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Spotlight: Meet Award-winning Capone. Life on the road in competition, and dogs rescuing people

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And when I recount the years I spent with her, undoubtedly, what comes up for me most is how she rescued me in so many ways because she taught me about unconditional love and just this continuity in my life that I never had had before. So I'm partial to this conversation. And I'm really excited to talk about dogs specifically

Lynn Mullen leads us in conversation about the Min Pin world, dogs of Instagram, and serendipity! http://bit.ly/Capone_SW #swellinterview

@LMullen
Lynn Mullen
@LMullen · 3:26
It was only a couple of days that I had Capone as a foster, and I knew that he was special in some way. Miniature pinchers were always our breed. We had a couple of them, and at this point I had been familiar with many different min pin personalities coming through my home to rescue. But there was something about Capone that was different than all of the other dogs, all of the other min pins I had met and I knew he was special, so I was really struggling
@spotlight

Rescue Network

Just looking at his picture. We know there's something about him. But before we go to a Capone in your whole life, in the show world, I want to go back to the rescue culture and the rescue network. Can you tell us those of us who don't understand it at all how to how does the network, how interconnected are you together? How do you guys communicate? Is the network into other countries, or is it just in the States and is it just in regions?
@Swell
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15

Welcome to Swell!

@LMullen
Lynn Mullen
@LMullen · 1:56
So there are specific groups that are focused on sharing and networking miniature pinchers all around the country who need homes, either from shelters or from private individuals. And so that's really the biggest tool that is used to find these dogs rescue placement or private placement from home to home. In the spirit of full disclosure, I swell say that I'm not against responsible breeding
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The first time you showed Capone

That's such great advice. Thank you. Because I think everyone wants to do the right thing, and they also have an idea about what kind of dog they want. So if they could do both responsibly that's great guidance. Thank you. I really love the show. The movie best in show for so many reasons, reasons
@LMullen
Lynn Mullen
@LMullen · 3:13

Barn Hunt

But because Capone is a rescue dog and we don't know his lineage and because he is neutered and because he's not totally up to the standard of the miniature Pincher breed, he is not eligible to compete. And for our purposes, that's just fine. There's tons of other things that we can do and that we enjoy doing. We got our start actually training for agility, and many people who are listening may have seen that
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Life pre / post Capone

Thank you for clarifying the safety of the rat. That's important. Wow. That's a very specific world that I would never have known about before. We continue about Capone and his ascent towards fame. I want to just pivot 1 second towards you, you to speak about your life before Capone and your life after Capone. And this kind of lends itself to the Uber message of this swell, which is about the lives that are changed because of our pets, specifically your life with Capone
@LMullen
Lynn Mullen
@LMullen · 2:03
You are so right. My life as a dog owner is very different. Pre Capone versus post Capone. I did grow up showing horses, and so I guess I've always had a little bit of a competitive spirit, but that really never carried over into the dog world until Capone. Prior to Capone coming into our lives, we were just good dog owners. We took our dogs for walks, camping, traveling with them
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Activist 🧢 hat on ...

Can you let us know things that really upset you, whether it's individual dog ownership and how you've seen that not work out or out of systemic level, what you're really hoping will change
@LMullen
Lynn Mullen
@LMullen · 1:20
And often these dogs end up in rescue and are difficult to place because they were not really brought into this world with the best of intentions. And often the owners who purchase these dogs are not equipped to deal with health problems and temperament problems. So I think this is a huge issue with just the overall supply, if you will, of dogs in this country. And really it would be great if they're was a world in which rescue didn't have to exist to save these kinds of dogs
@spotlight

Climate and taking care of animals during times of stress

Thanks for that. I think the community might pick up on this part of the conversation and talk a little bit more about it. I know that you are living in the in the Anderson Valley area of California. There are fires to the north and south of you, and I think I want to speak a little bit about how you're doing and connecting the dots here between climate change and the care of animals
@LMullen
Lynn Mullen
@LMullen · 2:02
And of course, always the animals have fresh water available. Another thing that we do is make sure that our emergency plan is ready to go. And since we have livestock, we coordinate with some of our neighbors kind of plan A, B and C. So we review that really around August of every year and just make sure that we're all on the same page should something catastrophic happens, which knock on wood, cross fingers, toes and paws that will stay safe
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OPEN TO ALL! https://instagram.com/capone_the_minpin?igshid=1o0hs2c584m2q

I wanted to ask you to leave us, even if it's a couple of swells, but can you take us to a couple of amazing stories that you've experienced on the road with Capone? I know you have a great Instagram page that people can follow. I'll try to post that here for sure, but can you tell us some stories? Because it's a world that 99% of us have never traversed
@LMullen
Lynn Mullen
@LMullen · 1:24

Barn Hunt Regionals win

And so we were entered for the weekend. We compete at the master's level, and we ended up being the only team who had a perfect four for four weekend. And we won the entire regionals, which was amazing and so exciting. And we earned a buy to the national competition, which is going to be in Missouri in November. And we are planning to travel to that next month. So that's really exciting. And I promise to update with our results there
@LMullen
Lynn Mullen
@LMullen · 2:17

Nosework trial

And they have to qualify in each of those four elements. In order to earn a title. Swell. We ended up qualifying in each of the four elements, and so we earned our title, which was very exciting. And then at the end of the day, there is a debrief where the judges talk about how all the searches went and how the dogs did. And it's just kind of a learning debrief at the end of the day
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@LMullen
Lynn Mullen
@LMullen · 1:58

FastCAT

Finally, I'll just share another sport achievement that Capone absolutely loves. It's called Fast Cat, and it's basically a timed 100 yard dash where the dogs are chasing a plastic bag that is on a pulley system. And it's really one of the only places where dogs get to just run as fast as they can in a straight line. And they really love a lot of dogs really love chasing this plastic bag. It really kicks in their prey drive instinct
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:24

Capone just passed his AKC Virtual Home Manners Puppy evaluation! 🍷🍿 🍖

Hey, sorry for the background noise, but this just in. Capone just passed his AKC Virtual Home Manners puppy evaluation. Now, that means that he can basically heal us even more than nearer to you is and take care of us because we people. We need canine energy right now. Lynn. Congratulations, Capone. High pause, man. High pause
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