[UNKNOWN]: All right Amy, thanks for coming on again, second time, second time.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Why don't you just do a quick introduction, tell people who you are, and then we'll dive into all the juicy stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I am Amy's on the rightest.
[UNKNOWN]: I am the co-founder of Wi-Fi Draw and the Chief Brand Officer.
[UNKNOWN]: And Wi-Fi Draw is a pet nutrition company, scaling safe in nutritious raw meals.
[UNKNOWN]: We deliver raw nationwide.
[UNKNOWN]: We have delivered over 20 million meals to date.
[UNKNOWN]: So 20 million?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: That's a lot.
[UNKNOWN]: I know.
[UNKNOWN]: So Amy has been on, what was it two years ago?
[UNKNOWN]: I don't know if it's exactly two year.
[UNKNOWN]: I remember it was February and very cold.
[UNKNOWN]: Very cold.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it is.
[UNKNOWN]: It's nice.
[UNKNOWN]: Well, I will say it just got nice.
[UNKNOWN]: I know.
[UNKNOWN]: That's what I've heard.
[UNKNOWN]: We went from, I'm not even kidding, 30 to 40 degree nights to 90 degree days overnight.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm not kidding.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, like today's Monday on Friday, it was like 40 degrees.
[UNKNOWN]: Wow.
[UNKNOWN]: Like that.
[UNKNOWN]: It's easy.
[UNKNOWN]: It does, but then it's all the pollen, and then you've got to really quick.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, okay, I've got to oversee it, and I've got to open the pool, and it's like this really quick.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm like a last minute type of guy.
[UNKNOWN]: So, for me, there's other people who were probably prepared, but it just didn't feel like me at all.
[UNKNOWN]: It's cold and rainy and just dark, and yeah, now it's nice.
[UNKNOWN]: It's nice.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm in Charleston, so we had the pollen situation about a month and a half ago.
[UNKNOWN]: So what's the what's the big shift you're seeing?
[UNKNOWN]: So a couple of years ago when you came on, you know, you guys make amazing food, which I feed my dogs with and have feed my dogs for a long time on what has been the big shift in the industry.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I think the biggest change I've noticed in the last couple of years is the way people are thinking about food.
[UNKNOWN]: There's been this massive shift in the human world toward viewing food as medicine, you know, people are paying attention to ingredient labels, to processing, to metabolic health, gut health, inflammation, longevity, and they're questioning ultra-process food more than they did even a few years ago.
[UNKNOWN]: So I think when you have that light bulb moment for yourself, personally, it's really hard to not start asking the same questions about your dog food.
[UNKNOWN]: So a lot of the growth that we've seen in the last few years, I don't think it's from us convincing people.
[UNKNOWN]: It's from people arriving at this on their own because they're already, you know, looking so closely at their own food labels and trying to reduce inflammation in their own bodies.
[UNKNOWN]: So I think dogs are just naturally getting pulled into the conversation.
[UNKNOWN]: That said.
[UNKNOWN]: There's still not everyone, you know, is connecting the two.
[UNKNOWN]: I, not everyone is connecting, you know, having this realization about ultra-process foods and extending it to the repats, I think we're in this really interesting transition period where for some people, the logic of feeding fresh food to dogs makes immediate sense.
[UNKNOWN]: And to others, Kibble is still the safest, best, most nutritionally and scientifically sound option because that is how they've been marketed to for decades.
[UNKNOWN]: One of the most fascinating things about working in this space is seeing how polarized and emotional the reactions still are.
[UNKNOWN]: So every day we hear from people who are seeing real intangible results from switching to this food, you know, some of those things are more subtle like more meal time excitement the dog has.
[UNKNOWN]: more energy less itching.
[UNKNOWN]: They lost her gained the few pounds that they needed and others are truly dramatic like people telling us Things like my dog was on desk door and I switched to this food and I genuinely believe it's given me more good years with my dog So we hear that every day all day and then on the flip side, you'll go to our ads and see some comments that are just like violent
[UNKNOWN]: opposed to this way of feeding, you know, from people who have clearly never tried it, but just the other day, I saw a comment that was said something like the FDA should shut down all raw companies, feeding raw is cruelty to dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: So that's like not just a disagreement, that is a strong moral reaction.
[UNKNOWN]: And I think what's happening is that pet food isn't just food culturally, you know, it's tied to trust, it's tied to safety, it's tied to authority and I think it's tied to what people think were responsible pet ownership should look like.
[UNKNOWN]: So when Kibble has been positioned, it's not only the most convenient option for decades, but also the most scientifically
[UNKNOWN]: when you introduce the idea of fresh raw meat organs and bones, some people don't see that as an alternative way to feed or healthier way to feed.
[UNKNOWN]: They see it as a direct challenge to what they have accepted as settled science for their entire lives.
[UNKNOWN]: So as we were just talking about earlier before we started, it triggers this cognitive dissonance, which is basically the psychological discomfort somebody feels with new information conflicts with what they believe to be true for a very long time.
[UNKNOWN]: And what's so interesting about cognitive dissonance is our inclination isn't to resolve that dissonance by.
[UNKNOWN]: immediately believing the new information.
[UNKNOWN]: It's to protect the brain and to try to find ways to discredit that new information.
[UNKNOWN]: So we do see this, you know, in raw feeding like, oh, raw feeding is just a trend.
[UNKNOWN]: It's pseudoscience.
[UNKNOWN]: If Kibble were so bad, why would so many dogs be eating it, why would all these vets be recommending it?
[UNKNOWN]: So I just think that people, I understand the emotional reaction, you know, a lot of people even subconsciously are trying to defend an identity that they are a good dog owner and if they have to, you know, consider that unknowingly they might have not made the best choices for their dog, it's really an uncomfortable thought, so they try to find ways to not, to remove that discomfort.
[UNKNOWN]: How do you respond to those comments where they're like, you guys are the worst?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it's really a lot of times you have to decide and I'm not really the one responding we have a team that does, but we've all strategized on this.
[UNKNOWN]: I think sometimes you're not really responding to the person making the comment, you're responding so that the other people reading it, who might be a little bit more open-minded, here what you have to say, yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Because clearly that person doesn't want to hear me, the say.
[UNKNOWN]: Right, like they're completely closed off.
[UNKNOWN]: They think that you should go to jail for, you know, making Rathood.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, it also could just be like a 13 year old little boy on there.
[UNKNOWN]: They could be like, that's just like talking shit.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, totally sometimes.
[UNKNOWN]: You can usually tell when it's those types of kids though.
[UNKNOWN]: But, um, you know, we will sometimes respond.
[UNKNOWN]: If it's really belligerent, we'll just like ignore it.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, we really don't delete comments either.
[UNKNOWN]: Right.
[UNKNOWN]: We tend to just keep them and other people can read through and see, um,
[UNKNOWN]: So, but if it's something that feels like it warrants more information because it will help maybe that person understand or the other people reading the comments understand we definitely do because there is so much misinformation and sometimes we'll have these, you know, adverts literally us talking about, say it's a study that proves the benefits of raw or the safety steps we take that we get into like detail and then the comments will be like,
[UNKNOWN]: But this isn't safe, but we just tell you, like, in detail.
[UNKNOWN]: So, you know, people just don't want to hear it.
[UNKNOWN]: It's just a complete block.
[UNKNOWN]: But yeah, I just think that that's the world that you're going to live in when you are trying to influence people in the right, I shouldn't say the right direction, but trying to influence people in a direction that is helpful to others.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: And when you're trying to disrupt, you know, a space.
[UNKNOWN]: And I think people have a hard time.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, this has happened in human space, who remember when, you know, cigarettes were like not bad for you.
[UNKNOWN]: And even gave you energy and pregnant women smoked and doctors smoked and, um, you know, margarine was better than butter and, you know, fat free was all the rage and, you know, yeah, it's like we've seen this a lot in the human space, too, you know.
[UNKNOWN]: where it goes like this, this roller coaster of information.
[UNKNOWN]: Yes.
[UNKNOWN]: And I think it's just the more the more I get to talk to people about it and the different doctors I have on and stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: I always try to tell people,
[UNKNOWN]: just, if you want to learn something about something new, you just have to try to be objective where you, you zoom all the way out and you go, that's, that's what I try to do.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, if somebody is putting out information that isn't,
[UNKNOWN]: necessarily targeting somebody of like you're because when we talk about Rothwood we're like you can either do it or not but it's okay either way and you can do a little bit or you can do none or you can do all it's okay we're not telling you if you don't do it you're bad dog on it or we're not telling you if you don't do it your dog is not going to be happy
[UNKNOWN]: We're just trying to tell people, same thing for training, or somebody's getting dragged down the road, and maybe I'm like, well, try maybe a different piece of equipment that might be beneficial.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't want to see you get dragged.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, because I'm not that person that's like, I just started my whole career of putting information out there to dog owners to help.
[UNKNOWN]: And if it's not helpful, you don't like it, just change the channel.
[UNKNOWN]: But I think what happens in social media, because it's such a new in the last 10 years, it's really new where we have influencers and we have podcasts to your point that cognitive dissonance is
[UNKNOWN]: a real thing where it goes against everything that you believe in.
[UNKNOWN]: And so when somebody says, raw food is help my dog live longer, or whatever, and people have been told their whole life, or that person has told other people their whole life, that raw food is awful and gross and dangerous.
[UNKNOWN]: It's, you kind of look inward where you're like, this is a fending me, this goes against my whole IP.
[UNKNOWN]: We see in dog training all the time.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, I'll post, I've posted these videos where dog owners have used, and the other dog trainers do this as well all the time.
[UNKNOWN]: But a dog owner will come in, they have used like six different dog trainers.
[UNKNOWN]: and the owners crying, they've been to the hospital, they've been dragged down, they've been broken arms, they're on the verge of either putting their dog down, or getting rid of their dog, or both.
[UNKNOWN]: And by the end of the video, by the end of the session, by the end of the training session, they reverse their roles,
[UNKNOWN]: in their dog and the reverse, their tears of happiness now and they can't believe it and there's people in the comments and this is early on, I don't talk about this anyways, this is kind of like funny because I just talk about this a lot because I used to affect me so much.
[UNKNOWN]: Sure, it did you two in the beginning when you started getting into marketing and trying to reach new people and grow your sister's company and really try to get it to the next level and you're like, guys, this is going to be amazing.
[UNKNOWN]: It's so helpful and people are like, you're the devil.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: And that's what we would get in the comments and you're like,
[UNKNOWN]: you know well you should you did it wrong and you shouldn't have done this and it's unethical and you're like you're just got your head going.
[UNKNOWN]: But I will tell you this.
[UNKNOWN]: The reason why I don't get upset too much about what other people say in the comments is because I know that they're subjective and they're not interested in having an opinion because I know for a fact if I'm flipping through something and I see something I'm like.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't know about that.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm just going to keep going.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm not going to click and go.
[UNKNOWN]: You son of a, but there has been this death over discomfort movement, even in the dog space, where we've had people, we've had shelters, we've had rescue organizations, put dogs down because if they worked with somebody that went against their policy, this cognitive
[UNKNOWN]: if somebody came in and used a piece of equipment that they have been making the worst thing possible and help the dog, I've seen it, they actually will kill the dog.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's to your point.
[UNKNOWN]: Yes, I know.
[UNKNOWN]: It's this whole thing.
[UNKNOWN]: It's crazy.
[UNKNOWN]: It's really crazy that you, I mean, I think, you know, we're just so attached to
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, it's just hard to, you know, change that part of your identity because it makes you question, what else do I have to question that and, you know, and even being in a space and seeing experiencing it and being in this role, it's made me look at other, I'm like, wait, what else have I, you know, just accepted as status quo?
[UNKNOWN]: that maybe shouldn't be.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, we have a right to question things and just, I'm not saying you should accept everything that someone's telling you without, you know, rumination or or thought, but I do think open your mind to consider other ways.
[UNKNOWN]: There's real evidence.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, I wouldn't be here if I didn't think there was like real evidence and real science behind this way of feeding and there are plenty of experts at support that and there's like evolution that supports that too, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, like a trend.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it's really not.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like it's been around for millions of years.
[UNKNOWN]: Nature decided this was best for dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: So I think people do have that label moment when they have an open mind to it, but it's just interesting to see the resistance still.
[UNKNOWN]: And I think that it's coming from, you know, we're talking about that cognitive dissonance that
[UNKNOWN]: You know, identity being wrapped up in something else and a lot of people.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, I, we fed our childhood dogs, Kibble.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, we didn't.
[UNKNOWN]: And gravy train.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: So yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I think it's, it's just, it's just like an emotional thing.
[UNKNOWN]: And what I've been trying to,
[UNKNOWN]: tell people and having experts on like you and doctors and people with PhDs about nutrition.
[UNKNOWN]: Is the research is it's so new to and so I want to just talk about like again, I think one thing that you and I are pretty passionate about is we're not trying to tell people what they have to do with their dog.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't do that with dog training, you don't do that with nutrition.
[UNKNOWN]: It's just alternatives.
[UNKNOWN]: Hey, have you tried this?
[UNKNOWN]: Have you looked at this?
[UNKNOWN]: Because I know feeding my dog and not ultra-processed diet has changed the skin and the temperament.
[UNKNOWN]: So what can you say to dog owners with all the research that you've done within your own company?
[UNKNOWN]: What can you tell dog owners to, because I think the big thing is is the overwhelmingness of the cost.
[UNKNOWN]: And for me, it's, you know, you guys probably,
[UNKNOWN]: grit your teeth when you see me like you guys have this nice packaging that just like the peel opens nice and I'm just cutting it every time.
[UNKNOWN]: So like what dog owners to were listening to this podcast who want to benefit their dogs nutrition or their longevity or their skin or their but yeah what can you tell them right now that they can start doing that isn't because to me I think it's overwhelming and I'd like you to just walk them through that process.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah I mean well I will start by saying that we try part of
[UNKNOWN]: you know what we do is to try to make it less overwhelming.
[UNKNOWN]: So when it comes to raw feeding, this is basically as simple as it gets, you know, we plan, portion, ship everything directly to you.
[UNKNOWN]: So really all you have to do is thaw on feed.
[UNKNOWN]: But that said, it's definitely a little bit more work than kibble, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Scooping kibble into a bowl and feeding that way.
[UNKNOWN]: I think we definitely share the, it's not all raw or nothing messaging a lot, so you don't have to go all in right away.
[UNKNOWN]: I think when you, you know, thinking about kibble going, people going from kibble to frozen raw overnight, isn't necessarily going to happen all the time, you have to think about how to meet them where they are.
[UNKNOWN]: we do really try to say like any fresh raw food is better than none.
[UNKNOWN]: You can do that as a top or a mixer, you know, a few meals a week.
[UNKNOWN]: It doesn't have to be like sign up for a meal plan and then you're 100% raw feeder for some people.
[UNKNOWN]: That's just a psychological thing where they don't they're not sure yet and they want to sort of tiptoe into it.
[UNKNOWN]: For others it's a cost thing.
[UNKNOWN]: We do have like very flexible meal plan so you can sign up.
[UNKNOWN]: for you know what's that mean that means that you can get a partial raw so you could feed that's a 50% raw or 25% raw and you would just mix that in with what say kibble we're not anti kibble we always say we're not anti kibble per se we are anti kibble only for an entire lifetime
[UNKNOWN]: So, how can you boost those kibbles?
[UNKNOWN]: It can be with our food.
[UNKNOWN]: We think that's, you know, obviously I'm going to say I think that's one of the best ways, but you can also do it with other real food.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, go into your fridge and you know, do you have blueberries?
[UNKNOWN]: Do you have like steamed veggies?
[UNKNOWN]: Do you have leftover, you know, chicken breasts that hasn't been seasoned too much?
[UNKNOWN]: All of that is going to boost a bowl that's filled with ultra-process pellets because
[UNKNOWN]: feeding only ultropossus food day after day for an entire lifetime is going to be damaging to your dog.
[UNKNOWN]: That's just, we know that with people food, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Do we want to wait around for the studies on dogs to see that that's damaging?
[UNKNOWN]: It is, it is, Kibble is the definition of ultropossus food, right?
[UNKNOWN]: What could you equate ultropossus food to like human food?
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, people always like use the cereal analogy, which I know some people don't love because it's like complete amounts.
[UNKNOWN]: It has everything your dog needs it's like any, I mean, my common holds like fast food, um, you know, can it get you to the next day sure, but you know, like our nutrition as always says nutrition is rarely a crisis.
[UNKNOWN]: It's just down the road that it becomes when I usually something else that becomes the crisis and at that point it's.
[UNKNOWN]: very hard to solve.
[UNKNOWN]: So, you know, I think that it's just, you know, looking at it, like, this is fast food.
[UNKNOWN]: This is fast food.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, you or I would eat it.
[UNKNOWN]: It's industrial modified.
[UNKNOWN]: It's a crazy amount.
[UNKNOWN]: It has all sorts of additives in it.
[UNKNOWN]: Things that were, you know, dogs are not mammals are not supposed to be eating.
[UNKNOWN]: Our PhD nutritionist, Dr. Richard Patton, he wrote a book called Ruin by Access, perfected by Lack, which is kind of like a mouthful, but he taught in it, he explores the evolutionary design of mammals, specifically Key Nines.
[UNKNOWN]: And what he says is that Key Nines were never designed to consume an abundance of calories, especially in the form of carbohydrates, right?
[UNKNOWN]: They were, however, designed to handle temporary food shortages.
[UNKNOWN]: So there are more designed for this scarcity,
[UNKNOWN]: work sort of overloading them with these carbohydrates and in nature, they maybe had to deal with like the rare blood sugars spike from like honey or some other carbohydrate, but not a constant, you know, blood sugars spikes all day long, which is what Kibble is doing to that, right?
[UNKNOWN]: So it's really interesting how like in nature, they were designed for this like other sort of situation and now we're assaulting them with carbohydrates and every grill.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I learned a lot about that naturally when I was in the Wolf Sanctuary, so when I was volunteering at the Wolf Sanctuary's early on in my career in Colorado, we would the law enforcement or the the Rangers, like Park Rangers, because Colorado is like they have huge state parks and stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: So it was like different jurisdictions of law enforcement.
[UNKNOWN]: And when we would be there, so they had the wolves, and the wolves would, and these are all wolves, it's like a, it's a sanctuary for wolves, and so they would be born in movie projects.
[UNKNOWN]: For like, I remember we had a couple wolves there that were born for the Twilight series and some other ones.
[UNKNOWN]: Now they're not using them as much because CGI's gotten so much better and AI's gotten so much better.
[UNKNOWN]: inspiring cathartic.
[UNKNOWN]: time in my life where I was like so primal.
[UNKNOWN]: It was so fun.
[UNKNOWN]: I'll never forget like the feelings I got.
[UNKNOWN]: So I'd land in Colorado Springs and I drive up the mountains about two and a half hours.
[UNKNOWN]: And the closest town is this little town called West Cliff Colorado, which is like an old mining town.
[UNKNOWN]: And the St. at the Crystal Mountains are in the background, beautiful mountain range.
[UNKNOWN]: And then from West Cliff, it was still like another 40 minute drive up into the
[UNKNOWN]: like very specific.
[UNKNOWN]: And this was a time where I would print out the what you call it's because and it had a cell phone obviously, you know, was a decade or so ago, but you didn't get service.
[UNKNOWN]: So if you got out there and like say your page didn't refresh or something like your screwed.
[UNKNOWN]: So I remember printing these things out.
[UNKNOWN]: And I drive up there and you just drive up and you start seeing these like wolf signs like you know wolf things and it was like I was really cool and I just remember getting up there and you get out and it's just like I was born in Colorado So I have a deep deep passion and tie to Colorado like the blue skies
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, the crisp air, just the aspen trees, beautiful.
[UNKNOWN]: So you drive all the way up this trail and you get up on this sanctuary and it's just pens of wolves and you can see them kind of scattered around and land down and you see some white ferns and black fern.
[UNKNOWN]: A lot of them were for movie projects at the time, but then there's also just like the sanctuary for like wolf dogs and hybrids and even in certain states, I don't know if this is true anymore
[UNKNOWN]: You could buy wolves think it like big sky like Montana you could just buy wolf puppies bare bare cubs
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, yeah, I don't know if it's still legal people would keep them as pet tried to same thing as Florida though like even by tiger Yeah, I know what I mean Like yeah, exactly so kind of the same thing like you could just buy out west you can just buy wolf puppies and like Own them as pets.
[UNKNOWN]: I think you have to have I don't know anyway.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, so I lived out there and I would I would stay there for like two weeks at a time I'd go home and I'd come back out and I'd go home and come back out.
[UNKNOWN]: What would you do up?
[UNKNOWN]: Interesting enough, like my whole career has been just find a way, like whatever it takes.
[UNKNOWN]: That's just been my old, my ammo, my whole life has been like, I want to do this, I'd sit here, and I've read a lot of notes, and I'd say, OK, if I want this, these are the steps I have to take to get this, that's how I've done everything in my life.
[UNKNOWN]: Sometimes it takes longer and sometimes, you know, it happens pretty quick.
[UNKNOWN]: But
[UNKNOWN]: I wanted to learn more about K-Nines, because when I transitioned from a dog walker to a professional dog trainer, I had such imposter syndrome and I still do, but I was like, I'm not a dog trainer.
[UNKNOWN]: I need to learn more about dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: I just was innately, you know, good with dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: Just like a lot of dog people like when I was a little baby and diapers carrying around dogs at the whole thing But once I started crossing into that like okay, because at the time I couldn't make any money I couldn't keep my lights on I couldn't pay for my bills I worked out a pizza shop just to eat because I just couldn't afford it and this is when you were just starting out as a dog trainer
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, kind of like that blend of still a dog walker.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay, but not trying to get it.
[UNKNOWN]: But the thing was, is people were like, I'll pay $20 an hour to train my dog.
[UNKNOWN]: And, you know, a decade ago, I was like, wow, I can make $100 a day.
[UNKNOWN]: And that was like a big deal.
[UNKNOWN]: Like I didn't have two pennies to scratch at all.
[UNKNOWN]: I had no money.
[UNKNOWN]: I had a piece of crap truck that I couldn't go over 50 because it would fall apart.
[UNKNOWN]: Like I couldn't get the certain clients.
[UNKNOWN]: It was bad.
[UNKNOWN]: So, so I remember I wanted to learn more about canines and so I said if I can figure out a way to work with wolves that would give me a lot of confidence knowing how they move because I worked with a lot of like insecure rescue dogs that couldn't go to daycare as a dog walker so I was like I just want to go work with wolves so I ended up doing as I contacted this mission wolf because they were like the biggest Kent Weber which was the director at the time I'm not sure if he still is he was on like
[UNKNOWN]: Mr. Rodgers, he's been on like all the talk shows back in the day.
[UNKNOWN]: He was on that's an episode of like dog whisper like that was like the guy like a wolf guy He did a reintroduction to yellowstone a couple times.
[UNKNOWN]: He was like the wolf guy.
[UNKNOWN]: So I looked up mission wolf and I said, okay I can't afford to get out there.
[UNKNOWN]: So in my head I'm like how can I afford to get out there?
[UNKNOWN]: So I was doing a pet CPR in first aid certification course at the time through a company called pet tech, and I was an instructor, so I was like, okay, and I contact them.
[UNKNOWN]: I was like, could I come out there and teach a this course, and like, is that something that like, you're, because they do volunteer like tours and they do educational programs for kids and
[UNKNOWN]: So they actually said, we think it would be awesome if you can teach your pet tech course to the four groups of kids who come out during this program called The Roadless Traveled, which typically are like well-off inner city kids who don't get outside a lot.
[UNKNOWN]: So kids who live in New York City, Chicago, etc, where they have money but they don't get outside.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, so they'd send them off to like they do like four different locations throughout the year and one of them was in Colorado.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
[UNKNOWN]: And so they'd have to camp.
[UNKNOWN]: They'd have to, you know, make their food over fire type of thing.
[UNKNOWN]: Great.
[UNKNOWN]: Great program for young kids.
[UNKNOWN]: And so they said it would be cool if you came out during the weeks that they were here and you could teach their class and the kids would walk away with a certification.
[UNKNOWN]: which was big for them.
[UNKNOWN]: So they said, we can offer a certification program now, which will keep the kids, you know, it's a good program.
[UNKNOWN]: So I was like, really?
[UNKNOWN]: And they're like, yeah, and I was like, okay, it's, um, I think I said it was like 90 bucks per cert, right?
[UNKNOWN]: And it only cost me $10 for the booklet.
[UNKNOWN]: And then I get the rest.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's like 80 bucks per kid.
[UNKNOWN]: And they're like, okay.
[UNKNOWN]: We will give you a place to stay, and you can certify the 12 kids who come each, like throughout the summer, it was like, you know, one in June, twice in July and twice in August or whatever.
[UNKNOWN]: So I'd go home and come back and go home and come back.
[UNKNOWN]: So that's how I did it.
[UNKNOWN]: I was like, hell yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: So I'd go out.
[UNKNOWN]: So basically, but just pay enough for me to get out there.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: I definitely didn't make any money.
[UNKNOWN]: But I got there in my fake dog to teach CPR.
[UNKNOWN]: I travel back and forth and I did that for years and the thing about wolves I just realized I'm like, okay, so that the wildlife service would call on to hate There was a there was an L killed by a car there was You know a deer or whatever whatever carcass would be killed that night or that early morning They would call the wolf sanctuary
[UNKNOWN]: And they would bring them up and and you know, they'd come up like in the back of a truck They should try and elk, you know, these huge being from upstate New York and stuff like living there I never really seen these big mass animals so so it was crazy and then they would they would hang them up and they would we'd carve So we go out there and we put on our aprons and we'd butcher up and the wolves are on their how on and they're running back and forth
[UNKNOWN]: But the crazy thing was the reason why I'm telling the story is because I just realized how primal these animals are, they wanted the heart, they wanted the kidney, they wanted the liver, they wanted all the vitals.
[UNKNOWN]: They wanted that and it was like so interesting because some of these wolves were hybrids, so they did have husky and so they were like half dog, half wolf, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Some of them were 100% timber wolf and it was so for me like learning how to butcher an animal
[UNKNOWN]: to then feed to wolves moments after was crazy like it was like and so they were like no I was like okay, so do we trim off the hair?
[UNKNOWN]: They're like no keep it on.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm like and so so here's the thing because in my head I might trim out there.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, did I need a little sauce on here?
[UNKNOWN]: So I'm saying like
[UNKNOWN]: as somebody who professionally worked with the argument at the time, I was still like, it just was still crazy to me that I'm like, they're going to eat all this hate or some remove from like the actual natural process.
[UNKNOWN]: The hooves, horns, eyeballs,
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, and they loved it.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, the thing was, is these animals were 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, and doing well, and their teeth, this is what I remember the most, is their teeth, were so good, and it's because of the hides, and they fed other things too, but it's a little graphic to get into, but it was own.
[UNKNOWN]: have a lot of shelter in there.
[UNKNOWN]: No, no, they had a wolf sanctuary or they had a horse sanctuary down the down there.
[UNKNOWN]: They also had a horse sanctuary there, take moustangs, abused, whatever.
[UNKNOWN]: And once the animal, you know, when they were basically going to put the animal down and said to you, the nasia with, you know, medication or whatever, they would, they would just put the animal down with the, with a bullet.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: and I've butchered many horses too.
[UNKNOWN]: It's crazy like, but they're like, hey man, this is the circle of life.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: But I think a lot of people are so removed from the process in which even we eat our meat, like they call it like the pitman butcher or whatever, where you like see the cute cows and the pigs and you're like, oh, they're so cute.
[UNKNOWN]: I would never be able to put one of those down, but then you go to the supermarket and you have no problem getting factory farm food.
[UNKNOWN]: the animals who are being treated like crap, they're put down at such a high stress life, the cortisol is pumping, it's bad.
[UNKNOWN]: It's all bad.
[UNKNOWN]: So I think the reason why I'm telling you this wolf story, as I think so many people are disconnected with what animals will actually do.
[UNKNOWN]: Given the other day, Lakota, as it gets springtime, the bunnies will like.
[UNKNOWN]: Do their nests and stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: Lakota got into one and all these baby bunnies were ripped up and she's sitting there playing with and ripping them up near eating them alive, and I'm like So I think people just have a hard time
[UNKNOWN]: with the realities of what our dogs are.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, their animal predators.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's funny because this is like a segue into like the humanization trend, which is huge now in the pet world, right?
[UNKNOWN]: And in human in the pet food world too.
[UNKNOWN]: And I think people, we've, you know, dogs you still live outside.
[UNKNOWN]: And now they're fully like integrated into our lives.
[UNKNOWN]: They sleep in our beds.
[UNKNOWN]: They
[UNKNOWN]: You know, we put them in Christmas sweaters during the holidays, they travel with us.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, it's so great that we look at them.
[UNKNOWN]: I read a statistic that like 79% of dog owners view their dogs as family members.
[UNKNOWN]: And that's a great thing.
[UNKNOWN]: But I think there's a nuance that gets missed, especially when it comes to like pet.
[UNKNOWN]: food because, you know, human grade as a term is a good thing, right?
[UNKNOWN]: You should look for human-grade ingredients, but it's not, don't stop there, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Because there's lots of buzzwords, human-grade, fresh, natural.
[UNKNOWN]: You can have great, healthy, human-grade ingredients that aren't biologically appropriate, or aren't, you know, great for a dog.
[UNKNOWN]: So what's great for us does not
[UNKNOWN]: Um, you can have, you know, a brand of pet food that's human grade, fresh, natural, but it's still 40 to 50 percent, you know, starch, rice, potatoes, like that's not ideal for a dog.
[UNKNOWN]: That's not biologically aligned with what they need.
[UNKNOWN]: They still need a raw meat-based diet.
[UNKNOWN]: They still, there are meat-eaters.
[UNKNOWN]: So I think people get lost in that.
[UNKNOWN]: It's confusing, right?
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, again, you should look for who our food is all sourced from USDA human grade meats.
[UNKNOWN]: That's an important factor, otherwise it's, you know, you're getting feed grade likely.
[UNKNOWN]: But I think people don't understand, they just think, oh, human grade, that must be, it's healthy.
[UNKNOWN]: My dog's supposed to, your dog's bowl is not supposed to look like yours.
[UNKNOWN]: They're not small people, right?
[UNKNOWN]: So they're not supposed to eat what you eat.
[UNKNOWN]: And I think that's confusing a lot of people now, especially with a lot of the pet food brands coming out in the fresh space, you know?
[UNKNOWN]: So the fresh stuff is getting more and more.
[UNKNOWN]: Do you feel like you being in the space?
[UNKNOWN]: I think it's a great thing that the category is growing, you know, uh, that we have all of these options that are healthier than Kibble, uh, but I still think that people need to be trained to look for the biologically appropriate ingredients, which is pretty simple right it to be meat first there should be organs in there we have, you know muscle meat organ meat bone, um, and so, and it doesn't mean that you can't have fruits and veggies in there there can't be some carbohydrates in there, but the majority of the diet should be meat.
[UNKNOWN]: stocks or meat eaters.
[UNKNOWN]: So I just think it gets confusing for people with the human grade stuff and the humanization and I just read an article in the New York Times.
[UNKNOWN]: I think it was it was about, you know, pat wellness industry booming and it's interesting to see what people are spending money on.
[UNKNOWN]: You know,
[UNKNOWN]: thousands of dollars for like grooming appointments and blueberry facials around the dog's eyes that have brightened the fur.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, I mean, it's great.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm offering like spoiling dogs, but like if the fundamentals aren't there first, like if you're not, if you're doing all those things and still feeding an ultra-process diet, then I think we've lost the plot a bit, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Right, because it's kind of like,
[UNKNOWN]: You know, again, working out being health conscious, eating organic foods, fruits, whatever else you do in your health care, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Your sauna or whatever.
[UNKNOWN]: And then you're just like at night, you're just eating McDonald's.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, or you're just, I think also, we try to, we kind of talk about the salon on our socials.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like,
[UNKNOWN]: Don't over-complicate it because I think if you try if you over-complicate you're going to a ban You're more likely to abandon it right or you're just it's going to feel so overwhelming Our people don't even start because they're like, oh, I have to have like this 12 step routine You know, I need to have this supplement and this fish oil and this and it's like start with the basics, right?
[UNKNOWN]: It's good food.
[UNKNOWN]: It's exercise.
[UNKNOWN]: It's sleep.
[UNKNOWN]: It's time in nature.
[UNKNOWN]: It's companionship.
[UNKNOWN]: That's it
[UNKNOWN]: And then if you want to add things onto that later, you know, go for it, but you really need to start with the fundamentals and I think if you just keep it simple, you'll see so many results from that too, right?
[UNKNOWN]: You're not going to really say I think it's highly unlikely that you're going to see results from feeding an ultra-process diet and then doing like supplement after supplement and acupuncture and like all of these other things if you're still the diet is still off.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, well that's that's and that's why I'm so big about nutrition.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it's because the gut in the brain.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, are very connected.
[UNKNOWN]: Just like with humans.
[UNKNOWN]: I know for a fact.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Listen, you know, I'm health conscious.
[UNKNOWN]: I would say, but I'm not like.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, I'm not like one of those people who are counting my carbs and stuff and I'm just like I know that okay if I go have some ice cream tonight Which is not great for you right like all that dairy and sugar like I know like okay I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna feel like crap, but it's gonna be good the kids are gonna like it I think it's just about balance.
[UNKNOWN]: It is about balance.
[UNKNOWN]: It's on about being perfect.
[UNKNOWN]: We always say that too.
[UNKNOWN]: Like I mean, we both have kids like I have an eight year old It's
[UNKNOWN]: hard to defeat him, healthy food all the time, I try my best and I'm like, I'm a good-grandparent.
[UNKNOWN]: But like even just like packing their lunches for school, you know, like it's like packaged, healthy thing.
[UNKNOWN]: It's not like I'm not sending them to school with like salmon and broccoli, steamed broccoli, like that's just not happening.
[UNKNOWN]: But I do try to make sure that most of the time, you know, he's getting whole foods, you know, obsessed with smoothies, smoothies is my same.
[UNKNOWN]: I got one right in the, right in that cooler right there.
[UNKNOWN]: But some of these
[UNKNOWN]: What do you do?
[UNKNOWN]: I do.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, so chocolate milk is my secret.
[UNKNOWN]: It's always sweet and everything.
[UNKNOWN]: Uh, bananas and chocolate milk.
[UNKNOWN]: But, um, then once I have that as the sweet base, I can do blueberries, avocado, strawberries, um, all organic, by the way.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, and then I can sneak some greens in there, too.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, so as long as it's sweet enough, I can usually get the other stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: I was funny is banks
[UNKNOWN]: Daddy don't put beats in it.
[UNKNOWN]: He's going don't put beats in it.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, or any time I like because I make a smoothie every day Yeah, and it's like my I've been making this smoothie every day for like five six years like every morning I just don't want to be huge appetite.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, but so my wife Taylor has gotten this By the way Taylor's producing this podcast so shout out to Taylor for the first time so
[UNKNOWN]: But she's got this vanilla bean.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, it's like actual vanilla bean in a protein powder.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's pretty sweet.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: But it's funny because I'll make my smoothie.
[UNKNOWN]: And then I'll like literally.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like a cat or a dog when they hear like, you know, they're like, so I'll literally, and I'll screw on the top and within seconds.
[UNKNOWN]: He's like right there.
[UNKNOWN]: She likes it.
[UNKNOWN]: And he's like, he takes it out of my hand and before he steps, he's like,
[UNKNOWN]: Like, he can taste, I don't know what my gosh, it gets worse as they get older too.
[UNKNOWN]: It's funny because when back it was your kid's age, I used to make some of these times too, but I was like a lot more aggressive with what I put in that guy.
[UNKNOWN]: I'd be like shoving all sorts of like things in there, and I used to try to do it without him seeing, because I didn't want him to see it.
[UNKNOWN]: One day, he came into the kitchen and he was like,
[UNKNOWN]: I don't want salad, it might smell, you know, they're like, no, it's not for you.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, like ever since it was like so I had to rebuild the trust.
[UNKNOWN]: Yep, it's funny.
[UNKNOWN]: The last night, do we did the same thing?
[UNKNOWN]: I go tailor distraction for a second.
[UNKNOWN]: Because he wanted a smoothie, we came back from something and, oh, I don't know, we were outside doing something.
[UNKNOWN]: And he wanted a smoothie, so I told Taylor, I go distract him for a second.
[UNKNOWN]: So she lived some up, she brings him out to the window and I put an avocado, I put an avocado and like every smoothie.
[UNKNOWN]: Because he's a good fat.
[UNKNOWN]: So, so I, because anything green, he's...
[UNKNOWN]: It's a taste good to them too.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it's not.
[UNKNOWN]: It's creamy.
[UNKNOWN]: It doesn't add, yeah, it's not.
[UNKNOWN]: It just makes it creamy and rich and thicker.
[UNKNOWN]: You can't really taste the avocado, especially if you do fruit.
[UNKNOWN]: So I said to tell, I go distract them.
[UNKNOWN]: So she picks them up, she brings them over there.
[UNKNOWN]: Because if he sees anything green, like for some reason, I can get away with spinach.
[UNKNOWN]: He doesn't distinctly taste the spinach, but it's just become this thing now, where he steals my smoothie and tells and asks me, like, is there a beets in here?
[UNKNOWN]: You better not put a beets in your smoothie?
[UNKNOWN]: So I think for dog owners, it's very similar
[UNKNOWN]: Like Lakota, she loves broccoli, like it's like her she loves broccoli.
[UNKNOWN]: She loves fruit.
[UNKNOWN]: She loves mango.
[UNKNOWN]: Like anytime I'm making a smoothie, she's kind of paid a tax there with that.
[UNKNOWN]: But that's the thing I've been realizing is when we talk about
[UNKNOWN]: better nutrition for dogs especially for me as a trainer because i'm always telling people like your dog comes in with anxiety and they can't sleep and they're pacing i'm like what are you feeding your dog because like i said like if i eat crap i know i'm gonna feel like crap i know if i eat good i i just know right and so it's the same thing for dogs like if they come in with severe whatever anxiety frustration
[UNKNOWN]: it's not like I don't get into like if you're you know I don't get into like if you feed your dog a bad morning meal they're going to be aggressive that day out of nowhere I just think it compounds and it stacks I'm like if your dog is getting too much sugar yeah your dog isn't getting enough protein yeah
[UNKNOWN]: It does affect how they think over all how they feel.
[UNKNOWN]: They feel, of course.
[UNKNOWN]: It does like us.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, dogs are facultative carnivores.
[UNKNOWN]: They really are going to be sensitive to carbs and starch in the way that cable went 40 to 60% of it made up of a starch.
[UNKNOWN]: So they're getting that, you know, those blood sugar spikes that we talked about all day long.
[UNKNOWN]: So yeah, I mean, I think it's just, it's kind of scary to think about like what we, you know, a lot of things like a labeled training problems or behavior problems are coming from the food.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't think training happens in a vacuum.
[UNKNOWN]: I just, we have a lot of trainers that are clients of ours.
[UNKNOWN]: We were talking about this earlier, but like trainers have always sort of been a lot of the pet professionals have been some of the earliest adopters of raw feeding.
[UNKNOWN]: I think it's because you guys see the whole animal, right?
[UNKNOWN]: And you're like, look, you're really spending time with them.
[UNKNOWN]: You're seeing you have a good instinct about the way the dog should be behaving.
[UNKNOWN]: So it makes very clear logical sense to trainers.
[UNKNOWN]: That this would be a good way to feed and we talked to trainers all the time.
[UNKNOWN]: You can do see results from dogs being on the right diet versus those who haven't.
[UNKNOWN]: It doesn't mean you can't train a kivl vet dog, obviously, right?
[UNKNOWN]: They're gonna you're gonna get better results.
[UNKNOWN]: I think if the dog is feeling good and the dog is eating with there's a supposed to be eating There's a we sent our dog to training he was a rescue who was like a mess.
[UNKNOWN]: Well, we got him he can do a walk on a leash and But there's a training facility near us in Charleston and I become good friends with the owner
[UNKNOWN]: But, and it's expensive, right?
[UNKNOWN]: It's expensive, it's vendor dog.
[UNKNOWN]: There's a good big investment and it was worth it.
[UNKNOWN]: We're so glad we did.
[UNKNOWN]: Good.
[UNKNOWN]: But, he told, he was telling you, like, some of the dogs that go there for training, or these people are spending thousands and thousands of dollars, and they send them with, they're like, here's some rice, and it's mostly rice, and maybe just like a little bit of chicken, and it's like, this is what you want me to, because they have to send the dog with the food for the month.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, how are you not thinking like how are you willing to spend all this money on one aspect of your dogs, you know, well being, but then you're completely neglecting this very important part.
[UNKNOWN]: And again, not to shame people for that.
[UNKNOWN]: It's just a lack of awareness and knowledge about it.
[UNKNOWN]: That's it.
[UNKNOWN]: And that's this the irony.
[UNKNOWN]: And that's what I've been so passionate about.
[UNKNOWN]: That's what this podcast is about.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't get paid for, you know, it's not like, oh, it's not like YouTube where every time I post, I get paid by somebody.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, I do this because I selfishly want to learn more.
[UNKNOWN]: And I want to help dog owners.
[UNKNOWN]: That's how I started my whole career.
[UNKNOWN]: I just wanted to help dog owners.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, I set up a camera and I said, I think me training this dog on camera would help somebody else.
[UNKNOWN]: And that's how my whole career is naturally
[UNKNOWN]: and so that's the same thing as I think people just don't know where they come in and they're like I'll spend $7,000 on a board and train and then they give you slap food and they just don't know like they want to do good yeah they want their dog to be healthy I want their dog to think clearly and be trained but they
[UNKNOWN]: They had no idea that that food is mostly carbs turned into sugar.
[UNKNOWN]: They're getting all these spikes.
[UNKNOWN]: The dog isn't getting the nutrition that they need.
[UNKNOWN]: They're not getting the protein.
[UNKNOWN]: I know I'm like a protein freak now.
[UNKNOWN]: I have, you know, in there I have like protein stuffed way of protein in my car.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm like, I start to like get really,
[UNKNOWN]: I'm all in the biometrics now.
[UNKNOWN]: So I got the ordering.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I'm actually going to get the bludch, bludch sugar thing.
[UNKNOWN]: Like glucose monitor.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: I did it.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, it was entered.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't know.
[UNKNOWN]: I hadn't mixed it.
[UNKNOWN]: It stops.
[UNKNOWN]: It's, it depends on when you get, but though, I think you were it for like two weeks, right?
[UNKNOWN]: And I know for the end, it starts to get like, it doesn't work as well.
[UNKNOWN]: So you're like, wait.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, really.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Rehunter's some of the, I forget what to brand I got, but it was, it was, it was, it was, I opening, mainly to see also what's happening during sleep.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Like what's happening to your blood sugar during sleep, like, and how close you eat.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, you know, it's a bad time.
[UNKNOWN]: So the the reason why I wanted to do it is because there were just times where I would just feel like yeah like all of the sudden I would crash like and then I would get super hangar and I know that that's blood sugar
[UNKNOWN]: And I just don't know when and where and so, because again, with the smoothies in the morning that I've been drinking my whole life, my adult life, it seems, you know, it's like it is a bunch of sugar, but I know a bunch of people who like what's his name, Jesse, what's his name, Jesse, he's like the motivational guru guy.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, he lives in New York City.
[UNKNOWN]: Taylor, what's his name?
[UNKNOWN]: The guy, Jesse, Eisen, Eisenberg.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, yeah, yeah, what's his name, what's his last name?
[UNKNOWN]: Anyway, he only, he does this diet that he learned way back in the 90s by this guy who wrote a book where you only eat fruit before 12 or whatever, so he does it out before 12.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, yeah, but anyway, so I was just like sometimes I'll wake up and I just crash like absolutely crash and I just feel a thargic and then I get like feast and famine where I'm like you need to eat I need to eat and I'm just like growing steak and I'm I mean in avocados and bananas and like true nuts and I'm like I'm like what is it doesn't happen all the time but I do want to know what
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it could be some foods even like a banana for example, like I knew something we could need a banana in the morning.
[UNKNOWN]: It doesn't really do much to your blood sugar But if you eat it like closer to the evening and does spike your blood sugar for much longer.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's interesting if you actually track the foods that you're eating at, you know, and it gives you a little thing.
[UNKNOWN]: You look on the app and see.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, it's a little bio hacky.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: It is.
[UNKNOWN]: There's one that hooks up to the ordering.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm just I'm just so big on like as I get older like things are more sensitive to things, right?
[UNKNOWN]: So I just want to know what affects me and how and like like every day is such an amazing opportunity, right?
[UNKNOWN]: And so I'm always like I don't want to spend like if I have a
[UNKNOWN]: If I and I talk about this a lot on the podcast, but if I have like a cup of coffee, I ruin my day.
[UNKNOWN]: Like because before I have it, I'm like, I want to be a little caffeinated and I want to be a little but then I have it and then I just pull my whole day shot.
[UNKNOWN]: It sounds like I love coffee.
[UNKNOWN]: Like I just have one in the morning.
[UNKNOWN]: So to she, I mean, Taylor can she can drink it before bed.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, you're sensitive.
[UNKNOWN]: If anything, as you get healthier, too, you start to become more sensitive.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't know if you become more sensitive or you become more aware of like, and it's a good thing, but yeah, I definitely as the healthier you get, the harder it is to not be healthy.
[UNKNOWN]: 100%.
[UNKNOWN]: Taylor, can you do me a favor?
[UNKNOWN]: I can hear a German shepherd through this, these headphones like habitually barking.
[UNKNOWN]: Can you just go be on bark control and figure that out?
[UNKNOWN]: I can tell the bark is so fun that you know that's a German shepherd.
[UNKNOWN]: 100%.
[UNKNOWN]: People are listening.
[UNKNOWN]: You can probably hear it too.
[UNKNOWN]: See if you can.
[UNKNOWN]: I heard it.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: I was a German.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's funny, like with these microphones, it'll pick up that tailor couldn't hear it.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: But I can.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: But that's a 100% German shepherd.
[UNKNOWN]: They should, that's a good piece of content for you.
[UNKNOWN]: That's it.
[UNKNOWN]: Someone to have you listen to a bunch of different fabrics.
[UNKNOWN]: And they're like, oh, that's a good idea.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, what bark is this?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: German Shepherd's mal-in-wall.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Terriers, they all have like a very distinctive bar.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, that's so funny.
[UNKNOWN]: And our member, like, when we first started our company, we had so many German Shepherd clients, they almost jokingly be changing their name.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I can hear it today.
[UNKNOWN]: Stals.
[UNKNOWN]: That's distinctfully a German Shepherd on 1,000%.
[UNKNOWN]: Who is it, Taylor?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I know it's a German Shepherd, but is it a client or is it a staff dog?
[UNKNOWN]: Okay, anyway.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, so I can distinct so anyway people who are listening sometimes we just can't get away from the bark and anyway Yeah, that would be a good piece of content like name the bark name the bark and I just yeah, and then like we could put it up on screen Like what it is and then I have to try to bark
[UNKNOWN]: friend cheese are pretty easy to discern.
[UNKNOWN]: I guess I could tell like big versus small dog but that's a bit for sure.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh no that's a yeah if you're around it enough you'll know like what breed it is.
[UNKNOWN]: I wanted to talk about the clean 16 because I know that that's like a new new thing.
[UNKNOWN]: What was to deal with that?
[UNKNOWN]: So the clean label project is a non-profit that independently test people food, baby foods, protein powders, and pet foods.
[UNKNOWN]: And they test them for fun.
[UNKNOWN]: So that again, I got to digress that.
[UNKNOWN]: People food, baby food, or baby powder.
[UNKNOWN]: baby.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, same.
[UNKNOWN]: That's a good question.
[UNKNOWN]: Could be like formula?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, probably formula.
[UNKNOWN]: I think it's one and they might do baby food too, but I would think maybe formula.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
[UNKNOWN]: Dog food dog food protein powders.
[UNKNOWN]: There could be other things do that.
[UNKNOWN]: They're just like the big ones of things.
[UNKNOWN]: They're just they basically are testing various products for contaminants and heavy metals.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh.
[UNKNOWN]: And so recently,
[UNKNOWN]: They tested 79 of the most popular dog food brands.
[UNKNOWN]: Did they openly say, okay, so they did it discreetly there?
[UNKNOWN]: So they don't, you don't know you're being tested.
[UNKNOWN]: We didn't find out until after nobody knows.
[UNKNOWN]: You don't pay to be a part of this or it's not sponsored.
[UNKNOWN]: Like they just go and independently purchase.
[UNKNOWN]: Who funds that?
[UNKNOWN]: Good question.
[UNKNOWN]: It's a nonprofit.
[UNKNOWN]: So I don't know where they're getting the money donations from, you know, but we could look at.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't know.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm always just cautious.
[UNKNOWN]: I know that.
[UNKNOWN]: I am too.
[UNKNOWN]: I, but I think because it could be like, hey, we noticed, but if you make a donation.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: You won't notice that.
[UNKNOWN]: I know.
[UNKNOWN]: Don't really bring it.
[UNKNOWN]: Well, I can tell you as a brand that was listed on the clean 16.
[UNKNOWN]: We had no idea that it's happening and did not give any money to be a part of it.
[UNKNOWN]: Right.
[UNKNOWN]: So that I can say for sure.
[UNKNOWN]: That's huge.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: So 79 popular pet food brands across categories.
[UNKNOWN]: So, you know, airdried, dry cable, frozen raw, fresh, and so out of the 79, only 16.
[UNKNOWN]: passed their purity test and made it on their clean 16 list, we feed raw was one of them.
[UNKNOWN]: But what was most sort of interesting about this is that is like the scale of the difference between categories.
[UNKNOWN]: So dry foods tested significantly higher in contaminants and heavy metals and the fresh in frozen foods.
[UNKNOWN]: So
[UNKNOWN]: drive food, for example, had 20 times more mercury, 20 times more lead, 24 times more accrylamide, which is like an industrial byproduct.
[UNKNOWN]: It's looked at a lot in ultra-processed people food.
[UNKNOWN]: It's categorized as a probable carcinogen and it forms when you high heat process.
[UNKNOWN]: carbohydrate rich foods, which is exactly what cable is, right?
[UNKNOWN]: So I think what they did say to is like it's not about trying to make people think that if you feed this food for short term or one meal is dangerous or these companies are doing anything illegal.
[UNKNOWN]: But because dogs eat the same food day after day, the year after year for an entire lifetime,
[UNKNOWN]: It's the accumulation of these compounds that can be really damaging.
[UNKNOWN]: And I think that's what is really eye-opening, right?
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, we weren't surprised that we were on the clean 16, that we were, you know, has low levels of contaminants because we do our own heavy metal testing internally.
[UNKNOWN]: And we know that our numbers are good.
[UNKNOWN]: But what's a level surprising to see that only 16 made the list?
[UNKNOWN]: When was this done?
[UNKNOWN]: This was maybe five or six months ago.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, so recently and yeah, but again, they do also take that mic and put it closer.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: They're good.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, that sounds a little better.
[UNKNOWN]: So yeah, it was it's just eye opening.
[UNKNOWN]: I think that obviously with dry foods, there's a lot of factors, namely, you know, the ingredients have to be lower quality and also the processing the processing is going to, you know, there's also, you know, a lot of grains.
[UNKNOWN]: That's where you'll find.
[UNKNOWN]: some of these heavy metals.
[UNKNOWN]: So interesting, little thing to have, you know, come out.
[UNKNOWN]: Again, we were happy to be on there and not surprised, but a good little fact for people to pay attention to, you know.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: So the, um,
[UNKNOWN]: when they categorize them, 16 pet foods made the list or altogether 16 companies made the list of being clean.
[UNKNOWN]: 16, well 16 of the brands have they tested so they'll just pull like something off the shelf or order your foods because we're not on the shelf so they must ordered I think they tested our chicken recipe for example.
[UNKNOWN]: or they'll test, you know, the farmers dog or whatever, you know, they test these other brands and they'll get pick one recipe and test it.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't think they can test like all your recipes or that would be like astronomically expensive.
[UNKNOWN]: And
[UNKNOWN]: out of the 79, the 16 recipes from these specific rare 16 brands were clean.
[UNKNOWN]: So they kind of did like Yaka.
[UNKNOWN]: The Yaka.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, yeah, so I'm kind of just did that.
[UNKNOWN]: Yes, I mean, yes, that's something I don't know.
[UNKNOWN]: And they don't tell you, I mean, I think some people were upset because they were like, well, what are the love they just said, like, you know?
[UNKNOWN]: 20 times higher.
[UNKNOWN]: 24 times higher, you know, significantly, they said like concerning our alarming levels and drive food compared to frozen foods.
[UNKNOWN]: So that can include fresh and raw.
[UNKNOWN]: So the frozen food category tested significantly better.
[UNKNOWN]: So that's just something interesting for people to think about when they're, you know,
[UNKNOWN]: Well, yeah, like I said before before we went live, I was Dr. Judy Morgan was on and she was telling me about how many cases of Salamonella and E. coli were found in Kibble versus raw food, because all the, I know like, a dog owners have a hard time and even people who don't feed raw food, they're like,
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, E. Coli, it's chicken.
[UNKNOWN]: It's because we've just been told our whole lives.
[UNKNOWN]: And if you get raw chicken anywhere, you've got to come in with hazmats.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's like, yeah, you definitely don't want to be thrown around raw chicken.
[UNKNOWN]: And it means, but it's like, you know, you just have to, you know, I cook chicken probably three times a week at my house.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's the same exact procedures I would do with my,
[UNKNOWN]: with my dog food.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, okay, I have a specific cutting board.
[UNKNOWN]: I make sure I wash everything and I spray and it's like, you know, and I have young kids and they're running around.
[UNKNOWN]: And so I think it's just again, it's eye opening.
[UNKNOWN]: But what are, so do you feel like now that the kind of, I don't even want to call like whistle blowers or anything?
[UNKNOWN]: But I think now, I get so many ads for fresh food now.
[UNKNOWN]: Like,
[UNKNOWN]: companies I've never heard of.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh yeah, like a lot popping up.
[UNKNOWN]: Every day there's a new company.
[UNKNOWN]: Do you worry about big companies coming in, marketing as a fresh or raw diet and then sneaking in?
[UNKNOWN]: Cause I think it's about efficiency and money, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Cause even a C.E.T., which is like a really cool company and I used to buy a lot, they make these the tortillas, which they had like the almond flour and what else did they have, Taylor?
[UNKNOWN]: sick pee check pee flower and is it really cleaning green so there's a three ingredients now I think like what pepsie or somebody bought him mess layer pepsie or mess one of the big guys and now they put the gum in there which is like
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, why?
[UNKNOWN]: I know.
[UNKNOWN]: I did do that.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, I was perfect before.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: So are you worried?
[UNKNOWN]: I shouldn't say you're worried, but like, do you think that that's going to start happening where like the big companies like the Mars are going to come in?
[UNKNOWN]: They're going to see, like, Mars is making their, I mean, the big, big pet food is already entering the space with their own products, you know?
[UNKNOWN]: Do you think that's good or bad?
[UNKNOWN]: I think it's good because yeah, removing in the right direction and that also they're recognizing that this is a consumer shift that's not going anywhere and that unless they want to be left out, they have to get them also yeah, I think that's a good thing of course I would rather.
[UNKNOWN]: dogs eat that, then, you know, ultra-processed cable, but, you know, as a consumer, you still have to look at the brand as a whole, and decide if you trust that, and there are lots of other brands that, you know, might have more of your trust.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, for sure.
[UNKNOWN]: But I do think it's ultimately a good thing, because, you know, the more food that's fresh in less ultra-processed is better for dogs,
[UNKNOWN]: Kibble still dominates.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, it seems like because we're in the space that it's like, of course it's growing more people than ever, but the predominant pet food choice in this country is still kibble.
[UNKNOWN]: And, you know, I think that what we view like dog health, our definition of dog health is far from optimal.
[UNKNOWN]: Dogs in the US are surviving.
[UNKNOWN]: They're not thriving.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, they are under-nourished, under-stimulated and over-fed.
[UNKNOWN]: 60% of dogs are overweight or obese.
[UNKNOWN]: And that statistics should be startling to all of us because it's not just cosmetic.
[UNKNOWN]: We know that obesity is linked to joint disease.
[UNKNOWN]: It's linked to diabetes.
[UNKNOWN]: It's even linked to reduced lifespan.
[UNKNOWN]: Studies have shown us that dogs at an ideal weight at a healthy weight, live an average of two and a half years longer than those who are even slightly overweight.
[UNKNOWN]: two and a half years.
[UNKNOWN]: That's a long time for a dog, you know, and it's not just weight issues.
[UNKNOWN]: It's all chronic issues that I've increased.
[UNKNOWN]: There's more allergies, it's more digestive issues, there's more skin issues, gut issues, you know, chronic issues have become common.
[UNKNOWN]: And at some point, we just have to ask, click.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, it is the baseline working.
[UNKNOWN]: Like something isn't working here.
[UNKNOWN]: And, you know, that's not to blame.
[UNKNOWN]: That's at all.
[UNKNOWN]: They're operating within a system.
[UNKNOWN]: They were trained in.
[UNKNOWN]: But their nutritional information is often very limited and heavily influenced by big pet food.
[UNKNOWN]: So when the default recommendation for food is ultra-processed, we have to question that, and the reason it is is because it's the most familiar, it's the most standardized, it's the most widely accepted, but that does not mean it's the most optimal.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, 100% I had a vet on that is going to come back on and she was saying that I think it just goes back to like opening your door of like any time like if I see something right so my job as a canine professional is to help dogs and their owners live a less stressed life and a better quality of life.
[UNKNOWN]: whatever that means, however that is, whether it's pulling on the leash, not coming back, being able to fly on a plane, whatever.
[UNKNOWN]: That's my job and passion.
[UNKNOWN]: I want to help you live a less stress life with your dog.
[UNKNOWN]: If at any point in time, there's information that's released or technique or a method or a piece of equipment that makes my job easier, I'm adapting that a thousand percent.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: right, but the problem with a lot of veterinarians because they have $400,000 or whatever in debt and they're getting paid by these veterinarian companies because the companies who are making the food are also buying their hospitals.
[UNKNOWN]: So you kind of got this like, hey, this is the food we're going to recommend, I'm going to bring everybody out for lunch, you're going to come, so to me.
[UNKNOWN]: I think what it comes down to is just understanding that veterinarians are not always trained in a full spectrum understanding of nutrition.
[UNKNOWN]: And in fact, the most veterinarians I have on conventional or integrative or evalistic have said like we don't get trained in nutrition at all.
[UNKNOWN]: They have to make the vet that I had on that we're having back on.
[UNKNOWN]: She said after watching a couple of my podcasts that she started.
[UNKNOWN]: I want to know more.
[UNKNOWN]: You had a conventional that on that wasn't open to raw.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, no, she just was, she didn't know about it.
[UNKNOWN]: So she said that she, she looked into the whole process and she was like, holy crap, but because I think people just like put their head down and they, you know, and they, and they, they just do a certain thing.
[UNKNOWN]: They've been told a certain thing and to your point, like if I come in as a pet owner who don't, it doesn't have a degree in nutrition and I'm out of doctor and I come in and I say, I'm feeding Ron, they said you shouldn't.
[UNKNOWN]: It's offensive to them, like, how do you talk in about, you know, and but I tell this story all the time.
[UNKNOWN]: I want to talk about HPP because I think it's really important because I mentioned it because I did go in probably in the last two years I can't remember and we talked about raw food and I said, well, raw food is dangerous and I said, well, the raw food that I use has the HPP process and she was like,
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, mm-hmm.
[UNKNOWN]: What's that?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's pretty simple, right?
[UNKNOWN]: So talk to me about the HPP.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: So HPP stands for high pressure processing or high pressure pasteurization.
[UNKNOWN]: So it uses cool water at high pressure to
[UNKNOWN]: Um, it does not use heat.
[UNKNOWN]: It does not use chemicals.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, now there are many companies big commercial raw companies in the US are using this, right?
[UNKNOWN]: It is a very effective natural kill step, um, which is why so many raw companies do use it.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, I can't speak for what other raw companies, their parameters for HPP.
[UNKNOWN]: So our parameters, for example, we have a specific hold time,
[UNKNOWN]: temperature that it's held at.
[UNKNOWN]: And with we've done validated studies to ensure that our HPP parameters equal a five log reduction, which is just a fancy way of saying that 99.99% of the pathogens are eliminated.
[UNKNOWN]: So that can that allows us to say that our food is as safe as gently cooked.
[UNKNOWN]: So we are, you know, the raw of 20 years ago, or, you know, it's just such a different game.
[UNKNOWN]: Now, it is entirely possible to have a safe science backed, carefully formulated raw product.
[UNKNOWN]: And I think that a lot of the, you know, information out there hasn't caught up to what commercial raw brands are doing, like us, to make it safe.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, we were talking earlier about that's my vet and like I go to a conventional vet in my neighborhood who I go to mainly I started going there because they're just right in my neighborhood.
[UNKNOWN]: They're privately owned.
[UNKNOWN]: I am a you know unique case because I know so much about nutrition.
[UNKNOWN]: myself, so I don't really need to go to a vet for that.
[UNKNOWN]: But what's great about her, she's a great vet, right?
[UNKNOWN]: She gets on the ground with my dog.
[UNKNOWN]: We talk sometimes for an hour at an appointment.
[UNKNOWN]: She's really invested.
[UNKNOWN]: She doesn't know anything about raw food.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm obviously happy to give her all the information that she can possibly want.
[UNKNOWN]: But we, you know, she asked me all the questions about the sourcing, what's the formulation, what are the safety steps and she didn't know any of this, you know, and she was much more open minded after we spoke.
[UNKNOWN]: So I think it's great to see those questions and that curiosity coming from even conventional vets because it just creates space to have these.
[UNKNOWN]: important discussions and help them think a little differently, but if I was just an average pet owner that didn't do what I do and have the knowledge, I think it's better when people can seek out more integrative vets because they are going to be open to this and they're not going to scare them only.
[UNKNOWN]: We have lots of customers who tell us all the time that, you know, oh my vet saying don't do this more like, well what?
[UNKNOWN]: Like, did you give them this, this and this, you know, reason for why it's safe, why it's
[UNKNOWN]: balanced, but I think the default with a lot of the traditional veterinarians is to steer people away from this way of feeding and then feed this kibble that's perfectly scientifically formulated.
[UNKNOWN]: What's your advice to people when they're vet says you shouldn't be feeding a wee feed raw or raw diet?
[UNKNOWN]: Um, to ask why, you know, like, what are your reasons?
[UNKNOWN]: And, you know, we, you can go to our website and see why our feed is safe.
[UNKNOWN]: Why it's carefully from it.
[UNKNOWN]: Because the reason they're always going to be bacteria who formulated it, um, you know, is it balanced?
[UNKNOWN]: And we can confidently answer all of those questions.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, this is, we are a very, like, we're not anti science.
[UNKNOWN]: We are very proscience.
[UNKNOWN]: We put a lot of time and money into sourcing and formulation and safety steps.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, so it's just, you know, frustrating and kind of funny to when we hear this like anti-science angle, because it's like the opposite of what we're doing and what a lot of, you know, reputable commercial raw grants are doing in the US.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, we take safety very seriously, like you cannot mess around with that.
[UNKNOWN]: So, you can, because you get shut down if you weren't
[UNKNOWN]: you would have recall after recall or you know there's definitely smaller brands that can fly under the radar and maybe not have a kill step or but once you get to be a certain size and you know you don't want to be having recalls which nobody does and you want it to be safe for the people feeding it and the animals and you have to have
[UNKNOWN]: safety steps in place that have been, you know, tested and proven.
[UNKNOWN]: We also third party test everything before it ever reaches the end customer.
[UNKNOWN]: So nothing leaves our facility to be shipped to the customer before it's been third party tested for pathogens.
[UNKNOWN]: We also test for to make sure we're meeting complete and balanced standards.
[UNKNOWN]: We test for heavy metals.
[UNKNOWN]: So I just think people have to catch up to like the way that commercial raw brands are doing things today.
[UNKNOWN]: And there's just a lot of left over.
[UNKNOWN]: you know ideas of what raw feeding used to be.
[UNKNOWN]: And I think it's even with anything.
[UNKNOWN]: It's from my viewpoint.
[UNKNOWN]: There's this cycle where you get this very basic primal and stintual process.
[UNKNOWN]: And then it gets sterilized, and then what I mean by sterilize is I think companies then find a way to say, hey, we're going to make some money off of this, and then we're going to pay these companies to say science says, my point is, yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: again with the working with the wolves and seeing like real hardcore rob rob feeders who are just like throwing out you know half dead chickens with feathers still on and like in the dogs are just like dismantling them and like eating the heart and eating the you know like real hardcore raw feeders who have been doing this.
[UNKNOWN]: For centuries, like people who have been feeding raw food to dogs, like even dogs who live on farms, or they're getting whatever, they're killing stuff, or they're getting like placentes of animals who are being born, or whatever.
[UNKNOWN]: Like it's just like they'll, they're just going to eat that.
[UNKNOWN]: And they find, and they live that life, and their healthy, and they have energy, and then we just go through this commercialization of, like, sterilization, and then it gets to a point where there's like a gatekeeping, because there's so much money involved.
[UNKNOWN]: That's what I've been realizing anyway.
[UNKNOWN]: This is, this is subjective to me, but it's also like, um,
[UNKNOWN]: I don't I don't have like skin in the game either way.
[UNKNOWN]: I just see like what is actually happening where I'm like you see like we get back down to the same thing with training right like you see um you see a dog who let's say a dog has a bone here and this other dog comes up and the dog comes over and corrects the dog and the dog walks away.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah that's the most primal natural
[UNKNOWN]: I don't need science to tell me what just happened there.
[UNKNOWN]: This dog corrected this dog.
[UNKNOWN]: And then all of a sudden, after you go through this sterilization process and now there's all these certifications and then these schools and these schools are like, you can't let natural things happen.
[UNKNOWN]: You need to pay us to go through this because actually science is now starting to say that that natural, it's like, no, it's not.
[UNKNOWN]: Somebody's just trying to make money somewhere, right?
[UNKNOWN]: And so it's just interesting that like the food, the training space, the mental health space, the exercise space, like it's just,
[UNKNOWN]: basic common sense critical thinking about like, hey, do you want to feed your dog?
[UNKNOWN]: We're going to get all these ingredients and sometimes these minerals and supplements that are imported from China and they don't really have any and then we're going to pack it through a sugar and pack it through carbohydrates.
[UNKNOWN]: We're going to heat it up.
[UNKNOWN]: We're going to protrude it out.
[UNKNOWN]: We're going to put and then we're going to or would you want this chicken that we debunk with?
[UNKNOWN]: You know what I mean?
[UNKNOWN]: Why does the fear have to be so much about this like natural thing versus this like?
[UNKNOWN]: It's critical thinking, right?
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, use your brain.
[UNKNOWN]: Hold on, use your brain.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: This whole process.
[UNKNOWN]: And then,
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, well, we have a fear of bacteria, obviously, and this country too, like it's a, we fear it, but I will say, and this isn't to like defend the FDA, but like, you know, there's a zero tolerance policy for pathogenic bacteria and all pet food, and that is wrong, included.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't think that that is just trying to make money off of it.
[UNKNOWN]: I think they're trying to protect, you know, people.
[UNKNOWN]: I think that.
[UNKNOWN]: DIY raw feeders I always say all power to you more power to you like I wouldn't probably even be doing that myself if I didn't work here.
[UNKNOWN]: It's a lot of work you have to try to balance and find all the ingredients and grind and blah blah blah.
[UNKNOWN]: But I do think HPP I really love it as a process because it again doesn't use heat or chemicals.
[UNKNOWN]: There's sometimes people will say, oh well if it's killing the bad bacteria it's kind of the good bacteria too.
[UNKNOWN]: Meep isn't a natural probiotic source.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay, you're not getting probiotics from the meat.
[UNKNOWN]: It What's important is the composition of the diet, which is the meat.
[UNKNOWN]: The organs, the bone, that's further getting, you know, the gut health benefits from.
[UNKNOWN]: If you are maybe feeding green tripe, I think that's one that does have a lot of healthy bacteria in it to start, um, but
[UNKNOWN]: I just think there's a lot of people here at as a process, I think it means it's more a process.
[UNKNOWN]: I think it's a really wonderful step.
[UNKNOWN]: It's something we've talked about this before.
[UNKNOWN]: It's used all the time throughout people food.
[UNKNOWN]: On all baby foods, on any ready to eat foods, we have probably all of us in this room eaten HPP food this week.
[UNKNOWN]: So, it gets a bad wrap, I think, in the raw food, sort of, like, fanatical world, but it really is, like, a great way.
[UNKNOWN]: And it, I mean, can dogs handle bacteria in ways that we cannot, yes, of course.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, they're faculty of carnivores, are designed to handle bacteria.
[UNKNOWN]: I think the FDA is more concerned about the people, handling the food, it's small children in the home, older people, also,
[UNKNOWN]: Yes, the healthy dog has a healthy gut microbiome that can handle more bacteria than we can, but our old dogs did the old dogs have a healthy gut microbiome in the U.S., like some dogs might have be more sensitive to pathogenic bacteria than another dog.
[UNKNOWN]: So I do think it's a really great step, and also if you want to be in business as a raw food country here, like you got to be doing it.
[UNKNOWN]: No, for sure.
[UNKNOWN]: And I guess I don't mean it to be like, don't go through the process as I just feel like the matter of fact is you guys have commercialized away to make things primal and instinctual and natural and you made it safer.
[UNKNOWN]: To me, it's hard to understand why people are so like none of them we can't you know yeah so going back I think one of the biggest things you know again I had we were in a coffee shop in Saratoga the other day and I met these
[UNKNOWN]: They had a St. Bernard, so we just kind of struck a conversation because I had a St. Bernard, and so he was really friendly and stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: And I just say, oh, how old is he, Bob Obama, and I'm like, oh, he's, you know, four, whatever, and they said, they said, I said, oh, that's great.
[UNKNOWN]: I said, you know, I had a St. Bernard before, and they're like, yeah, they said, you know, when he was younger, he had really bad, like skinny shoes, and we switched into raw food, and I was like, oh, interesting, and I was like, and I just talked to, I just said, like, oh, yeah, I feed raw food and, and
[UNKNOWN]: It was funny because I was like, they're like, what do you feel?
[UNKNOWN]: I said, we feed raw and they're like, oh, yeah, we see ads for them all time.
[UNKNOWN]: I was like, you're probably seeing me.
[UNKNOWN]: I was like, you're probably seeing me at some point.
[UNKNOWN]: But what, what, it was just cool because I think so many people are now shifting to this area.
[UNKNOWN]: But I think the biggest thing that I see in your ads or in your posts, or even in my posts when I talk about raw food.
[UNKNOWN]: And I just want to be clear with people.
[UNKNOWN]: I obviously partnered with we feed raw, and I've partnered with other companies, but the only time I partner with the company is because I'm already using their product or a similar product, you know, it's already a rough eater will be missed.
[UNKNOWN]: So I just want to inform people,
[UNKNOWN]: it's not like we freed raw was like hey Tom you're feeding cable right now yeah we want to pay you to feed raw food and tell everybody it's like hey Tom you're already feeding our food like can can we work together to help people understand more about raw food same thing with dogs or impact creates or any of the sponsorships that i've had anybody who contacts me and i've said this to you guys
[UNKNOWN]: where they said, hey, we want a partner, I'm like, I always, I do six months to a year and it's got to be something I really, you know, believe in.
[UNKNOWN]: Right.
[UNKNOWN]: Like we did a sponsorship project with the furball recently, which is like, it's a dog camera app.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's really cool.
[UNKNOWN]: Like they were, you know, because we get, you know, as any company would you get pitches like, hey, you know.
[UNKNOWN]: this company's cool because so many people travel or whatever and I remember using it all that I use it just to check on my house now.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm like checking on it and stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: What my point is is I think it's really important for people to understand that you are not getting, you are not paying me to be on this podcast and at no point in time where you like you have to feed we feed raw.
[UNKNOWN]: I was like I'm already doing this stuff so it's a very natural thing but one thing
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, I think consistently that's the one thing I see is like, yes, there's no way I'm paying $100 a month a law food and I'm like, yeah, what?
[UNKNOWN]: I'm like, well, it makes sense because people haven't we've been trained to think that dog food should cost a certain amount of money.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, so this can feel a lot more, it is not feel, it is more than cable.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, I'm not going to sugarcoat that, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Because it's real food.
[UNKNOWN]: It costs us more to make it, like, you know, it, we have to have a sustainable business.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, our food isn't cheap because we don't in order to make our food cheap.
[UNKNOWN]: We'd have to source cheap ingredients.
[UNKNOWN]: We'd have to, like, use process, like, we'd have to use scary ingredients, honestly.
[UNKNOWN]: So, and we're not going to have a company like this and do that.
[UNKNOWN]: I think there has to be a reallocation of funds.
[UNKNOWN]: I think that people need to start thinking about dog wellness in a different way.
[UNKNOWN]: And like we touched on before.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like we have this booming dog wellness industry that's like, spend all this money on dog clothes and dog toys and like, you know, grooming and I'm not saying grooming isn't necessary.
[UNKNOWN]: you know, ultra-fossed as food and you're chipping out on the food, like none of the other stuff really matters.
[UNKNOWN]: So we've seen a lot like people will, we have one lady who is telling us that her, she was spending hundreds of dollars a month on steroids, shots, allergy shots for her dog, and it was still wasn't helping.
[UNKNOWN]: And at one point she had like a light bulb moment and said like, why don't I just try this food because it's going to cost me the same amount of money, right?
[UNKNOWN]: So she switched to our food and sure enough, had with the able to stop giving the story to lots and allergies to shots, so that was a reallocation of thought and she started putting the money toward food and that's a much better feeling because you're actually feeling your dog rather than just like treating symptoms that you not sure what the root cause is.
[UNKNOWN]: I think we're so used to managing symptoms like we default to that and even with ourselves and especially with our dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: That's sort of the conventional system is like to manage the symptoms, right?
[UNKNOWN]: We have a lady that came to us recently.
[UNKNOWN]: Her dog was a senior dog.
[UNKNOWN]: Limping pretty badly after even like short walks.
[UNKNOWN]: She was, had him on anti-inflammatories.
[UNKNOWN]: Was trying acupuncture.
[UNKNOWN]: Nothing was working.
[UNKNOWN]: He was having horrible digestive issues from the anti-inflammatories.
[UNKNOWN]: She switched to our food within a few months.
[UNKNOWN]: This dog, who 12 and a half years old, then visible decline, was now running, jumping, had the zoomies again.
[UNKNOWN]: And all she changed was the food.
[UNKNOWN]: She was able to take him off the anti-inflammatories because he, you know, and was no longer having those issues.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's just a cool thing to see these dog owners switch from how do we manage the symptoms to what if the food is part of the reason why he's struggling?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: And so I think just getting people to see that investing in something like this now,
[UNKNOWN]: does have a really high ROI, you know, you're much less likely to have, I'm not saying it here is everything, but you're much less likely to have high vet bills down the line, having to, you know, pay for managing a bunch of symptoms that are a result of eating a low quality start heavy diet, right?
[UNKNOWN]: So I mean, but that's a lot of work that we have to do and it's a lot of,
[UNKNOWN]: This can be better because it's hard to value preventative health upfront, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Your dog is especially puppies or younger dogs that don't have any problems yet.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, they're fine on kibble.
[UNKNOWN]: They're doing great, you know.
[UNKNOWN]: But it's like as they start to get older, things start to pop up.
[UNKNOWN]: We've also, you know, normalized a lot of,
[UNKNOWN]: Conditions, right?
[UNKNOWN]: I think we're used to like especially the obesity thing are the overweight dogs like overweight dogs are everywhere People don't even know what a thin dog looks like.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I mean I used to have an English bulldog who was raw federal life and she had a waste and like people were like So weird, you know, she doesn't look like an ottoman
[UNKNOWN]: And then we take her to the vet and every time we take her to the vet, they're like, this is the healthiest bulldog we've ever seen.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, because people aren't used to like chunky and like these like, you know, tubby dogs are cute.
[UNKNOWN]: No, I know.
[UNKNOWN]: That's it.
[UNKNOWN]: That's like the worst right where you get like a really good lean muscular dog.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Like do you feed your dog?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: That's like, no, this is just how a dog is supposed to look.
[UNKNOWN]: It's supposed to see them hips.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Not just like this beaver.
[UNKNOWN]: Like Rob, Rob from Guassi, because he's dog is like, he has like, he's like, but I saw something today actually on one of our influencers who has two Goldens and her goldens are in great shape that you're at our food and she posted something where someone was like, what kind of are those at different kind of golden retriever?
[UNKNOWN]: They look thinner than like, oh, or I'm all kind and it's like, oh, I just the healthy kind.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, no, I know it's, I think it's just in general in America, we have
[UNKNOWN]: so much sugar, so much process.
[UNKNOWN]: And it doesn't happen really any in their country.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, if you go to other countries, like we've luckily had the opportunity to travel the world working with dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: And when we go to other countries, it's like, it's complete.
[UNKNOWN]: The foods different, the dogs are different.
[UNKNOWN]: The trainings different, the people are different.
[UNKNOWN]: Like everybody lives a different life, but in America, it's like, and it's crazy like yesterday, we went out to lunch with our kids and our, and my mom and stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: My son brings me like this lemonade.
[UNKNOWN]: He's like, Dad, can I have this and I flip it over and it was like 17 grams of sugar And it's two doses in a bottle.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I'm like no dude.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I'm like you're this big.
[UNKNOWN]: I know So I think just people are so used to because it tastes so good.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay, read-ozer.
[UNKNOWN]: I actually I saw this thing that like
[UNKNOWN]: To your point, I think the market switch is happening so rapidly, where people are educated, they're listening to podcasts, they want to feel better, they want to look better, they want to live longer.
[UNKNOWN]: there's not drinking so now like if you go to a restaurant or you go to a bar it's like half mock tales and half normal cocktails were before if you asked for an N.A.
[UNKNOWN]: it's like you had one option and it was like for alcoholics that was it it wasn't like you're drinking an N.A.
[UNKNOWN]: because you just don't want the alcohol right now it's like a thing where people are like I don't want to I don't want it and Taylor is makes fun of me too because like
[UNKNOWN]: She's like if you're going to drink it a beer don't like just if you're going to drink the carbs Just get a regular beer like screw the NAs or whatever, but it's just funny because There's this huge shift.
[UNKNOWN]: I had somebody on recently that was talking about how the marijuana industry is crushing the alcohol industry now because The then I mean whatever.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean marijuana
[UNKNOWN]: better let's just say on paper way better for you than alcohol is right there's the there's the addictions and then there's the whatever right I mean there's you got splitting hairs there but but the the legalization of marijuana in certain states in New York and other places just crushing
[UNKNOWN]: the alcohol industry and so now the alcohol industry is are buying up all the cannabis shops and they're trying to like switch over to cannabis products.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's so my point is is I think that there's this shift too because I even saw the other day there was like this ad for Doritos naked.
[UNKNOWN]: I think it's what it's called where it's like know this, know that like the brands are purposefully now going like we don't have bullshit.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like what have you been doing all these years?
[UNKNOWN]: And also like,
[UNKNOWN]: I don't know, it's kind of like the the dyes thing to and like, okay, let's still skittles, you know, or it's so, well, no, it's still derried.
[UNKNOWN]: No, it's still like, when I eat it healthier snack, but you're your saying, it's like totally this, they're they are responding, which is a good sign, right?
[UNKNOWN]: But they're wrecking like in the past, you know, I think raw food, I remember hearing someone say,
[UNKNOWN]: the big pet food is watching, but they're not concerned yet.
[UNKNOWN]: And that was probably like 10 years ago, but the consumers drive movement.
[UNKNOWN]: Sure.
[UNKNOWN]: And they're the ones that are demanding the changes.
[UNKNOWN]: And I think it's a good thing.
[UNKNOWN]: And 100%.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it's just interesting.
[UNKNOWN]: Like it's like the Doritos flaming hot.
[UNKNOWN]: Like I'm obsessed with those.
[UNKNOWN]: I haven't had them in a couple of years, but yeah, I can't just eat one of those.
[UNKNOWN]: It's so good, you just can't stop and then of course, the healthy flaming hot they suck, they're just because they're not packed with chemicals.
[UNKNOWN]: But I remember my friends from the UK, my friends that live in the UK and they come over and they stock, their suitcases, full of, if you travel outside of the country, I remember
[UNKNOWN]: stores where it'll say like American candy and they're like what and just because they like it's like these little stores who only import American candy because they can't get those certain things in other places like I remember the the mountain dew I can't remember where we were like Portugal or somewhere the mountain dew bottle is is is is is um lime green because they can't add the dye in the actual soda.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh that's so interesting.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, so like in the United States, like they can put highlighter fluid in that mountain doing, get away with it, and kids are sucking it back, but in other countries where it's illegal to put those things in there, they have to die the bottle to make their stuff look like Mountain Dew is in the United States, and it's like, and I remember as a kid, just throwing back Mountain Dew, like, what is God?
[UNKNOWN]: How do my parents let me do that?
[UNKNOWN]: But the cost thing,
[UNKNOWN]: late before we can I go to the bathroom.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm sorry.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, they're basically break.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, the secret address and like two coffees.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, and we're back.
[UNKNOWN]: So what I was going to talk about is the cost.
[UNKNOWN]: So I know when we first started our partnership and stuff, you guys were talking about like even a little bit of raw food is better than than just complete a cable, if you will.
[UNKNOWN]: So what do you suggest to people?
[UNKNOWN]: Like if they're if they're say like, I'm just going to
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, actually, me ask us, what's the average cost for one dog of like a rodot?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it's okay.
[UNKNOWN]: So because our meals are so customized, it really varies, and I'm not just giving that as like an vague answer, but like you can depends on the proteins you choose.
[UNKNOWN]: size of your dog, the activity level of your dog, so many different things are just to start there that it's like very flexible and varied depending on your individual dog.
[UNKNOWN]: That's the business model.
[UNKNOWN]: We, it's, you know, custom meal plans tailored to your dog needs and your needs to be honest.
[UNKNOWN]: That said, I can give you the general number.
[UNKNOWN]: So like for the average 40 pound dog, it's around $60 a week to feed a fully raw diet.
[UNKNOWN]: But you can start at like we have plans that start as, you know, $2 a day.
[UNKNOWN]: So there's ways to do it.
[UNKNOWN]: Again, you can do partial feeding.
[UNKNOWN]: You can, you know, order meal plan and then, you know, play around with your shipping schedule.
[UNKNOWN]: So if you only want to get one box, you know, every eight weeks that you can do that.
[UNKNOWN]: So we make it like very easy to have it fit within your budget and your lifestyle.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, I really, you know, I think people sometimes have a block with this, like this, like, you know, all or nothing approach is just prevents people from even starting in the first place because, um,
[UNKNOWN]: Um, they think, well, if I can't feed them like that all the time, why even start doing this and it's like, we don't have that same, you know, approach to our food like we're not like, oh, if I can't eat perfectly today, then I might have a little just eat junk food all day, right?
[UNKNOWN]: We know that even like 20 to 30 percent fresh healthy food is going to make a difference.
[UNKNOWN]: And you can see that and, you know, their code, their energy, I mean, you will see a difference.
[UNKNOWN]: So we really want to be more democratic, how did and more open to, like, however you want to feed.
[UNKNOWN]: And that's why we are very careful about.
[UNKNOWN]: as much as we educate on kibble and like that it's an ultra-rocess food not to shame people that feed kibble, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Like we're not telling you to give it up completely if that's not an option.
[UNKNOWN]: Obviously I think that 100% raw is going to be the best way for your dog, but if that's not doable for you for whatever reason, that's okay.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm trying to think like
[UNKNOWN]: I think it's the same thing with human food too.
[UNKNOWN]: Like if I said, I feel like I would get shit if I said, I'm gonna feed my kids or vice versa.
[UNKNOWN]: If I'm like, I'm gonna feed my kids.
[UNKNOWN]: All organic, pasture raised chickens, organic beef.
[UNKNOWN]: grass fed organic regenerative beef.
[UNKNOWN]: I think people would be like most be nice, you know, and it's like yeah, so I can see where and I get it.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like I'm not trying to Flot or it's just like when I tell people like hey, I want like, hey, I think you guys should feed your kids like more fruits and veggies I think it's gonna give them more energy instead of gushers and Dunkle Rouge, which is what I eat as a kid, all right, so it's like I think
[UNKNOWN]: If I, if I was like in the kid space, I would be saying, like, hey, let's just try to do blueberries or let's try to like flip the package over and see like I remember like solely S O L E Y such a good company.
[UNKNOWN]: They're like one of the only companies now that isn't bought out by somebody big yet.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, you know, I always have to say you know what, but like again, you flip the package over and it's like these my kids love these mango snacks They call mango snacks.
[UNKNOWN]: I finally so it's too.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I am so much better than I either solely just mango Cheese like yeah the big ones
[UNKNOWN]: As a snack, but anyway, like if you flip the package over, it says ingredients, organic mango.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, that's it.
[UNKNOWN]: That's it.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm like, okay, that's good.
[UNKNOWN]: But then when you flip over like a package of, you know, something else, like if you go to, if you go to another store and it's like gushers or whatever, you flip it over, there's going to be probably 25 to 30 piece of ingredients and none of them are going to be fruit.
[UNKNOWN]: It's going to be sugar added and all this stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: So then, okay, objectively.
[UNKNOWN]: Again, using our critical thinking skills here, we take gushers and we take and shout the gushers because the gushers are good, but they're awful for you.
[UNKNOWN]: But like we take gut, right, I used to eat those as a kid.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, that was like, we get like, we were, when we got gushers, I mean, I've seen it, but it's like the gushers are like those little balls of high fruit coast corn syrup and sugar, and then inside of them is sugar juice.
[UNKNOWN]: It's it like that's literally it.
[UNKNOWN]: It's just again, it's sugar sold the kids because they taste good, but they But it's sold as like a snack that you would pack in a school lunch.
[UNKNOWN]: Yes, okay.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: That's not like Halloween candy.
[UNKNOWN]: Both yeah, but no, it's like it said be Halloween.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: It's not good.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, not good.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, it is good, but it's not good.
[UNKNOWN]: You know what I mean, but anyway, you so if I was like in the kids space or even the nutritional space, which I'm not and I flip these two things over.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, and I go.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay, organic ink.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay, the ingredients on solely mango snacks is organic mangoes and that's it.
[UNKNOWN]: And then I flip over gushers or fruit roll up or whatever and it's like 30 different things and it's high glucose corn syrup and it's sugar and it's all these gums and all these things.
[UNKNOWN]: I go, I'm going to get these to my kids instead.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay, not rocket science, right?
[UNKNOWN]: But, and I think it's this, but I think people have a hard time because the, like, that type of food has been so commercialized and they're just so used to it, right?
[UNKNOWN]: When you see like they're spending so much money on the branding and the packaging and like the commercials, they must be fine.
[UNKNOWN]: So many kids are eating it.
[UNKNOWN]: Well, same thing with like Taco Bell, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Taco Bell, I think their beef is one great above dog food.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, it's very low, right?
[UNKNOWN]: So you're getting commercialized, like you're getting cows who were not getting treated right, you're getting cows who were born with stress and dying with stress, in factory farming, in humane animals, right?
[UNKNOWN]: I'm not saying I've never eaten Taco Bell.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm just saying like, now that I'm adult, I made it once a year if I'm in a pinch and I get everything vegetarian anyway.
[UNKNOWN]: If I do that right, because I know the factory farming in those fast food places, same thing with all the other fast food places.
[UNKNOWN]: It's not good, right?
[UNKNOWN]: But then you go, so you see this, and you go, or you go over here, and it's like, I think the money thing is such a hard thing.
[UNKNOWN]: And it sucks because money is now the reason why some people will live healthy or not.
[UNKNOWN]: But it's also a convenience thing.
[UNKNOWN]: Where again, you go to like, around here, like the big chains are like Hanifurder, price chopper, or like down south.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like Kroger, or price rider, or whatever.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like,
[UNKNOWN]: you go to those stores and they have very little organic options meaning not sprayed with pesticides and you know any of that stuff and then you go and then it's just like you go down the aisles and it's just like reds and blues and like a cartoon and it's by me by me and you flip it over and so for me it's really easy for me to see like if I see a branding on something I'm like
[UNKNOWN]: It's bad stuff in there.
[UNKNOWN]: I know it.
[UNKNOWN]: Like I just know, I can see the colors.
[UNKNOWN]: I can see the branding.
[UNKNOWN]: They spent more money in the branding than the actual product.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: And you buy it.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: So with I think is the same thing with dog owners is they see something like to your point.
[UNKNOWN]: Like let's say it's $300 a month to feed a raw diet to one dog.
[UNKNOWN]: Let's just say.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
[UNKNOWN]: And then a cable fed diet would be
[UNKNOWN]: the, let's say, I don't know, for $20 a month, maybe, like, I don't know, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I
[UNKNOWN]: people always say like less process and I'm like, I think with Kibble you can have maybe ones that have better ingredients and sourcing but like the processing is pretty much the same because you in order to form Kibble.
[UNKNOWN]: Right.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay so yeah so ingredients and and and sourcing because sourcing is really important to me like if I'm like I don't
[UNKNOWN]: I don't even have a lot of pork anymore because I like realize how intelligent pigs were and I just I thickly like I still do like I just I tend to do chicken beef fish But I think sourcing is really important to me like they have to have like the humanly raised thing or I'll just go to like a local farm that I know like I can see the cows I can see the chickens.
[UNKNOWN]: I can see them not like, you know, and so I so anyway back to the solely gushers thing
[UNKNOWN]: I think dog owners because they go and buy like the package that has the salmon and the chicken and like it looks beautiful, but you don't realize like you are not getting that grade of food.
[UNKNOWN]: So again, you flip over the gushers and it looks great in the packaging is great.
[UNKNOWN]: So people can very costly.
[UNKNOWN]: add in raw diet to their food or less processed that not even not specifically raw food just anything that's like more fresh right so that would be like us if we're gonna have like a McDonald's cheeseburger we also have a salad blueberries and strawberries over here right it's not just all or nothing yes that's I again I can't stress enough that's I think that's the biggest
[UNKNOWN]: Yes, exactly.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's is a sticker shock if you're used to feeding kibble to then come over and look at like what a full meal plan might cost for any of the fresh foods or frozen foods out there.
[UNKNOWN]: So.
[UNKNOWN]: That's, that is one of the reasons that we really talk about that a lot is like, we will help you find a way to make this work within your budget and your lifestyle and you do not have to feel bad about not being able to do this 100% because you will absolutely see differences and you will see in your dog pretty quickly too.
[UNKNOWN]: And I don't want it to sound like I'm saying again like obviously the more you can feed the better the more you can feed yourself better.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, the more results you're going to see, same with your kids, same with your dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: But it doesn't mean you should stick with just only all the other process food day for day because, you know, you think it has to be all or nothing.
[UNKNOWN]: So I think it's just hard for people to, again, value preventative health through food.
[UNKNOWN]: You also have to have a lot of patience.
[UNKNOWN]: I think sometimes with
[UNKNOWN]: eating healthy and seeing results like we're in a society where you go and you take a pill for something and you feel better right away or you go get a shot for something that you know and you feel better right away.
[UNKNOWN]: People want quick immediate results and while you will see some things really quickly when you switch to a healthy diet for a dog to like
[UNKNOWN]: within the first week, you'll start noticing things, but some things take longer, and I think because we're so trained to think like, oh my dog is itching so bad, you know, they go get a side of point shot or a walkwheel or something, and they juicy results quickly, but then it's back, you know, in six weeks.
[UNKNOWN]: raw food or a healthy diet will take a little bit longer than a shot would, but it will last longer and usually gets to the root cause, right?
[UNKNOWN]: So I think it's also people A, not, you know, having like the sticker shock and not really maybe valuing preventative health and thinking, like, okay, you're pushing it down the road, like, I guess if my dog has something in five years, you know, he has like a tumor that needs to get removed or
[UNKNOWN]: you'll pay thousands of dollars out of pocket to get that removed and not saying that raw food would have prevented that from happening.
[UNKNOWN]: But maybe, you know, like there's a lot of people, and this isn't just from like my opinion, it's just what we hear from customers day after day who have gone down that path.
[UNKNOWN]: And I've never met a dog owner who regrets investing in their dogs health.
[UNKNOWN]: I have met many who wish they started sooner.
[UNKNOWN]: And that's really kind of sums up the customer feedback we get, you know.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I think it's one of the things that like if I would define success for me and my career, I would say this success for me and my career is being able to provide my kids who don't have a choice, healthy food.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: I would rather have my kids eat clean.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Then going vacation.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: On a percent like I would rather live
[UNKNOWN]: I would rather live in a smaller house with not a lot of the amenities, right?
[UNKNOWN]: I'd rather live with maybe out air conditioner than having to feed my kids the process junk that 90, I would say 90% of American kids are fed, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Like if you look at, you know, I've been doing research on this too.
[UNKNOWN]: Like the, I think it's called EBT or the food, basically the food stamps, like the free food that they give out.
[UNKNOWN]: Typically is all the process stuff, right?
[UNKNOWN]: So it's like,
[UNKNOWN]: they just have human beings addicted to certain things, right?
[UNKNOWN]: And I'm not like Danny, right?
[UNKNOWN]: What's his last name?
[UNKNOWN]: Zezaname, Danny.
[UNKNOWN]: The guy that you guys work with the health guy that's like super jacked up.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, Dan Churchill.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, Dan, yeah, I call him Dan.
[UNKNOWN]: Maybe it's Dan.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, Dan, like Dan Churchill, perfect example.
[UNKNOWN]: Like
[UNKNOWN]: Apex in shape runs like a hundred miles of casing nice that and shit like I'm like that's Like if I would love to get to that point, but it's very hard to like that's his job It's his job to get to that point and God bless him for doing that shout out to him, but I think just the like an average person who like can't I mean, you we could do it like I could do it.
[UNKNOWN]: You could do it.
[UNKNOWN]: It's just like the will to do it, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, so it's just like that middle ground where it's like
[UNKNOWN]: You know, I agree with you.
[UNKNOWN]: I totally feel the same way about I would give up other things before healthy eating, but I think that's probably because we've experienced the benefits at first hand for ourselves, like we've actually seen how healthy food and
[UNKNOWN]: you know paying attention to your exercise and rest and, you know, whole food diet can dramatically improve your life.
[UNKNOWN]: 100% and if you haven't had that experience yet, it's hard to think about it in the abstract or value it in the abstract and I think that is another thing that happens.
[UNKNOWN]: So, you know, we try to explain in and I think people sometimes see it with their dogs first too.
[UNKNOWN]: That's another thing.
[UNKNOWN]: As we have a lot of people that will, you know, not be in the admittedly say, like, oh, my dog's eating this way, but I'm still eating McDonald's, you know, but then they'll see what doing this, switching to this way of food, you know, does for their dog and they actually are inspired to improve their own diet too.
[UNKNOWN]: So food is medicine.
[UNKNOWN]: We did like a
[UNKNOWN]: Survey, maybe like a year ago, just getting some consumer insights and customer insights and it was like a 97% of our customers believe food is medicine.
[UNKNOWN]: It was a crazy number.
[UNKNOWN]: Like I thought that was so cool, you know, but a lot of people do see that, but I think maybe I don't know if that happened before after they started feeding probably a combination of both.
[UNKNOWN]: But it is, food can be medicine, you know, I think that's just, it's so awesome, and that's why we sort of react to this Over the top wellness routines for dogs and people, you know, we're getting marketed to like left and right and there's like all these different things that you could do and I think it's great if you already have this foundation again, but like just to
[UNKNOWN]: for people that are looking to just give their dogs a better life, like start with basics, just keep it simple.
[UNKNOWN]: That's it, the foundation, yeah, this basics.
[UNKNOWN]: It's a same thing with people, like go eat, like go, you know, I know it's a little bit extra, but it's less money, like you can grow your own blueberries.
[UNKNOWN]: You can raise your own, like chickens, you can go, you can go down like to like, the tractor supply and get your own, like if you wanted to go, right, if you could do that, right?
[UNKNOWN]: I'm talking about for people, but I think it's that.
[UNKNOWN]: There's this boom now where like there was this boom and commercialization for food back in the day where like we're going to make health Or sorry, we're going to make like all these tasty like the the Doritos and like that shit like you don't need any of that stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: It's garbage has no nutritional value whatsoever It just tastes good and they're for you buy it and you become addicted to it.
[UNKNOWN]: Trust me.
[UNKNOWN]: Like I love that stuff But I also know what it does to you same thing with like ice cream like fight ice cream and like I feel like crap after it's like the first like five
[UNKNOWN]: There he is not good, you know, like it messes with me like same thing with like if I'm on the like it's anyway.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I don't want to like
[UNKNOWN]: For me anyway, it's just like once you know, you can't on, like once you pull the, like this sleeve back on like, wait, everything I'm actually eating, it doesn't have fuel in it.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, like for me, I'm like all about fuel.
[UNKNOWN]: So I want to eat something that's going to provide energy and fuel.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, and that's, and it's been such a shift for me and my wife's been a big part of that because she like show send me a podcast and like, and it's like, why you shouldn't eat whatever.
[UNKNOWN]: I kind of want to do this.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't want to do this.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like the last thing I can.
[UNKNOWN]: It's the last thing I'm holding on to.
[UNKNOWN]: I know you need to have like one vice, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I'm like, God, I'm like, and again, it's like we're not, I don't think we're, we're definitely extreme than the average person because the average person also eats ultra-process food all day long and they don't flip over labels and they don't look at like, you know, the Yucca app has changed my eye working with a client.
[UNKNOWN]: And you know, I remember she just pulled out the app and for those you don't know it's basically an app that tells you like what is in the like it'll scan the bar code and it'll tell you like what's in it and it'll tell you like they like three ingredients in this product has been like the carcinogens or heavy metals or radioactive whatever and it'll great it like it'll say like it red means no.
[UNKNOWN]: But it also could be like a really healthy pretzel, but it has too much sodium and you've got to like pick your battles and it gives you it's good because it gives you like a range, you know, like okay, well for a snack that needs to be packed in my son's lunch box like was it what I would feed him at the dinner table, no, but it's good enough to yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: and it's tough with kids too, like oats is like the most, I think it's the highly, oats is like the number one sprayed thing, like grains that that you can get.
[UNKNOWN]: Coffee too is one of the best things.
[UNKNOWN]: Always a toxic.
[UNKNOWN]: Like if you're going to eat organic, I think they say like coffee is supposed to be one of the most important things to, um,
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Well, that makes sense.
[UNKNOWN]: That makes sense.
[UNKNOWN]: And same thing with oats and like our kids level meal.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: So then my wife's trying to make like her own, because like the, have you ever heard the mush oats?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Those are like, yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: M-U-S-H-H-H.
[UNKNOWN]: They love them.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: And like obsessed.
[UNKNOWN]: And then our one year old, my wife has been able to assist.
[UNKNOWN]: She makes like her own now.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: We're like organic oats.
[UNKNOWN]: And like we've successfully switched our one year old off of that because they're not organic.
[UNKNOWN]: So like they're the most highly sprayed thing of all the things, right?
[UNKNOWN]: And so it's like, but once you know those things, it's tough.
[UNKNOWN]: It's really tough.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, I know, that's going to occur.
[UNKNOWN]: It is.
[UNKNOWN]: It's just bliss.
[UNKNOWN]: And exactly, and sometimes it is, especially when they're, and it's hard like when the, and I don't want to go down the road too much, because but a lot of times like the conversation I'm having right now with you,
[UNKNOWN]: is the same conversation I listen to somebody else have and it made me switch my light bulb and I was like eight a minute like he got a um the um the uh the uh the ice cream truck came the other day right yeah and all the kids were going out and my son's like can I go get one and I'm like yeah sure and we bought him like a um
[UNKNOWN]: What do they call Taylor, the bomb pop?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: What's your awesome?
[UNKNOWN]: And I'm like, let me just see, flipped it over, and it's like six servings.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's like, literally oil, oil, oil, sugar, red dye, yellow dye, red dye.
[UNKNOWN]: Like literally no juice, enough, it's all chemicals.
[UNKNOWN]: The whole thing is a frozen thing, a thing of chemicals.
[UNKNOWN]: And then after the fact, he was losing his mind and we're like, okay, that's the junk food for the month.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I mean, at least you, I mean,
[UNKNOWN]: If you're if you're aware, then you know that like this isn't just an ice cream like it's like okay I know what that is made of you can have it, but like yeah you know you're going to be more careful about the others it's just kind of just balance the balance it's like making sure that you know told us perfection it's just trying to do the best you can that's right, but I always say to you know I'm not going to shame people for feeding cable, but I'm not going to pretend it's a health food either.
[UNKNOWN]: And if I weren't in this business, I would want someone to share this information with me too.
[UNKNOWN]: You can't act on information you don't have, so you can do with the information what you will, but like just sharing it.
[UNKNOWN]: Just trying to educate and then you can go find more information somewhere else if you want.
[UNKNOWN]: But I think it's just to open people's mind to get them thinking differently.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, because I had, I had this realization too and, you know, anyone, and this business had the same realization and no one is, I, I don't think there's, I haven't met anyone in the raw food or, you know, um, fresh food space even that got into this because they just wanted to make it quick buck, you know, I mean, it's really, it's a hard, especially raw.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, yes, it's, it's not easy and, um,
[UNKNOWN]: I think you have to really be passionate about it and believe in it and then therefore want to be sharing it with people like I love talking about this just looking at them so passionate I love to see other people like have the light bulb.
[UNKNOWN]: It's really fun for me and it's rewarding and I love that we're helping so many dogs so like even you know we were talking about earlier like there's this weird transition period that we're in where some people are accepting it more than
[UNKNOWN]: understanding the logic and others people are still very, very opposed to the idea of it.
[UNKNOWN]: But it's just, it's overall just cool to see the movement and the right direction.
[UNKNOWN]: And I'll just keep sharing, you know.
[UNKNOWN]: What's, I know you talked about earlier about like people wanting quick fixes and stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: Have you guys been in the nutritional space?
[UNKNOWN]: Have you dove into peptides or like because part of peptides is the ozempics and all that stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: All the amino acids.
[UNKNOWN]: Have you seen that at all in like your space?
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, they're talking about his longevity pill for dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't know if you've heard about that.
[UNKNOWN]: They're developing a longevity pill, which is
[UNKNOWN]: I'm not really sure exactly.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like a beef-flavored pill that is supposed to and who makes it?
[UNKNOWN]: I'm not sure yet.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm not sure where, but I'm sure you could find it.
[UNKNOWN]: It's just interesting.
[UNKNOWN]: How can I look it up?
[UNKNOWN]: I want to know.
[UNKNOWN]: Just search longevity pal for dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's end development.
[UNKNOWN]: It's a cool idea.
[UNKNOWN]: Obviously, if dogs can live longer, that's great.
[UNKNOWN]: a little bit crazy that the predominant pet food choice is still cable but we're talking about these like, you know, biotech like futuristic advancements and we're just like jumping over the original longevity pill is a healthy raw and it's a bit deflence the Flintstone of Flintstone of vitamins.
[UNKNOWN]: Do you ever remember that you remember those?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, that's the original.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, original longevity
[UNKNOWN]: Um, I mean, again, it's just there's obviously food isn't the only factor and why dogs are getting sick and cancer, um, you know, there's genetics.
[UNKNOWN]: There's breeding all of that, but I just find there's also they're talking about ozemphic for dogs and I find really kind of crazy because dogs can't and cats aren't feeding themselves.
[UNKNOWN]: They're not opening the refrigerator or I know I mean, of course.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it's a good way to put it.
[UNKNOWN]: It's just like what, you know,
[UNKNOWN]: I look it up.
[UNKNOWN]: So the biggest, this is via chat, GPT.
[UNKNOWN]: So, you know, take it with a grandson.
[UNKNOWN]: But the biggest legitimate player is loyal, which is developing drug specifically designated to extend healthy lifespan and dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: The main pill is L-O-Y-002, and it's aimed at senior dogs,
[UNKNOWN]: And has already been cleared by the FDA in the effectiveness hurdles, though it is not fully approved yet.
[UNKNOWN]: And then the other thing that they're talking about is rap and mice in which we've had Dr. Matt on to talk about.
[UNKNOWN]: To is that the one you were talking about, the loyal.
[UNKNOWN]: Yes, that's the one that is the one that I'm remembering.
[UNKNOWN]: Interesting.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: What is it?
[UNKNOWN]: Does it doesn't suit?
[UNKNOWN]: It's actually how it works.
[UNKNOWN]: And again, I think it's great that we're thinking about making helping dogs of longer, but what I don't think it's great is that we're also jumping over.
[UNKNOWN]: the food part of I know you know like it's like is that going to make because I wonder if there's I wonder if there's certain dogs like with people who they have like a thyroid issues or or allergic issues yeah I think it's not saying it shouldn't exist in like a great but not at the cost of like missing the discussion about food and nutrition right if we were already in a really great place with nutrition and dogs were the majority of dog breeding fresh whole food diets I would say
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, this conversation is really welcome and great, but because we're not, it just seems weird to me that we can have these, you know, we're like antiquated and dated and like this, you know, Kibble was invented in 1956 and since then we've been living in this like big Kibble era.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like nominating the space.
[UNKNOWN]: And so I just think it's strange that we, you know, have these other things coming out, like it was epic for it either, you know.
[UNKNOWN]: Well, I think it's a good point.
[UNKNOWN]: I think because I have friends who, like, I have friends who are perfectly capable of eating better and working now and losing weight that take us epic, and then I have friends who, like, obesity runs hard in their family, and then they take us epic, and I'm like, that makes more sense.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, I don't, I'm not to say anything about the Zempick.
[UNKNOWN]: I think it's a great drug for people who need it.
[UNKNOWN]: For sure is.
[UNKNOWN]: I think it's, again, like, the most darks are eating.
[UNKNOWN]: Ultra-processed food.
[UNKNOWN]: There's a dog in my neighborhood.
[UNKNOWN]: I don't know, Zempick.
[UNKNOWN]: Probably should be the part thing.
[UNKNOWN]: He's my neighbor's dog.
[UNKNOWN]: My neighbor is like an elderly gentleman who's like kind of disabled, so he's unable to walk that on the dog is so obese.
[UNKNOWN]: It's really sad and owner adores the dog.
[UNKNOWN]: He has dog workers that come and try to walk that dog with a dog doesn't even want to walk anymore.
[UNKNOWN]: And I of course, my husband and I tried to give him some of our food to try and he's like, oh, no, no, no.
[UNKNOWN]: He's on a prescription diet, and that's part of the problem is being solved because he's on this prescription diet.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Well, that's like anything else, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Like it's nice to eat good, but you also need other things.
[UNKNOWN]: You have to move your body.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: I have to move your body.
[UNKNOWN]: You have to do something.
[UNKNOWN]: So, this says right here.
[UNKNOWN]: Loyal is not publicly revealed exactly the active ingredients, but
[UNKNOWN]: Um, it says that it's a one's daily pill.
[UNKNOWN]: It's designed for senior dogs.
[UNKNOWN]: It targets age-related metabolic dysfunction.
[UNKNOWN]: The goal is to improve health span and potential life span.
[UNKNOWN]: So, um, it just, yeah, it doesn't really say really.
[UNKNOWN]: I think it's great.
[UNKNOWN]: I think it's, because I saw, I think the founder getting interviewed on with the Anderson Cooper and she sounds great.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's like, it's nothing, I think what this company is doing is a good thing.
[UNKNOWN]: It's more it's like the media is like there's been so many articles about this and news about this and it's like we're still living in a society where like cable is like dominating you go to every look at the you know pet food aisle and it's like all junk.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, exactly.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's just.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, that's, you know, it's, and that's why these conversations are so important and I think that that's why, you know, again, like I do this podcast is because I learned so much about life on podcasts where two, two human beings are talking about
[UNKNOWN]: excuse me issues that they're having or parenting or travel hacks or mental health hacks or like and I learned so much by somebody going like hey I had this issue and here's the things that I did and it helped tremendously and I tried it on like wow that's game-changing right because like
[UNKNOWN]: Again, I think conventional medicine, again, a lot of the vets that I have on that are even incremental medicine are just talking about, like it's ambulance medicine, like it's if you go to the conventional doctor, like again, if you go to the doctor and they say, hey, I have this, this rash and they're like, all right, here's some cream.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like, they don't ask how do you get it or how could you prevent it or, you know, anything like that, they are they are symptomatic, they are treating the symptom with the quality of care that they need to, right?
[UNKNOWN]: So they,
[UNKNOWN]: They don't tell you how to be a lot of times anyway, they don't tell you how to be proactive and a lot of that's I don't carry it anyway I'm like just give me something to get rid of this.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, like I am that patient But at the same time there's other things in my life where like again like mental health for me was huge like I realized
[UNKNOWN]: not actually like I realized once I started drinking less coffee because I was so sensitive to it like we were talking about like my mental health got so much better because I had had all this anxiety and I had all these intrusive thoughts and all these things like all the time like popping through my head and I didn't know why and I was like there's something wrong with me or whatever and then I realized like there I was listening to this podcast and it seems like so
[UNKNOWN]: obvious now where you're like yeah well you drink a lot of caffeine and your body can't handle it it's you know your wheels are like you can't you know so and then I realized like okay I'm going to like teak and same thing with alcohol like I when I was younger I'm now in my mid 30s and then when I was younger I would drink a lot of alcohol my body could process it and as I get over I'm like I don't know why I'm like all of a sudden having these long hangovers and super anxiety and
[UNKNOWN]: And Taylor, my wife is exact opposite.
[UNKNOWN]: She can drink all night and wake up and have zero depression and zero anxiety.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, if I drink two beers, but I'm the, I think I'm the, like, there's, I think that's not normal.
[UNKNOWN]: I think there's something else going on where I think, like, normally, like, I has Taylor the other day.
[UNKNOWN]: She had to, um, I was kind of joking, but serious the same time.
[UNKNOWN]: She had two, uh, apparel spritz.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: And I was in the bathroom last night and I was like, are you hung over?
[UNKNOWN]: Or no, yesterday morning she started laughing.
[UNKNOWN]: She's like, from two, I'm like, I would be, how honestly would be like, I would be, like, I wouldn't be like, can't get out of bed hung over, but I would feel it.
[UNKNOWN]: 100% I'm kind of the same Matthew when I was younger.
[UNKNOWN]: I could definitely drink a lot more.
[UNKNOWN]: And I don't know if it's a combination of getting older and your body doesn't metabolize it as well, but also getting healthier.
[UNKNOWN]: Right.
[UNKNOWN]: No.
[UNKNOWN]: I think I'm healthier than I was in my 20.
[UNKNOWN]: Well, I take better care of myself than I did in the mornings.
[UNKNOWN]: So I'm more sensitive to feeling like shit, you know, and yeah, I don't tolerate feeling like shit.
[UNKNOWN]: Well, at all.
[UNKNOWN]: And like when you're in your 20s, it's kind of like grinds through it and I just go to bed for a morning failure.
[UNKNOWN]: Taco Bell case to Diaz.
[UNKNOWN]: So I think it's a combo of those things.
[UNKNOWN]: 100% psychologically.
[UNKNOWN]: you're sensitive to like all that stuff right and that that that's the exact same thing for me as I try to I'm trying to like you know live a healthier life and it mainly started with my mental health yeah it was like again I had a lot of caffeine because when I was younger like trying to start my own business while all my other friends were going to college and calling me an idiot for trying to do dog stuff or a living I was like living off of caffeine to like keep going trying to figure out what to do and then
[UNKNOWN]: Like I just, you know, and then I just started getting like it was just really overwhelming right and then the alcohol was like you know at night like again I was trying to like start a company and run a company and figure out how to run a figured out I had no mentors not one yeah not one single person in my life had started a company that could tell me like to this or do I remember I would like go to local restaurants that I visited and I knew the owner and I would ask them to like look over at least for me and stuff like a pizza shop or a barn it was like
[UNKNOWN]: But I just remember like my my goals weren't lining up with my lifestyle.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: I was drinking not heavily, but like still going out.
[UNKNOWN]: You found it.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, well, I heard people on podcasts.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, yeah, that's a lot of people.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, I have the same way about like even getting into this business.
[UNKNOWN]: And, you know, we've talked about that, my sister starting in and passing away and, you know, stepping in.
[UNKNOWN]: I think sometimes like movies and like you hear these stories and like, and then my mentor, it's like, I don't know if that really happens in real life.
[UNKNOWN]: I didn't have that.
[UNKNOWN]: I also found podcasts.
[UNKNOWN]: I also read as much as I could.
[UNKNOWN]: I sought out ways to be given some sort of advice on a path forward, and it was survival, and I figured it out, but I think we've talked about how I built this.
[UNKNOWN]: That podcast was a huge, it was my support group.
[UNKNOWN]: I just binge listened to that.
[UNKNOWN]: podcast for I remember when it was like a really dark time I messed up listening to it for I'm a runner so I would just go running and listen to this podcast for like a month straight And it saved me because I was like, oh, there are other people out there.
[UNKNOWN]: You can go, you know You feel like you're all alone in that this is this even the right thing what if I'm going in the wrong direction So it was it was really cool and with so cool about you know
[UNKNOWN]: the digital space today is that we have access to all of that now and you know there's bad things too but it's it's great to be able to like tap into that a lot easier than we ever could.
[UNKNOWN]: 100% that those those three things so my relationship with alcohol caffeine and social media all helped my mental health tremendously.
[UNKNOWN]: you know, like just understanding that it's normal when you go on the internet and you see somebody who has no idea what they're talking about, talk about your life's goal and achievements and you can relate to this, like your passion of like,
[UNKNOWN]: You know, and they're like blah, blah, blah, it's like you're human, so you're like wait a minute And I remember like for a young younger dog trainers or you know, they would This one thing I told him I'm like you got it you got to be careful how much you're in Jesse on social media because You know, it's because people are like looking and again like I look at social media But I don't have any social media on my phone like everything is I'm almost going back to like the flip phone type thing like I'm just like yeah Completely analog
[UNKNOWN]: Like, just because I, so I, but the only way I really found that out is listening to other people say like, hey, I stopped drinking this or I stopped drinking that or I stopped doing this and it made me feel better and this is why it started making sense and that's why this podcast is so like, you know, again, it's like just my passion projects, you know, getting here and and sitting down to talk to people like you and other people just,
[UNKNOWN]: So other people can kind of be a fly in the wall, like I have some of doctors in here who have been a, you know, a PhD for like, you know, Dr. Ian Billinhurst.
[UNKNOWN]: He's been a, he's been a vet longer than I've been alive.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: And I'm like, you get to like, siphon off like the gold from this man.
[UNKNOWN]: Yes, you know, like access to this amazing mind.
[UNKNOWN]: It's crazy.
[UNKNOWN]: And he's so cool because he should also have, it's another dog food company.
[UNKNOWN]: But Dr. Marty Goldstein who has come in on, right?
[UNKNOWN]: He's coming out.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, he's a great.
[UNKNOWN]: Taylor.
[UNKNOWN]: Mark, Dr. Marty, is he still coming on?
[UNKNOWN]: He's just, he's got a like going on in his schedule.
[UNKNOWN]: So, but he's, you know, he has a lot of, I've been at a dinner with him and he talks a lot about, you know, being one of the first bats that really thought this way and how his colleagues were angered by that and like, go and get threats and all of that stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: So, yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it's cool when now that there are so many more experts who are not only willing to talk about it, but can talk about it so well.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, I feel like there's even when I first started getting into this, it just felt like there wasn't a lot of experts out there talking publicly about it.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's great now to have people sharing their knowledge and I mean,
[UNKNOWN]: founder of a dog food company, a raw dog food company that's, but I'm not a nutritionist or a vet.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's good to have that perspective to come.
[UNKNOWN]: But yeah, I mean, that's her.
[UNKNOWN]: It's changing.
[UNKNOWN]: It's definitely changing.
[UNKNOWN]: And I think like as I touched on with my vet that I go to see, she's conventional and she is, we talk for so long.
[UNKNOWN]: You have to be an advocate for your cell, for your own health,
[UNKNOWN]: I think she's kind of like sometimes taking it back by how much I, you know, want to be an advocate, but I think she also likes it.
[UNKNOWN]: Like she likes talking about it with my dog last summer, was it summer spring, we had moved to a new house and he got these like pives on his belly, um, like, I'm like, oh my gosh, what is it, you know, the same thing like every, I'm like, is it the food?
[UNKNOWN]: Could it be the thing he's been eating our food?
[UNKNOWN]: I'm like, oh my gosh, like, took a look at now and like the
[UNKNOWN]: And ended up being, we had put grass seed down.
[UNKNOWN]: He was allergic to grass.
[UNKNOWN]: But by the time the hives got, he had scratched them so much that it was like they had become infected.
[UNKNOWN]: So then he had to get like dermatitis.
[UNKNOWN]: So we did have, I mean, I'm not like the last person to like a side-point totter something.
[UNKNOWN]: But we had to do one round of that and it worked.
[UNKNOWN]: And it was like to keep him comfortable.
[UNKNOWN]: But she worked with me on it.
[UNKNOWN]: We talked about all the different, you know, what it could be, what he could do,
[UNKNOWN]: um she's asking me again like questions about raw feeding um and it's been a really nice relationship um I share podcast with her too that I'm like I share like the doctor nations one with her make you should listen to this you know it's maybe it'll be more open to like a more uh
[UNKNOWN]: traditional of that, talking about this.
[UNKNOWN]: Let's think it helps when you get people that are, you know, on paper on your team, also talking about, because I, you know, that's a thing like, I'm, I'm, I'll talk to anybody.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, I am not bipartisan about like, there are certain things in my life that I have discovered, that I know for me and my clients as a professional work better.
[UNKNOWN]: and more efficient and more effective long-term.
[UNKNOWN]: So I am definitely in favor of using tools and dog training.
[UNKNOWN]: Again, it's like this big political thing.
[UNKNOWN]: And to me, it's like, again, I struggled with that a lot when I first started.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, I've been doing this now for over 13 years.
[UNKNOWN]: And I would say like the first five, six years of my career, especially posting stuff online, I struggled with people not agreeing with how I did things for a long time.
[UNKNOWN]: the understanding, again, I could cure cancer, and if I did it with a prong collar, people would be like, well, you should just let them die.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: The death.
[UNKNOWN]: But now I don't.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
[UNKNOWN]: So I understand, like, if this is political for you, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Like, we talked about that.
[UNKNOWN]: And then no matter what you say, if no matter what you say, what you do, how many dogs you help, if it goes against what they believe in?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: So they can't assume about and go, wait a minute, am I wrong?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Is there a crack in the, you know, for me, I'm like, again, I told you earlier, like, I'm a big believer on, like, whatever works.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, are you, are you yielding, how are you doing this?
[UNKNOWN]: Like, I'm a big nerd about that, right?
[UNKNOWN]: And that's,
[UNKNOWN]: So it's just interesting, you know, in the dog space where you see, again, like some of my, even my gas have come on, like, Dr. Marty Goldstein, I think he's the one, we reached out to him and then he saw a couple of my podcasts and then they was like, yeah, really, like, I think like within the email, they actually said like he's really excited about this.
[UNKNOWN]: He listened to, um, I think the one with Dr. Eva Frick maybe and he was like, I don't know, anyway, but it was just cool to see different people, like,
[UNKNOWN]: Anyway, yeah, it's just one thing I wanted to ask you is why don't you guys do veggies in your mixes?
[UNKNOWN]: Well, we do in the freeze drive.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay, so freeze dried, we didn't talk about freeze dried.
[UNKNOWN]: I guess freeze dried is another as something that we introduced since the last time I've been on we introduced it last year and freeze dried bra is basically if your viewers don't know is a shelf stable raw product.
[UNKNOWN]: So we basically remove the moisture or anyone who's using freeze, I remove the moisture through a process called sublimation.
[UNKNOWN]: So the product is never heated.
[UNKNOWN]: It's always kept raw, but the moisture is removed, which is why it becomes shelf stable.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's 85% meat and organs and 15% fruits and veggies.
[UNKNOWN]: For the fresh patties, we don't put fruits and veggies and that's something that our customers don't want.
[UNKNOWN]: They were looking for a product without fruits and veggies.
[UNKNOWN]: Now, if you wanna add them, some people do, some people add toppers.
[UNKNOWN]: didn't want to force veggies on people in that product either like some dogs don't like this they don't like that dogs don't have a requirement for them so you know we kept it you know meat organs and bones but the reason why I was asking is because when I did the gut biometest it just came back like
[UNKNOWN]: Huh, and I didn't even think about it like I was like, and then I looked at the recipe.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm like, oh, there's no fiber in this and I started adding Gus he's good.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, so and then I started thinking I did call Rob.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, did he tell you?
[UNKNOWN]: No.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay, I did call Rob from Gus he's good.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, and I said
[UNKNOWN]: I said, why doesn't Amy, why doesn't, why doesn't we figure out a putt library?
[UNKNOWN]: And he's like, well, because a lot of people like to add their own kind of toppers.
[UNKNOWN]: Do you like that?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it's like sort of do it yourself.
[UNKNOWN]: But he told me he goes, don't even call her.
[UNKNOWN]: I'll tell you.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, and some people really, their dog doesn't do well with it.
[UNKNOWN]: Like, my dog doesn't really,
[UNKNOWN]: need that and doesn't do well.
[UNKNOWN]: He's pooped their perfect and like, but some dogs like my mom, senior dog, actually did well with a little bit more fiber.
[UNKNOWN]: So it just depends, I mean, dogs really, it's based more on the prey model raw diet.
[UNKNOWN]: So what dogs would eat in the wild?
[UNKNOWN]: I know there's some like, some people think, you know, they wouldn't, they would eat.
[UNKNOWN]: The stomach contents of the prey and some, experts say they actually like, you know, shook them out and didn't eat that's somebody.
[UNKNOWN]: So it's like kind of a, uh, I guess.
[UNKNOWN]: debated topic, but yeah, if you want to add fruits and veggies totally can we just don't want it to be too much of that because they'll just and you'll see if you put more than I think you were like, you know, 15% freeze and veggies it'll just come out.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, that way.
[UNKNOWN]: So they have a harder time by justing them.
[UNKNOWN]: But yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: It's mainly muscle meat, or you meet finally ground bone with very targeted, I think, for like manganese vitamin D, vitamin E, you have some kelp in there.
[UNKNOWN]: We do have kelp in there, a little bit, I don't know how much, yeah, that's really offering for the iodine source.
[UNKNOWN]: But yeah, I mean, I think that some dogs do better on it, some dogs don't.
[UNKNOWN]: People seem to really
[UNKNOWN]: to those in the fresh patties, but yeah, I was just curious because I remember like like I said I called Rob and he's like don't even call him, I'll just tell you the answer.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, I was like okay, and that's exactly what he said.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, you can, you know, there's it's also raw veggies are not the best for not, so you like you have a raw product, you're going to have like steamed, they soon have to like puree that I just can mess with a lot of the the formulation and also
[UNKNOWN]: Rob butternut squash and there it doesn't digest it.
[UNKNOWN]: So we just let people do as you go on our Instagram You can see like all the different things people like to add on their own and then you know It can be a very small amount or nothing at all, but it's completely complete and balanced on its own.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah Yeah, your dogs having like Where they where their schools really hard and they were like straining to poop because that's your best sort of
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, no, I don't think so.
[UNKNOWN]: I just know like when it gives you your on the animal biome, yeah, fecal test, it'll tell you like you're in the red and fiber, like your dog is no fiber.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's supposed to be, and they're saying that that needs to have like, it's based on a certain, because we've done that, we work with an innovative pet lab who also does the got health tests and a part of it.
[UNKNOWN]: You know who it was?
[UNKNOWN]: I was talking to Rodney and Bee.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: he was the one who said because of it was barely skin.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: He was the one he's like you should add some fiber in there because, you know, he's in the test.
[UNKNOWN]: It's like it tells you, you know, you got to read, I don't know how to read that stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: That's why I call Rodney and I was like, because that's what he does.
[UNKNOWN]: And he was the one actually I forgot that I tell you he was like he really wanted to talk to you He's like, I think it would be great if they added like this thing anyway That's another story, but yeah, he basically said you should add a little bit of fiber in there And then that's why and then I called Rob and I said Rob who owns Gus he's got which is fermented like super greens and stuff.
[UNKNOWN]: It just really cool But anyway
[UNKNOWN]: Um, I got it all.
[UNKNOWN]: I got gussies now and it's all good.
[UNKNOWN]: But that's good.
[UNKNOWN]: Um, yeah, people, we let them sort of choose and some people don't add anything and it's great and some, you know, no make sense.
[UNKNOWN]: The meat-based diet is really going to be producing and promoting a gut health healthy gut microflora.
[UNKNOWN]: They've done studies where like raw diets actually promote healthy gut microflora was like dry diets from a unhealthy gut microbar.
[UNKNOWN]: Yes, because those are already it's like what they would eat in the prey of animal right because it's yeah would be like in the stomach in their digestive net yeah Rob does a really good job at all that yeah he does I like I like let him nerd out on that and just I'm just like just tell me what the body like yeah I don't know what to get but that that's been great if anybody wants to look into like fiber and stuff got these guys and I've had him on to already anything else you want to add
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, no, I think it's been great at all.
[UNKNOWN]: I mean, freeze diet is a big thing that people, we didn't really touch on it too much, but it's our new product that comes in, grass-fed and finished beef or cage we chicken.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's just scoop and serve.
[UNKNOWN]: So that's great.
[UNKNOWN]: You can feed a raw diet easier than ever.
[UNKNOWN]: And it's good for treats like for training.
[UNKNOWN]: Yes, it's great.
[UNKNOWN]: A lot of people use it as a top or two.
[UNKNOWN]: I actually mix it a little sometimes with my dogs frozen.
[UNKNOWN]: Yep, meals.
[UNKNOWN]: I put a little on top because like a little crunchy.
[UNKNOWN]: He likes it.
[UNKNOWN]: And I'll just say for people who travel like a lot of people who are van lifers or they do like a lot of people who are listening do like shows on the weekends or do club work on the weekends and they're traveling and raw food.
[UNKNOWN]: It can be a little difficult if you don't have
[UNKNOWN]: refrigeration, so the shelf life, so what's the product called?
[UNKNOWN]: It's called, it's just freeze, it's just our freeze.
[UNKNOWN]: It's freeze dried.
[UNKNOWN]: We found it.
[UNKNOWN]: That's great.
[UNKNOWN]: When you sign up for a meal plan, you can choose freeze dried or you can choose frozen raw.
[UNKNOWN]: You can also, that's flexible as well.
[UNKNOWN]: So you have some people, well, you can order just a box and you're not on a meal plan or a subscription to try it out.
[UNKNOWN]: You know, if you have a big dog, it's, you know, it'll be feeding a lot like burly with
[UNKNOWN]: six bags a day.
[UNKNOWN]: So some people with big dogs will definitely mix it.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, you know, it's like I said it's great for treats.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: I used because they're small.
[UNKNOWN]: That's what I put in the furbow little thing actually is I put them in there and they're great for treats because they're they're raw food.
[UNKNOWN]: But they're just they're like little nuggets little soft pellets.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, so.
[UNKNOWN]: Great.
[UNKNOWN]: All right, I mean, thank you so much for coming on.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you, everyone, for listening.
[UNKNOWN]: And I'll put all your obviously, you know, we've addressed stuff in the show notes.
[UNKNOWN]: And also my discount code, if you guys want to try refute rock, you know, it's funny the other day.
[UNKNOWN]: Apparently, sometimes I said, you can say $50 off.
[UNKNOWN]: What I did on accident where you can say 50% off your very first order.
[UNKNOWN]: I'll put that link in the description for the bonus to try We feed raw, but yeah, tell it was like yeah, you got stop saying that.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, though.
[UNKNOWN]: Sometimes it might be actually more 50% you know all right everybody.
[UNKNOWN]: Thanks for listening bye