The Pandemic Puppy Boom: A discussion with breeder Cherrie Mahon of River Valley Doodles

This episode is a second conversation with Cherrie Mahon, with whom Annie spoke last year (Episode 45: Let's talk about dog breeding with Cherrie Mahon). During quarantine Cherrie, like many breeders, has been inundated with applications. She and Annie discuss how breeders are dealing with the deluge, and think about what this boom might mean in the future for both puppy mills and shelters. Annie also answers a question from a listener whose puppy is jumping up when she tries to prepare food at the kitchen counter.
Episode 45: Let's talk about dog breeding with Cherrie Mahon

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

If you are listening to this, at least if you’re listening to this around now, I’m recording this in late summer 2020. I am going to guess you fall into at least one of the following three categories, perhaps all three. You have either recently gotten a puppy, you’ve thought about getting a puppy, or you know someone who has gotten a puppy, or is thinking about getting a puppy. Okay, I guess that’s four categories. And I think that’s because puppies are the opposite of death, destruction, pandemics. They can certainly cure depression. And a good time to get a puppy is when you are going to be spending a lot of time home.

I actually got my dog when I left a desk job. I spent exactly one year as a reporter at the New York Post, and I actually wrote their wedding section. I don’t know if they still have a wedding section. I wrote some other things there too, but that was my main gig. And I actually got fired. Well, it was kind of like a, I quit / You’re fired situation. But the issue at hand wasn’t the quality or content of my work. It was that I was instant messaging too much. That’s how old I am. I remember at the time thinking, “One day, this is going to seem hilarious, I have a feeling.”

I wasn’t even sending, like, sexy instant messages or anything. I wasn’t talking to my boyfriend. I was either talking to other reporters who worked at other places, I think, or I was talking to my mom. And I certainly wasn’t the only one instant messaging, but I guess they needed some kind of scapegoat and wanted to crack down on this practice. And Cole Allen, who was the editor in chief there at the time called me into his office. And it was pretty terrifying. I remember, he had a print out like an inch high of my instant messages.

And now here we are 15 years later, and basically all we all do is instant message. The president who’s instant messaging 200 times a day, also to other journalists, and my mom. Anyway, I’m telling the story only because after I left, after my ignominious departure from what was actually probably a very good job in right wing tabloid journalism, I started working from home. I was living in a ground floor apartment and in Brooklyn at the time. It had a little garden outside, kind of the perfect place for a dog.

So I was sort of thinking a little bit about getting a dog, but then what really made it happen was a guy I had dated for a few years, a boyfriend, I was like madly in love with him. He broke up with me and I was completely devastated. So I was sort of thinking a little bit about getting a dog, but then what really made it happen was a guy I had dated for a few years, a boyfriend, I was like madly in love with him. He broke up with me and I was completely devastated...

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/podcasts

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