The Functional Breeding Podcast

Lisa Gunter, PhD, CBCC-KA is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech in the School of Animal Sciences and directs the Laboratory for Animal Behavior and Welfare. Lisa’s research explores the behavior and welfare of companion animals, specifically our interactions with them, as it relates to animal sheltering, behavioral issues, and training. Lisa combines a love of research with hands-on dog training skills. I wanted to have someone from the shelter world on the podcast because, depending on what you mean by "source," shelters are a source of dogs. Lisa and I talked about how shelters can best help dogs cope with the shelter experience and what the future of sheltering might look like.

For those interested in the Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare online MS program at Virginia Tech, where Lisa and Jessica both teach, check it out at https://www.cals.vt.edu/academic-programs/online/omals-program-virginia-tech.html.

Carolyn Kelly is a registered nurse with over 30 years of experience in human health including in labor and delivery, and in mental health. She also holds a Masters Degree in Nursing Leadership. She runs a mixed breed companion dog program, Old Mission Retrievers. Erica Pytlovany, KPA CTP, is an experienced behavioral consultant at WOOFS! Dog Training Center in Virginia. She runs the Boson Dog Project, a mixed breed companion dog program, with her wife, Laura Sharkey. I got together with Carolyn and Erica to talk about what companion personalities look like in dogs and why they focus their breeding programs on achieving them.

This week I'm talking to Drs Claire Wade and Sophie Liu about their paper on genetic diversity in the Doberman breed. Dr Claire Wade is the Chair of Computational Biology and Animal Genetics at the University of Sydney, where she studies canine behavioral genetics. Dr Sophie Liu  is a veterinarian specializing in behavior and the founder of the Doberman Diversity Project, about which she's spoken previously on this podcast. Both of them are passionate about dogs not just as part of their careers but as part of their lives. They joined me to talk through the findings in their paper, which sheds some light on the complicated story of health and genetic diversity in Dobermans.

Wade, Claire M., Robin Nuttall, and Sophie Liu. "Comprehensive analysis of geographic and breed-purpose influences on genetic diversity and inherited disease risk in the Doberman dog breed." Canine Medicine and Genetics 10.1 (2023): 1-17.
https://cgejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40575-023-00130-3

I've wanted to interview Lisa Wagner about her breeding program for a while now. I keep hearing about the great work she is doing to address health issues in her French bulldogs, and I was so enthusiastic to get a chance to ask her for more details. Lisa is a CKC registered breeder. Her breeding program is called Of Autumn, and you can most easily reach her on Facebook.

This episode is jointly released through the Functional Breeding Podcast and Cog Dog Radio, which is hosted by Sarah Stremming. Sarah is an internationally known dog behavior consultant with a special niche working with sports dogs. She consults at The Cognitive Canine, teaches online courses on dog behavior, and hosts the Cog Dog Radio Podcast. I sat down with Sarah to talk about the recent news that SPCA Tampa Bay has partnered with a pet store and a puppy broker - and what we think this means we all should REALLY be talking about. Although the shelter's pilot program was paused due to community feedback before we released the episode, we feel the issues we discuss in here are still critical ones to ensuring the welfare of the dogs we share our lives with.

This episode, Ji Khalsa is interviewing me, Jessica Hekman, DVM, PhD. I'm a veterinarian turned behavioral geneticist turned teacher and founder of the Functional Dog Collaborative, or FDC. I graduated from Tufts Veterinary School in 2012 with a dual veterinary and master's degree, which was on stress in hospitalized dogs. I completed a veterinary shelter medicine specialty internship at Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida. I completed a PhD in Genetics, Genomics, and Biomedical Sciences in Kukekova Lab at the University of Illinois, studying genetic differences in the stress system in lines of foxes bred to be less afraid of humans compared to foxes bred to be aggressive. I did post-doctoral work at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and now teach online for Virginia Tech and run the FDC. Ji asked me to talk about the FDC - how it's coming, what we're doing, what we need help with. So here it is!

This week we have Laura Sharkey and Carolyn Kelly back on the podcast. They are the co-founders of the Copilot Pet Dog Breeding Cooperative, and I always love to talk to them because of their fascinating insights into breeding dogs to be really good pets. We're talking about social media culture and how we love it and hate it - and how all of us love dogs and have the same goals even if we have such different perspectives sometimes on how to get where we're going.

Below are some links that were mentioned in the episode:

• Morrill, Kathleen, et al. “Ancestry-inclusive dog genomics challenges popular breed stereotypes.” Lay summary at https://functionalbreeding.org/2022/06/03/breed-behavior-and-mutt-genomics/ with a link to the original paper.
• Chen, Frances L., et al. "Advancing genetic selection and behavioral genomics of working dogs through collaborative science." Frontiers in Veterinary Science (2021): 1017. https://frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2021.662429/full
• The Copilot Breeding Cooperative: https://functionalbreeding.org/copilot-coop/
• The Companion Dog Project: https://www.companiondogproject.com/
• Ji's essay about temperament testing: https://www.midwoofery.com/amp/is-temperament-testing-really-worth-the-effort

 

This week we have Ji Khalsa back on the podcast. Ji is the founder of Midwoofery, a highly respected science-based educational resource for responsible dog breeders. She has a Masters degree in Microbiology and Biochemistry from Arizona State University, including independent studies in the link between canine genetics and behavior. She has decades of experience in breeding, including working dogs and companions. I asked Ji to talk to us about guardian homes - why are they useful for breeders and how do they help improve dog welfare?

This week we welcome back Dr. Alison Skipper to talk about the history of breed registries. Dr. Skipper is a veterinarian and historian at the Royal Veterinary College, London. She has an interest in the history of the health and welfare of purebred dogs. She works as a veterinarian at Crufts, has been on Kennel Club committees, and is very involved in the purebred dog world. Her perspective on the history of breed registries was a much demanded followup from her previous episode with us!

This episode is jointly released through the Functional Breeding Podcast and Cog Dog Radio, which is hosted by Sarah Stremming. Sarah is an internationally known dog behavior consultant with a special niche working with sports dogs. She consults at The Cognitive Canine, teaches online courses on dog behavior, and hosts the Cog Dog Radio Podcast. I sat down with Sarah to talk about fear periods - do they exist? What do we know about them scientifically? What do we know about them anecdotally? What do puppy raisers and breeders need to know about them?