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Support for Pandemic Puppies with Amber Quann12.7 million people brought home a new dog in the last year, many of the dogs which are affectionately being referred to as “Pandemic Puppies.” Amber Quann is the Head Trainer and Owner of Summit Dog Training (fun fact: no affiliation with Summit Dog Rescue!) and has helped many of the folks with Pandemic Puppies socialize and train their new dogs. She’s also an admin on the Pandemic Puppy Facebook Page, a community of over 12k people who are doing their best to raise their dogs with the best training possible.
In this episode, she, Libby and Emily talk about puppy success stories, socializing your pup during a pandemic (and an opening!), how to be in public with a new pup, and more. Pandemic Puppy Raising Support Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pandemicpuppy Summit Dog Training: http://www.summitdogtraining.com/ Summit Dog Training Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/summitdogtraining Donate to Bhodi's medical care: https://www.summitdogrescue.org/donate.html Pod To The Rescue on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodToTheRescue Instagram: @podtotherescue Twitter: @podtotherescue |
Episode Transcript
Emily 0:09
Welcome to pod to the rescue.
Libby 0:11
Rescuing the dog is just the first step. We're here to help with everything that comes next.
We spoke with Amber Quann from summit dog training in Fort Collins, Colorado and it was just such a fabulous talk about the pandemic puppy raising support group on Facebook and she's part of the admin team there.
Emily 0:31
wish we'd known about that support group a year ago. It's you know, amazing and it's totally free and it is highly researched evidence based all from Professional Dog Trainers and behavior consultants. It's it's really fabulous. It's a great resource. Amber is a certified professional dog trainer knowledge and skills assessed and she's also Karen Pryor Academy's certified training partner. She's the owner and head trainer at Summit dog training in Fort Collins, which is in no way affiliated with summit dog rescue, which is me. Amber developed a great program pre pandemic called drink with your dog, which brilliant brilliantly taught dog guardians how to prepare their dogs to be able to successfully go into brew pubs and restaurant patios. And it also taught the skills for the guardians to self evaluate if their dog was able to handle that kind of busy public situation.
Libby 1:29
When the pandemic hit, Amber became one of the admins on the pandemic puppy raising support face group page, which is a free evidence based group for adopters during the pandemic who are struggling with issues or just want to make sure they properly socialized their pups, during the huge shift in our society that we underwent in 2020.
Emily 1:49
And 2021, and
Libby 1:51
2020 on it. Yeah, I hope that you all learn as much from this interview as we did, and that you definitely go check out that group if you adopted a pandemic puppy, and you're looking for some support.
All right, thank you so much, Amber, for being here with us on pod to the rescue.
Amber 2:13
Happy to be here.
Libby 2:15
you helped found a pandemic puppy group, correct?
Amber 2:18
Yeah, it was perhaps one of the founders the wrong word. But I joined the admin team pretty early on when the group was still in the the early stages of development, I was invited to join the admin team, by the awesome resources and trainers that had started it and it's just kind of ballooned out of control ever since.
Libby 2:39
Yeah, how many people are in there?
Amber 2:41
No, I think that on last count, we were approaching 13,000 members, which is insane.
Libby 2:48
Yeah, it's huge. And it is such an amazing resource. You have the guides on socializing? Like everything there is to know it seems like so how did this how did the group begin? How did it all come about? Can you give us a little background there?
Amber 3:03
Sure. So the the kind of creative genius behind this group was a wonderful trainer in Oklahoma, named Suzanne Shelton. And she basically kind of said, you know, as the pandemic was starting, there's going to be a lot of puppies coming out of this that are or going through this and puppy owners that are going to need a lot of supports and kind of got together with her network of trainers and said we need to create a resource for for these people. And so the pandemic puppy raising support group was born and has just continued to grow ever since I got connected with them. Pretty early on because Suzanne has been in my network, one of my best friends has a one a dog from from her and is someone I look up to a lot. And it was just really great to join that team. I think there were maybe 100 or 200 members when I joined and now there's now there's 13,000. So we are very busy all the time. And I think the admin team now is about 20 trainers have vary depending on the week varying levels of involvement, depending on who's who's busy with real life, and their own training businesses. But we all try to pitch in to help all of these puppy people and puppy owners who are trying to navigate what life and socialization with a young puppy looks like in our you know, pandemic world.
Libby 4:34
Yeah, I think it's so amazing. You have 20 moderators and admins who are all Professional Dog Trainers.
Amber 4:40
Yes
Emily 4:41
I was reading through quite a bit of your resources today. And I do love how it's arranged with like a quickstart guide. So when people go onto the group, they can immediately get excellent curated resources and then see Like after they go through the initial training, which is all self led, then they can go into groups and and they stretch out into whatever issues they're having. Is that how it works?
Amber 5:11
Yeah, for common puppy raising issues like potty training and puppy biting and crate training and things like that we do ask people to read through the guides first before commenting, or posting with a specific question or an issue that they're facing. And we try to direct people to like to use the resources that are there already. And if someone comments with a, you know, I'm struggling with potty training, I checked the guides, I read all the resources, I've been doing these things, and here's the issue we're having, that we have kind of a better starting point to be able to help and coach them past that issue. If someone's like, just commenting with, uh, you know, helped me with potty training, it's a little bit more difficult to know, like, what they've been doing and whether they've gotten the basic foundation of skills and advice that we could more easily provide to everyone in, you know, connecting them with a great set of blog posts, or a great set of YouTube videos, that we've kind of curated the content for them. So I think that's one of the one of the emphasis that we've tried to set early on is like people looking for advice online, we want to be a resource, but also people have to be willing to take advantages of those resources that we're putting up there.
Emily 6:25
Yeah, it's excellent. I started to watch the socialization video, which is the first video by Suzanne, or Susan
Amber 6:32
Suzanne? Yes.
Emily 6:34
I was, it was just amazing. It was like when I would go to a conference, get on a plane. Miles and listen to how to properly socialize your puppy. Yes. Now with you know, we, I think 12 point 7 million people brought home during this past year. Ali, I would say that that socialization, although there is that critical socialization window that she talks about, in general, just the information on socialization is so important, so valuable. Absolutely.
Libby 7:07
And how have you all on the administrator team been able to adapt kind of the, the typical puppy social socialization advice to the pandemic, because it's not exactly the same.
Amber 7:19
Right? Right. So we are always, like sharing ideas within the group about how we, as professional trainers, many of us who are on the admin team also got pandemic puppies, which kind of helped us to catalyze this group, because we were taking those intentional steps ourselves to socialize our puppies in unique new ways. And so we get, we give us a lot of video footage to share with people. So simple things like, Okay, you can't necessarily take your puppy into the pet store, you know, during some of those key lockdown periods, but you could go to the grocery store and park your car and sit in your car and have your puppy in the seat beside you. Or in my case my puppy is was very tiny. And so he sat up on the dashboard, so he could see and just let them watch the world. And you don't have to get out of your car, you don't have to, you know, be in someone else's space bubble. But just that kind of concept of like getting your puppy out and exposing your puppy at an early age to the fact that there are other things out there besides their you little world can go a long way. And I think a lot of people just misunderstand where the emphasis of socialization has to be and think that it's all like if you can't be going to the dog park or be going to puppy socialization class then you can't be socializing. And that's just a misconception that we've been trying to dispel by saying nope, socialization can look as simple as sitting in the grocery store parking lot and letting your pup watch people push carts past or doing you know going to your local park, you know, if you're allowed to, you know, be outside with your, your dog, which in most places has still been an option. For many of us like going outside and linear pup just watch people from a distance. And that, in and of itself is really valuable to implement into your routine.
Emily 9:13
In a lot of ways. I feel that people who follow your program could actually have dogs with better skills as we come out of the pandemic. I think that one thing that we saw so often before the pandemic was hyper social dogs, absolutely, we would get them home and we thought it was 100 people 100 days and it was you know, shoving them at people and being like, look at my puppy and so they didn't learn how to be calm and observe. So a lot of what you're talking about is really, you know, exposing your puppy in a way that they feel safe but also rewarding calm behavior, so that in the future now that they're turning into adolescence, you will hopefully see dogs that are calm and relaxed. In the presence of new people, new dogs, garbage trucks, all the stimuli that's going to be slowly layer back into our society.
Amber 10:07
Yes, 100%. And I will even tell people that, you know, my, my puppy that I brought home a week before the shutdown in our state happened. And so I was right there with all these other new puppy owners figuring out what socialization look like, during those critical and key weeks. And I definitely see my puppy being the better for it. Because in those key pieces, we did a lot of walks in the park near our house, and people just by default, kept their distance. They were, you know, passing on the other side of the street, we were moving away, and no one thought we were being rude or weird, or no one tried to chase us down, you know, the few people who wanted to say, hi, we had a really nice built in excuse that says, no, sorry, we're keeping our distance or, you know, I said things like, I kiss my puppies hat a lot. So I'm just not letting other people touch him right now, that sort of thing. And it was just a nice kind of easy way to set the tone. And so you know, now at over a year of age, my puppy, you know, walks past people, like they're not even there, which to me is my my goal behavior and something that a lot of my clients really struggle with getting early on, because we teach our puppies that everyone is an opportunity to have a great time.
Libby 11:25
Yeah, so it almost sounds like if if this time is used really intentionally, it can be a really great opportunity for building a really well adjusted dog.
Amber 11:38
Absolutely. I 100% agree with that.
Libby 11:41
So what are some of the feedback that you've gotten from members? Do you have any, like success stories or anything like that?
Amber 11:48
Yeah, we have, we have a variety of people, you're writing in, post, you know, one day really struggling. And then, you know, a couple weeks later, commenting and posting again, saying, you know, I implemented all these suggestions, we're doing a lot better. Plus, you know, posting different things about, we try to keep the the group emphasis on positive constructive help. And so when we, you know, really put some intentional boundaries in place on unsolicited advice, or any sort of unkind or, or inappropriate comments from our fellow members. And so we have when we put those guidelines in place, or we have to, you know, sometimes moderate posts and say, No, this is we're done here with this type of line of thinking, you know, we get comments from, you're perhaps the original poster of that post or from other people who were involved in that discussion, you know, saying that they appreciate that we are, you know, stepping in to make sure that this space is a safe for people of all skill levels, people who are asking those questions that some people might consider stupid or silly, or be quick to label as you know, well, that's you should know that already. And we want to it really to be a safe place for people of all skills and all abilities and all stages of their puppy raising journey to feel safe to ask those questions. And so, yes, we get a lot of comments like that, like, Thanks for making this a safe space. Or, you know, thanks for not shaming me for this question, or that sort of thing? Because that's really what we strive for. Sure, sure.
Libby 13:28
Yeah. The Internet can be such a harsh place sometimes. And we know how important a positive environment is or learning.
Amber 13:35
Yes, for people and dogs. Yes, absolutely.
Libby 13:39
So what are some of the top issues that you see the most often
Amber 13:43
so this has, perhaps vary slightly over the past year, I would say during the critical kind of two months that a lot of places were experiencing lockdown last year and of course those The schedule has varied in the past year and not everywhere, it has been you know, on the same plane, but when we were all just kind of what the heck is going on. We saw actually a lot of posts where people were just really crying out in desperation over their puppy sleep habits or puppy you know, having a hard time napping, and hard time like choosing downtime. And we attributed that to the fact that we're we're at home with our puppies 24/7 During this time, we're trying to figure out how to work from home how to you know, not how to juggle kids at school at now at home and how to juggle this new puppy and the forced nap times that might have naturally happened with you know, leaving for work just weren't happening and puppies, you know, with humans home all the time can it can be a little bit chaotic if you don't know how to set that up for success and so structuring naptimes and structuring down times or puppy independent times is death. The only one of those issues that we have answered a lot of questions about.
Libby 15:04
Wow, yeah, it's one of those things that on the surface, it seems like the perfect time to get up. You're gonna be home all the time, you don't really think about that other side of it?
Amber 15:14
Yes, yes, I think that we, this past year, you know, in our private training business in the Facebook group, just in a lot of different ways, I've seen a lot of stressed out dog owners. And I think I attributed that to, you know, we're just spending a lot more time with our dogs in general, and we're not getting that break to kind of get some perspective, and our dog's behavior impacts our lives and a lot more, you know, if you're trying to have a zoom call with the important meeting, and your puppies barking, and that's great, that's gonna be a lot more stressful for you, then if your puppy is barking in the crate, while you're at your office, having a zoom call. So that's definitely been an impactful year for a lot of people.
Libby 15:53
So our focus on this podcast is primarily rescue dogs. Can you speak to how people have learned through the group to support their rescue puppies, and are there are there any specific units that you think are more relevant to rescued puppies,
Amber 16:08
you know, a puppy is a puppy in a lot of ways. But certainly rescue puppies can come with a certain, you know, set of challenges that maybe they haven't been prepared for, and other ways, such as being coming with a variety of experiences in their background, just transitioning, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be bad experiences, just kind of moving around, or trying to find a soft place to land that can certainly come with a bit of, you know, attachment and readiness to attach to the nearest person. And so one of the things that we kind of emphasize a lot is like teaching that puppy early on, like how to be safe and comfortable as a foundation for everything else. So before we can teach the puppy, how to, you know, sit down, stay in calm, we need to just help the puppy, you know, understand that this is a safe, safe environment. And then it's also safe to be a little bit separated from me, perhaps on the other side of a baby gate, and we're still here. And so I think that perhaps, that is one of those units, we have a confinement and crate training unit. And while you know, crate training isn't the end all be all, for every issue, the foundation concept of teaching our dogs to be confident and calm when they are separated from us is a big piece of you know, having a healthy, well adjusted dog. And I think that perhaps that's one of those pieces, that's so critical for our rescue pups early on, you know, because of their just experiences or lack of experiences, you know, as they're coming into their new homes.
Emily 17:41
That's such a great point. And so many times rescue puppies, they start out in a shelter, which is like loud and baggy, and they're pulled out and they're vaccinated, and they're put on a 14 hour transport pulled out again, you know, end up in a parking lot with a different people. So yeah, it's like, it is sometimes a different experience for rescue puppies. So I love that first skill is teach them that they are safe
Amber 18:08
and comfortable. And I think that, you know, as that applies to building confidence for separation, when we have those puppies in that young age range, where just in general, young puppies, regardless of their previous experiences at that early age, are going to be pretty inclined to seek safety and security and what is comfortable and known. Right. And we often send puppies to their new homes, and then, you know, they're put in a crate and they sleep, you know, in the living room, and they, you know, humans in under normal circumstances, non pandemic times would go off to work the next day. And we have this great opportunity now to teach our puppies early on that we are there as a kind of a security blanket. And then build on that level of safety and security to say now it's okay to be alone. So doing things like you know, net once we can nap quietly on your bed or in your crate with me sitting next to you, then can you can you stay asleep while I go across the room and do laundry. And then come back and I'm here when you wake up or I'm here when you start to get restless. And then the next day, can I put you in into your crate and hold a bully stick for you to chew on for, you know, 15 minutes if that's needed to get you kind of settled. And then once you're relaxed, I'm going to kind of just softly wander away. But I'm I'm here if you need me and just like with human children raising them and that kind of sense of they're my support system is there if I need them, and so I have the confidence not to need them is going to have to answer anthropomorphizing a little bit. But we definitely can see that pattern in our puppy raising if if we are ready to support support the pups that need that extra support. And I think rescue pups can certainly fall into that category sometimes.
Libby 19:53
So what are some of the issues that you're seeing now as society is starting to open up People are getting back out there. It's a big topic right now live training for sure.
Amber 20:03
So a whole wide range of things. So we always have, you know, in the group specifically, we have a steady addition of new members. And so we have quite a few new members who are joining now with adolescent puppies, and perhaps are realizing that they didn't know how to do pandemic socialization understandable. And now are, you know, raising an adolescent puppy that maybe doesn't have some of those social skills or confidence. And so we are seeing, you know, a variety of things from my puppy is fearful of things could certainly be one end of the extreme. And then my puppy is over excited about all these fun things that they're seeing. Also, things like, you know, my puppy has been great about coming when called and doing all of these great skills, but I just took them to, you know, my parents house, well, we haven't been visiting in, you know, six months or a year in this last year, and they were terrible. And they didn't know how to do any of those skills. So just kind of maybe a lack of generalization of skills, which puppies are not good about, in non pandemic times. And so I'm, I'm certain that, that our restrictions and an inability to be out and about from an early age has certainly slowed down our pups learning that these skills are applicable in other environments, too. So we're definitely supporting people through a lot of those different challenges.
Emily 21:37
I love that it's going to continue as they grow. So yes, yeah. And then before the pandemic, you had a program called drink with your dog. I think that's what you're mostly. And are you still doing that? Or are you planning on starting back up again?
Amber 21:52
Yes, we are. It is still alive. The program is still alive. It is working on, you know, getting a new fresh breath of life and post pandemic world hopefully, we, the drink with your dog program is all about getting people out with their dogs, specifically in breweries and teaching like public access manners, specific to the brewery environment so that we can keep more breweries dog friendly, because we'll have better behaved dogs in the breweries. And so last year, we took the year off because all of our brewery partners were just trying to figure out how to keep filling the growlers and, and doing the to go or to go orders. And there wasn't really a good safe opportunity to do that within the guidelines of our state. But we are looking at bringing back our popular brewery manners class. This year, we've been in touch with a couple of our brewery hosts. And we're just trying to coordinate that right where they're still working on their reopening transitions, like reopening to full schedules and, you know, managing their space capacities. And so we were working through some hiccups there. But we definitely hope to have some class options for people on on the table here in Fort Collins, I have a Colorado for those of you don't know where that is. I taught very manners online earlier this year. And that was really fun as well. And I think that an online remainers course is in the works for later this year as well.
Emily 23:27
That's great. That's great. And now with the pandemic puppies, turning into a pandemic teams, yep. How are you going to change your course in order to accommodate these dogs? Are they all going to be suitable to go to breweries right away? And when would you guide people?
Amber 23:44
Absolutely, I would say that as people are able to be out a little bit more with their pups that they should first do a little skills check with their, with their pup at a non busy time and whatever environment they're going towards, they're working towards. So for the brewery example, if the goal is to have a dog that's ready to go to the brewery with you, and you who've been raising them in the pandemic, and that's not really something that you've been able to experiment with yet. I would go at, you know, on a Wednesday afternoon, provided your breweries open and ready to receive patrons but go on a little bit less busy time and sit in the back corner of the patio beetle with your back to the wall or to the fence or whatever the guideline is or the defining edge of the patio is so that you and your puppy can just watch the world and you're not right by the entrance where people are going to be walking in suddenly and then your puppy might have a hard time and you're not going to be able to manage that but rather go in and just kind of do a skills check and see you know if we sit here plan to sit here for 30 minutes, you know get a taster instead of a full pint and just kind of chill with your puppet bring a bone for them to chew on and see how they do and kind of assess their behavior and evaluate? Is this something we can work on from this baseline? Is this okay? Skills that we can continue to build on? Or are they perhaps really worried or scared about things in the environment? Are they you know, shaking? Or is their tail tucked or ears flat or trying to flee the environment, if they're worried about something that maybe they haven't seen those things happening before, or on the other end of the spectrum, are they just kind of all over the place and bouncing and carrying on off the all of the energy in the space and needing to do a little bit of work to build up those skills? So I would start if you haven't done anything in the public sector, or environment yet, I would start by just doing a little test and seeing but being ready to do that on a day where you can commit 20 to 30 minutes rather than, you know, calling up your five best vaccinated friends and saying, Hey, let's go and meet at the brewery for for 10 hours. Yeah, yeah, here. So that would be my recommendation.
Emily 26:08
People who have a goal to take their dog out to patios could even start now if they're not an area that is open up that much. And they could even do practice runs at their kitchen table, where it's relaxing on a mat and being rewarded for calm, yes, then maybe you could transition that to park playground, something like that very quiet time and have a sandwich or a drink of water while your dog is relaxing next year. So they understand in this context, and the mat is down, I'm supposed to relax?
Amber 26:39
Yes, absolutely. And I also tell told my, you know, brewery manners online class, when we were working, you know, in the middle of winter, when there wasn't a lot of outdoor options for them yet, I suggested asking their neighbor, if they could come over and use their neighbor's picnic or patio table in their backyard. And you know, do it at a time where neighbor's dogs are up and away. And it's not playtime, it's just, you know, I'm gonna let myself into your fence and assuming the neighbors know, and are okay with this and come and sit down at your patio with my gear. So it's an area that smells a little bit more exciting, there's new, new things happening, but it's still a safe and controlled area. And we can practice, you know, our dogs chill with us there for a bit. And then we say, Okay, I'll take time to go and we walk back home. So there's a lot of different ways that you can practice in a safe way that are building up those skills to be able to support you and your dog, when when you can be back to doing all the things you want to be doing.
Libby 27:33
Is the pandemic puppy group evolving. Are you going to? Is it going to stick around like what's what does the future look like for the Facebook group?
Amber 27:41
Yes. So it is always evolving, we always have new ideas and new projects there, we have a project that is in the works for sometime this summer that I think announcement will be coming out on soon. And I I don't know that I'm privileged to say more on that this point, but they're saying you I know there's always new new things that the group is coming up with. So the I think the plan for it, as far as I'm aware, you know, we talked about post pandemic, we will just kind of, you know, when the pandemic is truly behind us, we will just kind of rename ourselves to something like, you know, more generic, like puppy raising support group or, you know, thinking and reimagining the vision for it going forward. But it is certainly changing and evolving every day just you know, as we have some weeks where we're adding, you know, hundreds of new members and and then subsequently adding new admin team members to the to the team to help support our, our efforts. So always new changes. We're always trying to listen to what our members are asking for a meeting. I know Suzanne has is good about putting up polls or requests for people, you know, saying like, what's your top issue with your puppy right now? And how can we get some content out to the group on that topic?
Emily 29:05
I'm so impressed that this is free to all over the world. Yes. What an incredible resource. Yeah, it's fabulous during the pandemic or post pandemic, to change the world for you know, hopefully millions of puppies. Yes. We always say everyone who brings home a puppy they they want to do the right thing. It's just so hard finding the right information. Yes, you go to the internet, and it is just rife with mythology and folklore and everybody's opinions, but finding a place where it is actually evidence based information and professional trainers. It's it's really commendable. And I'm thrilled that we found out about it and we're going to share it with our listeners and get the word out or
Amber 29:48
Yeah, absolutely. We have loved participating. I've certainly learned a lot from all of the other admins and professional trainers that are participating. You know, we we try to So, when we have puppy owners writing in with more nuanced behavior problems that need some some professional insight, we try to as the admin team, make sure that we're providing them with the first comment on their post, at least, so that we're giving them, you know, in the right direction or giving them some immediate assistance to their specific situation before we turn it over to the general group members, because we have a lot of great experience puppy raisers in the membership of the group as well. So they're a good resource, too. But we also try to make sure that that person gets, you know, the credential and help right off the bat. And so I have the privilege of being able to read the posts and the answers that all of these other wonderful trainers post in response to client questions. And I have learned so much just from reading their, their empathetic responses, or their, you know, scientific analysis of what might be going on. And I really value that as a resource for myself as well.
Libby 31:02
So fabulous. You guys are doing amazing work. Amazing. So how can people find the pandemic puppy group?
Amber 31:09
Yes. So on Facebook, if you're on Facebook, you can search pandemic puppy raising support group, and you can send a join request, we do have some membership questions that we like to ask people to fill out. And those are not your, for any other purpose than for us to help verify that you're not a robot and trying to join the group. It doesn't matter what type of puppy you have, you're welcome. And that just answering those questions just helps us determine that you're not some sort of computer robot that's trying to spam the group. So that's something definitely to look out for. If you hit join, and then it will say, Do you want to complete membership questions? And you definitely do because we we do look for those to be completed before we approve people to join the group.
Emily 31:58
Awesome. And there's also a podcast that goes along with it. We found out
Amber 32:01
Yes, so one of one of my fellow admin, team members, Kayla has this great podcast called pandemic puppy raising, and she does a great job curating content for the the pandemic, probably group listeners and beyond, as well through that medium. That's fabulous.
Emily 32:23
Yeah, if someone's not on Facebook, they can still get a lot of good content on that particular way.
Libby 32:28
And then what support are you offering at Summit dog training?
Amber 32:32
Yes, so we have a variety of different things going on. We have an online class portal that we call our virtual classroom, and it has a variety of our most popular classes in an online form. So everything from puppy basics, you know, kind of a traditional six week puppy class, curated into an online format, as well as some advanced content on like cooperative care for veterinary visits and some webinars on specific topics like reactivity. If you're if you're raising a an older dog that has some reactivity issues or puppy, we have a variety of different courses there. And they're all kind of bundled together in a in a subscription for easy access. So that's one of the most accessible ways to get online support from us. And we do also offer online consultation so a one on one like a zoom call with our with one of our training team members as well.
Libby 33:33
Right and we'll put the link to all of this in the show notes. Well, is there anything that we didn't cover that you think is really important for our listeners to know about pandemic puppy raising,
Amber 33:42
I think we hit most of it, I would just say like if there's one thing that I can impart to every puppy owner it's that it does get better and when you're in the middle of it and you're not sleeping and you're dealing with you know, trying to teach a small being everything that it needs to know about life it can feel overwhelming. I've I've been there and especially if you're perhaps are facing some additional behavior challenges with you know, rescue puppy that can feel overwhelming and the puppy blues are a real real phenomenon and something to just be aware of like it's normal. There is support out there for for it. And it does get better with time and age and development, and consistency, all of those factors together. We can raise really wonderful puppies, even if it doesn't feel like it in the moment.
Libby 34:34
Thank you so much Amber Quann for being on pot to the rescue. This is wonderful. Thanks for having me. Thanks for tuning in. If you liked this episode, don't forget to rate and review. It helps other folks like you find the show. To find out more about our programming and adoptable rescue dogs. You can visit summit dog rescue.org thanks to Mike pesci for the original New Music and to Alex Lee Ammons and for the love media for graphics production and editing See you soon on pub to the rescue
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Welcome to pod to the rescue.
Libby 0:11
Rescuing the dog is just the first step. We're here to help with everything that comes next.
We spoke with Amber Quann from summit dog training in Fort Collins, Colorado and it was just such a fabulous talk about the pandemic puppy raising support group on Facebook and she's part of the admin team there.
Emily 0:31
wish we'd known about that support group a year ago. It's you know, amazing and it's totally free and it is highly researched evidence based all from Professional Dog Trainers and behavior consultants. It's it's really fabulous. It's a great resource. Amber is a certified professional dog trainer knowledge and skills assessed and she's also Karen Pryor Academy's certified training partner. She's the owner and head trainer at Summit dog training in Fort Collins, which is in no way affiliated with summit dog rescue, which is me. Amber developed a great program pre pandemic called drink with your dog, which brilliant brilliantly taught dog guardians how to prepare their dogs to be able to successfully go into brew pubs and restaurant patios. And it also taught the skills for the guardians to self evaluate if their dog was able to handle that kind of busy public situation.
Libby 1:29
When the pandemic hit, Amber became one of the admins on the pandemic puppy raising support face group page, which is a free evidence based group for adopters during the pandemic who are struggling with issues or just want to make sure they properly socialized their pups, during the huge shift in our society that we underwent in 2020.
Emily 1:49
And 2021, and
Libby 1:51
2020 on it. Yeah, I hope that you all learn as much from this interview as we did, and that you definitely go check out that group if you adopted a pandemic puppy, and you're looking for some support.
All right, thank you so much, Amber, for being here with us on pod to the rescue.
Amber 2:13
Happy to be here.
Libby 2:15
you helped found a pandemic puppy group, correct?
Amber 2:18
Yeah, it was perhaps one of the founders the wrong word. But I joined the admin team pretty early on when the group was still in the the early stages of development, I was invited to join the admin team, by the awesome resources and trainers that had started it and it's just kind of ballooned out of control ever since.
Libby 2:39
Yeah, how many people are in there?
Amber 2:41
No, I think that on last count, we were approaching 13,000 members, which is insane.
Libby 2:48
Yeah, it's huge. And it is such an amazing resource. You have the guides on socializing? Like everything there is to know it seems like so how did this how did the group begin? How did it all come about? Can you give us a little background there?
Amber 3:03
Sure. So the the kind of creative genius behind this group was a wonderful trainer in Oklahoma, named Suzanne Shelton. And she basically kind of said, you know, as the pandemic was starting, there's going to be a lot of puppies coming out of this that are or going through this and puppy owners that are going to need a lot of supports and kind of got together with her network of trainers and said we need to create a resource for for these people. And so the pandemic puppy raising support group was born and has just continued to grow ever since I got connected with them. Pretty early on because Suzanne has been in my network, one of my best friends has a one a dog from from her and is someone I look up to a lot. And it was just really great to join that team. I think there were maybe 100 or 200 members when I joined and now there's now there's 13,000. So we are very busy all the time. And I think the admin team now is about 20 trainers have vary depending on the week varying levels of involvement, depending on who's who's busy with real life, and their own training businesses. But we all try to pitch in to help all of these puppy people and puppy owners who are trying to navigate what life and socialization with a young puppy looks like in our you know, pandemic world.
Libby 4:34
Yeah, I think it's so amazing. You have 20 moderators and admins who are all Professional Dog Trainers.
Amber 4:40
Yes
Emily 4:41
I was reading through quite a bit of your resources today. And I do love how it's arranged with like a quickstart guide. So when people go onto the group, they can immediately get excellent curated resources and then see Like after they go through the initial training, which is all self led, then they can go into groups and and they stretch out into whatever issues they're having. Is that how it works?
Amber 5:11
Yeah, for common puppy raising issues like potty training and puppy biting and crate training and things like that we do ask people to read through the guides first before commenting, or posting with a specific question or an issue that they're facing. And we try to direct people to like to use the resources that are there already. And if someone comments with a, you know, I'm struggling with potty training, I checked the guides, I read all the resources, I've been doing these things, and here's the issue we're having, that we have kind of a better starting point to be able to help and coach them past that issue. If someone's like, just commenting with, uh, you know, helped me with potty training, it's a little bit more difficult to know, like, what they've been doing and whether they've gotten the basic foundation of skills and advice that we could more easily provide to everyone in, you know, connecting them with a great set of blog posts, or a great set of YouTube videos, that we've kind of curated the content for them. So I think that's one of the one of the emphasis that we've tried to set early on is like people looking for advice online, we want to be a resource, but also people have to be willing to take advantages of those resources that we're putting up there.
Emily 6:25
Yeah, it's excellent. I started to watch the socialization video, which is the first video by Suzanne, or Susan
Amber 6:32
Suzanne? Yes.
Emily 6:34
I was, it was just amazing. It was like when I would go to a conference, get on a plane. Miles and listen to how to properly socialize your puppy. Yes. Now with you know, we, I think 12 point 7 million people brought home during this past year. Ali, I would say that that socialization, although there is that critical socialization window that she talks about, in general, just the information on socialization is so important, so valuable. Absolutely.
Libby 7:07
And how have you all on the administrator team been able to adapt kind of the, the typical puppy social socialization advice to the pandemic, because it's not exactly the same.
Amber 7:19
Right? Right. So we are always, like sharing ideas within the group about how we, as professional trainers, many of us who are on the admin team also got pandemic puppies, which kind of helped us to catalyze this group, because we were taking those intentional steps ourselves to socialize our puppies in unique new ways. And so we get, we give us a lot of video footage to share with people. So simple things like, Okay, you can't necessarily take your puppy into the pet store, you know, during some of those key lockdown periods, but you could go to the grocery store and park your car and sit in your car and have your puppy in the seat beside you. Or in my case my puppy is was very tiny. And so he sat up on the dashboard, so he could see and just let them watch the world. And you don't have to get out of your car, you don't have to, you know, be in someone else's space bubble. But just that kind of concept of like getting your puppy out and exposing your puppy at an early age to the fact that there are other things out there besides their you little world can go a long way. And I think a lot of people just misunderstand where the emphasis of socialization has to be and think that it's all like if you can't be going to the dog park or be going to puppy socialization class then you can't be socializing. And that's just a misconception that we've been trying to dispel by saying nope, socialization can look as simple as sitting in the grocery store parking lot and letting your pup watch people push carts past or doing you know going to your local park, you know, if you're allowed to, you know, be outside with your, your dog, which in most places has still been an option. For many of us like going outside and linear pup just watch people from a distance. And that, in and of itself is really valuable to implement into your routine.
Emily 9:13
In a lot of ways. I feel that people who follow your program could actually have dogs with better skills as we come out of the pandemic. I think that one thing that we saw so often before the pandemic was hyper social dogs, absolutely, we would get them home and we thought it was 100 people 100 days and it was you know, shoving them at people and being like, look at my puppy and so they didn't learn how to be calm and observe. So a lot of what you're talking about is really, you know, exposing your puppy in a way that they feel safe but also rewarding calm behavior, so that in the future now that they're turning into adolescence, you will hopefully see dogs that are calm and relaxed. In the presence of new people, new dogs, garbage trucks, all the stimuli that's going to be slowly layer back into our society.
Amber 10:07
Yes, 100%. And I will even tell people that, you know, my, my puppy that I brought home a week before the shutdown in our state happened. And so I was right there with all these other new puppy owners figuring out what socialization look like, during those critical and key weeks. And I definitely see my puppy being the better for it. Because in those key pieces, we did a lot of walks in the park near our house, and people just by default, kept their distance. They were, you know, passing on the other side of the street, we were moving away, and no one thought we were being rude or weird, or no one tried to chase us down, you know, the few people who wanted to say, hi, we had a really nice built in excuse that says, no, sorry, we're keeping our distance or, you know, I said things like, I kiss my puppies hat a lot. So I'm just not letting other people touch him right now, that sort of thing. And it was just a nice kind of easy way to set the tone. And so you know, now at over a year of age, my puppy, you know, walks past people, like they're not even there, which to me is my my goal behavior and something that a lot of my clients really struggle with getting early on, because we teach our puppies that everyone is an opportunity to have a great time.
Libby 11:25
Yeah, so it almost sounds like if if this time is used really intentionally, it can be a really great opportunity for building a really well adjusted dog.
Amber 11:38
Absolutely. I 100% agree with that.
Libby 11:41
So what are some of the feedback that you've gotten from members? Do you have any, like success stories or anything like that?
Amber 11:48
Yeah, we have, we have a variety of people, you're writing in, post, you know, one day really struggling. And then, you know, a couple weeks later, commenting and posting again, saying, you know, I implemented all these suggestions, we're doing a lot better. Plus, you know, posting different things about, we try to keep the the group emphasis on positive constructive help. And so when we, you know, really put some intentional boundaries in place on unsolicited advice, or any sort of unkind or, or inappropriate comments from our fellow members. And so we have when we put those guidelines in place, or we have to, you know, sometimes moderate posts and say, No, this is we're done here with this type of line of thinking, you know, we get comments from, you're perhaps the original poster of that post or from other people who were involved in that discussion, you know, saying that they appreciate that we are, you know, stepping in to make sure that this space is a safe for people of all skill levels, people who are asking those questions that some people might consider stupid or silly, or be quick to label as you know, well, that's you should know that already. And we want to it really to be a safe place for people of all skills and all abilities and all stages of their puppy raising journey to feel safe to ask those questions. And so, yes, we get a lot of comments like that, like, Thanks for making this a safe space. Or, you know, thanks for not shaming me for this question, or that sort of thing? Because that's really what we strive for. Sure, sure.
Libby 13:28
Yeah. The Internet can be such a harsh place sometimes. And we know how important a positive environment is or learning.
Amber 13:35
Yes, for people and dogs. Yes, absolutely.
Libby 13:39
So what are some of the top issues that you see the most often
Amber 13:43
so this has, perhaps vary slightly over the past year, I would say during the critical kind of two months that a lot of places were experiencing lockdown last year and of course those The schedule has varied in the past year and not everywhere, it has been you know, on the same plane, but when we were all just kind of what the heck is going on. We saw actually a lot of posts where people were just really crying out in desperation over their puppy sleep habits or puppy you know, having a hard time napping, and hard time like choosing downtime. And we attributed that to the fact that we're we're at home with our puppies 24/7 During this time, we're trying to figure out how to work from home how to you know, not how to juggle kids at school at now at home and how to juggle this new puppy and the forced nap times that might have naturally happened with you know, leaving for work just weren't happening and puppies, you know, with humans home all the time can it can be a little bit chaotic if you don't know how to set that up for success and so structuring naptimes and structuring down times or puppy independent times is death. The only one of those issues that we have answered a lot of questions about.
Libby 15:04
Wow, yeah, it's one of those things that on the surface, it seems like the perfect time to get up. You're gonna be home all the time, you don't really think about that other side of it?
Amber 15:14
Yes, yes, I think that we, this past year, you know, in our private training business in the Facebook group, just in a lot of different ways, I've seen a lot of stressed out dog owners. And I think I attributed that to, you know, we're just spending a lot more time with our dogs in general, and we're not getting that break to kind of get some perspective, and our dog's behavior impacts our lives and a lot more, you know, if you're trying to have a zoom call with the important meeting, and your puppies barking, and that's great, that's gonna be a lot more stressful for you, then if your puppy is barking in the crate, while you're at your office, having a zoom call. So that's definitely been an impactful year for a lot of people.
Libby 15:53
So our focus on this podcast is primarily rescue dogs. Can you speak to how people have learned through the group to support their rescue puppies, and are there are there any specific units that you think are more relevant to rescued puppies,
Amber 16:08
you know, a puppy is a puppy in a lot of ways. But certainly rescue puppies can come with a certain, you know, set of challenges that maybe they haven't been prepared for, and other ways, such as being coming with a variety of experiences in their background, just transitioning, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be bad experiences, just kind of moving around, or trying to find a soft place to land that can certainly come with a bit of, you know, attachment and readiness to attach to the nearest person. And so one of the things that we kind of emphasize a lot is like teaching that puppy early on, like how to be safe and comfortable as a foundation for everything else. So before we can teach the puppy, how to, you know, sit down, stay in calm, we need to just help the puppy, you know, understand that this is a safe, safe environment. And then it's also safe to be a little bit separated from me, perhaps on the other side of a baby gate, and we're still here. And so I think that perhaps, that is one of those units, we have a confinement and crate training unit. And while you know, crate training isn't the end all be all, for every issue, the foundation concept of teaching our dogs to be confident and calm when they are separated from us is a big piece of you know, having a healthy, well adjusted dog. And I think that perhaps that's one of those pieces, that's so critical for our rescue pups early on, you know, because of their just experiences or lack of experiences, you know, as they're coming into their new homes.
Emily 17:41
That's such a great point. And so many times rescue puppies, they start out in a shelter, which is like loud and baggy, and they're pulled out and they're vaccinated, and they're put on a 14 hour transport pulled out again, you know, end up in a parking lot with a different people. So yeah, it's like, it is sometimes a different experience for rescue puppies. So I love that first skill is teach them that they are safe
Amber 18:08
and comfortable. And I think that, you know, as that applies to building confidence for separation, when we have those puppies in that young age range, where just in general, young puppies, regardless of their previous experiences at that early age, are going to be pretty inclined to seek safety and security and what is comfortable and known. Right. And we often send puppies to their new homes, and then, you know, they're put in a crate and they sleep, you know, in the living room, and they, you know, humans in under normal circumstances, non pandemic times would go off to work the next day. And we have this great opportunity now to teach our puppies early on that we are there as a kind of a security blanket. And then build on that level of safety and security to say now it's okay to be alone. So doing things like you know, net once we can nap quietly on your bed or in your crate with me sitting next to you, then can you can you stay asleep while I go across the room and do laundry. And then come back and I'm here when you wake up or I'm here when you start to get restless. And then the next day, can I put you in into your crate and hold a bully stick for you to chew on for, you know, 15 minutes if that's needed to get you kind of settled. And then once you're relaxed, I'm going to kind of just softly wander away. But I'm I'm here if you need me and just like with human children raising them and that kind of sense of they're my support system is there if I need them, and so I have the confidence not to need them is going to have to answer anthropomorphizing a little bit. But we definitely can see that pattern in our puppy raising if if we are ready to support support the pups that need that extra support. And I think rescue pups can certainly fall into that category sometimes.
Libby 19:53
So what are some of the issues that you're seeing now as society is starting to open up People are getting back out there. It's a big topic right now live training for sure.
Amber 20:03
So a whole wide range of things. So we always have, you know, in the group specifically, we have a steady addition of new members. And so we have quite a few new members who are joining now with adolescent puppies, and perhaps are realizing that they didn't know how to do pandemic socialization understandable. And now are, you know, raising an adolescent puppy that maybe doesn't have some of those social skills or confidence. And so we are seeing, you know, a variety of things from my puppy is fearful of things could certainly be one end of the extreme. And then my puppy is over excited about all these fun things that they're seeing. Also, things like, you know, my puppy has been great about coming when called and doing all of these great skills, but I just took them to, you know, my parents house, well, we haven't been visiting in, you know, six months or a year in this last year, and they were terrible. And they didn't know how to do any of those skills. So just kind of maybe a lack of generalization of skills, which puppies are not good about, in non pandemic times. And so I'm, I'm certain that, that our restrictions and an inability to be out and about from an early age has certainly slowed down our pups learning that these skills are applicable in other environments, too. So we're definitely supporting people through a lot of those different challenges.
Emily 21:37
I love that it's going to continue as they grow. So yes, yeah. And then before the pandemic, you had a program called drink with your dog. I think that's what you're mostly. And are you still doing that? Or are you planning on starting back up again?
Amber 21:52
Yes, we are. It is still alive. The program is still alive. It is working on, you know, getting a new fresh breath of life and post pandemic world hopefully, we, the drink with your dog program is all about getting people out with their dogs, specifically in breweries and teaching like public access manners, specific to the brewery environment so that we can keep more breweries dog friendly, because we'll have better behaved dogs in the breweries. And so last year, we took the year off because all of our brewery partners were just trying to figure out how to keep filling the growlers and, and doing the to go or to go orders. And there wasn't really a good safe opportunity to do that within the guidelines of our state. But we are looking at bringing back our popular brewery manners class. This year, we've been in touch with a couple of our brewery hosts. And we're just trying to coordinate that right where they're still working on their reopening transitions, like reopening to full schedules and, you know, managing their space capacities. And so we were working through some hiccups there. But we definitely hope to have some class options for people on on the table here in Fort Collins, I have a Colorado for those of you don't know where that is. I taught very manners online earlier this year. And that was really fun as well. And I think that an online remainers course is in the works for later this year as well.
Emily 23:27
That's great. That's great. And now with the pandemic puppies, turning into a pandemic teams, yep. How are you going to change your course in order to accommodate these dogs? Are they all going to be suitable to go to breweries right away? And when would you guide people?
Amber 23:44
Absolutely, I would say that as people are able to be out a little bit more with their pups that they should first do a little skills check with their, with their pup at a non busy time and whatever environment they're going towards, they're working towards. So for the brewery example, if the goal is to have a dog that's ready to go to the brewery with you, and you who've been raising them in the pandemic, and that's not really something that you've been able to experiment with yet. I would go at, you know, on a Wednesday afternoon, provided your breweries open and ready to receive patrons but go on a little bit less busy time and sit in the back corner of the patio beetle with your back to the wall or to the fence or whatever the guideline is or the defining edge of the patio is so that you and your puppy can just watch the world and you're not right by the entrance where people are going to be walking in suddenly and then your puppy might have a hard time and you're not going to be able to manage that but rather go in and just kind of do a skills check and see you know if we sit here plan to sit here for 30 minutes, you know get a taster instead of a full pint and just kind of chill with your puppet bring a bone for them to chew on and see how they do and kind of assess their behavior and evaluate? Is this something we can work on from this baseline? Is this okay? Skills that we can continue to build on? Or are they perhaps really worried or scared about things in the environment? Are they you know, shaking? Or is their tail tucked or ears flat or trying to flee the environment, if they're worried about something that maybe they haven't seen those things happening before, or on the other end of the spectrum, are they just kind of all over the place and bouncing and carrying on off the all of the energy in the space and needing to do a little bit of work to build up those skills? So I would start if you haven't done anything in the public sector, or environment yet, I would start by just doing a little test and seeing but being ready to do that on a day where you can commit 20 to 30 minutes rather than, you know, calling up your five best vaccinated friends and saying, Hey, let's go and meet at the brewery for for 10 hours. Yeah, yeah, here. So that would be my recommendation.
Emily 26:08
People who have a goal to take their dog out to patios could even start now if they're not an area that is open up that much. And they could even do practice runs at their kitchen table, where it's relaxing on a mat and being rewarded for calm, yes, then maybe you could transition that to park playground, something like that very quiet time and have a sandwich or a drink of water while your dog is relaxing next year. So they understand in this context, and the mat is down, I'm supposed to relax?
Amber 26:39
Yes, absolutely. And I also tell told my, you know, brewery manners online class, when we were working, you know, in the middle of winter, when there wasn't a lot of outdoor options for them yet, I suggested asking their neighbor, if they could come over and use their neighbor's picnic or patio table in their backyard. And you know, do it at a time where neighbor's dogs are up and away. And it's not playtime, it's just, you know, I'm gonna let myself into your fence and assuming the neighbors know, and are okay with this and come and sit down at your patio with my gear. So it's an area that smells a little bit more exciting, there's new, new things happening, but it's still a safe and controlled area. And we can practice, you know, our dogs chill with us there for a bit. And then we say, Okay, I'll take time to go and we walk back home. So there's a lot of different ways that you can practice in a safe way that are building up those skills to be able to support you and your dog, when when you can be back to doing all the things you want to be doing.
Libby 27:33
Is the pandemic puppy group evolving. Are you going to? Is it going to stick around like what's what does the future look like for the Facebook group?
Amber 27:41
Yes. So it is always evolving, we always have new ideas and new projects there, we have a project that is in the works for sometime this summer that I think announcement will be coming out on soon. And I I don't know that I'm privileged to say more on that this point, but they're saying you I know there's always new new things that the group is coming up with. So the I think the plan for it, as far as I'm aware, you know, we talked about post pandemic, we will just kind of, you know, when the pandemic is truly behind us, we will just kind of rename ourselves to something like, you know, more generic, like puppy raising support group or, you know, thinking and reimagining the vision for it going forward. But it is certainly changing and evolving every day just you know, as we have some weeks where we're adding, you know, hundreds of new members and and then subsequently adding new admin team members to the to the team to help support our, our efforts. So always new changes. We're always trying to listen to what our members are asking for a meeting. I know Suzanne has is good about putting up polls or requests for people, you know, saying like, what's your top issue with your puppy right now? And how can we get some content out to the group on that topic?
Emily 29:05
I'm so impressed that this is free to all over the world. Yes. What an incredible resource. Yeah, it's fabulous during the pandemic or post pandemic, to change the world for you know, hopefully millions of puppies. Yes. We always say everyone who brings home a puppy they they want to do the right thing. It's just so hard finding the right information. Yes, you go to the internet, and it is just rife with mythology and folklore and everybody's opinions, but finding a place where it is actually evidence based information and professional trainers. It's it's really commendable. And I'm thrilled that we found out about it and we're going to share it with our listeners and get the word out or
Amber 29:48
Yeah, absolutely. We have loved participating. I've certainly learned a lot from all of the other admins and professional trainers that are participating. You know, we we try to So, when we have puppy owners writing in with more nuanced behavior problems that need some some professional insight, we try to as the admin team, make sure that we're providing them with the first comment on their post, at least, so that we're giving them, you know, in the right direction or giving them some immediate assistance to their specific situation before we turn it over to the general group members, because we have a lot of great experience puppy raisers in the membership of the group as well. So they're a good resource, too. But we also try to make sure that that person gets, you know, the credential and help right off the bat. And so I have the privilege of being able to read the posts and the answers that all of these other wonderful trainers post in response to client questions. And I have learned so much just from reading their, their empathetic responses, or their, you know, scientific analysis of what might be going on. And I really value that as a resource for myself as well.
Libby 31:02
So fabulous. You guys are doing amazing work. Amazing. So how can people find the pandemic puppy group?
Amber 31:09
Yes. So on Facebook, if you're on Facebook, you can search pandemic puppy raising support group, and you can send a join request, we do have some membership questions that we like to ask people to fill out. And those are not your, for any other purpose than for us to help verify that you're not a robot and trying to join the group. It doesn't matter what type of puppy you have, you're welcome. And that just answering those questions just helps us determine that you're not some sort of computer robot that's trying to spam the group. So that's something definitely to look out for. If you hit join, and then it will say, Do you want to complete membership questions? And you definitely do because we we do look for those to be completed before we approve people to join the group.
Emily 31:58
Awesome. And there's also a podcast that goes along with it. We found out
Amber 32:01
Yes, so one of one of my fellow admin, team members, Kayla has this great podcast called pandemic puppy raising, and she does a great job curating content for the the pandemic, probably group listeners and beyond, as well through that medium. That's fabulous.
Emily 32:23
Yeah, if someone's not on Facebook, they can still get a lot of good content on that particular way.
Libby 32:28
And then what support are you offering at Summit dog training?
Amber 32:32
Yes, so we have a variety of different things going on. We have an online class portal that we call our virtual classroom, and it has a variety of our most popular classes in an online form. So everything from puppy basics, you know, kind of a traditional six week puppy class, curated into an online format, as well as some advanced content on like cooperative care for veterinary visits and some webinars on specific topics like reactivity. If you're if you're raising a an older dog that has some reactivity issues or puppy, we have a variety of different courses there. And they're all kind of bundled together in a in a subscription for easy access. So that's one of the most accessible ways to get online support from us. And we do also offer online consultation so a one on one like a zoom call with our with one of our training team members as well.
Libby 33:33
Right and we'll put the link to all of this in the show notes. Well, is there anything that we didn't cover that you think is really important for our listeners to know about pandemic puppy raising,
Amber 33:42
I think we hit most of it, I would just say like if there's one thing that I can impart to every puppy owner it's that it does get better and when you're in the middle of it and you're not sleeping and you're dealing with you know, trying to teach a small being everything that it needs to know about life it can feel overwhelming. I've I've been there and especially if you're perhaps are facing some additional behavior challenges with you know, rescue puppy that can feel overwhelming and the puppy blues are a real real phenomenon and something to just be aware of like it's normal. There is support out there for for it. And it does get better with time and age and development, and consistency, all of those factors together. We can raise really wonderful puppies, even if it doesn't feel like it in the moment.
Libby 34:34
Thank you so much Amber Quann for being on pot to the rescue. This is wonderful. Thanks for having me. Thanks for tuning in. If you liked this episode, don't forget to rate and review. It helps other folks like you find the show. To find out more about our programming and adoptable rescue dogs. You can visit summit dog rescue.org thanks to Mike pesci for the original New Music and to Alex Lee Ammons and for the love media for graphics production and editing See you soon on pub to the rescue
Transcribed by https://otter.ai