73. Dogs with Super Noses, Pet Industry Insights & Sailing Cats

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Speaker 1 (00:00):

Pets, add 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 (00:15):

Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Pets Add Life. I am Chris Bonti and joining me She is tough. She is fast acting. She comes down hard on crime. It's Kristen Levine. Kristen, how are we doing today?

Speaker 3 (00:34):

I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Are

Speaker 2 (00:36):

Those your little vigilante punches?

Speaker 3 (00:39):

Yeah. Well you said, what did you say? I was tough and I was tough on

Speaker 2 (00:43):

Crime. Fast acting. Yeah, you're tough on crime. It's well known about Kristen Levine that she's tough on crime.

Speaker 3 (00:50):

Actually, my husband was tough on crime. He was a criminal court judge and they called him the Hebrew hammer.

Speaker 2 (00:57):

That's what they called them. That's what they called them in court. They're in the filings. If look up, if you file a Freedom of Information Act request on some of these court hearings, you will see the Hebrew hammer up here. That is so that

Speaker 3 (01:13):

Must be where I get it, where I get it

Speaker 2 (01:15):

From.

Speaker 3 (01:16):

How are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:18):

I'm all right. I'm hanging in there. We're dealing with a pretty sick cat in these neck of the woods. Yeah. Oh no. She has a tooth abscess. She's tough for a 22-year-old. They can't get it out. They can't, can't put her under anesthesia. So it's rough. But the antibiotics are working, but the antibiotics are making her nauseous. So we'll be taking her back to the vet today to see if they'll give her an anti-nausea injection too. Poor tiger. Yes, she's in rough shape, but she, she's down here, which is rare. She's over in her little bed and she's paying me no mind and she will continue to do so until it is time for her to eat lunch.

Speaker 3 (02:01):

Well, at least sounds like she still has an appetite.

Speaker 2 (02:04):

Yeah, she ate her breakfast this morning, or at least a little bit of it. And we've been giving her some people food as a special treat. She's got to eat some tuna and some chicken, which may not be helping with the nausea, but who knows.

Speaker 3 (02:20):

Hey, let's do stories.

Speaker 1 (02:21):

Yes, story time. Kristen and Chris. Present story time.

Speaker 3 (02:30):

Story time.

Speaker 2 (02:31):

It's story time.

Speaker 3 (02:33):

Oh, well you sound like you need some more time to wake up, so would you like to go first? Maybe that'll get the blood pumping in.

Speaker 2 (02:41):

We got to get the gears grinding. We got to get Chris up to speed here. My story is about a cat that has sailed around the world. Oh, cool. The cat I don't think participated so much, but Mr. Oliver Wier, I hope I'm pronouncing that properly. I dunno where reflecting came from. Oliver Wier, 29 years old, sailed across the Pacific sort of. He went from Oregon to Hawaii, which is nice. Did you guys all hear that crane alarm? One off does? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:18):

I thought that was a ship you said he sailed across.

Speaker 2 (03:21):

Yeah, that was kind of convenient. I live right near train station and it is hot today, so the window has to be open. So yeah, that's his ship. He's actually here. He's going to be one of our guests, but he sailed from Oregon to Hawaii with his cat. And I'm scrolling through this. The cat is named Phoenix, so Phoenix is a nice little turtle. Shell tabby and yeah, he had basically got a really bad medical diagnosis. Whatever this diagnosis was, carries a risk of paralysis down the line and it made him realize he hated his job and hated where he lived and hated being clean shaven and wearing press suits. So he basically was like, you know what? I'm getting in a boat and I am sailing from Oregon down to Hawaii. It took him, let's see, he liquidated his assets. Oh, the associated press wants me to free democracy. Okay, hold on. Here it is.

(04:36):

It is not loading. It took him a long time. Okay, sailboats are slow folks. Okay, so sailboats are really slow, even relative to the cruise ships. So he recalls one specific story, which I think is really awesome, where he was sailing through open water with nothing. He saw for basically a week straight. He saw no other boats. He saw no birds, not a cloud in the sky for a week straight. It was like his life was on repeat. And he says that the cat is the only thing that kept him sane. It was the only companionship he had. He's like, I would've turned into one of those crazy sailors and maybe thrown myself overboard if the cat wasn't there. So emotional.

Speaker 3 (05:26):

Was this the cat's first sailing trip? Do you know? I mean, is this, it

Speaker 2 (05:31):

Doesn't seem like it. I mean this long probably, but I mean all the pictures are the cat just sort of chilling on the boat. I think the cat was very comfortable on the boat. So

Speaker 3 (05:41):

The cat wasn't stressed out,

Speaker 2 (05:43):

The cat didn't, the cat doesn't seem stressed out. There's a ton of pictures of this cat on the boat and every single time he's sort of just laying around with his belly up or looking at the sunset or sitting in the captain's chair and nice and relaxed. So I think this was stressful for the human and the cat just thought it was vacation.

Speaker 3 (06:01):

Right? So moral, the story is just quit your job, sell everything, and sail away with your cat.

Speaker 2 (06:08):

That is the moral of the story, and I hereby endorse this with my full brand. If you would like to sail around the world with your cat, you should, and you should do minimal research and just go for it.

Speaker 3 (06:23):

Okay.

Speaker 2 (06:23):

That's over second

Speaker 3 (06:25):

And you'll probably turn up as one of our stories of the week.

Speaker 2 (06:28):

Yes. You'll become whether it's a happy one, sad one that's that's up for the gods of the ocean to decide.

Speaker 3 (06:39):

Okay, well I have a more scientific story about dogs today. This one is from an NBC news article about a recent study. Now this is not really surprising, but it shows that dogs can smell when humans are stressed out. So researchers, this was at Queen University Belfast. They tested whether dogs can smell our stress. So they took four dogs trained to distinguish between sweat and breath samples from 36 human volunteers and that the tests were taken before and after a stressful math test. You want to hear what this math test was and tell me if it would cause you stress.

Speaker 2 (07:22):

Yes.

Speaker 3 (07:22):

It was counting backwards from 9,000 by seventeens for three minutes. Think you could do that. Does that even make sense to you?

Speaker 2 (07:34):

I could

Speaker 3 (07:35):

Too early.

Speaker 2 (07:36):

I'm not going to out of princip, I'm not asking,

Speaker 3 (07:39):

Not asking

Speaker 2 (07:40):

For those involved in the study out respect for those involved in the study. I will not be answering that question. Okay. Well,

Speaker 3 (07:46):

It turns out the dog's detected stress samples with 96% accuracy, which was even surprises the researchers. And so it basically just proves that there is a specific odor component to human stress that dogs can detect. And as we know, I did look this up, we have 12 million scent receptors. Dogs have 600 million, actually more than 600 million. So damn. Just thought that was kind of interesting. And they also said horses can do the same thing. Horses can smell the difference between people who are stressed and not stressed. So that's probably why horses and dogs make great therapy animals

Speaker 2 (08:33):

And probably why horses can be real jerks to some people.

Speaker 3 (08:38):

That's true.

Speaker 2 (08:40):

Oh man. Well, that's a real interesting one. That's probably just my default scent, but if I had a dog, I'm sure it would get more worried if I didn't smell stress. They'd be like, something's up,

Speaker 3 (08:52):

Something's wrong. This guy's chill.

Speaker 2 (08:54):

He's changed. Yeah, he's chill. He's changed. Something's wrong. But that's a great story. Kristen Levine, the Science Queen.

Speaker 1 (09:04):

I'm joining the science crew app beyond the leash, exploring the untold stories of pet passion and professionalism.

Speaker 2 (09:12):

It

Speaker 1 (09:12):

Is

Speaker 2 (09:13):

My pleasure to introduce a friend of the show, Roy Bevi, the founder and chief curator of the Wolff, a twice weekly newsletter launched in May, 2023 that delivers sharp analysis on pet industry, news, trends, startups, and investment. Before that, he hosted the Genuinely Interested podcast. And prior to Media, Roy co-founded and led two consumer packaged good companies for five years, bringing firsthand entrepreneurial experience to his coverage. His platform has quickly become a go-to resource for pet business leaders and investors navigating the booming 320 billion global market. Roy, thank you so much for hopping on the podcast today.

Speaker 4 (09:57):

Thanks for being on the podcast three times a week, but outside of that Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (10:01):

All right. Nailed it. I was close three, absolutely nailed it. Three times a week. I can't even imagine. We do a once weekly episode and I'm gassed by the end of it. Three posts is

Speaker 4 (10:13):

Three newsletter posts, but outside of that, I feel like that if you could walk behind me and just be like the trailer of my life. There you

Speaker 2 (10:20):

Go.

Speaker 4 (10:20):

That's awesome. You're

Speaker 2 (10:21):

Not the first person who's brought that up. Yeah. So what inspired you to create the Woof and how did your experiences as a entrepreneur and business founder sort of shape the podcast voice and mission?

Speaker 4 (10:37):

Yeah, I mean, I started this two years ago. Originally I moved to Denver from New York and I thought I was going to do something in the outdoor space because obviously Colorado and we did something. I was working on something for a while, but it didn't really pan out and I've always wanted to be in the pet space. I've always wanted to do something in the pet space. I've been talking to a business partner, former business partner about it for years. And unfortunately two years ago my dog passed. We were together for 16 years and best friend. And I don't know, something kind of sparked in me. I was interested in newsletters at the time and I was kind of seeing what was happening with newsletters and I was like, there's no one really covering the pet industry the way I want to consume it. And we just started seeing if there was traction, kind of growing organically. We started putting out, I think originally it was once a week and then kind of twice a week, and then where we're now, which is three times a week. And we just kind of grew organically. It wasn't like there's not a lot of barriers to entry. I didn't have to raise a ton of capital and I was just, let me test the market, see if people are interested. And they were. And we just grew it to where we are now.

Speaker 3 (11:50):

Yeah, that's awesome. And I've been known to pull stories from the Wolf to share right here on the PAL podcast for our story of the week. Awesome. I'm curious now, Roy. Okay, so three times a week, how do you decide which of the pet industry topics are worthy of coverage, whether it's tech, wellness, pet insurance, what have you?

Speaker 4 (12:15):

I think there's a few components to it. One is whatever interests us, so it's me and Colin who's my partner in the Wolf, and we try to keep our finger on the pulse and see a combination of what's trending. And then just again, stuff that we like, stuff that we think also based on the metrics that we see, what do people click on the most? What gets the most traction? Okay, let's do more of that stuff because that's stuff that people resonate with, that's content people resonate with. So it's kind of combination of that trifecta.

Speaker 2 (12:47):

Yeah. So you said you got your finger on the pulse, the industry, you got it. I mean, you got it. So what are some of those trends you're seeing right now? What's coming up here? We're sort of in the heat of summer. What are some of those trendy businesses or products that you're spotting?

Speaker 4 (13:02):

Definitely supplements, probiotics specifically. I think you're going to see a lot of what you see in human health transfer over to pet health. So some of the stuff like the ora rings and stuff, we're seeing more hardware that is, it used to be that you would have the collar and it would just be for, Hey, my dog's missing. Let me go find it. I have this GPS tracking collar. Now you're seeing much more, it's preventative health. It's like, oh, your dog's maybe not moving as much today, or your dog is acting in a bizarre way, or it's not eating as much, it's not drinking as much, it's not taking the necessary steps it needs to take or it regularly takes. So I think a lot of preventative health, again, we're going to see in my opinion, more of the human trends. And again, some of these are trends which they're ephemeral, they're not going to stay around. They have no basis, no science behind them, and it's just like it's a marketing thing. And then some have actual real science and real benefits, and I think those that stick around will transfer over to pet.

Speaker 3 (14:12):

Who is the ideal subscriber to the Wolf? I mean, it seems obvious that it would be me, me, but what if I'm one of our listeners and I, I'm just a pet parent and I'd love to learn more about pet products and pet news. Would it be interesting to a consumer too, or is it really mostly a business industry newsletter?

Speaker 4 (14:36):

It could be. It just depends. For example, I'm subscribed to a bunch of newsletters that are from, I dunno, franchises to Car Dealership Guy and The Hustle and a bunch of others that are AI and I dunno, maybe even crypto, maybe not crypto, but things that are just outside of my wheelhouse. I'm interested in a lot of different things. So it's not necessarily that I'm ever going to go into any of these industries, but I just like to know what's happening and try to again, keep my finger on the pulse and see what's out there. If you're a pet parent and you want to know maybe again about the latest supplement about, I don't know, some cute story that happening or some inspiring story or heartbreaking story, probably not the best one for you. We kind of look at it as business first. And the business just so happens to be the pet industry, but we're kind of highlighting founders and we're talking to people that are in the industry that have been there a long time, or people that have mom and pop type retailers and innovative startups that are investing a ton of money into longevity of pets and everything in between.

(15:47):

So I mean, if that kind of stuff does interest you, which I'm assuming for some parents that would definitely be interesting. But again, if you're just a pet parent and you want to know about the best supplement or the best gear for your dog or the best new jacket that's out there, there's probably a couple of other newsletters that do a better job of that. And that's not our target audience, although we do plan potentially in the future to expand the Wolf into a few other verticals and that could be one of them.

Speaker 2 (16:18):

Cool. So I want to drill down on pet business. I mean, we talked a bit about that real quick, like that 320 billion industry number, but the reality is there is a lot of turnover in the pet industry. A lot of businesses wind up failing and that's just the risk of entrepreneurship. But in the pet industry specifically, we see people struggling with marketing or fundraising, and so you're really plugged into this space. What separates those brands or companies that succeed from those who don't?

Speaker 4 (16:53):

I don't know if the pet industry is different than any other industry in that regard. I think it's a combination of grit, determination, some luck. We also try to help founders. It's a funny thing. We've started to get a lot of founders and entrepreneurs reaching out to us saying, could you put us in touch with vc or could you put us in touch with this investor? Or could you just maybe circulate our pitch deck to relevant people and when it's relevant and when we can, we definitely do that. So I think it's like there's so many, depending on what product, service, whatever it is that you're starting, it's so much easier today. And there's so many things you can do if you have a product. I know TikTok Live is doing really well and you can just sell online or just if you have some sort of a B2B product, just kind of documenting your day to day, what it's like behind the scenes, or if you have, I don't know, some food thing that you're starting or whatever it is, go to the factory show, what it's like.

(18:01):

There's so many ways for you to do things that are just easy. I don't have to get a lot of money. I don't have to have some degree to know how to do this. I can document, I can talk to the camera, I can try to find my audience. And whether it's in B2B sales or whether it's in services or whether it's in products or CPG or pet, it's kind of all the same. Just trying to find your audience and take your phone, put it in front of you, start recording talking and yeah, finding your audience.

Speaker 3 (18:32):

Yeah. When Chris read the introduction, he mentioned that you hosted a podcast. Prior to this, you led two consumer packaged goods brands. First of all, what were those brands or those products and what learnings did you take away from all that experience and bring to the wolf?

Speaker 4 (18:52):

Never go into the beverage space.

Speaker 2 (18:57):

Actually, not the first person to bring that up to me. Hey, that's funny.

Speaker 4 (19:00):

Oh, it's brutal. Yeah. I moved to New York in 2013 and I started my first company with a, I'm at the time. He also moved to New York in 2013. And we started, at the time it was very popular, a juice company, and this was an alkaline forming juice company. And we learned very quickly that a perishable item with a very short shelf life, with very expensive products that is very expensive to ship, is not an easy thing to put on shelves to ship. Every time we would ship to California, we'd be losing money, a lot of money.

(19:42):

And so we ran that for about maybe a little under two years, and then we decided to shift and we moved into, at the time, I think it was maybe only us and one or two other companies that were doing it, we moved to a line of healthy shots. So it's kind of like your morning shot, your pre-workout, post-workout, digestive, that kind of stuff. And that did actually extremely well, but again, ingredients expensive, short shelf life. We had a really, our co-packer couldn't fulfill our needs at the time because the bottles were so small, so we had to find another co-packer. Shipping, again, very problematic. You have to put the ice in. So it was, I think we ran the entire thing, both companies for maybe five years. And very, very, very difficult. Very difficult. And then COVID started and I did what everyone else and their mother did. I started a podcast,

Speaker 2 (20:44):

There you go.

Speaker 4 (20:45):

And honestly, it was cathartic, almost in a way. I didn't even care about views or scaling. I was like, let me just try to talk to fun people. I'm at home all day. We moved from New York to Connecticut at the time, and we were just kind of isolated. And I managed to scientists, authors, UFC fighters, entrepreneurs, just anybody that will interest me. I'm like, let me talk to this person. And at the time, everyone was so willing to talk because they had nothing to do either. They're like, yeah, might as well, why not? So I had a blast and I learned that listening to people who are ahead of you in any industry, let's say if an entrepreneur or some, I dunno, online creator or whoever, but they're just few years ahead of you, or maybe they're just way ahead of you. Even listening to them, taking things that you think might work for you and just connecting with people is amazing in a sense of, I dunno, I think a lot of people learn during COVID that being alone is detrimental to your health, mental health, every, everything. And even just having that opportunity to have this really exciting conversation for an hour, two hours or three hours a couple of times a week, was a lifeline really for me. So I looked at it more like that than as a actual business. But I did run it for about 140 episodes I think. I can't remember. And then most of them were between two to three hours. So long conversations and yeah, I had a blast.

Speaker 2 (22:27):

Yeah. Well unfortunately on the Pets A Life podcast, our conversations are not long. We don't have three hours, we don't have three hours. We had to fit the whole episode into a 48 minute fast channel format. But before we let you go, Roy, where can people sign for the newsletter or learn more about your work?

Speaker 4 (22:43):

Yeah, just go to the Wolf news.co. We are, I dunno if I'm supposed to drop this spoiler yet, but we are working on a rebrand, so that might change in a couple of months, but right now the Wolf news.co, go check us out. We're the fastest growing newsletter in the pet space. And yeah, thank you guys for having me on.

Speaker 2 (23:00):

Absolutely. Fantastic. Absolutely. Thanks for joining us. Thanks Roy.

Speaker 4 (23:02):

Appreciate it guys. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (23:06):

Well, Kristen, there goes my idea of starting a juice company. He talked me out of it. Yeah, I was going to call it the crisp juice and it was fully baked, but he really talked

Speaker 3 (23:20):

Me out of it. He just saved you years and a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (23:25):

Yeah, a lot of stress. My savings account. Thanks him. What an interesting character. Lived all over has done all these different things, worked for so much stuff, and lo and behold, now we got him in the pet space and nobody ever leaves the pet space. Once you're in, you're in.

Speaker 3 (23:44):

That's right, that's right. I wonder if he's figured that out yet.

Speaker 2 (23:50):

I don't know. I don't know if it's really hit Roy yet, but he'll have that realization one day when he is reflecting on it. It's like, man, I hit the pet space and I never left.

Speaker 3 (24:01):

Alright, everybody, join me in welcoming Stephanie Gvo, a children's book author, a freelance writer and a former biologist with a bachelor's in ecology and evolution and a master's in animal behavior. She was raised in Toronto on a steady diet of books and wildlife adventures and spent years researching gorillas and marmosets. That was all before she started training dogs and writing books about 'em. Now she's based in Toronto and Stephanie combines her scientific background and dog training expertise to create award-winning animal focused books such as making sense of dog senses and dogs versus humans, a showdown of the senses. And she helps young readers appreciate the canine point of view. Welcome, Stephanie.

Speaker 5 (24:49):

Thank you so much for having me on the podcast.

Speaker 3 (24:52):

Absolutely. We're glad to have you. So I'll just kick it off by asking how did you transition from researching primates to writing kids books?

Speaker 5 (25:02):

It is a bit of a switch, isn't it? I think when I was studying primates, because humans are primates, I really came to appreciate how similar we are to animals. There isn't a great big dividing line between animals and humans, but I also came to appreciate how different we are from animals and how different animals are different from each other. So my perspective changed. I stopped thinking of how much like a human is a dog and started to appreciate how amazing dogs are at being dogs, and I think that appreciation for animals, I wanted to pass that on to kids. I was excited about that idea of looking at animals that way. So these are the topics I've been excited about since I was a child, as you can tell from my bio. And I wanted to pass that on and I hope my enthusiasm comes through in the books and inspires young readers to want to learn more and maybe do some of this research themselves in the future.

Speaker 2 (26:02):

Yeah, that is awesome. And I see I spy the book in your background, that's dogs versus humans. I spy it right there. So it obviously compares sort of the senses and we try to jump into a dog's point of view. What in your research and the exercise of writing this book, what surprised you the most in terms of the difference between dogs and humans and the way we perceive the world?

Speaker 5 (26:28):

I think we all know, it is funny. We talk about the way we view the world, and even that is a human biased concept. Humans, as a species, we are visually oriented. That is our primary sense. But for dogs, it's their nose. But I don't think that surprises people. I think we all know how much dogs like to sniff, but going back to vision, I think that is surprising to people. So in the book, which playfully pits humans against dogs, we look at five aspects, sorry, four aspects of vision. So the first is color, vision, and it is a myth that dogs do not see color. They don't live in a black and white world. They do see color, but they see muted color of blues and yellows and grays, which is similar to red, green color blindness in humans. So we certainly win in the color vision department.

(27:21):

Then in the visual acuity department, which is how well you see at a distance, we beat them again. So even if dogs understood the alphabet, they couldn't read the bottom of the eye chart of the optometrist because it would simply be too blurry. So we win there as well. We also win with depth perception because our eyes are positioned more front on our skulls than towards the sides. But we do have to give dogs a trophy for seeing in the dark because they see much better than we do in low light. So I think that surprises people that we come out on top with the sense of vision.

Speaker 3 (27:56):

That is kind of surprising when you think about it that way. Let's take that a little bit deeper. We are, as humans, we're really good at projecting human traits onto our pets. So what's an example that highlights why it's so important to understand how canines our dogs are perceiving the world versus the way we perceive it?

Speaker 5 (28:15):

Yeah, that's a great question. I think when we look at dogs as furry little people and not as dogs, we often label a lot of their behaviors as problem behaviors, and they're really just normal dog behaviors and specifically coming into the senses with canine perception. I think something like butts sniffing makes this really clear because to us it's gross and why are they doing that? I know it's embarrassing, but dogs have such a powerful sense of smell. They're gaining so much information when they take that sniff. So in one, but sniff the sniffer is learning about the sniffy sex, reproductive status, health, maybe what they even ate that day. They're learning all kinds of information. And there's even a study that suggests the anal gland secretions of individual dogs might be unique and it's probable dogs can detect that with their, because their noses are just so powerful. Plus dogs have a vomer or nasal organ in the roof of their mouth that lets them detect pheromones, which are chemicals used to communicate. So with all that put together, we can kind of stop looking at butts sniffing through a human lens and realize that's the dog equivalent of shaking hands and saying, Hey, how you doing? So I don't think we need to be as embarrassed when the dog greets another dog or even sniffs a visitor in the crotch.

Speaker 2 (29:40):

It'd be kind of crazy to shake somebody's hand and know their reproductive status would be, that'd be kind of crappy game changing little TMI, little tmi. And sort of as I asked this question, I feel like you're already answering it, but it's tough to take science and especially formal science and well-researched science and present it in a way that is digestible for children to understand and to phrase it in ways that children are going to understand. And already, just from the first half of this interview, I could tell you're a master at it, but do you find that to be a challenge to take some of these studies that use scientific jargon and boil it down into concepts that children can understand?

Speaker 5 (30:27):

It absolutely is challenging. It's even more challenging to come up with cheesy jokes. Make it fun. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (30:34):

Just call Chris, you just need to call Chris.

Speaker 5 (30:37):

Yeah, you can give me the cheesy jokes, but it is difficult because you need to make sure you're coming at things from the level the readers are at, and then you need to present it in a way that makes sense and is building on the knowledge that already have, but you're also competing with the intranet when you write for kids, they can so easily sit down and Google a fact. So you have to present something more than that. The reading experience has to present more than just, here's a fact. So I use things like humor or hands-on activities or the voice you use as you speak to the reader to make it engaging and draw them in so that they're learning all that complicated science in a really fun and engaging way.

Speaker 3 (31:22):

Yeah, yeah. I hadn't thought about that. You are competing with a lot for their attention

Speaker 2 (31:27):

If you're competing with Big Miss Rachel, big Bluey.

Speaker 3 (31:33):

So Stephanie, you have another book coming out this August. It's The Dog Who Saved the Bees. Now this is a true story. I understand, and can you tell us a little bit about that and what readers can expect?

Speaker 5 (31:45):

Yes, I'm really excited. This is a true story. It's a picture book and it's the story of Sybil Preston, who is the Chief Apiary Inspector for the Maryland Department of Agriculture. So it's Sybil's job to ensure all the commercial beehives in the state are free of disease before they're allowed to ship across the country to pollinate our food crops, things like apples, almonds, and strawberries. Without those bees, we wouldn't have those crops. So this is a story. I first met Sybil in 2018 when I interviewed her for an article for the American Kennel Club, and when she told me the story of her rescue dog Mac, I was just hooked. So she rescued Mac from a life in a garage. He lived alone in a family's garage. He was completely untrained unruly. She adopted him and she not only trained him to be the only certified foul brew detection dog in the country, they earned the, I'm going to get this right here, the Customer Service Heroes Award from the governor of Maryland.

(32:48):

So his journey from this garage to winning an award just I was so impressed. I had to tell the story to children, and I really hope children are inspired to see what dogs are capable of. It would take Sybil an entire day to inspect what Mac can inspect in 10 minutes, and Mac has perfect accuracy, yet he started completely untrained and completely undisciplined, which is just not a good combination for a scent detection dog. And I also hope kids realize how attached we are and interconnected with nature. One in three bites of food you eat is thanks to pollinators like bees. So the work that Sybil is doing is absolutely essential to conserving the pollinators and helping us.

Speaker 2 (33:34):

That's really fascinating stuff. Yeah, that's awesome. And I have here debuts August 1st, 2025.

Speaker 5 (33:40):

That's right.

Speaker 2 (33:41):

All right. That's great. There's a question here that has been bolded out, so I'm going to ask it though. It is normally not in my question bag, but it says, tell us about your writing routine. Do chocolate covered almonds fuel your creative spark?

Speaker 5 (34:00):

They really do. Somebody's done their research. Yeah, there's usually a bag of chocolate covered almonds by my desk so I can reward myself. Okay, you've sat here for an hour and you've accomplished this article or you've accomplished this chapter. Reward time.

Speaker 2 (34:14):

Reward time. Yeah. Listen, humans can be trained just like dogs. I like almonds too, and I use almonds as my go-to brain food. Almonds are pistachios. Pistachios are nice. They occupy the hands a little bit with cracking them. It's like if I'm reading, if I have to read a lot, if I have to read a long extended report, I like the pistachios. But yeah, chocolate covered almond as a little treat. You should put 'em in your little treat pouch.

Speaker 5 (34:40):

Yep. I'm positively reinforcing myself all the

Speaker 3 (34:42):

Way. Yeah. Yeah. I read that in your bio, Stephanie, and I was like, she's my kind of girl. All the chocolate covered cherries and the chocolate covered pistachios are also amazing. So I don't know how, okay, we kind of took a turn here with this. No,

Speaker 2 (34:57):

No, no. This is a good turn. Snacks are very important.

Speaker 3 (35:01):

Yes, they are. Okay, well, we're coming up on time. Stephanie, it's been such a pleasure speaking with you. Where can people learn more about your work and where can we find your books?

Speaker 5 (35:12):

You can find my books wherever books are sold, and you can find out more information and links to purchase on my website, stephanie jibo.com. I'm also on Instagram at Stephanie Jibo, and I'm also on Blue Sky at Stephanie Jibo.

Speaker 3 (35:30):

Awesome.

Speaker 2 (35:31):

There we go. Stephanie, thank you so much for joining us. The books look awesome. So cool. So cool.

Speaker 5 (35:38):

Oh, thank you so much for having me. This was a pleasure.

Speaker 3 (35:41):

Yeah, you could go reward yourself now with a chocolate covered almond. Sounds

Speaker 2 (35:44):

Good. Sounds good. It's chocolate covered almond time.

Speaker 3 (35:50):

Wow. She is really cool. She does a great job of, she's perfect for writing children's books because she has a great way of just explaining things and making it very relatable.

Speaker 2 (35:59):

Seriously, I'm an idiot and I'm crystal clear on how this all works and how every point she made. So yeah, I'm not smarter than a fifth grader, but Stephanie certainly is and is here to help. And guess what? Now I'm hungry. I wasn't hungry before that chat.

Speaker 3 (36:17):

Yeah, I know. I know. Anytime you start talking about chocolate,

Speaker 2 (36:21):

I'm going to need to grab a peanut bar to close out this episode. A little protein in me. I, I'm feeling sleepy. The product of the week. Alright, it's time for the product of the week. Kristen, why don't you go ahead and kick us off.

Speaker 3 (36:41):

Okay, so I thought we talked a little bit about scents, that our pets have a stronger sense of smell than we do. And so I found this really cool herbal scent enrichment kit for cats, and it's by a company called Mei Jane's. There is a link to it in the show notes, and it's basically a kit with 13 different cat safe herbs for scent based enrichment. And the brand says, think of it as a library of scents to enrich your cat. So our indoor cats are surrounded by smells of plastics and cleaners and humans instead of natural outdoor scents. So this is just kind of a way for them to get that environmental enrichment because they have such strong sense of smell 15 times the strength of our smell. And let's see, let me see. Some of the scents that are in here are catnip and silver vine, which are good for play and curiosity. There's also some calming scents like valerian root, lemon balm, rose petals and sage, and then an energizing scent, which is time leaf. So it's all safe. All herbs are on the A SPC, A safe list and processed in FDA approved facilities. It's about just a little bit under 30 bucks, but I thought that'd be a really cute little gift for your kitty.

Speaker 2 (38:03):

I love it. I love that. It's got a nice little variety in there for all.

Speaker 3 (38:08):

Yeah, like a sample pack.

Speaker 2 (38:10):

Yeah, a little sample pack, a little kitty sensory sample pack. I've got a product that looks like deodorant, but it ain't. Do you have a lot of trouble giving your dog pills? I'm sure you do. It's like impossible. What I want you to imagine is like a gel deodorant stick with all the little holes, but instead of deodorant, it was like a dog treat paste. And so you put the pills at the top of the deodorant stick, then you start to twist out and it, the paste just sort of covers the pills as it comes out, and then you just let the dog lick it and lick it up. They just lick up the pills. Similar to doing the peanut butter trick, it actually comes in a peanut butter flavor. But this makes it really easy, especially if you have to give medication to your dog every day. This chore can really, really wear on you. It really, really can. There's all sorts of products out there, but dogs sometimes start to figure it out. They might figure out one way and you need to pivot to another. This one, the price point is at 15 bucks, so you're not getting killed over it.

(39:34):

I just thought it's a really clever way. I always say the best way to approach giving a dog a pill is variety. Never let 'em know your next move. Always be tricking 'em annu in unique ways. This is a good one to add to your repertoire, especially if your dog is taking medication every day or often.

Speaker 3 (39:50):

Yeah,

Speaker 2 (39:51):

Absolutely. It comes in beef, chicken, peanut butter, all the best flavors. So be sure to check it out. Link will be in the show notes.

Speaker 3 (39:59):

Love it. That's a great one.

Speaker 1 (40:03):

Q and As.

Speaker 2 (40:05):

Okay, well folks, it's time for our favorite segment of the show. That's right. We're going to answer two questions from our beautiful, beautiful listeners, and I know what you're thinking. How do I get my question answered by Chris and Kristen Levine, the science queen? Well, it's quite simple. You're going to head on over to pets add life.org/podcast. I've noticed that that's at the bottom of the screen when I do this. So now I'm pointing because I'm a good host. There's going to be a little form you could fill out, or if you are feeling as brave as Phoenix the cat as they sail across the Pacific, you can record your question as a voice memo, submit it to us, and you may hear that question played live on air. And in that vein, Kristen, our first question comes to us via voice memo from Sarah in Phoenix, Arizona. Let's play the clip.

Speaker 3 (41:05):

Hi, I'm Sarah, and I've been wondering, is my dog overweight? She's looking a little too fluffy these days. Any signs I should look for? Great

Speaker 2 (41:14):

Question. Alright, Kristen, you want to take this one? Yeah, it's a great question.

Speaker 3 (41:17):

Sure. What

Speaker 2 (41:17):

The audience never sees is Kristen and I bickering over who gets the answer this question.

Speaker 3 (41:22):

That's right. We just stare at each other like you, me, me, you.

Speaker 2 (41:25):

It usually takes 45 minutes and ends in fica. So we're not going to get into that today.

Speaker 3 (41:31):

Well, first of all, I want to thank Sarah for sending her question via voice memo. So that's awesome. We love to hear your voices. So signs that your dog might be overweight. I would say what I learned from a veterinarian many years ago was that you look at your look down at your dog and you should see a slight indentation where the waist would be. I know we don't call it a waist on a dog necessarily, but just past their rib cage, it should go in a little bit. Now if you have a really furry, fluffy dog, it might be best to do this when they're wet right after a bath. And then the other way you can tell too is by just feeling their ribs. And if you can't feel their actual ribs, then that's a pretty good sign that they're overweight. And I don't mean you pressing in really hard, so you can find them a gentle touch.

(42:27):

You should be able to feel their rib cage. There's some really great resources on the, I hope I don't screw this up. It's the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, their website. They have lots of tips on how you can determine this, but of course you want to talk to your vet about it too, especially if you do have a pretty good indication that your dog is overweight, then you definitely should talk to your vet about how many calories should your dog actually be getting, how much exercise should they be getting based upon their age, their breed, your lifestyle. All those factors play into it. But yeah, the two quick tests are just look for a waistline and feel for the ribs.

Speaker 2 (43:10):

That's great advice. I actually want to talk about a counterpoint because I mentioned at the top of the show that Tiger is not doing so hot, and we're actually having the opposite conversation with the vet about trying to find high calorie foods because her stomach is upset and we feel as though she's not eating because her tooth hurts. She's not eating as much because her belly hurts, but she is trying to eat because she's hungry and know she has to. So our conversation is which foods are the most calorie dense, because she's not eating a large quantity and we want to make sure she keeps her weight on. And so far she's right over there. She's being such a little trooper, isn't she? It's so funny. She doesn't step on this rug. There's a rug underneath where I am and she doesn't step on it, so she won't come over here year. She's a freaking weirdo. Anyway, Kristen, why don't you give me this question from Mark. From Mark?

Speaker 3 (44:11):

Okay. Alright. Certainly. Alright, so Mark writes in and he says, I'm looking for a trainer who uses positive reinforcement only. What should I be asking to ensure they genuinely focused on reward based methods?

Speaker 2 (44:24):

Yeah, so look, first up, when you're doing just your research, look for people who use the buzzword. Fear Free is a great start, doesn't really guarantee much, but people who like to present themselves as Fear free trainers, that's a great place to start. And when you start asking questions, I mean, it depends how much of a lawyer you want to be. I like to trap people. I don't like to be direct. So I would ask questions, how do you dissuade the animal from doing certain things? Like ask about those negative things. And a good trainer would say, we don't do that here. You try to reinforce the positive behavior. Or they'll say, we redirect. If the dog is misbehaving, we're going to redirect that energy towards something else and then reward the positive behavior. So don't be afraid to be direct. And hey, don't be afraid to try a couple of dog trainers.

(45:23):

Some of them will do like a single session for a much smaller fee, like a trial run before you get contracted to do an entire course. Not necessarily a free sample, but it's almost like when you're getting married and you do your engagement shoot with a photographer and you could pay 'em for that. And then if you sign on with them, they apply that money towards the wedding photos. A lot of dog trainers do the same thing where you could pay 'em for one session and then they'll credit you that payment if you decide to sign up for a full course. And don't be afraid to jump ship early after that one thing if you're not getting a good vibe. It's kind of like a therapist or a doctor sometimes you got to shop around and find the right match for you and your animal and just the fact that you are already thinking of this means you are a great dog owner, Mr. Mark. So keep it up and don't be afraid to advocate on your pet's behalf q and as. And that right there. That'll do it. That'll do it.

Speaker 3 (46:27):

That's it.

Speaker 2 (46:27):

Finally.

Speaker 3 (46:29):

Dang, that was

Speaker 2 (46:30):

Fast. Yeah, these morning episodes, they move quick. It's crazy. What happens when Ron wakes you up at six 30 in the morning? He stands over your bed and shakes you and says, we got an episode. We got an episode to do. It's actually what happened. He drove from Hoboken over here to Connecticut and shook me awake and said, wake up, get a shirt on, put on your finest Florida based hat. And it's a Delray Beach hat for all of you, all of you

Speaker 3 (46:58):

Coast. Are you still in your pajamas? Are you still in your

Speaker 2 (47:00):

Pajamas from the bottom down? I am. Okay. This is a top up production, which we appreciate,

Speaker 3 (47:08):

Top up show,

Speaker 2 (47:10):

But hey, listen, yeah, for all of you waking up early and catching pet's ad life every Tuesday, we appreciate you and we'll see you back here next week.

Speaker 3 (47:20):

Yeah, that's right. Your pet's nose is their superpower, so use yours to sniff out our next episode. That was so bad.

Speaker 2 (47:31):

There we go. That was terrible, but I love it. They need to get worse. Really bad. You're too good at it. The quality needs to continue to decline.

Speaker 1 (47:42):

Pets, add life, your guide to the latest in Pet Trends products and the joy of the human animal Bond with Kristen Levine and Chris Bon, powered by the American Pet Products Association and Dog TV.