When not training dogs,  Deb Joseph is a computational biologist and an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has strong interests in the genetics of Labradors, in animal behavior, and in prairie restoration.

Deb's husband, Paul Young, a former Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation, was in charge of the Foundation's research and infrastructure programs in computing, information, and communications. He is also a former Associate Dean 
of Engineering and former Chairman of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, in Seattle. 

In the summer of 1998, Paul retired from the University of Washington, and Punkin and Paul moved to Wisconsin.