The Tack Box Podcast
The Tack Box Podcast is an informative and relaxed show that covers all aspects of dog ownership. Join AKC judge and Renowned breeder, Dale Martenson, and new enthusiast, Tyson Wald, as they discuss topics ranging from acquiring your first dog, showing, breeding, marketing puppies, and running a Kennel.
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The Tack Box Podcast
Episode 64: Semen | Dog Relocation | AKC Dog Show Tips
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This episode covers a wide range of dog breeding and showing topics, including semen collection, breeding techniques, kennel relocation, handler influence, and show attire. Dale shares expert insights and practical tips to help breeders optimize their programs and succeed in the show ring.
What is going on, everybody? Welcome to the Tac Box Podcast. We are here for episode 64, and we're continuing last week's episode where we had a bunch of listener questions. Dale was getting nice and deep and dirty into the answering of the questions, and we had some good stuff there. So we're we didn't finish it off, so we're gonna finish it for you guys this week and make sure that we get everybody's questions answered. But before we do that, we're gonna jump over and check in with Dale, see how he's how he's been and what he's got going on in his agenda. How are you doing, Dale?
SPEAKER_00Doing good. It's been a fast week, hasn't it? And I I went over oh, and our our friend Joe Church from the Kane Corso site said uh I was uh did a podcast with him on Sunday, and he said to say hello and that he wanted to have you come on his upcoming episode. Very fun. Tons of graphics and stuff for the Kane Coast was uh jump jumping through the flames, and yeah, he's he's got it, he's got it going on.
SPEAKER_01Definitely we might be able to learn a couple things. Maybe we need some Japanese chin jumping through flames and some flames.
SPEAKER_00I got we got we gotta set the studio on fire, you know. Well, there we go. Wow, yeah, all right. But no, as heading off for a dog show on Thursday in Korea. North or South Korea? Well, I don't think North Korea's probably on the table, so I think we're gonna stick with South. Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Yeah, but if we do have to judge over north, tell me which dog uh Kim's is so we can be sure that it does well. Because to be able to leave the country.
SPEAKER_01Oh gosh, yeah. Great idea. Yeah, for sure. So that's his dog right there, you know. How long how long do you get to be in Korea? I think it's like five days. Oh, so you get plenty of time to do touristy stuff as Jane.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, but but it's two two of those 15-hour days are flying. True.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So I mean, that's some quality time in the air.
SPEAKER_01Does Jane have some stuff picked out to like touristy things to go see?
SPEAKER_00Well, we have a we have uh we have a day a touring day, and we have one of the local ladies that's gonna show us around. So we're like looking forward to that, and uh it's gonna be fun. I think you know, it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be a long time to fly and breaking out the compression socks and whatever other kind of tricks we have to make the flight go more better. You know, and I think we did get a little upgrade on our seats, which is good because you know, like Jane Jane's small, she doesn't need a ton of room. You know, uh I'm a little bigger. I I need six inches is six inches, and I'm gonna take it, you know? So that's uh those you know, those seats can be a a little little uh refined, you know, constricting, you know, especially after a long period of time.
SPEAKER_01How big of an airplane is it? Is it like middle row, like three rows, three hours?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. It's one of those those Mambo monster ones that you know can take off and you fly until the next day is you know like a 15 hours in air in the air flight.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, at least at that, like usually on bigger planes like that, like turbulence and stuff isn't bad. So it should at least be a decent ride. Just you know, you get you might have to get up and run down back and forth down the aisles when you can to get your run in or just to get some movement going.
SPEAKER_00That yeah, on the way back from England, we foolishly took a seat assignment that was very close to the to the restroom. And you know, if you've been by a plain bathroom and you have and you you can average that like four times in five minutes, it's it's really, you know, it's kind of you get almost kind of used to it, you know.
SPEAKER_01No nap for you. Yeah, because I was like here is only on the Tac Box podcast do you hear about airplane toilet flushing. Dale's impression of an airplane toilet flushing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. So, what do our listeners want to know?
SPEAKER_01Well, we got everything from semen to leasing bitches to dressing clothes to wear. So we're gonna jump in and we'll start, we'll start uh with semen collection. So we have a question that they want to know. They want to talk about aspects of artificial insemination. So when would you use fresh semen, frozen semen? And then what when would you do like a TCI surgical versus vaginal breeding?
SPEAKER_00Okay. So all of that is really relative to your situation as to as to what your options are. So I mean you know, of course, in a perfect world, you could do a natural breeding or a side-by-side collection. I mean, that's in a perfect world. That's that's great. You know, if if you have them there and you can run your progesterone and do your breedings just as you know as needed and stuff and your dogs are you know, but so frozen semen, that is I would only use frozen semen on on a surgical or a TCI. Because you know, frozen semen is doing really good to come back at say 60%. I mean, that's probably you collected it and it was in the 90s and it's gonna come back about 60. A dog that is uh at a 60% sperm count, if you did a natural breeding on them, very likely wouldn't take. You know, you're gonna dogs that dogs that are missing bitches naturally oftentimes will have a s uh sperm count of somewhere around 70. Because I remember one time we went in and had a dog collected and uh the repo fed said, oh, it's like 72%. I'm like, 70%, pretty good. He's he's a he's a C he's a C student, you know, and they're like That's like my grade average in high school, yeah. That was kind of how I cruised through Stevens High. I was well familiar with the 70s, you know, but uh yeah, no, not good. Not good at all. So so that so there you go. So I mean, for frozen, it's gonna be a TCI, it's gonna be a surgical, it's gonna be done hopefully on a young, fresh bitch. You know, I mean, because if you're gonna go ahead and do something that has some a couple of marks against it, like, you know, then at least have have on the other side of the equation have that be a big plus. Like, so this is a young bitch, you know, then she's in really great health and have really strong hormones, and and you're gonna just give her every opportunity to get pregnant. You know, so many times I hear people saying, well, you know, she's five and a half years old, and we've been showing her for four and a half years, and blah, blah, blah. And she, we tried to breed her once three years ago, and she pyoded, but she didn't, da-da-da-da. So now we're gonna send in and have C. It's like, oh, for the love of Pete, she's already a conception issue. She's already aging out. So why don't you go ahead and see if you can further compromise your attempt here? So, on, like I say, you know a lot of times people uh will go ahead and send fresh. That's like inner, you know, inner state to send fresh, fresh shields even. Though depending as to how good everything is going with uh with your your bitch, your cycle, how proficient you are at it, you know, you really kind of need to have have your uh practice your skill set on on doing your insemination. First, because if you're gonna have fresh scent in, you need to have progesterone running on your bitch. If you're not really proficient on on doing to doing an AI, then at that point in time involve your vet or a breeder friend that is. You know, have have another person there so you're help, you know, have help while you're doing this, you know. And that, you know, that can be quite effective. You know, the other thing is when people start talking about wanting to send semen or wanting to, you know, they're they wait till like the day of and they take this dog that's never been collected and go, okay, today we're gonna collect them and do this and this. Like, you know, that's one of those things that you might could definitely get some benefit out of practicing, doing a couple of trial runs on this, rather than we're gonna go the, you know, this is our it's it's kind of like buying brand new shoes for the for your first marathon and get picking them out and running in them the very first time. Well, it's it's a bad plan, you know. Plan it out, you know, col get the dog practiced and being collected, kind of get your your mojo going on, how it works for him, how it works for you, and uh and it'll up your odds, and he's be more likely to give you a good collection. And especially a dog that if you're gonna collect it, like if you're gonna collect it at a clinic, and it's a dog that's never been really, you know, is not used to traveling and all that, it might not give you a collection. So all of these are things you kind of need to plan out a little bit and maybe involve the stud dog in those plans a little bit. You know, but so those are my that you know, that's kind of my rule of thumb. I personally, if I'm breeding my dogs, I like to do natural ties. I think there's a lot of benefit to a natural tie. If I can't do a natural tie, I'll do a side-by-side AI. You know, if I'm gonna do frozen, it's always a surgical. And I always use my my best producing bitches as far as uh productivity. If I'm gonna have semen sent in, you know, I might do a an I might do an AI, but if it's uh if it's as costly as stuff is nowadays, I I might consider doing if even having it flown in. I might even consider a TCI or a surgical, just to really give it every bang for the buck because you know, you go, well, that costs this much more, but how much is the litter of puppies worth? So kind of figure how important is it to your program you're getting a semen sent in. You know, how important is it to you? So those might might might be worth it if it's if just your buddy shipping shipping semen over and you're just gonna go ahead and do that. Well, that's fine. Sometimes, upon a time or two, I've sent semen, fresh, fresh chilled, on two different stud dogs to my friends, and they have uh inseminated uh the bitch one day with one dog and then waited 24 hours and did the second dog the second day, and then they DNA'd the puppies, and multiple times they've gotten puppies from both dogs, which is pretty cool. You know, when you're doing when you're doing something to try to keep back for your program and stuff, you know, you can do you can do stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01So is there a time like is there another reason you would ever use frozen semen other than like I have this dog that I froze semen 10 years ago and I want to bring him back into the lines? Or like you don't use frozen semen for anything really other than that, do you?
SPEAKER_00Well, so frozen is long-term storage type thing. So let's say like we had a cavalier dog that sired like 26 champions, and he was a wonderful dog, and he was just all over our kennel. We had sons, we had daughters, we had grandchildren, everything was out of this dog. And then it's kind of like, you know, the clock moves forward, you know, 10, 12 years, and he's barely on a pedigree. I mean, he's dropping off fast, you know, and uh things just kind of like whoop, and then all of a sudden you don't have anything out of him at all, and everything that's out of him up close is aged out. And so at that point, I got a crack at some frozen semen out of one of his sons, and I was like, well, this is good. You know, we'll we can go ahead and have a have a uh you know, have get those pedigrees back up close that we take another bite at that apple. So there it I think that freezing semen, it's expensive, and it's a lower, you're gonna have you're not gonna get as many numbers and stuff. It's nothing you do to have dogs to sell. It's nothing you do, it's it's something something you're gonna go and work on only to add into your program because you need this, because it's it's a bother, it's expensive, uh, and you know, I mean, you know, it just it is what it is. But you can have uh and some breeds have a harder time with uh with frozen, and I think that there's degrees of like uh of what it comes back at because I have some chin semen that we've tried like three times and have never been able to get it to take. And uh just, you know, I think that back back at the time they were collecting it, it was pellets instead of straws, and I think the technology is better, and who knows how good the collection was at the time. Uh, you know, I don't know what that what they you know, it's like if you were gonna if you're gonna collect a dog, try to do it before it's near dead and it has, you know, a low sperm count, you know, try to collect it while it's young and still somewhat viable because the storage is not that expensive. Transporting it, that's a little expensive. Implanting it, that can be a little bit expensive. You know, but we have gotten semen from out of the country before, all of that kind of stuff. So I mean that it there there is benefit to it, especially to to broaden your pedigrees.
SPEAKER_01And anytime you're shipping semen, you always plan on an issue, you know, FedEx delays, things get cool, you know, yeah, it's almost yeah. All right, next question is around moving with dogs. So we have questions on when people decide they're gonna move and they have dogs, you know, what's better building a kennel or trying to find a kennel property? Or, you know, do you how often, you know, how much do you look at weather? What are some of the things that you look at when you're thinking about relocating with dogs to a different area?
SPEAKER_00Well, for starters, it's gonna depend on what con dogs. You know, so what what con dogs? How much how much facility do you need to have? What does this dog exactly entail? You know, I mean, what does your breed need? How many, what what are you needing to move into? And then of course the time of year is also a real thing. Because, you know, just kind of like moving a horse from one pasture to another, horse might be in that pasture for 10 years without a single problem. And then, but you move them over to the next pasture and it's gonna find the one piece of loose barbed wire and they're gonna get cut. When you move things and change things up for your animals, you know, there is always a potential of injury or something going wrong. You know, that's always something you have to kind of watch out for. So, so like when you're traveling with your animals, have a lot of backup plans, try to travel in, you know, you know, preferably like if you're traveling in the heat of summer, maybe at night, that might be a better plan than taking off with a say a van load of brachycephalic dogs and you know on a hundred degree day. You know, because if it does if you have a problem, you have a big problem. As far as like, you know, depending as to where you're going, as far as how how your municipality is, can you find a property, a kennel property, is the kennel property gonna be right for your dogs? All of that. Because very few properties, especially when you're talking about kennels, are uh really from one breed to another adaptable. So you're probably gonna be fine unless, depending on the number of animals you have, you know, go, you know, finding a property and put, you know, doing some sort of uh, you know, but when dog people move, this is something that we do. We we we sit there and we find, you know, we start this is like how we're you know, what are we gonna do with our animals in the interim? How are we gonna make this work? You know, what do we need to do to get that, you know, to get our our facilities ready? And it's it's a whole nother degree of moving that nobody has ever really experienced, you know. It's like, you know, some sometimes they're gonna they're gonna they're gonna be hanging all out in your house for a little while until you get everything put together, and that's just part of it. But you know, uh knowing your breed, knowing your area, knowing the time of year, you know, taking all those things into consideration, big, big plan. And if you're if you're planning on moving, you might want to say, well, maybe I'm not gonna have everything bred because I might have enough stress and anxiety, I don't need to be whelping on top of that. You know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, I mean, that kind of stuff, you know. I mean, you know, but it never works out like that anyway, you know.
SPEAKER_01You know, it's uh it's always it never works how you want it to, but even like you think you would think the simplistic answer would be buy a property that already has a kennel built on it. But you've been there and done that and basically had to remodel the whole kennel because you know, just not it up for your breed or whatever. It's then you got the other side of it, is like, well, you can build a kennel. Well, sounds good on paper, and you got temporary solutions until contractors aren't showing up or doing things or they run into issues and break a water line and and it postpones things five days and then the next issue pops up. You know, it's like so I think both kind of come with issues and and things, and it's like it does kind of have to just plan like there's gonna be problems, it's not gonna go smoothly, it's it's always gonna have to have your backup plan in place. Yeah, like what is your what is your temporary solution? Because you're gonna run into some you're gonna run into issues along the way in all scenarios. All scenarios. And and you know, just unless you're gonna move without dogs and start fresh, you know. I'm gonna build a kennel, and then when it's done, I'm gonna start getting dogs, you know.
SPEAKER_00Like you know, I always wanted to meet that person that really planned things like that and said, I'm not gonna do such things, I'm gonna I'm gonna build my kennel and I'm gonna have all this stuff, and then I'm gonna get the dogs. Everybody I know has just a shit pile of dogs, and then they decide they need a kennel or they need because that's how it works.
SPEAKER_01You accumulate all the dogs, and then you're like, I can't keep them all in my house, I have to have a kennel.
SPEAKER_00I it's like now I need this, you know. It's like, well, you needed that a while ago, but yeah now you really need it, you know. That's that's the thing, you know. It's like, you know, the interesting thing.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes you can't have it all. I mean, hardly ever can you have it all. You know, it's like when we moved, it was just like, well, we got one that just welped, we got one welping next week, and summer's coming. We don't want to travel with hot dogs, and we need to get a kennel built. So it's just like, nope, now's the time to go. And you know, you move and two days later you got one welping, and yeah, you just have a fresh one. It's it's it's some you gotta sometimes take the lesser of two evils, you know, and it's like yeah, you know, pick which's the better scenario for the animals and keeping them cool is a huge thing, especially in our breeds that that we deal with. So that's like top of the priority list. You know, if you have dogs that can handle the heat and and things like that, maybe that's not as high on your priority list, but for us, that was kind of like the top thing is like we gotta keep these dogs cool to keep them alive. Sure.
SPEAKER_00And that's you know if you had German short hair pointers, maybe a a big fenced area for them to run would be more important. Yeah. Yeah. That they could turn them out and run them, yeah. That could be more a bigger deal. And like I say, when we talk about a kennel facility, that it's it's uh it's so breed determinative. It's like what they need to to be maintained in a healthy way, and especially and where you're at. Because, you know, like for us, we build summer kennels. We have very little cold weather, we have lots of summer, lots of heat. So our kennels are shade and uh, you know, shade and water and cooling and temperature and you know, that kind of stuff. That's I mean, you know, our in our our challenges are keeping them comfortable from that. Heat is not as big a problem for us. We don't have to worry about water lines freezing, that kind of stuff, you know. It's not not as big an issue. And you have different kinds of parasites and bugs. Like you go from one area, you might have ticks, and you go to another area, you got fleas. All of these things are gonna be uh, you know, regional determinative, you know, things that you're gonna have to you're gonna have to experience once you get moved.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you never really know, and you don't those are the things that you don't think about, you know, is you know, if you move somewhere that's got short summer months, you might not deal with heartworm a lot or anything like that, but you move somewhere that's got longer summer months, now you're doing heartworm preventive.
SPEAKER_00Now you're in the window. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01You know, or zoning and and legalities, do you need like kind of license if you have a certain amount of dogs? You know, like knowing that, and that's a huge aspect of of moving and and where not. And you know, even down to like just kind of trying to figure out your state's government, like are they pro breeder or not pro breeder? You can kind of get a feel for how some of that goes because you kind of want to go to somewhere that's is pro breeder, you know, breeder friendly, you know, something like that.
SPEAKER_00And a lot of the HOAs will have uh restrictions. In addition to your state and and local municipalities, you can be like in a subdivision and it can be even more restrictive. We only allow two dogs. Right. You can have two dogs and they have to be under 20 pounds and there have to be this and you know. I mean, you can have all of that. So unfortunately, a lot of dog people get by by the by existing under the wire, and they can't, you know, which I understand, you know, better to, you know, to you know, to not have if you if you can't if you can't make the qualifications, better not to draw attention to yourself. But before you, you know, expand, before you get very big, you know, really try to have that uh have that that plant where you have a place that's safe to keep your animals, where you have legal standing and that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00No, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01All right, next question. If all dog, so we're talking dog showing here, if all dogs are equal, can a pro handler affect the judge's decision.
SPEAKER_00Well, so that that's that's a fair enough question. You know, so the the advantage of a a pro handler or here's another one, a good handler. A a good handler, bit maybe professional, maybe just breeder owner, a good handler can make can really sell the the finer points of of their dog. And and that might be just knowing their breed a little bit better, knowing their dog a little bit better, and maybe they can they can just maybe make it look a little bit more appealing. You know, and I mean that's it's kind of, you know, so they're all nice dogs, but you know, this one just really the way it's showing, the way it's presented, you know, all of that can, you know, maybe that could that could throw an extra mark. But I will be truthful on that. Very seldom, very, very, very seldom, and I see this all the time. People say, well, if it's equal, how when is it equal? I I I mean, it's rarely is it equal. You're almost always, especially in the breed where you're going apples to apples, when you get into the group and you have you're doing apples and oranges and a banana or two, it's you know, that's a bit more of an opinion. Is that a better palm than that is a peak is this is a chin? Yeah, you know. But when you're in your actual breed, very seldom is it equal. You know, but I will say that perhaps some judges where they're not as comfortable with the breed or not as comfortable in their knowledge of the breed, you know, the handlers can a good handler can go ahead and present the dog well, have the dog showing well, they listening to the judge, uh showing it the way they asked them to. When they told them to move it slower down and back, they did that versus the other one who ran with it all the way to the end, even though you said go slow halfway, you know. I mean, they make it easier to award them by just being, you know, more in tune to what the judge is asking. So they may have an advantage, but I just think that instead of pro, just good, a good handler. A good handler has, you know, whether they're professional or not, is aware of their breed and aware of their dog and can do a really good job. Because I I don't think I don't really people say, oh, the professional handlers, that's where it's all nah, you know, professional handlers have a bunch of dogs they're showing. You know, a a a breeder runner handler has a couple of dogs are showing, maybe one, you should really be able to bring an A game with that dog. You know, you should have an advantage because you just brought one dog and you really should know that dog.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I kind of feel like I I kind of feel like, I mean, first of all, judges are judging the dogs, not the handlers, but to dive a little bit deeper in that, if the two dogs are, you know, if you have a newbie in there and a professional handler or a good handler, the difference could be in the handler, but it's not two good handlers, it's a newbie that maybe doesn't know exactly like you were saying, like, maybe went too fast on the down and back, maybe doesn't know that the accurate speed to be walking their dog at is where somebody that's more tenured, a good handler, has probably been doing it for a while and has learned a lot of those tricks of the trade of like, this is how fast this dog needs to be walked. You know, this is how fast this they've been maybe they've shown to this judge 15 times before, so they know what this judge is looking for because they've paid attention. But you can do that too as a novice. You can go watch this judge judge anywhere you want to and see how they run their ring, and then you can do that.
SPEAKER_00And they even have online stuff like the the the the judge's report card when people put comments about the judges. I mean, sometimes it's sour grapes and sometimes it's accurate, and you know, but I mean there's lots of information out there, you know. Yeah you can find out, you know, what's this judge like and what's that's you know, that kind of thing. I mean, you can you can there there's there's information to be had.
SPEAKER_02No, for sure. But I think a lot of things like a lot of people have experienced.
SPEAKER_00You know, how what are you gonna do? Are you are you gonna make sure your dog is extra clean that day? Is you're gonna make sure that your dog's showing well today. Are you gonna pay attention to the judge and be in the ring on time?
SPEAKER_01Like the biggest thing that professional handlers, and I'm using air quotes, you know, people that get paid to handle maybe is a better term. I think one of the biggest like advantages they probably have over a breeder handler is is being able to actually look at a dog and see the faults. I think sometimes as owner handlers or breeder handlers, we're just like, oh, our dog is so perfect, and we can't be honest with ourselves and actually like realize the fault that the dog has and try to figure out how to mask it or to not, you know, I guess for lack of better words, to say cover it up is to where you know a handler that's just handling a dog can look at the dog, give it an evaluation, say, this is the dog's fault. How can I make the dogs where it does meet the breed standard? How can I shine those to the judge and cover up this fault a little bit or, you know, you know, is where owner handlers were kind of just like, oh, our dog's so perfect, you know, there's no faults in this dog. What are you talking about? And we just want to be out there and prate around in all our glory with our dog that we're super proud of, but we're not we're not exhibiting to the dog's potential to the breed standard like we could be if we were honest with ourselves with what is really good or bad about this dog.
SPEAKER_00I would say a little bit kind of like being a real estate agent. So is this is this house is uh is the bed, is the bedroom small, or is it cozy and intimate? Is it real close to the road or is it just handy to to uh to the metro? You know, I mean, how do you want to look at it? You know, it's like uh you know, there, you know, just like pick pick how you know how you want to look at it and then go go from there. But knowing what your dog's faults are, but knowing what its strengths are, and you know, present it for to its best advantage. And that that's that's what that's what I would say. You know, I mean, you know, you can have you can show that dog to its best advantage.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so keeping on the dog showing realm of things, somebody was asking about attire. Do you know you a lot of times you'll you'll go and you'll watch a show and you'll see you know women in sequin-see dresses that are sparkly and all over the place, and guys will be in these fancy suits and all done up. Does that sway judges? Does that matter? Does that mean anything as far as winning, you know, per se, versus somebody that, you know, when you see us uh a gal showing and she's in a sequin dress versus a gal showing in a floral dress that doesn't look nearly as ballgowny, you know, do it does that matter at the end of the day?
SPEAKER_00Well, that yeah, that that that's that that's that's a loaded question. But so I'm gonna take a sip. I'm gonna take a stab at it. Number one, where are you showing? So if you're in a really if you're in a hotel ballroom and it's your national specialty and and you you know and you want to break out the sequins, cool. You know, have a moment. If you're in a rodeo ground on a dirt floor, and and you probably need to be in a nice pair of slacks and some sketchers, and you know it that it it would be appropriate for showing in that venue, bingo. So just look at your venue. I mean, is this the top 20 for your breed and it's an evening thing and everyone's gonna be dressed up? There you go. That's your answer. But if if you're out there in a park or a field somewhere and you just want to wear something sportswear, you know, that's nice to show your dog, that's totally okay. And especially I would sell people and also kind of, you know, for your own individual person. So if you're like if uh if if ladies are comfortable in a dress, then they should wear a dress. But if they're not comfortable in a dress, wear slacks. You know, I mean, you know, dress to yourself, to your comfort, because if you're comfortable, you're gonna do a better job showing your dog. Because it's actually about the dog. So if you can do a better job with your dog and you're not in floor-length sparkles, well then then that's that's what you should wear. You know, dress to your to uh a nice, uh comfortable temper, you know, if you're outside, well then probably try not to wear something super dark, super heavy, you know. Try to, you know, I mean, I don't think the judges are people, and they're not I don't think they're they're not like scoring like Project Runway, you know, like, well, was gonna go third, but we got blasted by the sparkles, and so we just moved it all the way up to best of breed. No, it doesn't happen like that. You should dress appropriate to your breed, to to you, and to where you're showing, what the event is, you know, and and be comfortable and just do a do a nice job with your dog. I one thing I will tell you in dressing, so uh now that I've you know deflated, everyone's like, oh yes, ballroom is the way to go. Colors do matter. Colors really matter what you wear, the color you wear with your dog, because you are the backdrop for your dog. So I mean, if you have if you wear a a color that really makes your dog stand out, visually, that's a plus. So, you know, I mean, like, you know, I show a lot of black and white dogs. So I try to wear something solid, you know, but probably not black, because I don't want them to go away, you know. But you know, you you pick pick the color that's gonna look nice with your dog. And that that's that's that is it makes it makes a good picture. And I think it it'll accentuate your dog because if they can't see your top line, if you've got a black dog and you're wearing an old black suit and there's this like this little two little eyes peering out of the out of the midnight blackness of this whole presentation, that's harder. Not saying you can't win, you know, and they should be able to get in there close enough to see it, but it really does. And when they're moving, if you can see the dog is you know, moving with the with that, that's all of that can be very appearance enhancing, which is showing your dog to its best advantage. So, you know, and of course, if you have something that's more important than sparkles would maybe be pockets, you know, because you know, showing a dog is like traveling with a little kid, you know, sometimes you got to pull a toy out of your pocket or a brush or or whatever you might need, a paper towel, all of that, you know, traveling prepared, you know, is a big plus. So all of those things might be, you know, more uh important, you know, and uh comfort, comfort and you know, and being able to do a good job with your animal and a good collar, those are all those are that's where I how I would look at it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, I've seen I've seen people in a ring of 15 that you know are wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap, and they win. You know, it's like I I I've seen it happen, you know, and it's so I don't I don't think attire always matters. I don't know that I don't know that you can dress too up and that it affects you in a negative way if you're dressed up. I mean, no, I think it might look nice, you know.
SPEAKER_00Sure, sure. I mean, you know, as long as he's like, you know, dress dr wearing something nice, having something clean and good, and you know, that enables you to move nicely with your dogs. I mean, those are those are really uh, you know, a good good thing. Like I, you know, Jane, Jane likes to wear skirts when she shows because you know, her, you know, she like her dogs move well with her and that looks good with her and down there stuff. But personally, I mean, kind of look a little bit as to what your judge is wearing. So if the judge has got his jacket off, take your jacket off. Don't go in there and be a hero, you know. If the uh and I think they I think the judge is kind of set the tone as like, this is you know, so what you what you need to wear. You know, there you go. That's kind of like a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01I took that I I actually I did that once and I took that from a judge. It might even have been you, but to wear as like, you know, I I when I first started showing, it was like suit with dress shoes. And then I started seeing judges in the ring like wearing suits and tennis shoes. I'm like, see, they just want to be comfortable too. So if they're wearing tennis shoes, I can wear tennis shoes. You know, so I started wearing comfortable shoes, you know, and it's like as a game changer for me, you know, because it was more comfortable and I could show better.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You could move your animal better. Absolutely. You know, that footwear, I think the most important thing is like with that is good footwear where you're not gonna fall, you're not gonna be hesitant on the mats because you got, you know, you can do a good job presenting your dog. Good footwear is probably the most important article of clothing. But, you know, granted, I I probably wouldn't wear a like a dick's last resort t-shirt and you know, a ball cap and all that. That might be a little cash for me, you know, but uh yeah, I think is uh, you know, I think just respectful, respectful, you know, dress is fine because the dog's the show, not you. The dog is the show. And if, you know, so I mean, you're just a supporting cast member.
SPEAKER_01So this wasn't part of the question, but it just popped into my head while we were talking about this, so I'll just follow up with this. So as a judge, how does it how do the judges feel when you go to one of those shows and they have like themed days and everybody's coming in like 70s dressed up? Like, is that fun and entertaining for you, or is it just like I can do without, just let me see your dogs?
SPEAKER_00You know, I mean, I think that in the spirit of stuff, I think that that is that can be fun if if people want to do that and stuff. I I like I I I think that that's fun that people want want to have a good time with that, and if they want to, especially if it's gonna be like if it's gonna be like an outdoorsy show and they go Western attire, which is code for you can wear jeans, you know. All right. I mean, I I'm down for that. That's good. I I'll pull on a Western shirt and jeans. That's that's fine. I like that. I mean, one that I saw one that I that I had to participate in that I really hated personally, pajama day. Pajam, we had a pajama theme specialty, and everybody had to wear pajamas. Not a fan, you know. I mean, uh, not a fan. I had to go out and buy pajamas to go wear for the specialty, because you know, yeah, what I would wear to go to sleep in, yeah, that wouldn't be acceptable.
SPEAKER_01You can show a dot. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, not gonna nope, nope, not gonna work. So, yeah, I think that the theme thing, sometimes it can go a little bit far, you know, but uh I think it can be fun and it can be it can be fun, and I like the idea of themes for I get the purpose of it.
SPEAKER_01The the the kennel club is trying to draw attendance because we're fun and we're having days and it's fun and it's engaging. Until you go to one that's like, you know, a big and we went to one once and I only remember what the theme was, but all the girls were wearing huge, gigantic hats. Yeah. Half the dogs were scared out of their mind because of these big gigantic hats people were wearing. So now it's it's like, do some of those dress up days affect the actual showing of the dog? Because the dogs are, you know.
SPEAKER_00A little bit like, and you know, it's like, you know, especially like all the shows now, it's not like you have like a day or maybe two days. Now it's like everything is four and five days. Well, if I'm gonna have to go do Victorian sportswear, you know, or Edwardian period, you know, I mean, really, do I have to buy a whole week's worth of clothes like that? You know, to you know, that I'm gonna be wearing never again.
SPEAKER_01I tend to be the one that does not participate in things like that. Yeah, I tend to be that guy. Unless unless there's unless it's like, you know, you're gonna be the only one not wearing pajamas at your specialty, then I'd probably go buy pajamas. But you know, other than that, I tend to probably not participate too much.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, not great. Didn't love it. What was was not I see that's what happens when you miss a meeting. You miss a meeting and then you come back and someone said, How about pajama day? And then it's like, what the hell was that? You know, who came up with that? And but anyway, yeah, live through it. Not interested in doing it again. But I remember posting those pictures online and uh someone said, What are you wearing? I'm like, oh, just don't even start with me. Yeah, don't ask.
SPEAKER_01All right, we're gonna transition to a little bit more on the breeder-focused side. So we have a question on somebody wanting to know about leasing bitches and how that works.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so saying you're wanting to add to your program and you didn't necessarily but you're limited as to the number of dogs you can have, or maybe you have a limited time offer to use something like I have an older stud dog, but I don't really have anything I can breed to him right now. And if I buy, if I grow up a puppy, he might not be still available to use, or that type of thing. Or or maybe somebody, uh, you know, a friend or a fellow breeder is like, it's not a good time for them to breed right now. They have things going on. And so maybe they have a bitch that they're nice, bitch, and you, you know, should could be bred, but they they're not gonna do it. So if the if the minds are meeting and there's availability and desire, you can do what's called a lease where you can take, or it happens with with dogs too. Stud dogs too. Like I have everything bred to them. I I know right now I'm about I'm gonna send one of my stud dogs to a friend of mine in Chicago because I've got puppies out of him, not gonna use him for a while. So they got things they want to breed to him, like, fine, take him. I don't need him for six months or a year, I'm good. So that's a lease. And uh, and you can you can kind of cut a deal. I think as though the big thing is you have to have that relationship with the person where you really know them. You know them pretty intimately. Like I've been to your house, you've been to my house, we know each other, we take care of our dogs about the same. I feel very comfortable with all of that. Leasing can be uh it can be anything as far as like you may say, well, I might want a puppy, maybe I'm gonna get uh uh the price of a puppy, maybe I'm gonna get, you know, uh, you know, I'm you're gonna you're gonna loan me a dog later, you're gonna do some sort of trade where you're gonna, you know, all of that has to be determined before. So before you take the animal, iron it all up. Because don't just say, oh, just go ahead and do it, and then da-da-da-da. And then like, you took Muffy, and I wanted her, I wanted this and this. So you owe me this much money and puppies and this and that, and you're gonna come over and mow my yard. You know, I mean, get it all ironed out in the up front in advances. So what you're giving, what you're getting, is everybody kind of, you know, into the same standards of care? Like we feel really comfortable with that. As a person, before I would lease a bitch, I would really want to make sure it was something I thought would transform. Transition easily. If you have some psycho problem dog, don't lease that out to someone. They're going to fail. Don't, you know, I mean, it's like it climbs and it bites and it runs away. Well, you know, let me write the rest of that story for you. It bit someone, climbed out, and ran away. You know, so send the, if you have a dog that fits in good to their situation and they're going to take care, you know, it's going to work out well, then it could really be beneficial. It doesn't do your bitches any favor when they're coming in heat. They need to be bred. So it is good if they can be bred. And it doesn't hurt to have somebody doing a litter that you can have some involvement with. There are forms on the American Candle Club where you can do like a lease for a period of time, like say, you're going to take this bitch, I'm going to sign the lease card, and you're going to the when the litter is born, you'll be the breeder. And then after this date, the dog, the ownership's going to automatically go back to me. That's that's how that's how a lease works. And then whatever our arrangement is. But you need to have it all worked out in advance. And you also need to have an idea of like, you know, if, you know, kind of going in there on a bitch, okay. You know, somebody that you feel competent is going to, if they're, if it needs a C-section, it's going to get a section. If this is going to happen, you have to ask all the hard questions, because, you know, once they take the dog and they do their best, you know, with the best information and the best choices they can, you know, you always have to think, well, if they did a section and you lost the dog, are you going to be okay? And if the answer is no, don't lease it. Just keep you know. But if you if you're like, no, they're trustworthy and they will do it as good as I would, well, then you can then you can do it. If you have the mental health and relationship, then you could you could make that work. That could be a that could be a viable option for you. And I think it's a really good way for people to expand their programs.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's definitely it's one of those things where anytime you do it's it's kind of like a co-ownership, make sure that the person you're doing it with you you have a good relationship with and you know would treat the dog the way that you would treat him. I think that's kind of a big key in that.
SPEAKER_00Well, the difference between a co-ownership and a lease is a lease has a time. You know, from this day to this day. It's yours. And then it's coming back. And then you're out of that picture. So the in that respect, that's good because it just it, you know, it's not beyond that that this scope of this window of time. That's a good thing. And uh, you know, and then whereas the ownership, co ownership should probably never be indefinite. The people go into them planning out because they're like, you know, it's like, you know, making this plan on this dog that's gonna live 10 to 10, 15 years, and they're gonna, we're just gonna co-own it. You know, like that's a long-term commitment, folks. You know, you gotta you're planning on this is all gonna be smooth sailing for the next decade. Well, alrighty then, you know. But yeah, the lease is a more obtainable goal, and it can be a it can be a good thing, especially if you have someone that has dog has a dog they're not using or has a bitch that they're not they're not gonna be able to breed, and uh, and they have someone trustworthy that that could go do a litter out of it. I mean, it could it could be very mutually beneficial to everybody. Yeah, for sure. But you have to have the relationship intact first.
SPEAKER_01Yep, 100%. Uh all right, last question. We'll wrap this episode up with a fun, good question. So what tasks can breeders automate, delegate, or simplify?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that that that that's a that's a really good one. Because personally, I think you the the the more your daily chores, the more you simplify that, the better. So, I mean, if because if I I've got some of my friends and stuff, and they have I have all of the blue towels in this pot. At first I set out a blue towel, and then I put the the white bowl on the left corner. It's like, I feel like I'm setting a a T at a for a formal function. I'm like, where's this extra fork go? You know, I mean, they make it very complicated. So simplify your care. Simper simplify your your daily stuff. Keep it very, very, you know, where it's easy and fast, and that you can, you know, keep it to the point where it's easy to explain. And if you have to have somebody else do it, they can step in and and do that kind of kind of easily. You know, so that's that's that's right off the bat, you know, and you know, depending as to your breed and where you're at, the uh you know the other stuff, if there's things that you can you can like we'll say automate as far as like, you know, we're gonna have someone come and once a week they're gonna do a deep clean on the yard and they're gonna clean, you know, that all of that kind of stuff that you can that'll kind of keep things, you know, on this on the on the path. And you know, I think that all of that kind of stuff is just it makes your dogs easier, it makes maintaining the schedule easier, and I think you enjoy them more, you know. I think it's just be I think it makes it makes everything so much more, you know, where they, you know, you can just keep keep other and then and I think the other stuff that is like your online correspondence, that's probably you know, you can your auto response, like if someone is sent you know messages to you and you can say, Hey, you know, text me this, you know, I'm such and such, you know, blah blah blah, or anything like that, that's great to get right back to them. Because if you're gonna get right back to them and it's you know 10 days later, they've moved on. You know, that's that's already that's already gone. So your online stuff, I guess that's that's and you know, all of that. And like one thing I really love are Chewies, reoccurring orders. Love it, you know, because you know you're gonna feed about you know this much of your dehydrated chicken. Well, all right, chewies will send it to you the 15th of each month. It's like just like magic, it appears. And it's just one less thing you have to to go to get. I love those. I love I love auto ship, you know, all of that kind of stuff. I think think that that is really it you know makes your makes your life much better.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, and there's ways to like simplify and almost automate at the same time. Like if you are w hand washing your dogs and then using uh, you know, you're blowing them out every time and they don't need to be blown out, but you're using a blow dryer just to get them dry and you can throw, you know, could you throw them in a cage bank with uh a dryer on it and let them sit in the the bank and dry? You know, if you have breeding dogs that can handle that, that that's a easy way to automate and simplify and free you up for a ton of time. Sure.
SPEAKER_00Well, like so we use the shoreline, shoreline dry uh dryer unit where it's just a recirculating fan. It's not adding heat. So it's like no rush to get them out. Just whenever you get them out, you get them out. They're they're just kind of like, you know, uh just you know, let them dry and the the throw a big towel in there and they you know, play on that. And you know, then you can, you know, just so first thing in the morning, you know, wash it, wash a couple of dogs, then you can go ahead and and while you're doing your other chores and that kind of stuff. I mean, no, that kind of stuff is great. You know, you know, those kind of things that you can just little time savers that are happening with or without you. You don't you don't have to pay super close attention to.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I don't think there's like a bunch of things that you can just sit there and say, every breeder needs to automate this or every breeder needs to delegate this. I think it's all take a look at your breeding program. I think a lot of it is breed dependent too. You know, it's specific on what your dog's needs are, what your kennel process looks like. You know, do you have teenage kids that are home for the summer? Because I do and I can delegate, you know, it's like you're cleaning poop today, you know. Yeah, yeah. You you can you can do some of that stuff. Do you have kennel help if you have full-time kennel help and you can delegate some of the things? Like, stop trying to do everything yourself if you can delegate it out to somebody else and and they can accomplish the same task. You don't need to have your finger in every little aspect of everything, you know.
SPEAKER_02So you just have to look at your program and your system.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. You know, some people still do everything, you know, on pen and paper, you know, on envelopes and and things like that, you know. And some people have everything digitalized, you know, it's just where are you at with everything and how does it work for you?
SPEAKER_00And how it works for you. Absolutely. And usually all of the uh anything, it a lot of that stuff, the improvement is improvement, it makes it more efficient, and it's just it's it's better, you know. It's you know, your kennel book stuff online and all that. That's it's better. Better, more efficient, let less less hard copy stuff to have to deal with.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Then you're just worrying about filing cabinet storage.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. All right. I think that'll finish us off for this episode of the Tac Box Podcast. Hopefully, we answered these questions uh and you guys got something good out of it and learned something new today. As always, we put out our podcast every single Wednesday, so make sure you're staying tuned to our Facebook uh group, our Facebook page, our YouTube channel, or wherever you listen to your podcasts at. Make sure you give us a review and a recommendation to your friends. It really helps us grow. So, and uh ask questions if you have questions. We can make episodes on your questions for you. Um, but again, we're here every Wednesday. Dale's off to Korea now for five days or something like that, and gonna enjoy his time. So all right, everybody. Thanks for joining this episode of the Tack Box Podcast. We'll talk to you guys all very soon. Have a great day. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
