Episode 78: Good Dog's Year in Review

Cat and Monica go over their favorite things that happened this year: from launching the Good Dog Store, to the Club Grant Program, to this podcast, and more! Let's take a look back at the highlights from 2021 as well as some sneak peaks into our plans for 2022! The Good Dog Pod will resume on January 12th. Happy Holidays!

Transcript

Cat Matloub [0:22] Hello, hello, and welcome to the Good Dog Pod! We are so excited to be your guest hosts today. I’m Cat Matloub, and I’ve got—

Monica DeBosscher [0:35] Monica DeBosscher—

CM [0:35] —joining me from the Good Dog team, and we are just absolutely thrilled to take a minute as we near the end of the year, which is just so crazy to me! I feel like time has lost all meaning over the past couple of years, and the fact that it’s going to be 2022 blows my mind. But take this moment in time to just pause for a minute and reflect on the absolutely amazing year we’ve had together, doing really, really, good/wonderful/great things together and talk about some of the things we’re excited for. I think, for me especially, during the crazy unprecedented, turbulent times of the past couple of years, getting to be a part of what we do here at Good Dog and getting to help support you all (dog breeders and dog buyers and dog owners) and really just helping to make those connections and help people find companions in dogs—I feel so lucky to be doing something so rewarding during these crazy times. Monica?

MD [1:37] I feel so lucky, too! Obviously for all of the reasons that you mentioned, but also that you and I got to do it together! 

CM [1:45] Isn’t that a fun story, too? Who would have thought? How many years ago we were whiling away in those corporate law offices. What were we doing? 

MD [1:56] Now here we are!

CM [1:58] Sweatshirts from our new merch store that say things like this! We are just crazy lucky to find ourselves here for so many reasons. It’s a bizarre path; two lawyers who are just obsessed with dogs and dog health and supporting dog breeders and education found themselves at a company called Good Dog and in community with all of you! So, Monica, I’ve been chatting a lot. Talk to me about what are some of your favorite things from the past year? Way to start it off! 

MD [2:30] (Sorry, I’m in Brooklyn; there’s a lot of noise. I feel like it makes it more lively!) I think one of my favorite things was the launch of the Good Dog Store! 

CM [2:43] Would you read what my sweatshirt says, please?

MD [2:45] Cat’s sweatshirt says: “Behind every good dog, there is always a good breeder.” Which you can get in our store! I have not debuted my new sweatshirt yet, which I recently ordered, which is a black crewneck. I’m pretty excited. Cat’s going to be very jealous, but I will be debuting that soon, maybe on a Facebook Live. I would say some of my other favorite things from this year: we’ve launched welcome webinars where we welcome new breeders to our community and people who have been in our community for a while can join. We just share everything there is to know about Good Dog, but it’s really nice for us to get a chance to connect with so many people. Also, it’s hard for me to keep up with everything that we offer, so it’s nice to learn! 

CM [3:26] And all the good ideas that our community has! All the feedback you have for us! I feel like we then started going from welcome webinars to weekly Facebook Lives. I don’t know if folks have been joining, but it’s just so amazing for us to be able to hear from you what we can do better, what we can build, how we can support you better, and it’s just amazing to hear about what all of you are doing and all the puppies you’re putting into the world and all the folks who you’re making so happy with new family members! What else, Monica?

MD [3:57] You want me to do another?

CM [3:58] You’re on a roll! 

MD [4:01] It’s tough. I’m going to go with Club Grant Program. 

CM [4:08] Oh, yeah, that was a good one. 

MD [4:09] I feel like we talked about it a lot, but we launched the Club Grant Program. We had been thinking about it for a while. I think with the pandemic, we just sort of wanted to make sure that clubs were getting all of the support that they needed, so we offered Good Dog grants to clubs of up to $2,000—really to use however clubs wanted to use them. We’ve given out over 70 this year, which is pretty exciting! They’ve helped with subsidizing membership dues, health testing, website redesigns, really anything and everything. I feel like that’s been amazing. 

CM [4:41] It’s so true! And also we’re so grateful we got a shoutout (today or yesterday?) in the St. Bernard Club of America newsletter for a grant that they’re using to do some health testing, which is just so awesome to see the great, great work y’all are doing. Such a privilege for us to get to support all the work that all the amazing clubs out there are doing. Definitely check them out if you haven’t. 

MD [5:09] You go! Your favorite things?

CM [5:10] Speaking of working with clubs, we also helped sponsor a health clinic through the Three Rivers Kennel Club at Purina Farms, which was really cool. We want to do much more of that as well, to help and support all of you and help you have healthy dogs. It’s hard and expensive to be responsible dog breeders, so we just are thrilled about anything we can do there!

MD [5:32] I don’t want to reveal anything too soon, but we do have another health clinic coming up in a couple of months. That’s just a teaser!

CM [5:40] I literally didn’t even know that. This is the first I’m hearing of it. 

MD [5:44] Well, thank goodness you joined today! 

CM [5:47] Thank goodness! What would I do without you, Monica? Honestly, shame on you, Monica, for forgetting truly one of my biggest highlights, which is very relevant for us as we sit here having this conversation: our podcast! You all! Our listeners! I can’t even! The statistics from this year have just blown my mind! We have had over 100,000 downloads. We’ve been downloaded in over 88 countries. Monica and I were googling how many countries there are in the world. We’ve made some solid progress!

MD [6:25] Almost half! Almost half of the countries in the world! 

CM [6:28] And some of them are more principality-type regions… It turns out that there’s not an exact number that everyone has agreed upon.

MD [6:37] We’re in a lot of them, which is exciting! 

CM [6:39] It’s a lot! And it is just amazing to connect with folks all around the globe who share our mission, who are doing the work out there. Oh my gosh: we can’t wait to get to your countries! Canada, we’re coming for you next! But we just want to be able to support all of you, everywhere you are, and are just thrilled to be able to continue. So, please, if you haven’t, write to us and let us know what you want to hear more of on our podcast. Who do you want to hear from? Experts you want to talk to? Episodes you want us to do a series on that you loved? Again, we’re here for you! You can always email us any time at—what’s the best email, Monica?

MD [7:16] BreederTeam@gooddog.com.

CM [7:20] BreederTeam@gooddog.com is a great email. You can also always do help@gooddog.com. That’ll get to us. We’ve got a lot of different ways. But, yeah, BreederTeam@gooddog.com is the one to use. Oh my gosh, and you know what else we did this year? 

MD [7:35] What? Tell me!

CM [7:36] We launched A-Z! Courses for our whole community! Which is just the beginning of what we’re going to do for breeder education. Foundational breeding courses—we launched those recently as well. Members of our community get access, totally for free, to just an incredible set of breeder education courses and resources of all kinds. We’ve got so much more in the pipeline and are so excited to get more of that out there. And, oh, Monica, I’m going to turn it over to you for another tiny little thing we did on the education front this year. Lest we forget with all of the highlights! A little thing called Good Dog’s Puppy Training Program.

MD [8:17] It’s hard for me to talk about the Puppy Training Program because I feel very jealous that I couldn’t use it when I had a puppy. But it’s incredible! It’s online courses that are taught by a woman named Sarah. She’s an amazing trainer and also a breeder. So your owners and you, as breeders, can take these courses. There’s a private Facebook group that Sarah’s in where your owners can ask any questions that they have. We have office hours that your owners can attend, which is amazing. They can ask all of their questions! I should be joining. 

CM [8:50] Live questions! Emails! You can ask questions in the Facebook group. They get guides, all downloadable PDFs. It’s really an awesome, awesome program. 

MD [9:00] It also goes until the dog is up to 15 months old, which is pretty incredible. It follows them through! 

CM [9:08] It sets them up for success and takes so much off of your plate in terms of not having to necessarily answer the same question over and over, because all of your puppy buyers and your new owners have this resource. Again, real-time questions, live coaching, any of that. With you having access to it before, it also really helps set up for a really successful transition, which is really super. It also is wrapped up in some other exciting announcements that we had this year… Monica?

MD [9:40] You mean payments?

CM [9:44] I do indeed.

MD [9:44] We re-launched our secure payment platform. We have an incredible new zero-fee option for your buyers, which means that your buyers can pay you through Good Dog—completely for free! No fees! You, as a breeder, are always protected. We protect you against fraudulent chargebacks, canceled payments, anything and everything. We always have your back. It’s pretty exciting.

CM [10:12] It’s really cool. I think it’s so core to our mission in terms of really being able to provide trust and peace of mind and support. It’s, I think, really exciting that buyers do have this option to pay no-fee but we’re so thrilled about being able to provide an option with protection and support, where they get access to all of the support that they need, including the Puppy Training Program and all sorts of things to really help focus on responsible dog ownership, which as all of you (who are doing so much in terms of responsible breeding and responsible ownership) know how important being a responsible dog owner is and how important it is for our dogs. Speaking for myself (shall I say) I did not spend enough time training my dog when I got him. I didn’t know the importance of it. To Monica’s point, I didn’t know where to get information, what’s trusted. So I think having something that can just set folks up—funnily enough, I was thinking I was so jealous. Our Head of People, Caitlin, came on board in the past couple of years. She got to use the Puppy Training Program. She had early access before we had it on Good Dog, and she was just like, “I can’t tell you how amazing this is! All these things!” So I think we have been and still are on a mission to support all of you dog breeders but also being able to support dog owners is the other half of the coin to help make the dog world a better place for all of our dogs and for everybody who loves dogs. It’s been a big, big year for us. What else? Oh my gosh! We also did a really exciting—another tidbit we’re going to breeze by. (Monica, one of us didn’t jot down some key highlights from the year!) We raised over $10,000 during Healthy Puppy Month to fund Parvo research at the Morris Animal Foundation. Monica, speaking of things relating to canine health, anything else we had on the agenda for 2021?

MD [12:11] We threw (no big deal!) just an incredible Health Symposium. Our Head of Health Standards and Research, Dr. Judi Stella, along with her team (Dr. Mikel, Dr. Nate) threw an incredible, incredible day, where we heard from so many experts in canine health. We had almost 3,000 people register to join us, which was incredible. 

CM [12:33] Amazing. What a committed community! Committed to health. It’s just so incredible to see. 

MD [12:42] I have another favorite thing. Are you ready? 

CM [12:45] Yeah, can I guess? 

MD [12:46] You guess.

CM [12:48] Does it have anything to do with one of our advisors, a certain Dr. Chris Zink?

MD [12:54] You got it. You go! You go!

CM [12:57] I was just thinking about our listeners, and our community just loves the education you’re putting out there, Chris! So thank you so, so much for what you’re doing, especially in spay and neuter and with how to exercise your dogs. I can honestly never say all of your credentials. I’ve never seen someone have so many. Our community loves it. It’s such critical info. To be able to participate in our first research study with you on alternatives to spay and neuter and to cap off our year—we could not be more humbled or excited to have you as an advisor and to get to work with you. You are truly a leader in the field. I get excited!

MD [13:39] Dr. Chris Zink, I want you to know that Cat never compliments me… 

CM [13:45] I can’t even with you, Monica! I compliment you all the time. I’m always giving you shout-outs. 

MD [13:52] Okay, I have one final last thing. I think you can guess. It has to do with the summer.

CM [13:57] Oh yeah! 

MD [13:59] We hosted a huge Breeder Appreciation Party at Westminster this summer. 

CM [14:04] And in Tarrytown. So many of you came out. Oh my gosh! We threw it with our partners, Embark and Trupanion. We had amazing Chris Christensen folks there. A show site. We are so excited because we are going to be sending around a save the date. What a transition, actually, Monica, into Part II of the podcast conversation. What are we most looking forward to in the year ahead? Why don’t we just kick things off with a little save the date info for our Westminster Happy Hour? We are locking it in and will send details, but a little teaser, Monica, that you want to share?

MD [14:39] Yes! We will be hosting another party. This is a teaser. It’s a pre-save-the-date. You’ll be getting something official. We’ll be hosting a Breeder Appreciation Party on January 25 from 4-6 if you want to pencil it in now. Do we want to reveal any other details?

CM [14:56] Yeah! It’s Westminster Weekend. As you know, we like to appreciate breeders when y’all are coming into town and congregating. We may have done it at this place before. Alcohol may be in the name of the venue.

MD [15:13] She’s being very secretive, but you will be getting a save the date. 

CM [15:15] I’m in the coy pond, you might say, Monica.

MD [15:19] What else are you looking forward to in 2022? 

CM [15:22] I’m going to turn it over to you. I feel like there are a couple of things that are really in your wheelhouse that I’m really excited to talk about.

MD [15:30] What should I start with?

CM [15:32] Something to do with toggling… owners… You choose!

MD [15:37] Toggling. Super excited! This is also a sneak-peak, but we’ll be announcing soon that we will be allowing all of the breeders on our site to publicly display their dogs’ health testing results directly on their profile pages. I think this is feedback we’ve heard from a lot of you. We know that you want to be able to showcase everything that you’re putting into your dogs. You want to be able to help educate the public about health testing, so it’s really part of our effort to really bring some transparency into all the incredible work that you’re doing. Again, it’s a teaser. You’ll be hearing about it.

CM [16:10] Thank you so much, Monica! With everything we do at Good Dog, it will be up to you to choose whether you want to input that and display it or not. Totally in your control! But very excited. A big part of our educating puppy buyers and owners around health testing and all that good stuff. What else?

MD [16:28] And we will also be revealing a new feature that will allow you to share stories and photos from your owners directly on your profile page. We’re super excited. We know that so many of you already feature this on your personal websites or on your Facebook pages. All of your buyers and owners love you, and we want to help you just create that community directly on your profile page.

CM [16:54] Oh my gosh! Getting to see the photos of the dogs! That community that y’all have with your owners and the support that you provide is just so special and something that we’re really excited to help you show off and help show just a little bit of what makes what you do so special. What else do we have? One more… 

MD [17:20] A small one. A small reveal. 

CM [17:22] A small big thing. 

MD [17:23] I’ll leave it to you. It’s a big reveal.

CM [17:25] Oh my gosh, Monica! She does this! She puts me on the spot. Well, I do have to say that this was requested at one of our prior Breeder Appreciation holiday parties. Actually, Monica, true story: was that not your first? 

MD [17:41] It was my first party! 

CM [17:43] I think that pre-dated even your start date. I had finally convinced her to come join me at Good Dog. This is 2019. She said I simply cannot for a while, but eventually I’ll come. So she was going to come in the new year. And I was like, “Okay, but you have to come and you have to come join me for this holiday party.” It was wonderful. It was incredible. The first annual. I hope all of you won’t miss the one that we’re doing tomorrow. Anyway, there were a lot of requests for breeders being interested in an app for their phone, a Good Dog app. So that is something that we have been working on (very, very excitedly so!) and have on our calendar. Again, this is a teaser, as Monica (the lawyer) continues to stress, the details of specifically what a teaser means? You’re talking to two lawyers. We’re really caveating our teasers here. But let me say I will not caveat the level of excitement that we have around getting an app into your hands to make your lives more convenient, easier, save you time, give you the ability to automatically (you can do this on our site already) in an app have automatic record-keeping with your conversations with buyers and applications from buyers, of your secure payments that you use with us for buyers, automatic invoices, ability to do everything right there, send messages. It’s so easy because when we’re thinking about what we can do to support you, it’s because we know that the more we can do to support you, the more you can spend time doing what is in everybody’s best interest, which is spending time with your dogs, spending time with your puppies. We want to make all the other stuff easier for you and are super excited about getting that into your hands. Hold me accountable! It shall happen in the year ahead! 2022 shall be the year of the app! 

MD [19:46] Our new slogan! 

CM [19:49] Our new slogan, and I think it’s going to be a game-changer (hopefully) in terms of saving y’all time. Again, we’ll hear from you. Once we get it in your hands, we’ll hear some feedback. We always want to know how we can make everything better and make those improvements. That’s just to get started! Honestly, we’re talking Q1 of next year, the beginning of next year. 

MD [20:09] And we will also be revealing… 

CM [20:13] Oh my goodness! Of course! Absolutely falls into both categories of favorite things from this year and one of the number one things that I am absolutely looking forward to, as I would imagine every single one of you will be as well once you hear the news if you haven’t heard it yet… But it is in fact true that the man, the myth, the legend—

MD [20:38] I was going to say that!

CM [20:39] —will be joining us for yet another webinar with our community. This is going to be a live event, a live Q&A with—yes, that’s right—Dr. Hutchinson. When’s that going to be? Wednesday, the 19th, 5-6PM EST! Mark your calendars, everybody! Wednesday, January 19! 5PM! Dr. Hutch will be back. You don’t want to miss it. We’re going to have to get some more teasers, though, and to let you know what we’ve got in store for later in 2022. Truly, thank you. Honestly, I’m not just saying this but our podcast listeners—aka YOU; each and everyone of you—was absolutely one of the highlights of my year and reinforces that we’re at a place doing something great that reinforces the good in the world. I think there’s something special about connecting with so many people around the world in this digital way around something good, around something positive. The level of connection we’ve reached together, as a community, was a silver lining in some of the challenges we’ve seen. It’s just been really amazing to have y’all on this journey with us. We couldn’t be here without you. We wouldn’t be a community without you. We wouldn’t be anything without all of you. Everyone at Good Dog wants to say truly, deeply, from the bottom of our hearts: thank you. 

MD [22:11] Thank you for being dog breeders!

CM [22:12] Thank you for being a part of our community! 

MD [22:17] Thank you for helping us build a better world for our dogs!

CM [22:20] Thank you for being our listeners. And cheers to 2022! We can’t wait for what’s to come and for what we’re going to do together. Cheers! Cheers to you!