The Surprising Answer to the 'Numer One Question' Everyone Has About the Puppy Bowl (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Puppies playing in Puppy Bowl.Photo:Animal Planet/WBD

Animal Planet/WBD

Puppy Bowl 2025will be pouncing onto television screens onSuper Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9, withmore puppies than ever before. The adorable dogs make football look cute and easy, but putting on the longest-running call-for-pet-adoption event takes a lot behind the scenes.

Many Puppy Bowl fans are curious about what happens beyond the cameras. According to Howard Lee, the chief creative officer of U.S. Networks and president of Discovery Networks, Puppy Bowl lovers have a “number one question” about the show, now in its 21st year.

“People think the show’s live and ask if the show is live,” Lee tells PEOPLE, revealing that “we pre-tape Puppy Bowl in advance.”

“We make sure everything is okay for the pups, and we make sure they are the most comfortable when we are filming. So, of course, it is taped in advance before we air it,” Lee adds.

Victoria Schade,a novelist and dog trainer, is the official puppy wrangler of the Puppy Bowl, a job dedicated to puppy comfort.

“My primary responsibility is ensuring puppy happiness on-field. So, I have my little spot where I stand off-camera every year. People know that’s where Victoria stands, and I’m just making sure that everyone’s having a really good time during gameplay,” Schade tells PEOPLE.

From her off-camera position, Schade watches the rotating cast of puppy players and taps dogs for timeouts when they appear tired or overstimulated during filming. After 19 years of wrangling puppies for Puppy Bowl, Schade quickly spots when a dog needs time on the bench.

“I think the biggest thing is just recognizing body language and knowing what it means. Instead of waiting for something to go wrong, I try to see where things are heading and interrupt them before it happens,” the dog trainer shares.

Puppies playing in Puppy Bowl.Animal Planet/WBD

This extended time with untrained pups has also helped Schade develop a series of attention-grabbing noises that help curious canines listen, even if it’s just for a second.

“Those are untrained puppies in a completely new environment. So I have to coax prolonged poses and behavior from these untrained puppies, which involves lots of funny noises,” Schade shares.

Puppy Bowl referee Dan Schachner points out to PEOPLE another reason it’s crucial to pre-tape the Puppy Bowl: potty breaks.

“We have a lot of rules for the Puppy Bowl that are often very fluid, much like what comes out of them,” Schachner shares. “A lot of them are related to number ones and number twos, you know, tinkle on the 20.”

“It’s puppies being puppies,” he adds. “So we try to keep them playing a clean game.” This means that often, the cameras have to stop rolling, so a group of handlers, akin to a “NASCAR pit crew,” can come in and clean up the puppies and field when necessary.

“I love the end of Puppy Bowl because it means that all the dogs have been adopted, and that’s the real truth,” Schachner shares, adding, “We have a 100% adoption rate each and every year.”

Dan Schachner with his assistant referee, Whistle, during Puppy Bowl 2024.Courtesy of Dan Schachner

Courtesy of Dan Schachner

Schachner is part of that success;the referee adopted his assistant ref from Puppy Bowl 2024after bonding with the dog during the filming. It’s common for the people who make up the “well-oiled machine” that is the Puppy Bowl to adopt a puppy player after meeting them during the filming.

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Lee adopted his dog Fred from Puppy Bowl 2024, and for the first time in her 19 years as the Puppy Bowl’s puppy wrangler, Schade adopted a pup from the Puppy Bowl set. The trainer fell in love with a canine named Mr. Pickles, now called Boris, during filming the 2025 Puppy Bowl and adopted the dog fromDallas Dog.

While the puppy players appearing in this year’s show have homes today, several rescue pets searching for homes will be featured throughout the Puppy Bowl 2025 program.

“Anything that allows even one pup to find a new home is worth the hours of programming that we have,” Lee says.

source: people.com