Truffle Dogs on the Hunt | Dog Edition #12

>> James Jacobson: [00:00:00] Hi, I'm James Jacobson.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:00:07] And I'm Pamela Lorence. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:00:08] And welcome to Dog Edition. The first show designed for you to listen to while you walk your dogs. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:00:15] If you like what you hear today, follow Dog Edition in your favorite podcast app. Just click that little button and follow Dog Edition, so you never miss an episode.

>> James Jacobson: [00:00:23] So Pam, as we grow out our team here at Dog Podcast Network, we have this team that we, I affectionately call Team Dog. We have people all over the world who are helping to make these shows. And I've noticed that there are a couple of things. Obviously everyone on our team loves dogs. They're also foodies.

Have you noticed that? 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:00:40] Yeah, it's so fun that myself included. I'm a foodie.

>> James Jacobson: [00:00:44] Which is appropriate because today we are talking about a delicacy that many foodies really adore, and we're talking about truffles, not the chocolate kind. Yes. The kind that grow in the dirt under the roots of trees and have to be sniffed out by dogs.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:00:59] Yeah. So we actually have a colleague who works on the audio team who lives in Croatia and truffles are very common in Croatia. You, you've been there. You've tasted them. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:01:09] They are amazing. I have, I went to Croatia and the truffles are amazing and they do actually combine them in truffles into amazing chocolate.

But today we're just talking about the, the truffle, truffle.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:01:22] Right. And not just any truffle, but a truffle that grows in Northern California. And I got to go to a farm and meet this family of farmers who are cultivating truffles in the area and better still, I got to meet the dogs that hunt for these truffles.

That's in the first segment.

>> James Jacobson: [00:01:40] So a few weeks ago we did a story about Martha Teichner, who's the CBS News correspondent, new book. It's one of those only in New York kind of stories. It's kind of Nora Ephron-ish and listeners really loved it. Now you figure one of those New York stories only comes by, you know, once in a blue moon.

Well, maybe we have, I have a blue moon this month because it turns out that we have another one. And that is in our second segment.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:02:09] Ooh, lightning strikes twice. We also have a new feature today. Uh, Jim, do you want to, do you want to reveal what that's going to be? 

>> James Jacobson: [00:02:18] The hydrant. You know how when you walk your dogs, they sniff those hydrants because they're leaving messages for each other? Well, we're going to try to bring that into reality on, on Dog Edition today.

So if you love dogs, as much as we do pause what you're doing. Leash up your pup and let's take a walk. We've got a lot to talk about on today's episode of Dog Edition. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:02:40] Hey Pepper, want to go for a walk?

>> James Jacobson: [00:02:46] Somewhere, let's say North of San Francisco, California, but not all the way to the Oregon border. The Alexander Valley Truffle Company is working to make truffles as ubiquitous in the region as the well-known grapes and wines. Once gracing the tables of royalty across Europe centuries ago, this highly sought after delicacy is shrouded in mystery.

The location of the Alexander Valley Truffle Company is a closely guarded secret. They're cultivating the finicky fungus in their orchards, and they're patiently awaiting these fairy apples, as they're called, to grow underground. And when time comes, they will be ready because the best way to find a truffle is to employ a special dog, a Lagotto Romagnolo, a truffle hunting dog, and they have five of these dogs.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:03:43] A couple of weeks ago on a windy morning, I drove North to meet Fran Angerer, the patriarch of this family run company, he and one of his sons, Seth agreed to take me on a mock truffle hunt to see their dogs at work. Hey, how are you? Oh, my gosh. I'm such a city girl. I can sit and look at your chickens all day. On this farm, they're hoping to grow the tuber melanosporum or black truffle. In France, this is known as the Black Perigord. It's prized by chefs. There are over 1500 trees here inoculated with the spores of the black truffle.

>> Seth Angerer: [00:04:22] In the wild, the truffle is part of the root system. It's a symbiotic relationship between the host tree and the fungus.

So when you're cultivating them, you buy inoculated trees. So the trees are raised in a laboratory, in a slurry of inoculum, which is the spores. And once they take hold and they can prove that that tree is now inoculated, then you take the tree. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:04:49] You plant it, and then you cross your fingers. Fran Angerer. 

>> Fran Angerer: [00:04:54] The creation of the fruiting body is still a mystery.

Nobody knows what causes a fruiting body to form. Um, this orchard here is, will be nine years old this year. No truffles. The same trees from the same source one year before, and they've been producing now for three years. It's still a mystery. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:05:17] Since these mysterious truffles, haven't made an appearance in this orchard yet, Fran planted truffle targets before I got there, so I could see how the dogs find them. I was pretty excited about meeting the dogs. 

>> Fran Angerer: [00:05:30] My dog, Tuber was our first Lagotto and we got her in 2014 as a puppy. She was 12 weeks old. She's got a, she's a purebred Lagotto.

>> Seth Angerer: [00:05:44] That's Tuber. She's the Mama. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:05:46] While truffles are a family affair for the Angerers, they're also a family affair for these Lagotto Romagnolos and the matriarch Tuber Gianna was born to hunt truffles.

>> Fran Angerer: [00:05:57] And at 16 weeks we took her into the forest up in Oregon and she found 30 truffles her first time, her first day. The Lagotto seems to have a nose for truffles. And that's what they're known for is they're known as the truffle dogs.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:06:14] Her pups, Vito, and Bella joined us on the hunt. Luke stayed up at the house being more of a family dog.

They're all successful at finding truffles, though. I also got to meet Seth's dog, Leo, a hardworking and focused Lagotto who came from a championship bloodline.

>> Seth Angerer: [00:06:30] Leo, he either loves you or hate you. So you'll know, and I'll, I'll, I'll make sure he keeps his distance. And the other thing is when he's working, if I'm down on my hands, you know, if I'm doing this on the ground and he's kind of behind me, when somebody approaches, he might be protective.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:06:46] So safety overview completed. It was time to hunt. 

>> Fran Angerer: [00:06:53] Where's the truffle. Come on. Where's the truffle?

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:06:55] These dogs may work hard, but they are cute as can be. They have short wooly curls, a lavish beard, pensive looking eyebrows and whiskers. 

>> Fran Angerer: [00:07:04] Where's the truffle? 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:07:06] When Tuber finds a truffle, she gently paws the ground to show where it is.

>> Fran Angerer: [00:07:10] Whoops. Hey sit. Good girl. Good girl. Yeah, I know , it's there,. Huh? She says, I know it's their dad. Where's my treat. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:07:20] Fran pulls a giant bag of dog biscuits from a pocket and gives Tuber her reward for a job well done. Now, it's Leo's turn.

>> Seth Angerer: [00:07:28] Leo where is it? Check Leo, check Leo Leo check. Okay. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:07:32] When Seth tells Leo to check a spot, he watches carefully for Leo's subtle signal, a shift of the head, a paw tap on the ground.

Any display of interest may mean Leo detects a truffle underground. 

>> Seth Angerer: [00:07:44] You'll be walking and all of a sudden you'll notice a behavior change. Basically, their head goes from, it just gets focused., Their, their head will move and they'll start looking at a certain area. You might dig down. A truffle that's been growing there is basically part of the soil. You can't see it, you know, covered in mud. So you'll be digging around. And then if you can't find it, you'll ask the dog and the dog will kind of pinpoint it. So they'll go back in the hole and they'll show you again where it might be. Show me. And it could be, I've dug down before and made a hole 10 inches wide.

Can't find it. Can't find it. And I'm an inch off, you know, it's like, Oh no, it's over here. Sorry.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:08:27] These four dogs were on leashes. And I wondered if that's how they always hunted or if it was because I was in their workspace. 

>> Fran Angerer: [00:08:33] Most hunters hunt on a leash. I like hunting here. I can let these two off leash and they, I've got them trained. That's how I trained tuber was off-leash, and she's pretty good. She'll range 25, 30 yards around me. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:08:50] Wow.

>> Fran Angerer: [00:08:50] Because you want to be able to keep an eye on them so you can see when they Mark yeah. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:08:55] Lagotti, plural for Lagotto, date back to at least Renaissance, Italy. They were bred as waterfowl retrievers. Lago is Italian for Lake. 

>> Fran Angerer: [00:09:04] Bella, you thirsty?

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:09:06] But when the marshlands of Romagna in Northeastern, Italy were drained and turned into arable land that Lagotto evolved from being a water dog to being a truffle hunter.

They're the only dog specifically bred for this purpose.

A dog will mark the spot and the handler will use a blade to carefully dig four to six inches underground, smell the dirt because a ripe truffle will have a distinct odor and then sift through the dirt to find the truffle, which may be as small as a pea or as big as a one pound ball. 

>> Fran Angerer: [00:09:40] And if there's a good ripe, truffle there, yeah, look, look here's a good girl. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:09:48] Finding such a large truffle is rare, but when you do the reward is great. The current per pound market price in the U S for fresh commercial quality tuber melanosporum is between 600 and $900. It's the reason the locations of truffle farms and wild truffle hunting plots are kept so secret.

>> Seth Angerer: [00:10:08] In Spain and Italy and places that produce, they have people cut their fences and bring trained dogs in overnight and they'll harvest, they'll harvest as much as they can.

So that was partially about, the mention of security was, you know, it's like, you don't want to broadcast the location of a hotspot because people will unfortunately take advantage of it. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:10:33] Yeah. Leo spotted a Jack rabbit racing across the orchard. It was enough of a distraction that we decided to call it a day for the dogs.

Fran and Seth invited me up to their barn to tell me more about the fascinating history of truffle hunting and why truffle hunters prefer to use the Lagotto Romagnolo dogs instead of pigs, which had been used at one time.

>> Seth Angerer: [00:10:57] Try loading a 300 pound pig into your pickup truck. The other thing is pigs will bite your finger off in competition of the truffle. So yeah, dogs, you can train. Dogs or they are they're domestic. They love humans. They work with you. They want to please you. Whereas a pig is a pig and pigs are great. I'm not talking down on pigs.

>> Fran Angerer: [00:11:19] It was the truffle spots in the wild forest in Europe were tightly kept secret and they would hunt for the truffles at night.

The truffle hunters would. And in the family, the father wouldn't even pass down the information of where their spot was until he was ready to die. Then he would pass it on to his sons and say, this is where we get the truffles. And they would hunt them at night because they knew people would follow them because they knew they were truffle hunters.

And it was especially hard when you were walking your pigs down the road, because they know exactly where you're going. A pig on a leash and an old guy, that's a truffle hunter. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:11:59] Now in Northern California, you're unlikely to see a truffle hunter walking a pig down the street. Truffles are a nascent industry here.

This area is more well known for its vineyards and award-winning wine production. But wine wasn't what Fran had in mind when he bought this property.

>> Fran Angerer: [00:12:16] The land was perfect, so he's, so they say, and so we bought this place. It was all grapes. We tore all the grapes out and planted these trees. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:12:23] Wow. That's a bold move around here.

A very bold move and one that may take years to yield any results. The humans may have that kind of patience, but the dogs?

>> Seth Angerer: [00:12:33] They're a working breed and working breeds are different breed. Um, yeah, they're, they need, they need a job. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:12:42] So the Alexander Valley Truffle Company came up with a solution. 

>> Fran Angerer: [00:12:46] We contract the dogs out to other producing, and there aren't that many. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:12:51] There's a lot of potential for truffles to hit big in this foodie region, once the area starts producing.

>> Seth Angerer: [00:12:57] Every truffle you consume in the United States for the most part is imported. So it's harvested, gra, clean, graded, packaged all that. And that all takes time. Then it shipped and it has to go through customs and then it's like, by the time you get it, it might already be done.

You know, like I think the value of the local truffles will be even greater than imported truffles because they're fresh. They're the most fresh. You can get them day of. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:13:25] And that day I did get some truffles along with a bounty of fresh eggs. You want to grab a bowl and we'll scramble these up. Fran recommended

I put some of the eggs in a sealed container, along with a truffle for some subtly flavored truffled day eggs. And, Oh my God, let me tell you, I hope truffles proliferate in the region. 

>> Fran Angerer: [00:13:45] What do you have to deal with, with truffle? You've got to deal with walking in the woods with dogs, eating very good meals and drinking wine.

Oh cheese, too. There's a lot of truffles on cheese. What's wrong with that? You know? That's a good life, right? That's a heck of good life.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:14:06] You can definitely taste the truffle. That's good. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:14:11] We are going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we will hear a reunion story that is so good. It's ready-made for the silver screen. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:14:20] You are listening to Dog Edition.

Welcome back to Dog Edition. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:14:26] It's been said that New York is a city with 8 million stories and this next one could have been conjured up from the mind of Nora Ephron herself. It starts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a neighborhood bordered by Central Park to the East and Riverside Park to the West. Tara Derington had always wanted a dog, a feeling that was amplified during the isolation of the pandemic.

>> Tara Derington: [00:14:53] I don't have family here. Most of my friends left pretty early on, um, or were too far away to see. And so I started to really think about getting a dog and it's been a goal of mine for a while. And you know, really the only thing that was ever stopping me was my job. And here I was working remotely and it was like, if I can't make it work now, I'm never going to make it work while living in New York City.

>> James Jacobson: [00:15:21] She knew what she was looking for too.

>> Tara Derington: [00:15:23] I was looking for a dog that would stay around 25 pounds when full grown, you know, I do live in New York City and you want to be able to take them places that's reasonable. And I would have to put them in a bag.

>> James Jacobson: [00:15:35] But Tara wasn't the only New Yorker thinking along those lines, something that she found out when she went to apply for a rescue dog. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:15:43] There were not enough dogs to go around.

>> James Jacobson: [00:15:45] But Tara was undeterred. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:15:47] One night, it was probably around 7:00 or 8:00 PM. I was like, you know what, I'm just going to check Petfinder one time and then I'm gonna sign off. And I saw two dogs that looked extremely cute. I thought I'm going to have to pick them up in New Jersey, but yeah. That is fine.

At this point, I will get a dog from anywhere. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:16:06] She began to strategize because she wanted to optimize her chances for getting a dog. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:16:11] And I saw that they were from the same rescue. So I was like, I will apply for them both. Maybe I'll get one. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:16:19] The next morning, Tara had an email waiting for her from Dr. Doolittle's Rescue Ranch. One of the dogs that she applied for could be hers. It was a young male mix, Tara now calls Leo. She was told that the second dog was going to someone else. Her plan had worked. Tammy, the owner of the rescue, called Tara to discuss the details of the adoption.

>> Tara Derington: [00:16:43] And she goes great, yeah, the dog is yours. And, uh, once he's completely vaccinated and neutered, we will send him your way. And I was like, send him my way. And she's like, Oh yeah, we're in Texas. And I was like, not New Jersey. And she was like, Nope. And we deliver to your door. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:17:00] Three weeks into having Leo, Tara decided to take him to the groomers.

Well, that fateful decision started her on a path of discovery. The groomers required proof of vaccination and Leo's rabies tag was missing from his paperwork. So she called Tammy in Texas. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:17:18] And I said, Hey, it looks like the rabies tag was not included. I see a piece of tape here as if it was meant to be placed in this little envelope, but it's not.

And she goes, Oh, shoot. Okay, well, we'll, we'll send that to you. And I was like, great. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:17:33] That wasn't the only bit of information that Tara got from Tammy that day. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:17:38] And then on the phone, she tells me that, uh, the dad had been adopted and lived in the same zip code as well. I had no other details at the time, but I said, who was the dad?

And she goes, Oh, his name was Cheech. I don't know his name now. And that's when I realized that I had applied for father and son and had adopted the son. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:18:00] This was an interesting bit of information. And Tara wondered if she and Leo would run into Cheech around the neighborhood. After all it was the same zip code.

She knew what he looked like from his online adoption profile when she had applied for him. But it seemed unrealistic that she'd come across him in such a populated city. That phone call also yielded another interesting bit of information. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:18:25] She sent me a photo and said, well, his, Leo's brother was just surrendered as well.

Do you have anyone who would possibly want to adopt a dog? 

>> James Jacobson: [00:18:34] She did. Anne Sachs, a coworker, had been looking for a dog to adopt for more than a year. Tara sent her a picture of the dog, Murry, and Anne agreed to adopt him on the spot. It just so happens that Anne also lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

>> Tara Derington: [00:18:52] And so in that conversation, I found out not only was Leo's dad here, but his brother was also coming, which was exciting. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:19:01] Reuniting the dogs seemed inevitable. They were now all living in the same zip code. Tara just needed to track down Leo's dad. So she looked for him at the two neighborhood dog parks.

She looked for him on dog walks. around the block.

>> Tara Derington: [00:19:17] I just kind of kept looking for this tri-color color, shaggy looking dog. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:19:21] And then on a chilly day in January during a quick break, a possible breakthrough happened. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:19:28] We walk outside for a quick potty break between my meetings. I'm not even wearing a coat. We come back around to enter the apartment and Leo sees this dog at the tree and he greeted this dog, like, like no other.

And he immediately was so excited and kind of like jumping on him and licking him and, and the other owner was kind of like trying to get the dog to come along and the dog would not move. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:19:53] Tara had her suspicions that this could be the dog that she'd been looking for. This could be Leo's dad. So she started to ask some questions. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:20:02] What kind of dog is he like, do you know his breed? And he said, no, he's a rescue. And I went, Oh, that's so interesting. Have you had him long? And he goes, no, we've just had him for about four weeks. Uh, we rescued him and I was like, that's so neat. Is there any way that he maybe could be from Texas? 

>> James Jacobson: [00:20:20] And the answer was yes. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:20:23] And he looked like I had just told him he had a child that he didn't know about.

Um, and he was like, he was speechless because he had no idea that his dog, Marvin was even a dad that he even had any puppies.

>> James Jacobson: [00:20:38] The two exchanged numbers and agreed to get together again with the dogs. Marvin's owner tweeted about the encounter, and New Yorkers ate it up. It was the feel good story that they needed.

>> Tara Derington: [00:20:51] We go to a local pet store. The woman at the pet store started talking about this, this Twitter thread. And I was like, Oh, that was Leo. And she was like, he was my dog, our store's dog. Leo reunited with his family. Like everyone was so invested in their story that it was really precious to be able to give people that joy-trigger.

>> James Jacobson: [00:21:12] And once the weather warmed up a bit, these Upper West Siders made a plan to reunite the dogs at Bull Moose Dog Run just outside the American Museum of Natural History. The night before the big day they were buzzing with excitement.

>> Tara Derington: [00:21:28] We were like, okay, what are the dogs wearing? Are the dogs wearing their jackets and their vests?

Are they just wearing their harnesses and their collars? Are we going makeup? Are we, are we getting blow outs for the dogs and the humans? 

>> James Jacobson: [00:21:42] On a Sunday, a dramatic scene unfolded as Marvin, Leo and Murry reunited for the first time.

>> Tara Derington: [00:21:51] I don't even know how to describe it. It is a meet-cute, to be honest, because we were at opposite ends of the park and Marvin, the dad and Leo arrived first and they just both froze and kind of like, spotted each other. And then, you know, we're pulling and tugging as we caught up. And then Murray came later and you know, Leo knows Murry. Marvin hadn't seen in a while. And then it was just like an entanglement of dog leashes because they were inseparable.

>> James Jacobson: [00:22:21] To the average observer, it probably seemed like three dogs playing.

Nothing unusual, but a closer inspection reveals the connections. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:22:31] They all kind of do this, like stand on their hind legs, look at people from far away. They all have the same floofy tails. Uh, they all have this really weird open-house smile when they're running really fast. They all had the same bark when they barked, it sounded like unison.

>> James Jacobson: [00:22:50] Tara has no doubt that these three dogs know they are related. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:22:55] Especially Marvin, the dad and Leo. They were surrendered together. They were together, I think for three months at the rescue together. And they made the trek from Texas to New York City together. So they definitely recognize each other. I can tell when we leave is when you know, they know who they are because they all will whine and they'll keep looking back as we get further and further away. It is meaningful to them. You know, animals, I think do have feelings and emotions, and it's probably wonderful for them to be acclimated now in New York City, but have this piece of home always with them.

>> James Jacobson: [00:23:33] A country dog and his pups, separated in Texas and reunited in the Big Apple by a group of city slickers. The movie just writes itself. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:23:43] Honestly, I don't know how this would happen anywhere else. Uh, the joke is, that Nora Ephron is looking down on us because you know, we're on the Upper West Side where in Riverside Park, and this is truly something she would have written.

>> James Jacobson: [00:23:59] Maybe this wonderful story will be turned into a movie someday and perhaps Leo could play himself. 

>> Tara Derington: [00:24:06] Leo needs an agent quickly. To be honest, Leo is truly a star.

>> James Jacobson: [00:24:13] Today, we are going to unveil a new recurring segment. I hope, uh, called The Hydrant. Cause here at Dog Podcast Network, we have uh Microsoft Teams and we have all sorts of ways for people in the team to talk to each other.

And we have this little group called hydrant, which is basically, you know, where we communicate fun ideas and little stories that we are sharing with one another. And I thought we'd share it with you as well. So this is our Hydrant Segment.

So Pam, what would you like to contribute to the fire hydrant?

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:24:46] Well, I loved from segment two when Tara was talking about wanting a dog small enough to fit into a bag because in New York, If you want to take your dog on the subway, there's a law that says it has to fit into a bag. And some of these savvy New Yorkers with big dogs were getting those giant blue Ikea bags and cutting four holes in the bag and then putting their very large dog in the Ikea bag with the legs sticking out of the holes and then holding the handles and then walking their dogs right onto the subway because technically their dog was in a bag.

>> James Jacobson: [00:25:20] It doesn't matter how big the bag is. That is hilarious. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:25:23] There are some great pictures of this online just search for, you know, New York, Ikea dogs.

>> James Jacobson: [00:25:30] New Yorkers are very clever. Yeah. Well, here is my contribution to the fire hydrant. I am struck by a story that I saw about dogs and horses in Poland who are now going to get pension.

So dogs and horses that work for the police department and, you know, they do all the things that dogs and horses do in other big areas. But these dogs are now going to get pensions. They are, there are 1200 dogs, 60 horses who are currently in the service, and now they are going to get money to make sure that in their retirement, they are well cared for. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:26:10] I love this. Oh, why wouldn't they get a pension? They've worked hard. This is such, that's such a great story. That's a happy story. I'm happy about that. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:26:20] Those are a couple of things in our Hydrant. If you have any story ideas that you'd like to share with us, you can drop us an email or visit our voice mail service, and just go to Dog Edition.com and click on one of the links there. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:26:33] Oh, I love this segment. We're going to do it again next time. Yeah. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:26:35] We will. Well that is pretty much all we have for this show. I want to thank you for bringing Dog Edition along with you on your walk today. We will be back with another episode next week, but chances are that you and your dog will be taking a walk between now and then, and we have something else for you.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:26:53] If you're interested in hearing more from some of our guests, please check out DPN's sister show The Long Leash for Jim's extended conversations. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:27:01] And subscribe or follow, which is really the new thing to say, to Dog Edition so that you can take us along on your walk next time. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:27:10] We'll meet an enterprising teenager who is helping senior dogs get adopted.

>> James Jacobson: [00:27:15] We'll also check out a family friendly board game created for dog lovers by dog lovers, sounds familiar. Huh? Our kind of people. 

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:27:23] Dog Podcast Network is for dog lovers by dog lovers and that means we want to hear from you. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:27:29] Visit Dog Edition.com. There's a button, as I said at the bottom, right of every episode page, so you can easily leave us a voicemail and share your stories with us.

Or you can call our listener line.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:27:41] One eight, six, six. T A L K dog, one eight, six, six, talk dog. And check out the show notes for links and information about the guests on today's episode. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:27:51] We are looking for correspondents, probably foodies, as we grow this podcast network. So if you're a content producer or a journalist or a podcaster, or an audio storyteller who loves dogs, check out our 101 Dog Stories Contest with over $15,000 in prize moeny.

>> Pamela Lorence: [00:28:10] And come on and join our pack. Be sure to follow Dog Edition in your favorite podcast app. And tell a friend about the show. I'm Pamela Lorence and I'll see you at the dog park. 

>> James Jacobson: [00:28:19] And James Jacobson. And I want to thank you again for listening today on behalf of all of us here at Dog Podcast Network, we wish you and your dog a warm, Aloha.