By The Editors Published: February 8, 2026 | 10:00 AM EST
For starters, you don’t.
If you are tuning in to Puppy Bowl XXII this afternoon hoping to see a masterclass in canine obedience, you are watching the wrong channel. The spirals aren’t tight, the routes are nonexistent, and the “locker room” is essentially a giant pile of napping fur.
According to Victoria Schade, the event’s lead trainer for the past 20 years, the secret to the Puppy Bowl isn’t training the dogs to play football. It is about tricking 125 chaotic, biting, peeing land sharks into looking like they know the rules of the gridiron.
“People think we have a playbook,” Schade tells The Hollywood Reporter. “The only playbook is ‘don’t eat the cameras’ and ‘please don’t poop on the 50-yard line.’ And honestly? We fail at both of those constantly.”
As Team Ruff and Team Fluff prepare to face off today in the ultimate Super Bowl counter-programming, here is the messy, peanut-butter-smeared reality behind the cutest two hours on television.
The “Training” is a Lie
Schade, a certified dog trainer and author, admits that her title of “lead trainer” is a bit of a misnomer on set. She isn’t teaching the puppies a zone defense; she is essentially a glorified vibe curator.
“You cannot train a 12-week-old puppy to score a touchdown in a single afternoon,” Schade explains. “What you can do is create an environment where they naturally want to drag things around.”
The “touchdowns” you see on TV are simply happy accidents. When a puppy drags a plush toy across the goal line, it isn’t celebrating a score; it’s trying to hoard a squeaky lobster in a corner. The editors and the referee, Dan Schachner, simply retrofit the rules of football onto the footage.
Schade’s real job is animal welfare. She spends the grueling multi-day shoot (filmed months in advance in upstate New York) scanning the field for body language.
“I’m looking for the wallflower,” she says. “I’m looking for the puppy who is overwhelmed, or the one who is playing a little too hard. My job is to be the bouncer. If you’re being a bully, you get a time-out. If you’re tired, you get a nap. The game stops for the puppies, not the other way around.”
Peanut Butter and Camera Tricks
Ever wonder why the puppies are so obsessed with the cameras? Why they constantly lick the lens, providing those adorable, nose-booping close-ups?
“It’s not vanity; it’s peanut butter,” Schade reveals.
The production crew smears a rim of dog-safe peanut butter around the camera lenses to encourage the pups to investigate. It’s a trick that yields gold for the directors but nightmares for the camera operators, who spend the day dodging slobber.
The field itself is also engineered for maximum engagement.
- The Toy Rotation: The toys are swapped out every 20 minutes to keep the puppies interested. “If a toy smells too much like another dog, or if it’s just boring, they stop playing,” says Schade. “We have bags of fresh toys ready to go to re-ignite the chaos.”
- The Water Bowl Cam: A camera is buried under the transparent bottom of the water bowl to get those slurping shots. It is also, unfortunately, a prime location for “premature watering of the field” penalties.
The Poop Problem
Let’s talk about the elephant (or rather, the Great Dane) in the room. With 125 puppies on set, biological functions are a statistical certainty.
“It happens constantly,” says Dan Schachner, the long-suffering referee who is officiating his 15th game today. “We have a dedicated ‘poop patrol’ team. They are the unsung heroes of the Puppy Bowl.”
Schade estimates that the production burns through over 1,600 wee-wee pads during the filming week. The turf is essentially a carpet of absorbent layers. When a “foul” occurs, the cameras cut away, the whistle blows (sometimes), and a team swarms the field with enzymatic cleaners.
“We try to make it look seamless,” Schade says. “But if you look closely at the background in some shots, you might see a blurry producer running off the field with a yellow bag. That’s real life.”
The 2026 Roster: Oldies vs. Goldies
This year’s event, Puppy Bowl XXII, features one of the most diverse rosters in history. There are 125 adoptable puppies from 73 shelters across 36 states.
But the real tear-jerker this year is the expansion of the senior dog spotlight. For the first time, the show features a “Pro-Dog Exhibition” halftime event pitting Team Oldies against Team Goldies—showcasing 14 senior dogs who are often overlooked in shelters.
“Puppies fly off the shelves,” Schade notes. “But the 8-year-old mix with the gray muzzle? They sit in shelters for months. Seeing them trot out onto the field, even if they move a little slower, is what this show is actually about.”
Also in the mix are 15 special needs puppies, including dogs with three legs, deaf dogs, and blind dogs. Schade’s training approach changes slightly for them—using scent cues or vibration collars to help them navigate the gridiron—but their play drive is exactly the same.
Why We Watch
Ultimately, the chaos is the point. The penalties for “terrorizing the ref,” the “napping on the 5-yard line,” and the “excessive cuteness” are a reminder that these are real, vulnerable animals in need of homes.
“We don’t care who wins the Lombarky Trophy,” Schade says. “The only score that matters is the adoption rate. And for 20 years, we’ve had a 100% adoption rate for every player on the field. That’s the only stat I care about.”
Puppy Bowl XXII airs today at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT on Animal Planet, Discovery, and TBS. Prepare for poop, peanut butter, and plenty of “awwws.”
