December 9, 2025 • 20 mins
This episode's question is about what to do when your “keeper” puppy starts showing significant fear issues: "…I’m really sad about my situation. I don’t want this to reflect poorly on my small breeding program that I’ve poured so much time, thought, stress, money, and emotional energy into.… my keeper puppy is now showing pretty significant fear issues…I was hoping to keep this puppy and eventually use her in my program. My biggest concern is that this is genetic fear and she will not outgrow/overcome it. This is depressing me quite honestly, and I’m feeling very deer-in-the-headlights about how to move forward…"
In this podcast I address:
- How to tell if a fear issue is a developmental or genetic issue and what the line is between normal and pathological fear
- My personal experiences and outcomes in this area
- Words of encouragement for small program breeders, with thoughts for surviving emotional setbacks and staying in the breeding game
Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm Jane Messineo Lindquist.
And this is a Puppy CulturePotluck podcast.
You bring the topics,
we bring the conversation.
(00:21):
This episode's question
is the third
in my temperament versus behavior
and selecting breeding stock trifecta.
The other two episodes are episode 28and our last episode,
episode 34.
(00:41):
I strongly recommend if you can go backand listen to episode 28,
because that's where I talk very
generally about the limitsof modifying genetic behavior.
But here goes.
Here's the question.
Buckle up because it's a long one.
But I think it's all relevant.
(01:03):
I'm posting anonymously
because I'm really sad about my situation.
I don't want this to reflect poorlyon my small breeding program
that I poured so much time, thought,stress, money, and emotional energy into.
I recently got to keep a puppy for my own
breeding finally, after years of waiting,
(01:27):
all the puppies have been raisedwith puppy culture.
We also Volhard temperamenttesting and various
socialization and enrichment activities.
I raised these puppiesso I know exactly what they went through
and how much effort was put in.
Well, my keeper
puppy is now showingpretty significant fear issues.
(01:50):
The puppy is almost 14 weeks old.
I noticed changes several weeks ago.
The puppy has been going on outings
very regularly,meaning several times a week.
The first time I noticed significantfear was when
two dogs were barking very excitedlyand jumping on a fence.
It completely panicked the puppywho took off running with tail tucked.
(02:14):
She was in a fenced yardand ran all the way
to the fence door,where she desperately tried escaping.
Sincethis incident, my puppy has been terrified
of people and dogs in general,but also randomly other things at times.
She won't allow peopleto approach her at all.
(02:35):
I enjoy hiking,but if someone's coming towards us
on the trail,she panics and tries to bolt.
She doesn't allow any interactionwith people outside of my home,
and she's even leery of guestsin our home.
She was very well socialized,with tons of people
on and off the propertywith her litter mates.
(02:57):
If I pick her up and carry her,she panics and tries
to jump out of my armsas we pass by people.
I can feel her heart beatinga million miles a minute.
Note that I do not force any interaction.
She's also terrified of other dogsbesides the ones she lives with.
Aside from the barking incident,she's never had a bad experience
(03:20):
with other dogs prior to her suddenfear of them.
I had her out recentlyon a walk on a calm environment.
An old golden retrieverpassed by leisurely
and she tucked her tailand bolted to hide under a car.
There is a German Shepherd that livesnext door that barks quite frequently.
She's fine with his barking,but any other dog
(03:42):
barking sets her into a panic.
We did do the sound habituationwith the litter also.
Most recently.
I pulled my car up to our back gate.
All the dogs came running up to the gateexcept her.
She tucked her tail and boltedas fast as she could
to the other side of our very large yard.
(04:04):
After I got out of the car,she was afraid of me
and was peering at me from behind a tree.
After she realized it was me,
she cautiously approachedand it took her a minute to accept me.
I'm at a loss for this behavior.
I have never had a single puppyowner report
(04:24):
back fear problems with any of my puppies.
I'm very dog savvywith a ton of experience.
Yet here I am with this puppythat most people would
assume was grossly under socialized.
This situation is really bumming me out.
I'm not sure where we go from here.
(04:45):
Some people are saying keep exposing her.
Some say keep her home for a few weeks.
At first I thought this was a fear period,but it seems to be lasting way longer
than just a few daysand is pretty generalized
to a lot of instancesand not specific to any particular thing.
I was hoping to keep this puppy
(05:07):
and eventually use her in my program.
My biggest concern isthat this is genetic fear
and she will not outgrow or overcome it.
This is depressing me, quite honestly,and I'm
feeling very deer in the headlightsabout how to move forward.
(05:28):
Okay, this is me again.
First of all,
my heart goes out to this breeder.
I don't
normally take these kinds of questions,
and I don't normally publishthese kinds of posts
because essentially it's an entire casehistory
(05:50):
that needs a consult.
But because the behavior
is apparently extreme at a very young age,
I feel like some general observationscan be made, and this could be
at least a teaching moment.
(06:10):
So the question specifically is whether
she should keep working with this puppyin the hopes that the puppy
will grow out of this and become a valuedpart of the breeding program.
I have experienced
this exact scenario,and for what it's worth.
This is what I decidedand how it turned out for us.
(06:35):
My fearful puppy was also my pick
and the fear issuesbegan at around the same age.
Gorgeous. Sweet puppy.
Testedunremarkably on the puppy assessments,
suddenly started becoming fearfulat around 12 weeks old.
Despite her robust
(06:56):
socialization up until that pointand my continued efforts to work with her,
she rapidly became more and more fearful.
Now, I don't know if everyone knows this,so I'll say it
that I am also a professional dog traineras well as a breeder.
And I have a rule in my dog training
(07:18):
program called Get to Zero,
meaning to say whatever you're working
on, whether it's counterconditioning, fear,
or teaching a normal dogto do a down stay.
You have to get to a place where
the dog doesn'thave so much emotional interference
(07:39):
that they can't be counter conditionedor they can't learn.
If a dog is afraid of vacuum cleaners.
You have to start with the vacuumcleaner far
enough away that they barely notice it.
You just want enough soundso that the dog definitely hears it,
(08:01):
but they do not react to it.
If you want to teach it down, stay.
You start in your living room,then move to the back deck, then the back,
then the front yard, then a familiar placethat's not your home and systematically
work your way up to a busy venuewith other dogs and people around.
(08:22):
If you are reasonably competent trainer
and your dog is clinically normal,
this will be a fairly systematic,straightforward process.
There may be small regressions here
and there, but your zero point
will be moving forwardin a somewhat linear fashion.
(08:43):
If you haven't
overbid where your zero point isand flooded the dog
and wound up sensitizing himinstead of counter conditioning him,
this is a process that should move forwardwithout a lot of effort or drama.
You can't rush it, but it should be fairlypredictable where your zero point is
(09:04):
and that zero pointshould be moving forward,
not backward.
When you see a dog who,
despite having had excellent earlysocialization,
becomes suddenly fearfulof the familiar around 12 weeks old,
your first thought, of course, is thatthis could be a late fear period.
(09:26):
But when,
despite gently working with the puppy,the zero point
keeps regressinginstead of moving forward.
And when that happensover the course of weeks, not days,
now we start to think about itbeing a pathological problem
that might need pharmaceutical support.
(09:49):
My puppy that was fearful startedwith not wanting to go
for a walkon the front acres of the property,
despite working with her gentlyand giving her
the space to do things on her ownwithout forcing her.
She got worse and worse.
First, would not walk all the way downthe driveway,
then would not walk down the front walk
(10:11):
then would not come off the front porch,then would not go out the front door
and my puppy, like hers,
had similar fearsabout just about everything else.
I only used the front lawn examplebecause that's how we first noticed it.
So now by five months old,
we had a puppythat absolutely could not get to zero.
(10:33):
There was literally no place in the worldwhere she was not afraid.
We could not work with her to counterconditioned her
because there was no place to start.
So when I see a dog who has no zero point
and or the zero point changes
without any predictable antecedents,
(10:54):
I feel pharmaceutical supportis indicated.
Now, I'm not a veterinary behaviorist.
I'm not going to talk about prescriptionor what you prescribe,
but you can't work with a dogthat is literally afraid of life
and whose triggers are routine thingsin life
(11:16):
that you can't shield themfrom or control.
So now it's time to go see
a veterinarianor a veterinary behaviorist.
We chose to put that puppy,
my fearful puppy, on an SSRI medication,
and the transformationwas almost miraculous.
(11:36):
Within two monthsafter being on the medication,
she was so much better that we were ableto take her with us to a dog show.
We didn't show her.
She just came along with the packfor the ride and it was a big specialty.
And of course, everyone noticedhow beautiful and sweet she was.
And everyone told me
I was crazy to placeher, that I should show her and breed her.
(11:58):
But they only saw her on drugs
and I knew whoshe was underneath all that.
It's just my personal feeling
that I don't want to breed dogsthat need Prozac to function,
even if they're wonderfulwhen they're on Prozac.
It's also my feeling in general,
that I don't really need to show a dogthat is not breeding stock,
(12:23):
even if that dog is a dogthat could win a lot in the show ring.
I prefer to move on to the next generationand let everyone,
including the dog,get on with their lives.
This is not a ruleand I don't think badly of people
who show dogs that won't be bred,but take it for what it's worth.
That's my position.
(12:45):
So in this case, we place that gorgeous
puppy with a nice family inNew England in a rural area.
She never
really did great on walksin unfamiliar areas,
but she was truly their heart dog
and she could not have been betterfor them.
Helped raise their grandchildren.
Wonderful with visiting people and dogs.
(13:07):
Secure in her own home,
but never was going to be a dog
that was going to do welloutside of her house.
They wrote to me all the time
and said they knowshe did not fill my hopes and dreams
for my breeding program,but she was the best dog in the world,
(13:30):
and they thank me again and againfor bringing her into the world.
That dog passed awayjust recently and the family
is really almost inconsolable.
What a great dog, but not a dog.
I'm going to put in my breeding program.
(13:51):
So that's a long way of saying
I would probably consultwith a veterinary behaviorist
and see if they felt an SSRI medicationmight be indicated
for the fearful dog.
If the drugs make a big difference,
then I would engagein a systematic counter conditioning
(14:11):
program socialization programin the coming months
and get her into a suitable quiet
pet home. To you
this might be a disappointment,but to the people that get her,
it could be the most wonderful thingin the world.
Breeding is, frankly,
(14:34):
a lot about shoulderingthis kind of disappointment.
I could go on for days
about the bestin show potential puppies that I bred,
that have not worked outtemperamentally, that have died
and that have disappearedwith capricious co-owners.
(14:55):
My ultimate
advice is to get the puppy evaluated
by a veterinary behaviorist and decidewhat's going on.
Then take the best of that litterfor your breeding program,
even if it's not the one you hopedit would be,
and move on.
Before I sign off on this one.
(15:18):
I want to emphasize
how much really
and trulymy heart goes out to this breeder
because I feel everything she's saying.
The amount of effort
that modern dog breedersput into each individual puppy,
(15:39):
and the amount of hope that we place
in our small breeding programs is immense.
And it does set us up for some emotional,hard times,
because ultimately,
it's not
really realisticto have a small breeding program
(16:02):
and expect that everything
emotionally is going to work out for youthe way you hope it might.
You know, dog breeding
at least fanciers for for purebreddog breeding
was traditionally the realm of the rich.
(16:24):
I mean, rich people bred dogs.
They or or commercial breeders bred dogs,
and they had hundreds of dogs in a kennelwith a staff.
And it was not,
you know, as an emotional venture
as it is for us todaybecause the dogs didn't
live in their house,they lived in a kennel.
They picked the best onesthat they had a better ability to be clear
(16:48):
eyed about things and less investedin each individual animal.
I think that is a better way
to build a really good breeding program.
It's not something that I could do
because I'm in thisbecause I love my dogs.
(17:10):
I they sleep in my bed at night.
They're each dog has a career longafter their breeding career.
They're a treasured part of the family.
It's it's not for me to have
a kennel of 100 dogs,but I'm just telling you right now
the kind of emotional letdownthat she's feeling.
I've been there.
(17:31):
We all have.
This is what it isto have a small breeding program.
So, you know, it's oft said that
people get into breedingand then within five years they get out.
And why is that?
And people want instant gratificationand yadda yadda, and I, I disagree.
I think that a lot of itis just unrealistic expectations,
(17:55):
for a very small breeding programsand the expectation
that if you breed two good dogs together,you're going to get ten good puppies.
I mean, you have to be ready
to accept the emotional blowsand they're going to be there.
I'm not saying that
everyone has what it takesto accept those emotional blows
and keep going with the small breedingprogram, and it's no harm, no foul.
(18:19):
There's no shame in it.
If you're just like, I just want to havesome pets, I can't do this
but understand that God is looking
at the population genetics of dogs,and you're going to get whatever
the roulette wheel gives you,and sometimes it's not what you want.
Of course, selecting the bestgenetic stock in your small
(18:43):
breeding program and moving forward,good dog to good dog.
You're going to make progress,but it's not going to be linear and
you're going to have emotional setbacksif you're attached to those dogs.
I mean, you can be attached to themas much as you want,
but I mean attached to themin the sense of attached
(19:04):
to the idea of using those dogs
in your breeding program, eitherbecause you love the dog
or because you just put a lot of hopein this particular breeding.
So I really give this woman a virtual hug
because obviously she's doingall the right things
(19:25):
by these puppies,and she's a good breeder,
and she wants to do betterwith her temperaments, with her program.
And we need people like her.
And I want her to continue.
But I think sometimes the only way
you can continue is to understand
that you can't solve every problem,and things aren't
(19:48):
always going to work out the waywe want them to.
If you liked this podcast,you'll love our booklets.
We have puppy exercise booklets,
be your puppiesadvocate booklets, booklets on the pros
and cons of spaying and neutering puppies.
(20:09):
Check them all out at puppyculture.com.
Well, that's it for this time.
Thanks for listening. Bye bye.
I'm Jane Messineo Lindquist.
And this is a Puppy CulturePotluck podcast.
You bring the topics,
we bring the conversation.
(00:21):
This episode's question
is the third
in my temperament versus behavior
and selecting breeding stock trifecta.
The other two episodes are episode 28and our last episode,
episode 34.
(00:41):
I strongly recommend if you can go backand listen to episode 28,
because that's where I talk very
generally about the limitsof modifying genetic behavior.
But here goes.
Here's the question.
Buckle up because it's a long one.
But I think it's all relevant.
(01:03):
I'm posting anonymously
because I'm really sad about my situation.
I don't want this to reflect poorlyon my small breeding program
that I poured so much time, thought,stress, money, and emotional energy into.
I recently got to keep a puppy for my own
breeding finally, after years of waiting,
(01:27):
all the puppies have been raisedwith puppy culture.
We also Volhard temperamenttesting and various
socialization and enrichment activities.
I raised these puppiesso I know exactly what they went through
and how much effort was put in.
Well, my keeper
puppy is now showingpretty significant fear issues.
(01:50):
The puppy is almost 14 weeks old.
I noticed changes several weeks ago.
The puppy has been going on outings
very regularly,meaning several times a week.
The first time I noticed significantfear was when
two dogs were barking very excitedlyand jumping on a fence.
It completely panicked the puppywho took off running with tail tucked.
(02:14):
She was in a fenced yardand ran all the way
to the fence door,where she desperately tried escaping.
Sincethis incident, my puppy has been terrified
of people and dogs in general,but also randomly other things at times.
She won't allow peopleto approach her at all.
(02:35):
I enjoy hiking,but if someone's coming towards us
on the trail,she panics and tries to bolt.
She doesn't allow any interactionwith people outside of my home,
and she's even leery of guestsin our home.
She was very well socialized,with tons of people
on and off the propertywith her litter mates.
(02:57):
If I pick her up and carry her,she panics and tries
to jump out of my armsas we pass by people.
I can feel her heart beatinga million miles a minute.
Note that I do not force any interaction.
She's also terrified of other dogsbesides the ones she lives with.
Aside from the barking incident,she's never had a bad experience
(03:20):
with other dogs prior to her suddenfear of them.
I had her out recentlyon a walk on a calm environment.
An old golden retrieverpassed by leisurely
and she tucked her tailand bolted to hide under a car.
There is a German Shepherd that livesnext door that barks quite frequently.
She's fine with his barking,but any other dog
(03:42):
barking sets her into a panic.
We did do the sound habituationwith the litter also.
Most recently.
I pulled my car up to our back gate.
All the dogs came running up to the gateexcept her.
She tucked her tail and boltedas fast as she could
to the other side of our very large yard.
(04:04):
After I got out of the car,she was afraid of me
and was peering at me from behind a tree.
After she realized it was me,
she cautiously approachedand it took her a minute to accept me.
I'm at a loss for this behavior.
I have never had a single puppyowner report
(04:24):
back fear problems with any of my puppies.
I'm very dog savvywith a ton of experience.
Yet here I am with this puppythat most people would
assume was grossly under socialized.
This situation is really bumming me out.
I'm not sure where we go from here.
(04:45):
Some people are saying keep exposing her.
Some say keep her home for a few weeks.
At first I thought this was a fear period,but it seems to be lasting way longer
than just a few daysand is pretty generalized
to a lot of instancesand not specific to any particular thing.
I was hoping to keep this puppy
(05:07):
and eventually use her in my program.
My biggest concern isthat this is genetic fear
and she will not outgrow or overcome it.
This is depressing me, quite honestly,and I'm
feeling very deer in the headlightsabout how to move forward.
(05:28):
Okay, this is me again.
First of all,
my heart goes out to this breeder.
I don't
normally take these kinds of questions,
and I don't normally publishthese kinds of posts
because essentially it's an entire casehistory
(05:50):
that needs a consult.
But because the behavior
is apparently extreme at a very young age,
I feel like some general observationscan be made, and this could be
at least a teaching moment.
(06:10):
So the question specifically is whether
she should keep working with this puppyin the hopes that the puppy
will grow out of this and become a valuedpart of the breeding program.
I have experienced
this exact scenario,and for what it's worth.
This is what I decidedand how it turned out for us.
(06:35):
My fearful puppy was also my pick
and the fear issuesbegan at around the same age.
Gorgeous. Sweet puppy.
Testedunremarkably on the puppy assessments,
suddenly started becoming fearfulat around 12 weeks old.
Despite her robust
(06:56):
socialization up until that pointand my continued efforts to work with her,
she rapidly became more and more fearful.
Now, I don't know if everyone knows this,so I'll say it
that I am also a professional dog traineras well as a breeder.
And I have a rule in my dog training
(07:18):
program called Get to Zero,
meaning to say whatever you're working
on, whether it's counterconditioning, fear,
or teaching a normal dogto do a down stay.
You have to get to a place where
the dog doesn'thave so much emotional interference
(07:39):
that they can't be counter conditionedor they can't learn.
If a dog is afraid of vacuum cleaners.
You have to start with the vacuumcleaner far
enough away that they barely notice it.
You just want enough soundso that the dog definitely hears it,
(08:01):
but they do not react to it.
If you want to teach it down, stay.
You start in your living room,then move to the back deck, then the back,
then the front yard, then a familiar placethat's not your home and systematically
work your way up to a busy venuewith other dogs and people around.
(08:22):
If you are reasonably competent trainer
and your dog is clinically normal,
this will be a fairly systematic,straightforward process.
There may be small regressions here
and there, but your zero point
will be moving forwardin a somewhat linear fashion.
(08:43):
If you haven't
overbid where your zero point isand flooded the dog
and wound up sensitizing himinstead of counter conditioning him,
this is a process that should move forwardwithout a lot of effort or drama.
You can't rush it, but it should be fairlypredictable where your zero point is
(09:04):
and that zero pointshould be moving forward,
not backward.
When you see a dog who,
despite having had excellent earlysocialization,
becomes suddenly fearfulof the familiar around 12 weeks old,
your first thought, of course, is thatthis could be a late fear period.
(09:26):
But when,
despite gently working with the puppy,the zero point
keeps regressinginstead of moving forward.
And when that happensover the course of weeks, not days,
now we start to think about itbeing a pathological problem
that might need pharmaceutical support.
(09:49):
My puppy that was fearful startedwith not wanting to go
for a walkon the front acres of the property,
despite working with her gentlyand giving her
the space to do things on her ownwithout forcing her.
She got worse and worse.
First, would not walk all the way downthe driveway,
then would not walk down the front walk
(10:11):
then would not come off the front porch,then would not go out the front door
and my puppy, like hers,
had similar fearsabout just about everything else.
I only used the front lawn examplebecause that's how we first noticed it.
So now by five months old,
we had a puppythat absolutely could not get to zero.
(10:33):
There was literally no place in the worldwhere she was not afraid.
We could not work with her to counterconditioned her
because there was no place to start.
So when I see a dog who has no zero point
and or the zero point changes
without any predictable antecedents,
(10:54):
I feel pharmaceutical supportis indicated.
Now, I'm not a veterinary behaviorist.
I'm not going to talk about prescriptionor what you prescribe,
but you can't work with a dogthat is literally afraid of life
and whose triggers are routine thingsin life
(11:16):
that you can't shield themfrom or control.
So now it's time to go see
a veterinarianor a veterinary behaviorist.
We chose to put that puppy,
my fearful puppy, on an SSRI medication,
and the transformationwas almost miraculous.
(11:36):
Within two monthsafter being on the medication,
she was so much better that we were ableto take her with us to a dog show.
We didn't show her.
She just came along with the packfor the ride and it was a big specialty.
And of course, everyone noticedhow beautiful and sweet she was.
And everyone told me
I was crazy to placeher, that I should show her and breed her.
(11:58):
But they only saw her on drugs
and I knew whoshe was underneath all that.
It's just my personal feeling
that I don't want to breed dogsthat need Prozac to function,
even if they're wonderfulwhen they're on Prozac.
It's also my feeling in general,
that I don't really need to show a dogthat is not breeding stock,
(12:23):
even if that dog is a dogthat could win a lot in the show ring.
I prefer to move on to the next generationand let everyone,
including the dog,get on with their lives.
This is not a ruleand I don't think badly of people
who show dogs that won't be bred,but take it for what it's worth.
That's my position.
(12:45):
So in this case, we place that gorgeous
puppy with a nice family inNew England in a rural area.
She never
really did great on walksin unfamiliar areas,
but she was truly their heart dog
and she could not have been betterfor them.
Helped raise their grandchildren.
Wonderful with visiting people and dogs.
(13:07):
Secure in her own home,
but never was going to be a dog
that was going to do welloutside of her house.
They wrote to me all the time
and said they knowshe did not fill my hopes and dreams
for my breeding program,but she was the best dog in the world,
(13:30):
and they thank me again and againfor bringing her into the world.
That dog passed awayjust recently and the family
is really almost inconsolable.
What a great dog, but not a dog.
I'm going to put in my breeding program.
(13:51):
So that's a long way of saying
I would probably consultwith a veterinary behaviorist
and see if they felt an SSRI medicationmight be indicated
for the fearful dog.
If the drugs make a big difference,
then I would engagein a systematic counter conditioning
(14:11):
program socialization programin the coming months
and get her into a suitable quiet
pet home. To you
this might be a disappointment,but to the people that get her,
it could be the most wonderful thingin the world.
Breeding is, frankly,
(14:34):
a lot about shoulderingthis kind of disappointment.
I could go on for days
about the bestin show potential puppies that I bred,
that have not worked outtemperamentally, that have died
and that have disappearedwith capricious co-owners.
(14:55):
My ultimate
advice is to get the puppy evaluated
by a veterinary behaviorist and decidewhat's going on.
Then take the best of that litterfor your breeding program,
even if it's not the one you hopedit would be,
and move on.
Before I sign off on this one.
(15:18):
I want to emphasize
how much really
and trulymy heart goes out to this breeder
because I feel everything she's saying.
The amount of effort
that modern dog breedersput into each individual puppy,
(15:39):
and the amount of hope that we place
in our small breeding programs is immense.
And it does set us up for some emotional,hard times,
because ultimately,
it's not
really realisticto have a small breeding program
(16:02):
and expect that everything
emotionally is going to work out for youthe way you hope it might.
You know, dog breeding
at least fanciers for for purebreddog breeding
was traditionally the realm of the rich.
(16:24):
I mean, rich people bred dogs.
They or or commercial breeders bred dogs,
and they had hundreds of dogs in a kennelwith a staff.
And it was not,
you know, as an emotional venture
as it is for us todaybecause the dogs didn't
live in their house,they lived in a kennel.
They picked the best onesthat they had a better ability to be clear
(16:48):
eyed about things and less investedin each individual animal.
I think that is a better way
to build a really good breeding program.
It's not something that I could do
because I'm in thisbecause I love my dogs.
(17:10):
I they sleep in my bed at night.
They're each dog has a career longafter their breeding career.
They're a treasured part of the family.
It's it's not for me to have
a kennel of 100 dogs,but I'm just telling you right now
the kind of emotional letdownthat she's feeling.
I've been there.
(17:31):
We all have.
This is what it isto have a small breeding program.
So, you know, it's oft said that
people get into breedingand then within five years they get out.
And why is that?
And people want instant gratificationand yadda yadda, and I, I disagree.
I think that a lot of itis just unrealistic expectations,
(17:55):
for a very small breeding programsand the expectation
that if you breed two good dogs together,you're going to get ten good puppies.
I mean, you have to be ready
to accept the emotional blowsand they're going to be there.
I'm not saying that
everyone has what it takesto accept those emotional blows
and keep going with the small breedingprogram, and it's no harm, no foul.
(18:19):
There's no shame in it.
If you're just like, I just want to havesome pets, I can't do this
but understand that God is looking
at the population genetics of dogs,and you're going to get whatever
the roulette wheel gives you,and sometimes it's not what you want.
Of course, selecting the bestgenetic stock in your small
(18:43):
breeding program and moving forward,good dog to good dog.
You're going to make progress,but it's not going to be linear and
you're going to have emotional setbacksif you're attached to those dogs.
I mean, you can be attached to themas much as you want,
but I mean attached to themin the sense of attached
(19:04):
to the idea of using those dogs
in your breeding program, eitherbecause you love the dog
or because you just put a lot of hopein this particular breeding.
So I really give this woman a virtual hug
because obviously she's doingall the right things
(19:25):
by these puppies,and she's a good breeder,
and she wants to do betterwith her temperaments, with her program.
And we need people like her.
And I want her to continue.
But I think sometimes the only way
you can continue is to understand
that you can't solve every problem,and things aren't
(19:48):
always going to work out the waywe want them to.
If you liked this podcast,you'll love our booklets.
We have puppy exercise booklets,
be your puppiesadvocate booklets, booklets on the pros
and cons of spaying and neutering puppies.
(20:09):
Check them all out at puppyculture.com.
Well, that's it for this time.
Thanks for listening. Bye bye.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal Season 5
Saskia Inwood woke up one morning, knowing her life would never be the same. The night before, she learned the unimaginable – that the husband she knew in the light of day was a different person after dark. This season unpacks Saskia’s discovery of her husband’s secret life and her fight to bring him to justice. Along the way, we expose a crime that is just coming to light. This is also a story about the myth of the “perfect victim:” who gets believed, who gets doubted, and why. We follow Saskia as she works to reclaim her body, her voice, and her life. If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal Team, email us at betrayalpod@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.