How Stacy Slade Became a YouTube Sensation by Sharing Her Dog Training Techniques

Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Exploring Washington State Podcast! If the information in our conversations and interviews are enjoyable and valuable to you, please head over to iTunes, subscribe to the show, and leave us an honest review.

Stacy Slade Episode Transcript

Stacy Slade [00:00:00]:

And so for me, I wanted I love big, hairy, and floppy.

Scott Cowan [00:00:23]:

Welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. Here’s your host, Scott Cowan. All right, well, welcome back to this episode of the Exploring Washington State podcast. My guest today is Stacy Slade with Sit. Stay with Stacy YouTube channel, and I’m going to let her explain that I have a selfish reason for wanting Stacy on the show today. It’ll come out throughout the episode. So, Stacy, welcome. Why don’t you tell our audience a little bit about your backstory?

Stacy Slade [00:00:51]:

Yeah, thank you for having me, Scott. This is fun. I’ve been a Washington native or Washington resident native my whole life. I grew up in Snohomish, Washington, and that’s actually how I got my start in dog, was showing four H in Snohomish as a kid. When I was about nine years old, I started with my chocolate Labrador. It’s awesome. And I went to WSU, and I did move away for a few years. I was in Portland, then Ohio, and came back, and I’ve been back in Washington state since 2004 and been here ever since. So I love the state. It is one of the most beautiful states in our country. And so when I was in Ohio after college, I didn’t have a dog for a few years, and I decided I wanted to buy a dog. And so I kind of created a list of dogs that I thought were valuable not valuable, but that were of interest to me that I wanted to show or own. And that’s kind of why we’re talking today, unless you wanted to tee that up.

Scott Cowan [00:02:13]:

Go right ahead.

Stacy Slade [00:02:16]:

Is, I chose the Bernese Mountain Dog. So I have and have been owned by Bernese Mountain Dogs for, like, 22 years now.

Scott Cowan [00:02:24]:

Wow. So let me ask you, let’s go back to that list. What other breeds were on the list?

Stacy Slade [00:02:30]:

Yeah, well, the list I knew enough growing up in four H that you need to find a dog that fits your lifestyle, and that like a border collie wasn’t good for me because I couldn’t take it running and train and train and train and train, because those guys need to think and they need exercise. Same with Malnois, same with a lot of those high energy breeds. And so for me, I wanted I love big, hairy, and floppy, and that was important to me. And I had my Labrador growing up, and I loved him, but he didn’t have enough hair. And the golden retriever I had, I loved her, and she was great. And I was highly considering a golden retriever, a bull mastiff, a Portuguese water dog, a flat retriever, and a Bernese Mountain dog. Those are my top five.

Scott Cowan [00:03:17]:

Okay.

Stacy Slade [00:03:18]:

And I decided the goldens I wanted to show. So an AKC showing. And so the golden retrievers are very competitive in Washington state, and I decided I wanted a breed that I could go in the ring and learn with and be successful with, which it’s hard for a newbie to kind of walk in there and be successful. In. The golden retriever ring, it was pretty cutthroat, so I took those off my list. Bullmast, if I decided might be too big and then not hairy enough. Portuguese water dog flat coat and the burner were left standing, and I decided the porty probably was more grooming than I’d want, because you have to like like poodles. You have to shave them and keep the hair, because it’s hair, it grows, it doesn’t stop growing. They don’t shed an undercoat. Portuguese water dogs don’t shed. And so I called a breeder about a flat coat and learned a little bit about the breed and the health challenges, and also they’re very hard to get. And then I called a Bernie’s mountain dog breeder and talked to them about the health, the longevity, and the temperament, and I decided that was the right thing for me. And there was a little birdie in the back of my head that I have an older sister, and we know how older siblings always have an impression on our life. And she had said one time, if I could get a dog, it’d be a Bernie’s mountain dog.

Scott Cowan [00:04:39]:

So is this to taunt her, then?

Stacy Slade [00:04:41]:

I don’t know, to be honest. I mean, she has her own set of large dogs. She’s had an English mastiff. She has two Newfoundlands, so she has her own set of large, fluffy dogs.

Scott Cowan [00:04:57]:

All right, so you chose Bernese mountain dogs, and then did you get your first one when you were in Ohio?

Stacy Slade [00:05:05]:

I did. I kind of went to a dog show, met some of the responsible readers, and because I wanted a show dog, I talked to someone who was doing well with their dogs and ended up getting a dog in Ohio. And when he was, I think he was a year and a half, maybe. I can’t exactly remember how old he was when we moved back to Washington, but I drove my gold retriever and my Bernie’s mountain dog across the country. I have pictures of them at Mount Rushmore and Teepees and the Badlands, all those things.

Scott Cowan [00:05:40]:

Okay, I had a burner, let’s see, 25 years ago. And he was an amazing dog. His temperament was phenomenal. I still remember my daughter was very young, and they were out on the back patio, and he kind of bumped her, leaned into her, and sent her toppling over, and she started crying. And he just had this look of complete dismay on his face that he could have harmed this human being somehow. That memory just stuck with me. But he was an amazing animal. So I’d always said when the time’s right, I wasn’t going to work too hard at it. I wasn’t going to go and just start looking for a breeder and add this into my life. Everything needed to kind of fall into place.

Stacy Slade [00:06:33]:

Sure.

Scott Cowan [00:06:33]:

And through unplanned series of events, it has fallen into place that we have Bosley now. And he will be by the time we publish this, he’ll have just turned five months.

Stacy Slade [00:06:46]:

That’s awesome.

Scott Cowan [00:06:47]:

Yeah. And he’s, as any puppy, can be wonderful and maddening at the same time at times. But overall, his temperament is he’s just happy. He gets along. Doesn’t understand why the cats don’t like him. Just doesn’t quite understand that he wants them to like him so badly. And they just we have three of them. One of them, I don’t think so. I don’t think that cat will ever get within 2ft of that dog, ever. The other one kind of plays with him. If you stand there, I’m going to smack you in the nose. And he does no claws out, just keeps it’s just kind of comical to watch this. So the breeder that we got Bosley from in our conversations said you should watch, sit, stay with Stacy. She does a great job of providing resources to help you learn some things about your puppy. And so first off, I want to thank you because my marriage is still intact because my wife loves this dog, don’t get me wrong, but it was like she’s very busy. She’s having something like, oh my gosh, what’s going on? You told me he would be calm and collective and I’m like, oh yeah, well I lied to you. But no. And so she has found your videos to be extremely helpful. So when I reached out to you, honestly, it was very selfish, like, hey, I want to talk to you because you helped us out so much. And then I found out you were in Washington and then it was like, oh, wait a second, now we need to take this into the Washington angle.

Stacy Slade [00:08:29]:

I’m glad that they’ve been helpful and I’m glad that your wife loves them.

Scott Cowan [00:08:33]:

Me too. He’s going to puppet class right now, once a week and he’s doing well there. Last week was maybe we had a setback, but hey, so far he’s been doing well. So for people that might not know much about Bernie’s Mountain dogs, but I do have first off, I have a question that you’re not prepared for. I don’t know that you’ll know the answer, but I’m curious what you think the answer is.

Stacy Slade [00:09:01]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:09:02]:

How many Bernie’s Mountain Dogs do you think there are in Washington state?

Stacy Slade [00:09:06]:

That is a great question. I would say probably 10,000.

Scott Cowan [00:09:16]:

That many? That seems like that’s a lot more than I imagined.

Stacy Slade [00:09:19]:

It might be a lot less. But then there’s also, I mean, you have to keep into consideration the people that don’t do anything and join over 2000 people in the Western Washington Bernese Mountain Dog Facebook group. We have 230 people in the Bernie’s Mountain Dog Club of Greater Seattle, which is Casey sanctioned club. And majority of all those people have at least two or three bernese. Sorry. Scott. You’re headed probably down a road your wife doesn’t know about.

Scott Cowan [00:09:59]:

I have a plan. Well, actually, I’ll share this with you, so I’m going to share the kind of backstory how we ended up with Bosley. So I have a friend down in the TriCities who has a burner, who is now three, and Otto, beautiful dog, well, just super chill. They go out, and Otto goes with him everywhere, and he’s just this amazingly well behaved, just super chill dog. And I just said to him in passing one time, I said, if your breeder ever happens to have an opening, let me know. Just let me know, right? That was as much effort as I was going to put into it. So I’m having breakfast one morning, and my wife comes over to the table, and she’s kind of fuming about something that she saw on Facebook in some group that she’s in about women having to ask their husbands for permission to spend money on makeup. And she was just not pleased. And she’s like, I would never ask. And I’m like, it’s your money. You do what you want with your money. It’s okay. I never ask you anything like that. That’s cool. She goes, oh, I know. She goes, I’m just venting. I said okay. Cool. Well, literally later that afternoon, I get a text message saying, hey, you want to buy a dog? And I’m like, what? And I call him, and we’re talking, yeah, the breeder just called me, and she’s got a couple of openings, and if you want, you should call her and just have that conversation. I said, yes, I will. Okay, so got the breeder’s number, gave the breeder a call. We had a conversation, left the conversation with the, with the intention that I was going to buy a dog, because I was, I was, I’d been ready for this. It wasn’t like I was just ready. Okay. Yeah. So I go upstairs, I don’t know, late afternoon, and we’re talking, and I said, oh, by the way, I bought a dog today, and I thought her head was going to explode. It is.

Stacy Slade [00:11:56]:

We want to talk with everybody in.

Scott Cowan [00:11:57]:

The household about okay, but anyway, but I just referenced, I said, remember this morning you said, your money is your money, my money is my money.

Stacy Slade [00:12:06]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:12:07]:

And her response was, well, not for buying an animal. And I said, no, I know, and if you don’t want to, that’s completely okay. But I do have the opportunity. This has presented itself. And we talked, and she was totally on board with it, but it was just funny the way this all came about. So my friend, he bought another puppy. So he has a puppy that’s going to be five months old same day Bosley is, and then he has his three year old. Well, as we’re waiting, another person backed out. This was the time of the Ukraine thing, had just started, and people were getting a little scared and money and market stuff, and so I was having a conversation with the breeder, and she she mentioned that, and I went, maybe we should get two. So I didn’t say yes to that, but I went upstairs and I said, hey, what do you think about getting another puppy? We have one. But what we’re learning is that Bosley’s brother is named Fritz. Fritz is a little further in his development behaviorally, because he is modeling after auto. So in some ways, it might have might be easier, I don’t know.

Stacy Slade [00:13:22]:

But anyway, a lot of people have that thought as two is better than one. And what that equates to is an older dog plus a puppy is a good idea. Two puppies generally is not. There’s something called sibling syndrome, where two puppies start to bond more with each other than the people, and they replicate each other’s behavior, which usually puppy behavior isn’t model behavior, and, in fact, that can ruin marriages. It almost ruined a close friend of mine’s marriage because they had two puppies at the same time. And it’s really hard to potty train two puppies. It’s hard to train them. You need to train them separately. They need to learn how to have separate lives. So now you’ve created double the work. So as a reputable breeder, I don’t ever place two puppies with any one person, and it’s not something I’d recommend. And your wife was right, and we.

Scott Cowan [00:14:17]:

Didn’T approach the breeder about this or anything like that. It was just like two. And we have two cats, two brothers, and you’re absolutely correct. They bonded with each other.

Stacy Slade [00:14:32]:

Even. I had Hazy, who was seven months old when her mother had a second litter, and I kept frenzy out of the second litter, and it became this very sibling rivalry, and Hazy was going to put frenzy in her place, which frenzy needs to be put in her place often. And so I ended up having an amazing opportunity with my friend who lives in the mazama mountains near Winthrop, for Hazy to go be a true mountain dog and hike every day and do agility and obedience and all the things. So she took Hazy to allow some peace between the two sisters.

Scott Cowan [00:15:12]:

Nice. Okay, question I asked you is, how many British mountain dogs do you think are in Washington in five figures? To me, that seems help me out, put this into perspective, put you on the spot. How many golden retrievers do you think there might be in Washington state then? I have no idea, but burners are not particularly common.

Stacy Slade [00:15:35]:

You know what? They are more common than you think.

Scott Cowan [00:15:38]:

Well, they’re common on every package for a dog product. They are on every single package.

Stacy Slade [00:15:43]:

They’re becoming more popular. Yeah, it could be lower than ten, but I’m generous, but I don’t know. There’s probably twice that of goldens.

Scott Cowan [00:15:55]:

Okay. All right. Wow. There’s more burners than goldens or to me, I expect you there’d be far more goldens.

Stacy Slade [00:16:06]:

20,000 goldens.

Scott Cowan [00:16:08]:

Okay.

Stacy Slade [00:16:08]:

Yeah. Sorry, what did I say?

Scott Cowan [00:16:10]:

Well, you did say 20, but you said ten burners. That’s only two to one. I would think goldens would outnumber burners.

Stacy Slade [00:16:15]:

Ten to one in this environment? No, in this state, because we have cold weather in other states. That wouldn’t be the case. But that could be very generous.

Scott Cowan [00:16:23]:

But that’s my our crack team of researchers will know.

Stacy Slade [00:16:28]:

Yes, I would love to know. In fact, actually, by AKC could tell us.

Scott Cowan [00:16:32]:

Okay, so for the audience that doesn’t really know much about Bernie’s mountain dogs, how about can you give us a little bit of the breed’s backstory?

Stacy Slade [00:16:42]:

Yeah, sure. The Bernie’s mountain dog. It’s a breed from Byrne, Switzerland. So it’s B-E-R-N-E-S-E-N as in Nancy. So Bernie’s and we call them burners for short. I will say that a lot of majority of all the reputable breeders I work with, we’d never use the word Bernie. I know that some people do. It actually crawls under my skin when people say that. Okay, sorry if I send any viewers. Yeah, we don’t use the word Bernie. It’s burner. Or Bernese or BMD.

Scott Cowan [00:17:16]:

Okay.

Stacy Slade [00:17:19]:

They are from Switzerland. It’s a farm dog. They’re a general farm dog. They’re a large breed, but not extra large. There should not really be over 150 pounds, 130. Something is about where a dog should fall within the standard.

Scott Cowan [00:17:34]:

So how big are your three?

Stacy Slade [00:17:37]:

Deuce is he named after Clint Dempsey from the Sounders, by the way? Deuce, okay. I’m a huge soccer fan, so that’s where that comes from. Deuce is 115 and he’s a champion. He’s perfectly in the standard size wise. Very nice. Bernie’s Chase is on the smaller side. She’s 89 pounds. Also, she’s a grand champion versatility dog within AKC. And then Frenzy is 94 pounds and she’s two.

Scott Cowan [00:18:14]:

Gives everyone a little bit of an idea.

Stacy Slade [00:18:17]:

Yeah. And that’s about my girls have fit everywhere between. I mean, Chase is the smallest one I’ve ever had at 88, 89. And then most of my boys never hit over 120. I keep them lean. That’s really important. And Scott for Bosley, you can hear Chase barking in the background. It’s really important to keep these guys lean so their joints don’t have extra weight on them. So you should be able to feel ribs easily. But the Bernie’s Mound dog is a general farm dog and eventually they evolved into pulling carts down from the mountains of cartons of milk, big metal things in Switzerland, down to the towns. And so that’s how the carding and the draught piece of what they were bred for comes into mind. And so when someone’s researching a breed and hears that, they should think, oh, it’s a carding dog. They pull things they like to pull. So this is a breed that is strong. They use their core mask to pull. So training them and giving them boundaries and having leadership with them is important. They’re big. That little cute little puppy that you have, that’s probably 50 pounds right now. He’s going to double that weight in about six months, and what you’re doing now will build him up for success later. And the cute behaviors, I think, are cute now at 50 pounds. They may not be so cute at 100 pounds.

Scott Cowan [00:19:48]:

Luckily, like I said, I’ve gone through this once before, right. But he’s exhibiting some of the same similarities he does. Let me ask you this question. Does the breed think they’re lap dogs?

Stacy Slade [00:19:58]:

Yes. There’s no personal space with the Bernie’s Mountain dog, right.

Scott Cowan [00:20:02]:

So he thinks he’s a lap dog at 50 ish pounds, and he’ll probably think he’s a lap dog at 100 ish pounds. And my lap won’t my wife won’t be, like, buried.

Stacy Slade [00:20:15]:

Yes, we have lots of photos of being buried by Bernese. The way I’m going to die, Scott, is I’ll be buried by Bruny’s mountain dogs.

Scott Cowan [00:20:22]:

Okay. At least you got that figured out. So let’s just 100 to 120 pounds. That seems like a reasonable range to work with here. Okay, so these are, you know, they’re not that’s a big dog. I mean, let’s, let’s be real. But that’s not a huge, you know, breed. But now, the other thing that I think people that don’t know much about Bernie’s Mountain dogs believe is that they don’t shed. That there’s no, there’s no no shedding. I’m kidding. They shed a lot.

Stacy Slade [00:20:58]:

They shed a lot. And so here’s the deal on the shedding thing. Majority of dogs shed, and even dogs that are hypoallergenic shed some I guess I’ll say hypoallergenic means that they don’t shed the dander, but majority of all dogs shed. And if you’re bringing a Bernie’s Mountain dog into your house, you have to be prepared for the hair. And if you aren’t prepared and don’t understand what that means, go to someone’s house before you buy a puppy to see what that hair means. And B, it’s not the dog’s fault. It’s part of it. Now, there are ways to manage it better than others. So, for example, my dogs, I obviously groom dog so, too, but my dogs get a bath every four to six weeks, and I have a grooming table, and I have a dog dryer. And that dog dryer gets all the dead coat out after I bathe them. The hair doesn’t come out in the bath. The hair comes out from the drying.

Scott Cowan [00:21:58]:

Okay.

Stacy Slade [00:21:59]:

So it’s a challenge for a lot of people to bathe their own dogs, but it is something that I recommend doing, especially if you have more than one and learning how to use a dog dryer. And I have on Sit Stacy with Stacy Slate on YouTube. I have grooming videos on how to trim the feet, how to trim the ears, how to blow the coat. And so that gets rid of a lot of the dead coat, and that helps turn the coat over. So when you see a dog that starts to push out tufts of hair, to me, that’s a dog that hasn’t been bathed or blown dry for a couple of months. And so you could mitigate that so you don’t hit that stage. Now, the girls generally, twice a year, blow all their coat. The boys tend to roll it or shed out maybe once a year, depending on the climate, too. And so you can use an undercoat rake. And, Scott, if you don’t have one of those, I’d be happy to share with you the link. But I use undercoat rake, and it’s not a Ferminator. It does not have a blade on it. It’s just times. It’s a greyhound cones. Makes a really good one that I like, but that’s the best grooming tool you can have for Bernie’s mountain dog.

Scott Cowan [00:23:14]:

Okay, let’s go back to four to six weeks. You’re bathing your dogs. You have three of them. Are you doing this all in one day, or do you like to stagger the fun and do this?

Stacy Slade [00:23:28]:

It doesn’t take me long because so I have a booster bath, and so I have an elevated bath outside. And I just moved to a new house, so I’m having a plumber come out to figure out how to get warm water outside. I don’t bathe them with cold water year round. Right now, in the summer, it’s okay, but not in the winter.

Scott Cowan [00:23:44]:

Okay.

Stacy Slade [00:23:45]:

So I have a booster bath. It takes me 15 minutes to wash a dog. I wash other people’s dogs that I show. So I groom a lot of dog. All right. And then it is a good hour, hour and a half of drying because you want to get them completely dry so they don’t get hot spots.

Scott Cowan [00:24:04]:

Hour to an hour and a half? In less than an hour to an hour and a half. Walk me through. What does that look like?

Stacy Slade [00:24:12]:

In less than is you still got to wash them. You still to dry them. I mean, honestly, I can’t recommend not drying them fully because they can get hot spots and infections on their skin.

Scott Cowan [00:24:23]:

Right. No, we don’t like that.

Stacy Slade [00:24:24]:

But my dog go swimming and dry off and don’t get hotspots, so I’m sure that you could, but you’re also drying them to get the dead coat out.

Scott Cowan [00:24:35]:

So this hour to an hour and a half, is this active drying time, or is this keeping okay.

Stacy Slade [00:24:42]:

Yeah. No, it’s a hose, and you’re getting the dead coat out and working the coat and combing it out.

Scott Cowan [00:24:49]:

Okay.

Stacy Slade [00:24:50]:

But I will say Chase has a shorter coat than Deuce. Doesn’t take as long.

Scott Cowan [00:24:54]:

Okay. Wow.

Stacy Slade [00:24:55]:

But it’s still a dedication to time, and you could probably get away with it every two months. People take their dogs to groomers, but.

Scott Cowan [00:25:08]:

Are groomers taking that much time to dry them out. Yes, they are a good reputable groomer.

Stacy Slade [00:25:15]:

Right. And that brings up a lot of problems that some people have. Is so temperament on Bernie’s Pound dog? We haven’t talked about that yet. Well, we’ve talked a little bit about how amazing they can be and loving. They can be a great family dog, they can be an amazing dog to own and have. But there’s also kind of the I want to say the ten to 20%. I hope it’s not that high of dogs that don’t have great temperaments and the better breeder. You get your dog from the breeder that’s doing things with their dogs and breeding good temperaments and proving that they have good temperaments by doing obedience and agility and dog showing and therapy dog or anything with their dog that proves their dog can function outside the home and the farm is good and with other people around. But sometimes, just like humans, we all have variations of personalities and temperaments. And so it’s important to set your dog up for success. Anything that you want them to do, you need to show them what it looks like before you force them into doing them. I say force kind of as not meaning force, because you don’t want to force your dog because that’s where anytime you force a Bernie’s Mountain dog, this is a working dog, this is not a golden retriever. You force a Bernie’s Mountain dog, you lose their trust. There’s a distinction of forcing in fear. I would never force a dog if they’re fearful because all you’re going to do is make that dog go way more fearful. I have a stubborn streak in some of my dogs that they may not want to do something and I will be like, I win this, you’re going to do this. And it’s not a scary thing. They’re just not wanting to like, for example, Frenzy doesn’t like to get up into the bathtub. She’s fully aware of what’s going to happen. She’s not scared. That dog has never been scared of anything in her life and she just doesn’t want to do it. So I do make her do that and I would battle, but I would never force a dog who’s fearful right now. That seems so I think with grooming and with anything anywhere, you’re going to take your dog in a crate, flying anything that could be different than what it looks like and practice it.

Scott Cowan [00:27:44]:

That’s great advice.

Stacy Slade [00:27:47]:

Sorry we got into the training part.

Scott Cowan [00:27:49]:

No, this is my passion. No, this is awesome. Well, let’s go down this road a little differently. So your YouTube channel?

Stacy Slade [00:27:58]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:28:00]:

What was the motivation to start this?

Stacy Slade [00:28:03]:

Yeah, it’s a modest channel. It’s humble in size, but it’s impacted for a lot of people. For example, yourself. That what I set out to catalog and kind of capture the process that it took me to get Chase into the cart. So, for example, talking about showing what it looks like. Chase was scared of the shafts on the cart because the shafts are static. And so this cart follows around and she was having none of it. And you can’t force them because again, if you force them, then you got a dog in fear. A dog can’t sink when they’re in fear and they can’t enjoy what they’re doing. So you have to take a step back and it’s called training. And I learned through my friend Ruth in Miss AMA mountains. She’s a draft judge. We took it off little bits at a time and introduced different parts of it. Like she ate her meals within the shafts for a long time and then she ate her meals and then the shafts came up a little bit and then they went back and then they touched her. So it was just these small increments. And I cataloged that in videos. At first when I started doing this, and I think a lot of us start doing something like this and put ourselves out there, I was like, oh gosh, I’m not a trainer in the world. Like I’m not certified. I’ve just been doing this my whole life. I’ve got 30 years experience, but yet to put something out there, this is how I do it. All my first videos are like, there’s so many ways to do it. You don’t have to do it my way. It’s qualifying, qualifying. And I got so much feedback that people really enjoyed watching them and learning from me. I’m like, okay, well, you know what, it is what it is and putting myself out there. And people can choose to do it or not do it. I’m not saying this is the only way.

Scott Cowan [00:29:49]:

Well, I mean, I think a lot of times with any topic, when you’re watching an expert doing something, if somebody comes across and they’re not intending to necessarily do this, but if somebody’s coming across as like, well, these are my credentials and I do all these things, it almost seems daunting that, can I do this? Because this person has this platter of certificates. Whereas if somebody just can break it down so that the novice can have a little bit of confidence and build on that with a little bit of success. And I think that’s one of the things I like about your videos is that they’re approachable, they’re not overwhelming or intimidating in the sense like, I’m never going to get him to do that or I’m not going to be able to do model.

Stacy Slade [00:30:41]:

Dogs are not perfect. My dogs don’t have perfect behavior, that is for sure, but we work on making it better behavior. And I think I like to share how I approach this and majority of the times it works, sometimes it doesn’t. And I think that’s the thing about with dog training is there are many ways to get a result and this is the way I’m choosing. And if somebody else has a different method or they want to find fault with mine, that’s totally fine. Everybody does. I’ve watched some of my videos and I’m like, oh, I shouldn’t have done that. But so it’s been actually a really good learning tool for me. As I learn, I can see myself and I’m like, oh, I’m doing something there I don’t like. And so I can modify that.

Scott Cowan [00:31:32]:

Nobody says anything mean on the Internet.

Stacy Slade [00:31:36]:

Well, it’s interesting. Every once in a while I’ll get a comment about, well, you should have done this and this and that. I use string cheese for training, and somebody has an opinion that you should never give your dog cheese. And I’m like that’s. Great. They have that opinion, but been doing it for 30 years and no adverse effects. And everybody I know that trains dogs uses string cheese, so everybody has an opinion, I think is what you learn when you put yourself out there on social media.

Scott Cowan [00:32:07]:

Okay, I can sit and talk all day long, and yes, we have the cameras rolling right now, but I don’t publish the videos of these things because I don’t really want to see myself on a screen on YouTube. Thanks. The checks in the mail. The point, though, is that I’m terrified of being on video personally. It’s absolutely terrifying to me. So whenever somebody has the courage to do YouTube or TikTok or whatever, I’m always like, so how’d you get started? I mean, those first videos were probably rough for you both from how do you get it started? Everything’s overwhelming when you’re learning something new, right? But you persevere. And how many videos do you have now? Approximately?

Stacy Slade [00:32:48]:

You know what, I haven’t looked for a little while, and to be honest, all transparency. I haven’t put too many videos up this year with moving. I think I have over, I want to say 200 to 260. A large catalog. A large catalog. And the beginning ones were rough. And I have a cousin who works in tech in San Francisco, and he wanted to use Mice Channel as a beta for something. And he goes, okay, we’re going to start this call out. Just we’re going to give you a mulligan. Turn your camera horizontal. It’s YouTube. It’s a horizontal format. I was like, oh, okay, yeah, thank you.

Scott Cowan [00:33:27]:

But yet if you want to do it on Instagram, you got to turn it vertical. What do you do? How do you win?

Stacy Slade [00:33:31]:

Well, and somebody at some point is like, you need to get on TikTok. There’s not a reputable breeder that’s doing good videos on TikTok, and that format is horizontal. And I’m like, I can’t do both. I’m going to do one thing well.

Scott Cowan [00:33:43]:

Instead of well, there’s ways to not that we want to go down to the technical challenge, but there’s ways to take your video from a horizontal format and turn it into a vertical format.

Stacy Slade [00:33:53]:

But again, pretty straightforward. How much time do I want to spend?

Scott Cowan [00:33:57]:

Well, so that leads to I mean, this is something I hadn’t probably prepared you for, and I haven’t looked at this, so I don’t know. Are you trying to monetize the channel at all?

Stacy Slade [00:34:05]:

Do you have it monetized pretty quickly?

Scott Cowan [00:34:08]:

It did, yeah.

Stacy Slade [00:34:09]:

I mean, it’s modest. It doesn’t bring in much at all, but I did in COVID it it was very when COVID hit it monetized incredibly quickly because everybody went out and got dogs and everybody was home to train their dog. And that’s actually when the channel took a turn to be more educational about the breed and about how to own a Bernie’s mound dog, not how to just train. And I’ll tell you that that’s been the most impactful part of the sit stacy, with Stacy Slade, is to have to help people find reputable breeders, because that is a passion of mine and this breed. So we’ve talked about some of the good things about the breed and the shedding negative, but it’s part of it is that this breed also does have some health challenges. The longevity of the breed is seven to nine years, and it’s important, especially with this breed, to get a puppy from a reputable breeder. And a lot of people hear that, and they’re like, yeah, I want a reputable from a reputable breeder. But they have no idea how to find one. They have no idea what that looks like. What does that mean? So I tried to put some basic building blocks up for people to understand what a reptile breeder means. And within that definition, there’s still some variability. But the biggest thing that I share is that if you own a Bernie’s mountain dog, you should know about the health database called Bernergard. And it’s Bernerguard.org. I’ll spell that. Okay, perfect.

Scott Cowan [00:35:55]:

No, you’re going to spell it, but I’m going to put a link to it.

Stacy Slade [00:35:58]:

No, I should, because I learned from one of my videos, I can’t spell on the spot.

Scott Cowan [00:36:02]:

Okay, so we’re going to put a link to there’ll be a link to Bernese guard for people to because it is an amazing resource. It’s kind of overwhelming, frankly.

Stacy Slade [00:36:11]:

It is overwhelming. But as a breeder and someone who looks for health clearances on any dog I’m going to breed, that’s where I go to, and the database is there for everyone. It’s free, not just to look at, but to use. So Bosley should have his own profile in Bernergard and he should have photos up there. And if you are doing any health clearances on him, you put those in there for your breeder to have that resource, to understand what they bred. So, for example, all of my puppies, so Frenzy’s litter turned two yesterday. On July 1, they will all go get their hips and elbows X ray. So I know what joint health I’m producing in my litter. They’re not being shown two of them. Well, one of them, whatever. If they show or not show, it doesn’t matter. It’s the genetics of what I’m producing.

Scott Cowan [00:37:02]:

Right. So, for the audience, what are some of the health issues that this breed has?

Stacy Slade [00:37:13]:

Sadly, the immune systems in Bernie’s Mountain dogs are pretty sensitive. So if there’s a disease in dogs, it seems like we can have it. The biggest is joint disease and cancer. So dysplasia. So hip and elbow dysplasia. So the very basics on buying a puppy is to make sure the parents have clean and good joint formation. So ofa Orthopedic Foundation. America is the only registration registry with and then there’s also pen hip for hips. But Ofa is the main general one everybody uses to get clearance on the hips and elbows. If a dog doesn’t have a clearance on hips and elbows, it’s a conversation I’m having with the breeder. Why are you breeding this? And let’s talk about it. And I could go down a rabbit hole there, but that’s probably all I’ll say on the joints, is that it’s really important to me to produce puppies that can be puppies and that people aren’t having to get elbow or hip surgery at a year old because their dog can’t walk. It happens frequently in this breed. So finding the right breeder that is breeding for health is important. The caveat with that is this is an animal. It’s genetics. That doesn’t mean I could do all the right things and breed an excellent to an excellent or excellent to a good and still get a dog that has dysplasia. But what you’ll get from me is lifelong support. You’ll get the education. If I don’t know the answer to something, I have 200 other breeders I’m friends with that I can get the answer pretty darn quick. And some are resource. So that’s the joints temperament we’ve talked about is also coming from a good breeder. And if you have a dog that has a challenging temperament, that good breeder will give you help and resources and be with you every step of the way. The other health issues cancer. Seven to nine years old. These dogs tend to die of cancer young, and we do a lot of research. So Bernese guard goes back into that. Whenever I’ve had a dog pass from histiocytic sarcoma, which is they call it the burner cancer. Unfortunately, I submit tumors and blood to research. And so we are constantly trying to figure out how to breed away from histio is what we call it. And we’re getting there. We have some preliminary genetic information that we’re using. And then heart and eyes are something people like to like. It’s okay. I don’t have to worry about that. We have heart disease in this breed. Sub aortic stenosis SAS is a disease that is devastating. A dog can essentially die at two years old because her heart stops. So making sure that the parents of your dog do not have a clear heart. Eyes there’s cataracts get eyes cleared. So those four things are really important to me. There’s some other genetic tests of degenerative myelopathy that affects a very small percentage of Bernice mountain dogs. But if it’s in the line, I would want to know about it. Again, decision making about a pedigree, and that information is in Bernese guard. So if I have, like, one of my dogs had a grandparent that had degenerative myelopathy, that will be in the health portion of that dog going down that rabbit hole of searching through the pedigree. So if you ever have done like, ancestry dog or anything like that, that’s.

Scott Cowan [00:40:53]:

What I was just thinking.

Stacy Slade [00:40:55]:

That’s what this is. And you can just kind of spend some time and finding out, like, health reputable breeders. We’re putting in what our dogs are dying of and what age. So Scott, you could go in and look at Bosley’s grandparents. Ideally, his parents are both still alive. He’s super young. But grandparents and great grandparents, you can go see what age they died and what they died of. I’ll be honest, I’ve been in this breed for 22 years. Those things are important to see because they do come back.

Scott Cowan [00:41:29]:

One of the things that I just I tend to try to keep the show relatively on the brighter Slade versus going negative. No, but one of the things no, this is fine, but one of the things I just have this thought is like seven to nine years isn’t all that long. And when this little guy is changing so much every day, it’s like almost like, slow down, just slow down. Don’t don’t grow up so quick, you know, because it just means time is passing, which is really silly of me to think that time isn’t going to listen or time is going to listen to me.

Stacy Slade [00:42:05]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:42:05]:

But he literally changes every day, it seems like. And he’s just growing. I mean, he doesn’t look like a puppy anymore. He’s got a very his, his well, his face looks mature now.

Stacy Slade [00:42:22]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:42:22]:

You know, he’s got he’s getting that the blocky head. He’s getting that kind of the deep, dark eyes, and he’s he doesn’t look like a puppy. I was looking the photos the other day, and it’s like he’s starting to.

Stacy Slade [00:42:33]:

Look like a teenager.

Scott Cowan [00:42:35]:

Yeah, he’s kind of got that gangly. He’s got some coordination issues. He’s growing into himself.

Stacy Slade [00:42:43]:

It’s a good point. And what is it? The days are long, but the years are short.

Scott Cowan [00:42:48]:

Yeah. Yeah, that’s that’s a great way of looking.

Stacy Slade [00:42:51]:

And something I always tell people is like, half the time I can’t remember puppy antics because they grow up so quickly and a lot of people are turned off by the longevity. But we do have dogs that live to ten and eleven and twelve. So it does happen, and it happens more often than it sounds like it does, but it does happen. But what I will say, and this is what I do tell people, and this dog has been, and I get teary eyed thinking about it, is this breed is wrapped around my heart. These dogs come into your life and they are a part of it. They are a family member. They’re not outdoor dogs. They are family members. So if you can’t get there in the house, don’t get a Bernie’s Mound dog. They’re a very special breed. They fall in love with you. And there was a point in time where I lost two, right in a row, two very special dogs to me. And I had a flash of I can’t do this anymore. And then I looked at Chase, her daughter, and I’m like, but I love her and they’re my family. And so it’s not for the week of heart because it can get you, but that’s why you have multiple. And when you get multiple, I dog say that you stagger them by two years. And the reason I always tell people that is that a two year old, you’re fairly well done training. They’ve got the idea, I mean, you’re training all the way up into that because they’re not mature until about two and three years old, right? And so you continue training. You go to class for at least a year, if not longer, because their brain, like, as you said, Bosley, is not coordinated. Well, the world continues to change of how they perceive it, how they look at it, and how they navigate it. And so a lot of people go through puppy kindergarten. They said, My dog knows everything. Well, that doesn’t necessarily translate to a teenager. Preteen teenager and 20 year old is what I’ll say. As a college kid, we perceive things differently. So you have to keep training them in how their perception changes as they grow. And a lot of people say, my dog knew everything. And at six, seven months, they started ignoring me and kind of flipping me the bird and all this. And I’m like, that’s the adolescence.

Scott Cowan [00:45:17]:

It’s a thing.

Stacy Slade [00:45:18]:

I had the best train. Hazy was like, she was my pandemic puppy. I trained her every day. We did all the trick titles. A lot of my videos are of Hazy. Everybody sells with hazy. And then at seven months old, I’m like, oh, I don’t want to sell her out, but she’s so just ignoring me. She would walk away from me like, no, I don’t want to do that, mom, thanks. I’m like, okay, we’re going to do an adolescent video. And I have that on my YouTube channel. And you know how parents have to come up with a different communication style. For me, what used to work doesn’t work. And so instead of saying come, which she was not doing, I would just tell her to down, and she loved her down, so she’d lay down and then I’d walk to her and I’m like, okay, this is going to work for now.

Scott Cowan [00:46:05]:

Good enough for you?

Stacy Slade [00:46:06]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:46:09]:

I don’t normally ask my guests questions that are financial, but I think this question is probably one that you’re willing to answer. I think. Yeah, three of them. What’s your monthly food bill?

Stacy Slade [00:46:25]:

It’s a lot and there’s many different ways to feed. Bernie’s Raw is probably a great way, but I can’t afford it. It’s expensive, but it is a great way to feed a dog, and it’s healthy. Everything is going up in price right now. It’s a consideration. And I’ve heard many of my friends who breed that say, because the vet situation, it’s very hard to get into a veterinarian right now, and emergencies happen. You’re waiting, and it’s incredibly scary, especially if you’re breeding and have reproduction issues. It’s very scary right now. So it is a consideration. The finances of a Bernie’s mountain dog, like everything else, they are more expensive than they used to be to buy and to take care of. And I always tell people, if they’re struggling to come up with the money to buy a puppy, it’s really a down payment. There’s something’s going to go wrong. Vet bills are expensive. There’s pet insurance out there for good reason. I recommend getting that on puppies, especially if you get from a breeder that you don’t know of the hips and elbows on the parents, because you could be facing some orthopedic surgery. But I think that it’s important to be able to take care of the animals that you purchase. And when I bought this house, I have a little barn and little pasture, and I’m like, I could do all these things. And I don’t want to pay for a farm animal because it’s a responsibility beyond just buying the dog. But, yeah, it’s the food bill. We go through a bag of food every I don’t know, I want to say every two to three weeks. I just have them keep coming so I don’t keep track.

Scott Cowan [00:48:08]:

So what are you feeding them?

Stacy Slade [00:48:11]:

That’s a great question, and I avoid that answering that at all cost. And the reason why well, no, and I’ll show you why is because every dog is different. And I work in healthcare, and I ask a GI physician, what’s the ideal diet for your gut? And he goes, It depends on who you are. So it’s the same with dogs. So feed what works, but educate yourself on what’s quality and what’s marketing. And I will say the dog food business is a $4 billion industry. Majority of what you see and are buying into is marketing. The grain free gosh, the puppy formulas, all these things that used to not be. So what I tell people is feed what your breeder is feeding for at least a month. It’s the only thing you can keep constant in a puppy’s life that completely everything else in their life changed. So keep them on the same food the breeder fed for at least a month. When you transition to if for Bernie’s mountain dog, it’d be a large breed puppy food. I would take three weeks to make that transition. Slowly so you don’t upset their gut. Add a daily probiotic at some point. I always add, like, a green lip muscle for their joints. Vitamin C, vitamin A.

Scott Cowan [00:49:36]:

What?

Stacy Slade [00:49:36]:

Green lipped muscle. Glucosamine classic is what I use. Green lipped muscle is a it helps the joints. It’s a it’s a joint supplement. I don’t use glucosamine and conjoitin. But you can it’s similar to conjoitin. It’s muscle. Like, green lip muscle is similar to conjoitin, and it it helps the muscles or excuse me, the joints. And then at about five to six months, I use vitamin C to help the cartilage in the growing joints and fish oil. So those are what I use as a breeder. There are two formulas that have actually scientific testing behind them, which is pure Pro Plan and Science Diet. My caveat is I don’t feed Science Diet unless a dog has to go on a vet prescribed formula. So unless you’re having issues, medical issues with your dog, I don’t use science. I don’t love the ingredients. Pro Plan is what I have used for a number of reasons. Is it the best food out there. It’s the food that works. So there are other foods that are higher quality than Purina Pro Plan. But Purina pro plan has been scientifically backed with trials with Purina. So that’s the information I have on that everything. Just look at how many types of food there are. It’s all marketing, and everybody comes out with staggering yeah, everybody comes out with their new food. I did a whole video on food, and it was hard to do because I don’t like to give specific information because what I do may not work for other people.

Scott Cowan [00:51:27]:

Right.

Stacy Slade [00:51:30]:

Yeah, it’s a hard one. And the other question I see a lot on all the Facebook groups is I feed my dog puppy, and when should I transition? And first ask your vet. I’m not a veterinarian. You’re not a vet as a breeder, because there used to not be large breed puppy food, because, again, that’s a marketing is. I went to adult, and so I had changed from puppy food to, like, actual puppy food, not necessarily large breed puppy food as a breeder. Sorry. From three weeks to eight weeks, I’m feeding puppy food because they are rapid growth. Regular puppy food is for rapid growth. I then switch or I start with large breed puppy food as a baby. Either way, that works for the babies. At eight weeks old, they can have puppy food for another few weeks. But I go to a large breed puppy food for a month or two and or I just go straight to adult food because adult regular adult food, not large breed. Just again, I hate saying this, but I use prenaproplan salmon, sensitive stomach, and they all get that starting at four weeks old and on. Now, what I do, I do mix foods. I bring in a different bag of different proteins and I mix it because nobody wants to eat the same thing their whole life. So I use toxers I use bone broth, I put ground beef, chicken, pork, different stuff. I mix in the foods. Yogurt, goat, keefer. My dog get good food and they get it mixed in. So, yeah, I don’t do grain free. That was a whole human thing. That was the whole gluten free, grain free. No dogs are omnivores or excuse me, they eat meat, they’re carnivores, and so they’re not omnivores. Yeah, it’s complicated. It does behoove you to research the good brands. There are many of them out there. Yeah, it’s a subject that is hard. And I’ve worked with a nutritionist, too, because I don’t know and I don’t retain a lot of that information. I fed raw to my top show dog for a long time, and that worked really well for him. His coat was amazing. They poop less. Their teeth are clean, their ears are clean. Like, their body just is so much. It’s just such a cleaner food.

Scott Cowan [00:54:07]:

Right.

Stacy Slade [00:54:08]:

If you can afford to do raw, I would do raw. And I sourced raw many different ways. It wasn’t just a cut.

Scott Cowan [00:54:16]:

Right. This has all been applicable to anybody, anywhere, listening, which is great, but we’re always about Washington State, so why don’t we talk about the Bernie’s Mountain Dog Club of Seattle, which is kind of the Northwest chapter. I know that, but it’s got Seattle in the name so we can talk about it. What’s your involvement there?

Stacy Slade [00:54:40]:

Yeah. So the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of Greater Seattle is an AKC licensed club for Bernie’s mountain dog owners and enthusiasts. You don’t have to own one to join. And it’s been around for 40 years. Well, now I’m 42 years. We hold draft tests. We have events all throughout the year. We have camp outs, we have draft tests, we have burner and brews. Personally, my favorite, I love going to the brewery with my dog. Plenty of breweries in Washington. I’m looking for good ones in Covington. Well, we don’t have any in Covington. I have to go to Maple Valley or Kent or Renton. But anyway, I’m still looking for that. And we have meetings, but it’s all burner get togethers. The dogs love to run and frolic. We do draft tests, we do confirmation fun matches. We do may fest up in Leavenworth. We put on the Burner parade up there in Leavenworth every May. We have so many fun events for burner enthusiasts. It’s a nominal fee to join. You just have to get to know someone in the club so we know who’s joining and happy to answer any questions. I’m the president of the club this year. I’ve been a member of the club for, I don’t know, probably 15 years. And what I will say about the club is I have some of my best friends from that club and the people I’ve met are my dearest friends and people I talk to and work with daily.

Scott Cowan [00:56:14]:

That’s great. You’ve danced well. We haven’t danced around it, but we haven’t really explored. See how I work that in showing dogs? Yeah, we haven’t talked about that. You’ve had a little success, I think.

Stacy Slade [00:56:34]:

Little success.

Scott Cowan [00:56:37]:

Why don’t we talk about that?

Stacy Slade [00:56:38]:

Yeah. So like I said in the beginning, I started showing in four H as a little kid, and I was pretty terrible when I started.

Scott Cowan [00:56:48]:

You were a little kid?

Stacy Slade [00:56:50]:

But I’m very competitive and I started to realize that if I watched the kids who were good, I could get better.

Scott Cowan [00:56:58]:

Smart.

Stacy Slade [00:56:58]:

So my best friend Sarah and I grew up showing dogs together, and she likes poodles, I like Bernie’s Mountain Dogs, and we did not have those breeds as kids. And when I decided to buy a show dog in Ohio, I started learning AKC Confirmation. And again, pretty terrible when I started. My dog was good. Thankfully, that helped us, but I had to learn. And I’m a student of the craft. I love to watch. I video myself, I take photos. I just try to get better and better. I’m super competitive. Sports is my other passion. And so with the dogs, I kind of took that mentality in, is to try and be better, to better myself just through learning. And I do show dogs for other people, so I’m a handler. I mainly stick to Bernie’s Mountain Dogs, but I’m happy to show other breeds as well. Generally, the bigger the better. Great Danes are fun, like showing a pony. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing dog named Tag. He passed in 2018, but he won our national specialty. And I handled him all myself, did everything myself. And he took a Best in Show. AKC best In Show? And then our crowning moment, which I get super teary eyed and choked up thinking about it, we went to Madison Square Garden for Westminster Kennel Club in New York, and he took a group, four in, sold out Madison Square Garden. And it was I’ll never forget it.

Scott Cowan [00:58:40]:

Yeah, that’s a small accomplishment.

Stacy Slade [00:58:44]:

It was amazing.

Scott Cowan [00:58:46]:

That’s crazy. I don’t know.

Stacy Slade [00:58:50]:

Yeah. Sold out Madison Square Garden. Cheering for you was I mean, I’ve been in sports. I’ve worked in sports my whole life and seen those moments for the teams I’m cheering for. And it’s such a different experience when all of a sudden you get people yelling, Pick the burner. Out in the crowd. You’re like, oh, my gosh, that’s for me. And the guy that’s done this, who is a professional handler, right in front of me, he goes, You’ve got some serious fans here. And everybody started yelling, Pick the burner. That’s awesome. It was an experience of a lifetime, not only for me, but for many other people that were part of the world. That was Tag. And I called him Tagosaurus. He was an amazing dog. And the link that he and I had, the bond, he’s with me always. Everything I dog is for him.

Scott Cowan [00:59:41]:

So he was your dog? Yes. Okay, so I get that. So one of the things when I think about things is when you’re showing and this is what I imagine when you’re showing your dog, you have this connection, you’re with the dog, 24/7 if you will, they live with you, their family. As a handler, though, you’re taking somebody else’s you’re babysitting for lack of maybe a correct statement. So what do you have to do differently?

Stacy Slade [01:00:12]:

No, it is an interesting art and some I can bond with, some it’s harder. If the dog is super into mom, it’s harder to get that dog. But I’m paid to get that dog to look the best it can. And because I have my hands on so many different Bernie’s Mound dogs, hundreds of dogs that I’ve shown, I know how to present that dog to its best, even though it’s not doing what I would like it to do necessarily.

Scott Cowan [01:00:46]:

Okay.

Stacy Slade [01:00:47]:

But again, if a dog’s fearful, it’s a no go. And I don’t force a dog to do something they’re scared of. And it can be for some dogs if they’re not socialized and are shown what is going to happen because a judge is going over the dog, essentially. And so a stranger is putting their hands on the dog. And if that has never that dog in the practice, so we practice. I have a dog right now that I’m showing Blade and he’s sitting right here on that heart too. He’s a special boy and he actually just came off winning a huge Best in Show win for him and then followed the next day with a reserve Best in Show out in Montana. And to make that successful, I put what I learned with Tag and the owners have been they understood that this was part of it. To get Blade to show is he had to trust me and we’ve built a huge bond. But I have also spent a lot of time with him.

Scott Cowan [01:01:50]:

That’s an interesting question. So when you’re handling the dog, are they staying with you? What’s that look like?

Stacy Slade [01:01:59]:

Many professional handlers do take the dog for a year or two when people send them out to be campaigned now to show a dog and get a championship, you don’t campaign it. You bring it to the show and the handler takes it. But I work with them. I’m the fun person. I’m the pez dispenser of food. I make showing fun. It’s not you will do this. It’s like, let’s do this. If you watch my videos. It’s more about getting the dog jazzed to do something in all of your training and not you. Need to do this. Because the second like you tell a kid, it’s the same thing. Dogs are like kids in a lot of ways. The second they say, you need to do this, they’re like, Dude, peace out. I’m no longer interested in doing this. But if you’re like. Okay, let’s do this. Come on, come on. We’re going to do this. They’re like, okay, this sounds fun. Let’s do this. So that’s where the skill and experience level comes in, is I’m not worried about the showing part. I know what I’m doing. So it’s just trying to get the dog to do what I need it to do.

Scott Cowan [01:02:57]:

Okay.

Stacy Slade [01:02:58]:

There’s a skill and experience level that professional handlers have, but with a dog, that blade came to us as an adult, and so he didn’t have the bond with any of us out here. He came from the East Coast. And so we had to work hard to develop that bond. And it took a long time, and we did it as a unit with him. So he had his people, and there was a lot of preparation for him to get to this point. He won the national specialty this year, which was phenomenal. He just won a Best in Show. And not many dogs have won those two things. Like I think I can count three in the last 15 years. So he’s there. He’s mentally there, but it’s a mental game for them. I think someone told me this when I was helping them train their dog. They’re like, Stacy, you don’t just train the dog. You’re telling us what our dog thinks, and that helps us understand what to do. And I kind of step back from that for a second is I think people forget that their dogs are thinking through what’s in front of them. It’s not just rote memory of. They obey, they sit, they down, they do what works. Frenzy has a horrible habit of barking. She barks a lot. In fact, I’m surprised she’s not in here barking at us. And she’s doing what works. And so I have to figure out a positive method to make that not work for her. And I’m 80% unsuccessful with that something I’m struggling with. And there are devices like a citronella collar. I won’t use a shock collar on a dog. That’s not a relationship I would ever want with a dog is to shock them, to do something. And so I’m working through that with her. And sometimes it’s just me listening to her. Kind of like a teenager. Sometimes sometimes you just have to listen. She has a lot to say, but I think dogs can you relate with that?

Scott Cowan [01:05:12]:

Yeah. Bosley’s finding his voice recently. It’s an interesting phenomenon.

Stacy Slade [01:05:17]:

I do think behavior wise is in the beginning. When she was a baby, she started barking at me for food. And I’m like, oh, no, we don’t do that. So I would stop and I’d make her down. And when she realized I stopped touching the food when she barked, she put those she’s very smart. So all I tell people is, if you’re having a behavior issue, try to think through it, what you’re doing to either exacerbate it or not stop it. If a dog is jumping up on you, are you putting your hands up because dogs are going for the food in your hands. So are you putting your hands up and the dog’s jumping on you because your hands are up? It’s really hard when we have a big dog coming at you, but if you keep your hands down and I watch that through my videos, my dogs you’ll see in my videos, my hazy and frenzy specifically jump on me a lot. It took me a while to realize that my hands were going up, and I’m like, okay, they’re following the food. It’s hard to change our behaviors, but dogs do what works, and they fill the void. So if you’re not giving them something else to do, let’s say you have a dog pacing around the house and stop pacing, give them something else to do. They can’t stop pacing because they’re filling the void. They need to do something. Frenzy, barking. If I start drilling her on her obedience and let’s go here, heal down, she stops barking. So she’s filling a void that for her, it’s filled with barking.

Scott Cowan [01:06:46]:

Okay, from the dog’s point of view, what do your dogs like to do when you’re not training them and they’re not sitting around the house? Where do they like to go?

Stacy Slade [01:06:56]:

We do a lot of things with our dogs, and that is actually the founding principle for me of having dogs. The dog ownership is my dad taught me. I had a Labrador retriever, my first dog, at five years old. You have dogs to do things with. So there are some breeds that are supposed to be little pillows and lap dogs. These are not it. These are dogs.

Scott Cowan [01:07:19]:

Well, they think they’re lap dogs. Once again, let’s reinforce.

Stacy Slade [01:07:23]:

They’re lap dogs, but that’s not all they do. And so we hike, we swim. My dogs go to the breweries with me. They get out. They have a rich life, and I feel that that’s super important for dog. But you have to do it young. You have to get them out so it’s not a scary environment. You have to show them what it looks like and take them places. Do rally obedience. You don’t ever have to compete. But learning new things for dogs builds their confidence. It builds their enriches, their life. It gives them things to do. There are scent games, there’s nosework, there’s tracking, there’s carding. Any interest you have with your dog, you can do. So there’s fast cat, which is sprinting, 100 yard dash. There is herding sheep. There is agility. It’s nonstop. And there’s something for everyone in the dog world. And I’m happy to answer any questions or help direct people to where to find those resources. It’s so rewarding. It’s so much fun. And to do something with your dog and to develop that relationship is something you’ll never regret.

Scott Cowan [01:08:40]:

Okay. Do you take all three of them every time, or do you take one they outweigh? No. Yeah. So do you go one at a time?

Stacy Slade [01:08:50]:

Yeah. If I’m going out, like, to a park or a brewery, it’s one at a time. I learned that lesson the hard way. It took me a while. Some people can’t so my dogs the way I train them. I said I ramp them up. I want a fired up dog, because that helps me when I show them. I can’t show a dog that mopes around the ring.

Scott Cowan [01:09:11]:

Right.

Stacy Slade [01:09:11]:

So my dogs have some energy, and that energy translates into a lot of they’re big, and so, like, Frenzy has a lot of prey drive. She likes to chase bunnies. I can’t have two dogs in my hands when she’s trying to chase something, so I have to redirect her and keep her in. So one dog at a time. That’s for my own health. And we go out a lot. Now I travel with all three but one. They’re in crates in my car. Safe way to travel if you can fit a crate in your car. I try and be safe.

Scott Cowan [01:09:50]:

Where’s a good hike for your dogs? Where do they like to go? Where’s it where’s a good hike that’s, you know, a little bit challenging, but not, you know yeah, well, they’re probably not doing Mailbox Peak.

Stacy Slade [01:10:01]:

Let’s put that well, you know, and I’ll be honest, moving down to the south, my frame of reference is all north. Bird Hill Park in Snowmish County was the big one. I grew up hiking. Love that place. Walls Falls, huge favorite of mine as well. Up there, those two come to mind. And I’m close to Tiger Mountain, so I’m hoping to get up there. I know, like Poo Poo Point, and there’s a lot in the Isaqua Alps that are really great hikes.

Scott Cowan [01:10:34]:

What breweries are dog friendly that you’ve been to all of them?

Stacy Slade [01:10:37]:

No, actually, in Pierce County, they don’t allow dogs. It’s sad. If the health department is listening, you need to change that. King county is nowhere. County have some amazing breweries. I’m actually actually headed up to Scoocom today up in Skadget County. I think it’s Gadget and Gosh Mcminiman’s in both. That’s probably the Anderson School. Yeah, you can’t get better than that.

Scott Cowan [01:11:05]:

Yeah, it’s a great place.

Stacy Slade [01:11:06]:

I love formula. My dogs see, they do too. They’re all barking now.

Scott Cowan [01:11:11]:

I don’t know if you can hear they’re hearing brewers.

Stacy Slade [01:11:13]:

They love to go. Yeah, I think Woodenville, you throw a penny and you find a brewery, and there’s so many good ones. There 20 corners, bosque. Yeah. There’s a lot of places that I love to go. Good brewing.

Scott Cowan [01:11:37]:

Okay. So I want to wrap this up to respect your time. So what question didn’t I I know what question I didn’t ask you. I always ask people I always ask people about coffee. So I have to ask you, are you a coffee drinker?

Stacy Slade [01:11:46]:

Used to be. I actually cut out all well, I drink tea, but I stopped coffee. I stopped drinking any calories except for libations.

Scott Cowan [01:11:58]:

But coffee, black coffee is only five calories. So you were drinking a latte.

Stacy Slade [01:12:04]:

I was drinking a latte, but it was more the money part. And then just I don’t like to be beholden to things vice.

Scott Cowan [01:12:13]:

Okay. All right, well, I cut it out.

Stacy Slade [01:12:16]:

Trying to be healthy.

Scott Cowan [01:12:17]:

All right, so what is the one question that I didn’t ask you that I should have?

Stacy Slade [01:12:21]:

That’s a great question, Scott. I like that. I think there’s two things I guess I would say, and I don’t know if you could have asked these, but for anybody looking into getting a puppy, regardless of the breed, but specifically Bernie’s Mountain Dogs is to reach out to a regional burner or breed club and talk to the breeders that are reputable, that have done that are dedicating their life to bettering the breed. It’s not about money. There’s a standard I breed to I don’t breed for money. I’ve spent more money than I made. I support my puppies through their entire life from good and bad. And you want a breeder like that, it is worth their weight and gold. And the knowledge I bring to my puppy owners and help them is what you’re buying. You’re not just buying the dog. You’re buying the knowledge and experience that I have. And that’s what you get with a reputable breeder, is someone who’s passionate and who cares about your dog through the whole life of the dog. You may never call me, but you can always call me. And so that’s, I think, what people are missing when they just go buy a dog and none of my dogs will ever end up in rescue. I’ll never contribute to the overpopulation of pets because I will take back any dog and find a home for it if somebody can’t keep it. So I think that those things are missed when people just want to go buy a dog because we got to have it now in a society. And so doing your research, reaching out to the people in the clubs, there’s regional clubs for every breed, and if they’re obscure breeds, there’s national clubs to find the good breeders. Two is people source a lot of questions on Facebook and get a lot of different answers. And I think it’s important to find the people that know what they’re doing, have the experience, and can guide you in the right way. And reaching out to your breeder would be the first thing I would always tell people. They answer a lot of questions on Facebook, and you see some scary answers out there that worry me, but I’m always happy to answer any questions people have. They find me through YouTube, through Facebook, through Instagram, through everything, and may not be immediate response, but I’m pretty quick. I’m helping people and getting the resources. And as you found out, it’s a passion of mine. I love it. I want people to be successful with their dog, and I want them to enjoy their dog, and I want the dogs to have a good life.

Scott Cowan [01:15:14]:

Absolutely. So you kind of named the names, but where’s the best place for people to find you? Online?

Stacy Slade [01:15:20]:

Yeah. So sit. Stay. With Stacy Slade is my YouTube channel can message me through there, and I think it’s connected to my email. I believe that’s how people find me, but on Facebook. I also have this at Stacy with Stacy Slade Facebook page that you can message me through. I’m on Instagram with sevens BMD, but that’s just more my sevens is my kettle name that I breed under. It’s a prefix are probably the biggest places that people can find me that can reach out.

Scott Cowan [01:15:53]:

All right, well, thank you very much. This was a lot of fun for me, and I’ve learned a lot, lot, lots more to learn, but I learned a lot, and that’s awesome. So I appreciate you taking the time, and I look forward to continuing following you on all well, primarily YouTube, because I don’t go to Facebook a whole lot.

Stacy Slade [01:16:11]:

Well, feel free to reach out if you have any questions and you’re about ready to hit the adolescent stage, so have fun with that.

Scott Cowan [01:16:19]:

Thank you.

Stacy Slade [01:16:20]:

Well, Bosley will be fantastic. You’re doing all the right things. So congrats on a phenomenal puppy.