72. The Cone of Shame, Pet Pros & Pets with Paws

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Speaker 1 (00:00):

Pets ad Life, your guide to the latest in Pet Trends products and the joy of the human animal Bond with Kristen Levine and Chris Bonafide, powered by the American Pet Products Association and Dog tv.

Speaker 2 (00:14):

Hello and welcome to another episode of Pets Add Life. The only show that you can bring your pet to. That's it. It's the only one. I am Chris Bonti and I'm joined by the fast action never failing. Crystal Levine and Tulip Tulips on camera right now. Look at that. It's bring special

Speaker 3 (00:37):

Appearance.

Speaker 2 (00:38):

Bring your dog to Podcast Day is July 8th. I guess we've decided. Bring your dog to podcast day. Kristen, how are we doing today?

Speaker 4 (00:47):

Oh, we're doing good. We're doing real good. Just staying cool. And I got up really early today so I can take Tulip for her long walk. She gets one long walk each day and it's just getting too darn hot to walk her in the middle of the day.

Speaker 2 (01:01):

Yeah, lucky dog getting that long walk. We all have a long walk.

Speaker 4 (01:07):

You know what? My husband makes me carry this big stick with me when I walk in the early morning. We have bears here, so we live in the mountains and are

Speaker 2 (01:13):

You Teddy Roosevelt

Speaker 4 (01:17):

And he makes me carry this huge stick. What am I going to do? Beat off a bear with a stick? I dunno.

Speaker 2 (01:21):

Yeah. Hey. But it's better to have a stick and not need it than to have no stick and want for it.

Speaker 4 (01:28):

That is true. That's a good point. That's pretty much what his philosophy.

Speaker 2 (01:31):

Yeah, Teddy Roosevelt said that too. He said walk quietly and carry a big stick and it's better to have the stick than to want for it. Anyway, we've got some awesome sticks for you all. They come in pairs on the PAL podcast where we will be reporting on two stories because we're journalists at heart, we will be recommending two products because we're influencers at heart. We will be interviewing two guests because we're interviewers at heart. And then at the end we are going to be answering two of your questions because we are educators at heart. We wear many, many different hats on this show. All for you dear listener, because we love you

Speaker 4 (02:13):

And we love your pets.

Speaker 2 (02:14):

So let's go ahead and jump into

Speaker 1 (02:17):

A story time. Kristen and Chris, present story time.

Speaker 4 (02:23):

I found an interesting story. I get this newsletter from Sidewalk Dog is your dog right or left pod? And here's how to tell. Ooh, cool. Just like people have dominant hands, dogs can be right or left pod, but unlike humans where 90% of us are righties, dogs are way more balanced. So studies show that about 62% of dogs prefer their right paw, but a lot of dogs also show no preference at all and are a bilateral as opposed to amb dextrous

Speaker 2 (02:58):

A bilateral.

Speaker 4 (02:59):

But there are four fun tests that you can try if you want to figure out if your dog is left or right pod. The first one is the step test. So when you want to watch for which paw your dog leads with, when they get up from sitting or lying down, you can do the crate test. So that's where you see which direction they turn when entering their crate. Let me see, how would that work? Yeah, okay, I guess so. And then there's the tape test where you put tape on their nose and see which paw they use to remove it. And this is the one I use the Kong test. We have this big Kong, it's not the rubber Kong, it's the plastic kg that you put kibble in and the dog can wh at it and get the kibble out and you just watch which paw they use to hold the treats of the toys. And tulip is a righty, just like her mom. So she just bats that thing with her right paw every time you'll need at least 50 observations for it to be a true scientific test to get accurate results. So just one obviously,

Speaker 2 (03:58):

Obviously.

Speaker 4 (04:00):

And so that's kind of the useless information I have for you today.

Speaker 2 (04:04):

I've got kind of a similar story about things you may not know about your pets, and this one is about Associated Press. Did a little interview with a few veterinarians talking about allergies in your animals. And everybody knows you could be allergic to your dog, but do you know that your dog can be suffering from allergies as well? So there's some interesting stats in here that I wanted to pull out, and one is that 90% of dogs with allergies, it's like an outdoor external allergy and this is something that is created by the environment like pollen or certain types of grass. For example, when my parents moved, their dog started getting really dry around the mouth and nose. Turns out there was a type of grass that grew just two hours further upstate that was affecting the dog. A little bit of medication went a long way.

(05:17):

So never rule out those allergies. The other 10% is typically dietary allergies, which you're going to know if you bring your animal to the vet. That's something they they're looking at, especially if they can't keep food down. But if you are experiencing a dog that has issues with their skin or their little nose or their little paws, don't rule out allergies as a possibility. Bring it up to your vet if they've never been tested. Testing can be incredibly expensive, but your vet has non, I don't want to say non-scientific because all experimentation, all experimentation is science, including testing your dog's PAW test 50 times to get a statistically significant result. They will recommend basically doing elimination testing. So it's like, okay, check your house for mold. If you find mold, clean it up, see if the dog feels better, try a different walking path that might have less tall grass. Does your dog feel better? Yes or no? So you don't necessarily have to go get an expensive allergy test. There are other ways to figure that out and don't rule it out if your dog is having issues.

Speaker 4 (06:36):

By the way, allergies are the number one reason for veterinary visits, especially during spring and summer.

Speaker 1 (06:42):

Beyond the leash, exploring the untold stories of pet passion and professionalism.

Speaker 4 (06:47):

Please join me in welcoming my friend Dr. Andy Rourke. He is a veterinarian, an international speaker, author, and media personality dedicated to helping veterinary professionals thrive and pet owners better understand their beloved animals. Dr. Work, you're also the founder of the Uncharted Veterinary Conference, the Dr Andy work.com website, and he's a prolific content creator across many platforms. I make a lot of content. Yeah, you do. You do. And you have the coolest show name on YouTube. Cone of Shame.

Speaker 3 (07:19):

The Cone of Shame. Yeah. When you say it out loud, I thought, wow. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on.

Speaker 4 (07:24):

Well, you're so much fun to work with. We got to work together recently on the Experts Show. That was so awesome. And so I thought I'll just kick it off with asking you what inspired you to create the platforms that you've created beyond your veterinary practice?

Speaker 3 (07:41):

I got really passionate about this idea of, I don't want to make it too romantic, but a hero's journey. I love the idea that you can be a veterinarian specifically, that's just always what I wanted to do. But Kristen, the way that if you were a veterinarian and you were going to create a vet hospital, you might create an entirely different hospital than I do. You might make a white glove high service hour long appointment so that you could really explain things and I might make something that is lower cost, high volume. We really want to keep this accessible for all people and both of those things can be equally wonderful in the world. And so I don't know why necessarily it spoke to me so strongly, but I really wanted to support veterinarians in sort of navigating captaining their own ship and sort of taking their own skills where they wanted them to be.

(08:34):

I wanted to support the people who wanted to be like James Harriet, and they're out on the road and they're going, you know what I mean, from farm to farm. Those vets are out there and what a wonderful glorious life. And then also, I've got good friends that run a hospital in downtown Boston and it is, they are really busy. They work out of a small space downtown in Boston and they're doing something that's really wonderful there. And so that diversity of how we can create pet health just always just got me so excited. And so then I'm one of those people when I learn something, I really want to share it. And so the whole thing has kind of been selfish in that it's all me learning and meeting people and talking to people that I'm excited about and just sharing that out with the world. And so it started in vet school, I really kind of started thinking about what is possible and where are we all going and what do we all want to do? And then it's just sort of spread out from there.

Speaker 2 (09:30):

The whole content creation thing is incredibly addictive because once you get an idea out there into the universe, you're like, but what if this other idea existed too? So tell me a bit about Cone of Shame. I love the name.

Speaker 3 (09:45):

The idea with the Cone of Shame show is it originally started and I did it as a YouTube show, and this was back years ago. This is in the early 2 20 10, somewhere around there. And so I wanted to make a show for pet owners and it was, I do improv comedy just as a hobby.

Speaker 2 (10:00):

Oh, there we go.

Speaker 3 (10:01):

So I wanted to do something that was fun and sort of make these videos and I really sort of threw myself into it. I did it for about a year or two and I think I learned a lot of lessons about making a YouTube show and things like that. And I was juggling a lot and my kids were fairly young and I kind of decided to put it aside after a while and I still love it. They still get tons of views. It's amazing. People still find it and it's funny and very positive about the health. So anyway, but I put it down and I just love that show. I love the lighthearted positive sort of feel that it had. So anyway, so then I went on in my career and so I'm traveling and I'm speaking and I'm working with veterinarians and doing all these different things, but I still practice.

(10:44):

I mean, I came from the vet practice and drove home so I could talk to you guys, but I only practice about one day a week. And so I had this sort of creeping fear, what if I'm not good enough or what if my skills start to erode or I'm not seeing as many cases as I used to see and I still want to be really, really good. And so I had this idea, what if I made something for people like me where if I could make something and you could listen to it once a week, and so say 20 minutes of doctors talking about a case and really explaining why the person did what they did, especially if I talked to really brilliant specialists, I think that I could listen to that and it would help me keep my edge sharp. It would help me be a good doctor.

(11:27):

And so I have found that when I make things, the best thing I can do is make something that I genuinely want to exist. And that way my heart's in it, I know what I'm trying to do. And that's just kind of been my pattern from the very beginning. And so I started reaching out to these just brilliant doctors and saying, Hey, look, I would tell them real cases. I would say I saw this German Shepherd that was 1-year-old and it was already showing pain in its hips and I'm really worried about the long-term mobility. We worry about hip dysplasia or German shepherds for example. And I would say, what can I do? And so I would reach out to an orthopedic surgeon who's writing the textbook on limb abnormalities and I couldn't believe it. They always said yes. They always said yes. And so I just had these amazing people coming on and I would ask them these questions.

(12:18):

And it's funny, the biggest problems I run into in the podcast in the early days is I would be so focused on taking notes about what they were saying that I missed the net opportunity to think of the next question. And so I'd have to say, I'm sorry, I have to, let me pause for a second and think about the next question I have because I'm writing all these things down, but oh man, I've seen just absolutely incredible people and one of the ones that's sort of most amazing for me is there will be these people who will come on and they will change jobs multiple times. So they will come into vet medicine and they will be a technician and get a PhD in something and it'll be something like a nutrition and then come back and then they'll go to vet, they'll go to vet school after that and then they'll go into mental health or something and now they're a pet grief counselor specialist with this.

(13:18):

It's just incredible how these people just stack up things in their life and it's just that stuff is always absolutely incredible to me. And just talking to people about where they come from. I think there's a lot of veterinarians who go, I was born and I wanted to know, and I knew immediately I want to be a veterinarian. And I think that that's great. I think the people who are most interesting to me are the people who were not those people, but they found their way into vet medicine. And so they bounced around. I mean, there's people who went, I have a friend who's a financial analyst by training, and so she's a financial analyst. She was working in New York City on nine 11, the planes hit the tower and she thought, this is the only life that I have and this is not what I want to do with it. And she went to vet school. Isn't that incredible?

Speaker 4 (14:05):

Yeah, that is incredible

Speaker 3 (14:06):

Vet medicine. It has a beautiful outside appeal. If it was a house, it's got wonderful curb appeal, it's so rich and you can do medicine in so many different ways. And the people are so interesting in what brought them to this profession, one of the last vocations, so many people just have jobs. Vet medicine is still a vocation. It is still sort of a, I hate to say it's a calling, but there's definitely a piece to it of people come here looking for meaning and purpose, and I think that vet medicine still gives them that. And so those are the things that really inspire me when I do cone of shame and when I talk to people in the profession,

Speaker 4 (14:44):

I've watched some of that content and I realize you're creating it for veterinarians, but I as a pet parent really enjoy watching it too. It really humanizes veterinarians and it's really interesting to hear you talk to each other. So I'm sure pet parents like me are enjoying it as well. I wanted to ask you a little bit about on the humor topic, you're known for your humor, which is obviously a fantastic way to connect with people. How do you balance the seriousness of medical information that you're sharing with a client with your comedic approach? Or do you leave the comedic approach out of the exam room, which I can't imagine

Speaker 3 (15:22):

People will ask me about humor and I will say the hardest thing about being funny is not being funny. And what that means is you really do in this role, you have got to keep empathy at the top of your mind. And so I have got to constantly be checking in on where is this, where is this client, what is their experience? And I don't want to make light of that. And so I saw a Dotson puppy earlier today, 12 week old little male, Dotson puppy named Victor. And Victor was so full of himself and his parents were just gushing and fawning on him, and we laughed the whole time. He was so funny and we told all the dots and jokes and I just sort of did my whole sort of spiel because it was funny and that was a good way to connect with them.

(16:19):

The appointment I saw right before Victor was this married couple and the woman was probably five, six months pregnant and she had her Labrador retriever who had been with her for 14 years, and the dog was 14 years and three months old. So she got him when he was 12 weeks old, and that poor dog has gotten arthritis so severely that its mobility is almost non-existent. And so it was very challenging for it to get up. He couldn't posture to go to the bathroom. They were working really hard to keep the dog clean and things like that. And we had that conversation about is it time and how do you know when it's time and is my dog suffering? And so you have to be able to go back and forth between those rooms. And sometimes the thing that I think about a lot, and this is true when we talk about serious illness is true, especially when we talk about emergency medicine, I talk to a lot of emergency doctors.

(17:17):

One of the hardest things I think about being emergency doctor is you see 10 emergencies a night, but the person bringing the pet in, that's the one emergency of their life. You know what I mean? It's the one of their life and you're like, this is my sixth one tonight. And you go, yes, but for them it's one of one and you have to meet them where they are. And I think that that's why that medicine can be challenging. But I really do think that, I think one of the things that has made me sort of successful with humor is I'm definitely not one of those people who can't help himself from being silly all the time. I love to laugh, but I think I empathize well, and I try to remember that the humor is in service of the pet owner and their experience, and I love to make people laugh so that I can try to educate and help them remember things, but you've always got to pay attention to their experience. And so I think the best veterinarians are the ones who can laugh with a client or a pet owner and who can also cry with a pet owner. And I think that we all sort of struggle to find that balance, but I think that's what I try to most aspire to.

Speaker 2 (18:33):

Yeah, empathy is such a big part of the job. But on that note, I want to ask you one question before we let you leave here. Dr. Rourke, I guess for all the aspiring veterinarians or maybe some folks who were inspired by your previous story and are considering going back to school and becoming a practitioner of vet medicine, what is one piece of advice that if you could go back in time and give a young pre-doc roic and now you look back and go, damn, I really wish somebody had explained that to me, what would that piece of advice be

Speaker 3 (19:10):

For people who were saying, I want to be a veterinarian. The advice that I want to give to this? It's not advice that I don't think people hear a whole lot, but again, I have had college deans. I just had Dr. Steve Marks who's going to be the dean of Clemson's University College of Vet Medicine on, I've just talked to a number of deans at the vet schools, and I always ask them, what's the secret to getting into vet school today? And again and again, the number one thing that I hear is make yourself an interesting person. It's not about falling in love and saying, I want to be a vet and then I'm going to volunteer at the vet clinic and I'm going to love animals and I'm going to do animal things. It's really about developing other hobbies, seeing the world, just having your own interests, things like that.

(19:50):

Being a well-balanced person who has other things going on and other interests so that you bring a breadth of perspective to the profession. I just think that that's really important. I think that there's a lot of people who sort of miss that they know what they want and so they go so directly at it. I think that that's a problem today. I think you want to make yourself an interesting person and do your requirements to go to vet school if you're someone who's in vet school and you're moving forward. And the other thing I really want to impress on people is veterinary medicine is a people business. It is a people business. And there used to be a joke in vet medicine where people say, well, I came to vet medicine because I hate people, and I don't hear that as much anymore because I think people have caught on to the idea that people are absolutely vital to vet medicine absolutely vital. And so lean into your people skills, decide that you enjoy people, learn to love people, learn to enjoy learning about people, and that will make your days enjoyable. It will also, as a secondary effect, make you a very good doctor because you'll be a good listener because you'll make relationships, because people will learn to trust you because you care about them. And so anyway, learn to love people and focus on the people. Gosh,

Speaker 4 (21:04):

I'm so glad that we were able to have you on the show today. We're going to have to let you go, but tell us where we can find you on the interwebs.

Speaker 3 (21:12):

Yes, so dr andy rourke.com is my website. I write an article every single week. It is four vet professionals, but my whole neighborhood has found it and they all get it. And now they tell me every time, it's not really for vet professionals, it's just about just lessons about life and generally, mostly I write about life. And so that's there. And then the Kone of Shame, wherever you gives your podcast, you can find it on YouTube.

Speaker 4 (21:35):

Thank you again for joining us and for all that you do for the veterinary industry and for pets too. Oh, thanks so much

Speaker 2 (21:40):

Guys. And we'll see on the experts. See

Speaker 4 (21:42):

You there.

Speaker 2 (21:44):

When's the Dr. Andy Rorick and Chris Bonti improv comedy special coming to dog tv?

Speaker 4 (21:51):

That's a great idea.

Speaker 2 (21:52):

Alright. Yeah, the other guy, well, that's why I put his name first on the

Speaker 4 (21:55):

Chris. Chris, maybe you could be the voiceover talent for that show.

Speaker 2 (21:59):

Yeah, I could be the announcer for Dr. Orks one man improv comedy show, but no, what a charming man.

Speaker 4 (22:07):

He's awesome.

Speaker 2 (22:09):

I wish my veterinarian was more like that. They're a little bit colder. They're good, but they're a little colder. It is my pleasure to introduce Nancy Hassel, the founder and president of the American Pet Professionals, a leading business, networking, educational and multimedia organization for pet industry entrepreneurs since 2009 with over two decades in the pet industry and extensive media expertise, Nancy hosts the popular digging into the pet industry podcast where she interviews industry innovators and offers data-driven strategies for growing pet focused businesses. She's organized and spoken at hundreds of pet industry events including Global Pet Expo and SuperZoo, overseeing more than 1000 professional gatherings and won multiple awards such as Pet ages, women of Influence. Nancy lives on Long Island with her rescue pit bull. Cody, Nancy, thank you so much for taking the time today to join us on the podcast.

Speaker 5 (23:11):

Of course. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here today and see some familiar faces like Kristen and meet you. Chris,

Speaker 4 (23:17):

It's great to see you, Nancy. I usually see you just at the trade shows, so not

Speaker 5 (23:21):

Get to see you in the pod world and we're usually running.

Speaker 2 (23:24):

So I want to take us back to 2009 and sort of talk about the initial inception of American Pet Professionals and maybe talk a little bit about how it's evolved over the past 15 or so years.

Speaker 5 (23:37):

I have always had one foot in the pet industry. My background was in television and PR and did all that. And I was speaking at a entrepreneurial event on how to get your business into the news, happened to be sitting next to a veterinarian, the only other pet pro in the room of 50 to 60 people. And she said, are there any industry organizations here on Long Island? I just moved back and I said, well, there's veterinary, but as I'm sitting there looking around, I was like, she's this third person in two weeks to ask me that exact same question. Maybe there's something here. And that was December of 2008 and in February of 2009, right in the middle of their session, I said, you know what? I could host one of these. I put it out to the world and a press release out to the world and we had our first networking event and we had people from all three, excuse me, from all over Long Island, three different states and all five boroughs of New York City show up.

(24:32):

And I was like, whoa, this is needed. And at the end of that event, everybody was like, when's the next one? I was like, next month. I had no idea what was happening. I had to build a website. We built everything from scratch. We hosted in-person networking events for a while, and then about a year, year and a half in, I started having requests from people outside of my area to join and I was like, wasn't thinking that far ahead. I was like, well, we're just trying to get everybody here working together and help people coming into the pet industry and that kind of thing. And we rebranded to American Pet Professionals at the end of 2013 and really haven't looked back since then. We have members all over the country. We've had members from all over the world. We are not rebranding again to international.

(25:20):

It's a lot of work. But yeah, it's definitely the things that have evolved is having members from all over the country. So we were on Zoom hosting Zoom events and networking webinars way before the pandemic, so that wasn't anything new for us because we host webinars and our main goal with American Pet Professionals was not just the comradery and referrals and all those things, but really education. So we've hosted in-person networking events with an expert speaker. If it wasn't a topic I knew about, I would find the best speaker in our area or now online, in or out of the industry. So it's evolved in that way. Our core mission is the same since we started helping pet professionals, helping pet parents and helping all of the education and information that we provide our pet professionals trickles down to the pet and helps them. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:10):

Well, you've done an incredible job discovering an unmet need and just taking it internationally. And I don't know anybody that doesn't know about American Pet Professionals, so kudos to you for that. And also, it's also fun to interview other podcasters because you have a podcast called Digging into the Pet Industry. And just curious to know what are your goals with that podcast and how do you choose guests that will resonate with aspiring pet entrepreneurs?

Speaker 5 (26:38):

Yeah, for sure. So we used to host live shows on Instagram and Facebook and just on social media, and it was glitchy and weird. It just wasn't like what I wanted to do. And I had found a producer at the time who wanted to help launch live events like a podcast, and I was like, she was one of our members. And I was like, do you do podcasts? And we started from there and we have evolved with that. We've tried a couple of different platforms to do it on, but we really wanted to, I love digging in to find out what other people have done before they've come into the pet industry because one of the things that I have noticed in my career in the pet industry, and maybe Kristen, you've noticed this too, doing the PR for clients, they would not share their full story and their background with you, and then I would find out some of not the accolades but their experience and I'm like, wait a minute, hold the horse.

(27:35):

I'm like, this is the story. I know you're opening a new whatever or you're launching a new whatever or you're having this event, but this is a story that the media is going to grab onto, not necessarily just that. And so that's part of what I do with digging into the pet industry. We primarily host just guests from American pet professionals, so our members, so we keep everything in-house. We've had special guests from time to time here and there when our schedule allows, but it's also bringing some of that fortitude and knowledge from our guests to our listeners, to our viewers to get that information. Just like a lot of other podcasts out there. But I really just like to go back before everybody got into the pet industry, what led you to it? I really love that story.

Speaker 2 (28:19):

You were saying before that you were in television, that was kind of the path you were going down. So do you find that having, I think a lot of people who enter the pet space, it wasn't their first choice, but they kind of fell on their laps and they're so passionate about it. Would you say that background really lends some credence to doing both the podcast and the live events? It's a lot of chaotic improv and those types of things. So how does your sort of professional experience lead into being able to succeed in your mission to inevitably help all these pets?

Speaker 5 (28:57):

I would say to anybody watching that is nervous about being on camera or being heard, you don't like how you look. I'm from Long Island. People are always like, where in New York are you from? I hear me talking. I'm like, you can't tell. You haven't. You can. They can't tell. But my background in tv, I was behind the scenes, so I was a full on deer in headlights if the camera showed up, literally running the heck out of there when our producers came and was like, Hey, we need extra people. So that took a long time to get over being on camera and going way back to Periscope, the first live streaming thing on your phone, right? Oh yeah. I was like, no, I'm not doing it. I can't take on another. And then of course my immediate background, it sucked me right in. I saw a couple of the people and I was like, oh, this is interesting.

(29:46):

And I couldn't wrap my brain around. I used to carry a 50 pound lighting kit when we were setting up that now I can broadcast live from my phone. It was mind boggling to me, and I literally met people in person from Australia, Japan, just from doing pet stuff, talking about the pet industry on there. It was quite interesting. So I think it does help, but it took me to get over that hump of just speaking at an industry event. It's very nerve wracking. Even if you've done it for as long as I've done it, you still want to do a good job. You want to represent if you're speaking at global or Super Zoo or any of the other places, well, you want to represent yourself well. So I am one that does a lot of preparation, whether I'm speaking or doing a live podcast. I always rehearse a little bit before for the podcast. It's kind of a well-oiled machine, kind of like you guys now you are used to doing it, you're used to the hiccups, but I really think it does lend to helping out and being more comfortable on camera and all of that. Sometimes I'm like, did I say that on camera or was that a conversation I had with somebody? You can't remember after a while,

Speaker 4 (30:52):

Right? So Nancy, well actually I know the three of us, because we all work in the pet industry, we hear a lot of this from people where they say, oh, you're so lucky. I would love to work in the pet industry. A lot of people think we work with pets all day, but what would you say for our listeners who are primarily pet parents, and I'm sure we have many pet industry listeners as well, but if you are not in the pet industry and it's something you've always thought about doing, what makes a great pet entrepreneur or a great qualities to be in the pet industry?

Speaker 5 (31:29):

Of course the easiest thing is that we all love pets, and that's the levels of playing field for anybody coming into the pet industry, whether you're coming from a corporate background or you're dreaming of doing it, I remember in those days of dreaming of doing it, and a lot of pet professionals have gone through different things to try. Maybe you were a pet sitter, maybe you were a dog trainer, maybe you did this, maybe you did that until you finally land on something that you're like, oh, this is what I want to do. And that's kind of a natural path to becoming part of the pet industry. If you're looking to be an entrepreneur, maybe you have a great product idea. I would say that, again, I always say this and I probably sound like a broken record, but for people listening, you want to do your due diligence, do your research, figure out what it is that you want to do. I did that for years. I thought I wanted to open a doggy daycare for many years, and I went and toured a lot of doggy daycares and I was like, Nope, not for me. I definitely don't want the liability, the responsibility. It's a lot of work. So for any of the doggy daycare owners out there, I commend you guys so much and trying different things and don't be afraid to try different things.

(32:40):

I think the pet professional world is just probably one of the friendliest pet industries, everybody. I ask that question a lot for people that are from different backgrounds, what is different now that you're in the pet industry and they all say the same thing, people are just so willing to help and so excited to meet you. And I think Kristen, you and I have known each other for a long time.

Speaker 1 (33:00):

We

Speaker 5 (33:00):

Know that every show we go to, we're so excited to meet somebody that's new in the industry, right? So true.

Speaker 2 (33:07):

Before we let you go here, Nancy, I want to ask about the American Pet Professionals and your podcast and the road forward. The pet industry is doing really well right now. The pets are being treated like family. What's the horizon look like for you as you look out to the next few years and what would success be for both your show and your association? We

Speaker 5 (33:31):

Will be approaching 17 years in business next year in 2026 in February, which is mind boggling. I remember when it was like five years and we recently acquired Pet Industry 1 0 1 trademark, so we're going to be focusing on some of the newer people that are coming into the pet industry. I know Kristen, you didn't know I was going to say that, but because people have a lot of expectations really fast, and we're here to help guide, and that's basically what we do at American Pet Professionals. If it's not helping refer you to somebody that can really help your business. We have expert speakers on all the time we have, I like to call it the pet industry on demand because we have webinars and evergreen webinars that people can go back to 2018, watch, learn from every area. People used to say to me, how can you manage all because we're not specific for one area of the industry.

(34:25):

We welcome all areas. And I'm like, because the overarching lesson and information and education is the same. So we really look forward to moving forward with some new stuff coming out for pet Industry 1 0 1 for the podcast. I'm excited. We do it in seasons. We don't go back to back for 50, 52 weeks a year. You know what I mean? I personally need a little bit of break. So we do seasons. We're in our spring season now, and then we'll start our end of summer, fall season, and then we'll do one more season. So we do like three times a year for me. I'm not looking to be the biggest podcast on the internet or anything like that. I think it's just a really nice addition to what it is that we do. And I love to share our member stories.

Speaker 4 (35:08):

Well, we appreciate what you do for the industry and tell our listeners and viewers where we can find more information about American Pet Professionals.

Speaker 5 (35:17):

Absolutely. You can go to American pet professionals.com to our website to find out more information about all that we do. There's a bunch of free information and articles on there if you're looking to learn more about the industry. We are at American Pet Pros on Instagram, but I am very active on LinkedIn, so if you just look Nancy Hassell, you'll find me on LinkedIn and I usually connect with everybody, so

Speaker 4 (35:39):

Fantastic. Well, Lindsay, we will see you at the next show. We will,

Speaker 5 (35:44):

Yeah. Well listen, thank you so much for being here or having me on your show. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (35:51):

And she's just one of the pet industry gyms that we have,

Speaker 2 (35:54):

And what a professional, I mean, it's always a pain to be outclassed on your own show by against a seemingly better host, but hey, that's the world I live in. That's right. That's the world I live in. The product of the week. I saw somebody using this, and I don't know why it was the first time I saw it because there's a lot of people in my neighborhood with multiple dogs. There's a lot of professional dog walkers in my neighborhood, and I live in a very walkable place. People are walking dogs all the time. So it's weird that this is the first time I spotted this in the wild and didn't really know they existed and is a single handle dual leash?

Speaker 4 (36:32):

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:33):

And this one is from wy, New York Times recommends it as the number one, and it comes with a couple of features. So it looks like your normal leash, like your normal, typical lead with sort of the handle. Then it has another disc attached to it and that disc can spin so the leashes never get tangled as your dogs cross paths. This thing will sort of gyrate to stop the leashes from getting attached to each other. And then it's got four brake switches, so you can lock just one of the leashes, both of the leashes, neither of the leashes, very easy to sort of gain control with just one thumb. It comes with a little belt hookup too if you prefer to belt walk.

Speaker 4 (37:18):

It's funny that you bring that up because just the other day I was downtown and this guy was walking two Brittany Spaniels and he had them on separate leashes and they were all tangled up and it was just like he had this knotted mess of, so yeah, I wish I'd known about that. I would've told him.

Speaker 2 (37:36):

Alright, what do you got for us today, Kristen?

Speaker 4 (37:38):

Okay, so I've got a fun product for your cat this summer. It is from a company called Cat It. They make super cool cat products. It's called the Creamy Ice Pop silicone tray. This is to make frozen cat treats. And I came across this because I was looking for something fun for your cat in the summertime, and it's a lot of cats do like frozen treats, especially if they're the right kind of treats. So by the way, if you get this mold, you get a two pack so you can keep one for yourself and give one to a friend. It comes with, let's see how many little treat holders are in this thing looks like 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6 treat holders. It's food grade, dishwasher safe, silicone easy, super easy to clean. And then I was thinking, well, what would I put in these little pockets to freeze? And they had some suggestions. It says you can put some tuna in there, either blended with water or mixed with some broth. You could use salmon, plain cooked salmon can be blended into a frozen savory treat. And then frozen peas. I never heard that as a snack that cats would like. But bottom line, something fun for the kids to do maybe is make these little cat treats, pop 'em in the freezer and then they pop right out of the silicone and your cat can enjoy.

Speaker 2 (39:00):

There we go. Everybody deserves a freeze pop in these summer months. Even the cats, everybody gets a freeze pop q and as. Okay, it is time, time for our favorite part of the episode. We are going to answer a couple of questions from our wonderful audience. It always comes in pairs. There's two pals on this show, and so there's always two segments, and I know what you are thinking. I could read your minds through. What

Speaker 4 (39:24):

Are they thinking, Chris?

Speaker 2 (39:25):

They're thinking, how do I get my question answered by Chris and Kristen? It's what everybody's thinking and the answer's really simple. You head on over to pets a life.org/podcast. Scroll on down to the bottom of that page. You'll see a little form. You just fill up a little form to have your question answered by Chris and Kristen, or if you're feeling as brave as the inventor of cat milk, you can record a voice memo, record a voice memo right on your computer, send it in, and you may hear your question played live on these air waves.

Speaker 5 (40:00):

Okay,

Speaker 2 (40:00):

I've got a question for you, Kristen. This is from David in Seattle. David asks, my pet seems to be gaining weight and I'm worried about their health. What are some practical, everyday strategies beyond just reducing food that could help a pet safely lose weight and maintain a healthier lifestyle? That's

Speaker 4 (40:22):

A great question, David, and I think it's really astute of you as a pet parent to be asking that question and recognizing that when our pets are overweight, it can lead to a variety of health issues, orthopedic, diabetes, cardiovascular, yada, yada, yada. Now, David didn't say if it's a cat or dog, so I'll just give some more kind of general advice. Actually, let me do dogs first. So I would say you mentioned besides just reducing the food, what has worked best for my family in the past when chili or Tulip have been putting on a few extra pounds is measuring the food and making sure that we're giving them a consistent portion every single day. And what we did is we used a, well, actually I think we must have talked to our vet about how many calories they actually needed. And then you can look at the back of the bag of food or can or whatever, however you're feeding them, and you just measure out that many calories each day.

(41:20):

And my dogs typically get fed in the morning and at dinnertime, so making sure that they're maybe getting fed twice a day or taking whatever the total calories they need and splitting that into multiple two or three times a day. So that kind of smooths out the metabolism limiting treats. And by that I mean, let's say you were not going to exceed your dog's calories if you just give them three treats a day. Well, what I would do is set those three treats out in the morning and when you're done giving those treats for the day, that's it. No more. But if you just go into the bag and handing a treat randomly, it's very easy to overtreat your pet. Regular exercise, of course, is important. And depending on your pet's health and weight and age, you'll want to exercise 'em accordingly. And then for kitties, kitties, I know it's very important that for an overweight cat that they not lose weight quickly. So you don't want to do anything drastic, right, Chris? Just the changes need to be smaller, need to take place over a longer period of time. And a half pound of weight loss in a cat is a celebration. So I would definitely talk to your vet if your cat is severely overweight about putting them on a very safe and healthy weight loss plan.

Speaker 2 (42:42):

One thing I'll say about the cats early on, if you could get them grazing, they will regulate their own weight. But if you introduce scarcity early, they will assume that there's no more food ever. And every day is a battle tiger. We're really lucky, regulates her own diet. She gets a little bit of wet food every day, but the dry food just stays out. But she was raised that way, and so she knows that there will be food, so she only eats as much as she's hungry for. So we got a little lucky there. But I know that probably isn't your case here, David, but for those listening who are like, how do I set my new cat on a healthy path? That would be a good recommendation. Earlier on the episode, we had the incredible Dr. Andy roic on, and I think he's going to be the perfect person to answer this question. So Dr. Roic, welcome back onto the show

Speaker 3 (43:38):

You guys again.

Speaker 2 (43:40):

Yeah, I know we do have this great question here from Sarah in Denver. Sarah, thank you for your question. She asks, what's the single most impactful thing a pet owner can do to help prevent dental disease in their dog or cat, even if daily brushing isn't feasible?

Speaker 3 (43:57):

Really, if we talk about the lifespan of pets, keeping your pets happy and healthy for as long as possible. There's two things at the top of the list. It's weight management and dental health, but those are the two lurkers that really shorten lifespan. So I love this question. Now, there's a lot of pets that really they do not want to have their teeth brushed. Go figure. You totally get it right. I mean, imagine you didn't know what was going on and someone that you love and trust is forcing your mouth open and sticking this plastic stick in your mouth. And so I totally get it. The one thing I would jump back and say, what really changed the game for me in brushing teeth is you got to slow down and treat this like a training exercise. And so treat, touch the gums, treat touch the gums, and just don't use it.

(44:46):

Don't use a pokey scary brush. Start with your finger. Start with a gauze pad. You know those little infant finger brushes they have for babies that are rubber that go over your finger and have little bristles on one side? Yeah, those are great. And don't use toothpaste, don't make it weird, but just will they let you gently lift their lip up and then touch their teeth and then can they get a treat? And can we work slowly like this? Not over a day. I mean, it's going be, it'll be days, but can you get to the place where they will let you use a gauze pad to wipe on their teeth or a little finger brush? The other thing to remember is with toothpaste, it's not like ours. It doesn't need that friction. You don't have to get in there and scrub it. You can wipe the enzymatic toothpaste onto the teeth just on the outside of the teeth, man, you're doing so good.

(45:31):

And so if you can slow down, take your time, treat, train, work up to that, that's fantastic. Beyond that, we're really starting to look at things like dental chews. And there's a couple of different brands that we've seen. Greenies are the classics that have got a lot of research behind. There's another company called Whimsies that again, they're those sort of dental chews. We've got to balance those with the nutritional impact that they have. And so I do love those chews. They're not calorie free. We might have to cut out treats in other areas if we're doing dental treats, but anyway, but the dinner treats can be good. Beyond that, if it said, if we're still there, then I would say, Hey, when we start to have dental tartar accumulation, when the vet tells us that we've got a little bit of gingivitis, honestly, you can do this at home.

(46:15):

This is another great thing for involved pet owners. Work with your pet, getting them comfortable so that they allow you to lift their lip up and take a look at their teeth and then just look. And when you start to see that brown tartar building up, if you start to see redness of the gums around the top of the teeth, we're getting to the place where we're getting a little bit of dental disease, and it may be time to get those teeth cleaned. And my sort of take with this is it's better to do it early when you don't have any problems, it's going to be much more affordable for you, just get it done. I see a lot of people who they don't want to get their teeth professionally cleaned and they put it off and then they end up with a lot of problems that they're having to address, and it's just a much bigger thing.

(46:56):

And so anyway, if you know that you're not going to be able to brush teeth, if you know that you are doing the dental chews and you're still having problems, go ahead and start to plan on a regular wellness plan and just commit yourself to getting those teeth cleaned. My dog Phoenix, I had to get his teeth cleaned every year after about age five, just once a year. I just did it and it was a commitment that I made, but he lived to be 16 years old and he was a visa, and so I don't regret the investment.

Speaker 4 (47:22):

Great answer, Dr. Rourke, as we expected. And I didn't know that about the enzymatic toothpaste, that you can really just rub it on there and not have to worry about any friction. So thank you for that and thanks for that question.

Speaker 2 (47:33):

And if you aren't already, be sure to follow us on socials. Check us out in beautiful video format. You got to, we're going to be back here next week, every Tuesday. We never miss a beat. Not for you guys. So we'll see you in a week's time. Pets

Speaker 1 (47:46):

Ad Life, your guide to the latest in Pet Trends products, and the joy of the Human Animal Bond with Kristen Levine and Chris Bonafide, powered by the American Pet Products Association and Dog tv.