, not possible.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (52:03)
And yet I'll have people in and I've constantly going, how much is your stud fee for your breed? How much is your stud fee for your breed? And we've already started putting together how some stud fees have decreased and why that might be so. And nobody else is having these conversations and why you shouldn't naturally go with just setting that that's the bar that I should be doing because that's what everyone else is doing. No, because if you're doing things to a lot higher quality, you should be.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (52:05)
Yeah.

No.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (52:30)
charging more, expecting more, attracting better people, know, quality people, candidates, all that kind of stuff. So I have all this crazy stuff basically flying around in my brain. And so I'm going to subject anyone that's in the brew crew to it.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (52:43)
Yeah, we love it. It's our favourite pastime, isn't it? Putting our heads together like this. And we really do discuss the things that other people don't because either they don't have the in the trenches knowledge or they don't have in the trenches sort of hands-on practical...

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (52:44)
That's it. But yeah, I will do.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (52:59)
life, like it's literally what you and I do. We talk to people all day, every day about this. Or frankly, people aren't giving the advice because they just don't care enough or they don't want to have the conversations. And there are a lot of uncomfortable topics around breeding when it comes to contracts and money and when things go wrong. But that's when it's so vital to have your right dream team. And you need so much more than just a vet. Vets are well and good, but they're one opinion that is based off of

educational learning, not years in the trenches, not by speaking to hundreds and hundreds of other breeders.

It's just really vital to have that community and myself and Sara feel so blessed that we have each other as friends because we support each other on an ongoing, nearly daily basis, whether that's through professional or our own dogs. And it's just incredible having that support in your corner. So we invite you to come and join us and be part of our little dream team and a part of our brew crew really. And as Sara said, multiple touch points throughout the month, multiple calls, sit down, pick our brains, we'll all get involved together.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (53:51)
Yeah.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (54:00)
and we're doing a pretty nice little early bird offer aren't we for the people that have decided to attend our birthday very kindly today.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (54:08)
Yeah, we are. So for a bargain, 19.99, now under 20 quid, what more do you want? I mean, that's what we said, a couple of Starbucks and a cake, and I think you're done, aren't you? yeah, exactly. Is that four Redbulls? Anyone knows I'm into my Redbulls.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (54:15)
no, it's so good.

Two glasses of wine. Two glasses of wine and that's it.

In Sara language, yes.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (54:30)
Yeah, that's my language, Redbulls

and a Twix or something. But yeah, like you cannot get this knowledge consistently for this money. We're almost giving it away. But we're really keen to attract people that are on the same path for us, know, that are on the same trajectory and want that clarity around dog breeding.

want to build that confidence And the good thing is, like, there's a nice blend between us.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (54:57)
Yeah, but you

And it's so powerful being part of a community to point that sort of thing out for you. it's why it's such a powerful and confidence-giving situation to be in when you've got that community.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (54:59)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, because it's, it's, it isn't. Yeah, but.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (55:10)
real dog people around you it's just awesome

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (55:14)
I'm going to go, I'm going to say it now. No one should be breeding at a loss. And there's some weird perspective in the UK that you can't be seen to make money out your dogs. I actually think it's detrimental to have that mindset. You should be breeding to make money because that extra money, I'm not saying you're going to go on holiday into the Bahamas and all that kind of stuff.

But that extra money will help you pick better stud dogs that will ensure that you've got the funds to do your ovulation testing. It will ensure that you do all your health testing. you just spend the money back on your dogs. But to go in with a mindset that you shouldn't be making money breeding your dogs, you should. Because the dogs that then are in your care will have a better quality. My dogs get the food they get. There is no qualms, no conversations about me cutting costs.

dropping their amount of food or they get it because they've earned it. And why would I not plough that back in? Because that's ultimately going to help them be fertile dogs to then go forward and carry on my line. well, that's all for the Breeder Crew conversation. We could go on forever. But it's a bargain. It's 20 quid. keep in that price until we hold. Yeah.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (56:16)
Yeah, no that's deep Yeah, it's only for this week and it's monthly rolling.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (56:21)
basically we're holding it at 20 pounds until we literally have our first b!tch and brew which is on the 9th which say it's a well, which just over a week and a bit and And then as soon as we hold our first b!tch and brew then that's it offers off the table So you've got a week to contemplate it. I personally wouldn't I would get signed up now You're not locked in again. You're not locked into anything You can log in at any time. You can cancel your subscription

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (56:30)
next Wednesday!

up to standard price.

No.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (56:47)
There are no contract, literally nothing like that. It's all the power is within your hands. But we, as you say, we're quite clear on what we want to achieve. There's some clear stuff that we want to tell you and share with you. That's already lined up, ready to go. So if you want to see behind the scenes and backstage, then that's the best way to do it.

Isobel Canine Nutrition Coach (56:50)
Yeah.

Absolutely, and it's dip in dip out. know the breeding journey isn't always quite as smooth as what you anticipate It's even if you're planning a litter now, it all falls over. Don't worry. I'm not tied into anything. Unfortunately We know ourselves only too well things don't always go to plan. So it's it's monthly rolling We're here if you need us and we just wanted to let you guys know that there is this really Super partnership that is getting even more exciting with all this behind-the-scenes extra content for our most avid podcast listeners

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (57:08)
That's

Yeah, exactly.

But yeah, so it's a one time offer. I'm conscious of the time. We're going to duck off now.

But otherwise, thanks for joining us. We hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. We hope you stay connected basically.

Thanks for coming. We'll see you soon. Bye.

Sara (Canine Family Planner) (57:53)
That's the end of our Q &A series. We're taking a two week break to launch the Brew Crew and welcome our new members. If you'd like to join us, there's still time. Head over to breedersbrew.com/brewcrew and grab the offer before it ends. Catch you soon.