Dec. 19, 2024

The Modern Evolution of the Pet Industry

Show Notes
Transcript

The growth and developments in the pet industry in the last 50 years have been monumental! Changes in everything from keeping tropical fish to pet foods and nutrition, grooming, and care, have impacted how our pets live.
Join me as I map some of the biggest changes we have seen in animal health and care.

Pet Health Cafe' is broadcast live at Thursdays 8PM ET and Music on W4HC Radio – Health Café Live (www.w4cs.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Pet Health Cafe' TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).

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Any health related information on the following show provides general

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information only. Content presented on any show by any host

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or guests should not be substituted for a doctor's advice.

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Always consult your physician before beginning any new diet, exercise,

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or treatment program. And then now it's time for Pet

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Health Cafe, where your Pet has a Voice.

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And here's your host, Bill the Pet Health Guru, and

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welcome to the Pet Health Cafe, to show where your

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pet has a Voice. This is Bill the Pet Health Guru,

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and I've got a great, great show for you again tonight.

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I hope we're gonna do something a little bit different

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as we're coming into the holiday season, keep it a

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little bit lighter than we sometimes do. Again, as always,

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I want you to share this, I want you to subscribe.

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I want you to like on all the platforms that

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you happen to watch, so we can get this algorithm

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up and get this show out to as many people

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as we can. The chat room will be open so

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you can put in your comments and ask your questions

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and hopefully we'll have a great time tonight. Tonight, I

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wanted to do something a little bit different. I was

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doing some research over the past couple of weeks, and

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it dawned on me that I've seen that witnessed a

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monumental shift in the way we take care of our pets,

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the way the pet industry has grown and changed over

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the years. I've been active in it for over fifty

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five years. Hear it out of obviously working with animals.

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My background was in animal sciences when I was in college,

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got out of college, couldn't find a job, ended up

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taking a part time job in a retail pet store,

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which turned into a management job within a very very

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short period of time. Because of my understanding, I was

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never interested in going into sales, But as soon as

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I started talking about pets and animal health to clients,

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everything changed. You know. As a youngster, of course, anytime

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that animals were involved in careers we talked about that.

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Medicine was basically the direction you were kind of pointed in.

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But back in the nineteen sixties nineteen seventies, veterinary clinics

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and veterinarians weren't doing the stuff that they do today.

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Generally speaking, you had a local neighborhood veterinary, and if

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you're in a rural community, you had a farm vet

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that that covered you know, large basically large areas of territory,

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but you only saw them that when there was a real,

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real problem accidents of serious injuries. Especially, There was no

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such thing as you know, annual checkups. The preventive type

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procedures were very, very minimal, and dogs and cats were

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living a long time, and they weren't eating commercial foods.

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They were eating what we fed. We were feeding them

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and it was a totally different time. Now. I wanted

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to kind of go back to when I started in

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the industry and at first couple of pet shops that

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I worked in, how things have changed. First off, the

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number two hobby back in the nineteen in seventies was

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aquarium keeping tropical fish, and that was only number two

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behind photography. Think of how the times have changed. Photography

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now is your cell phone. It's not the hobby that

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it used to be. Right now, you describe your phone,

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something's going on, you taken, snap a few pictures, shoot

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a little bit of video, share it with your friends

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on the internet. Back then, it was setting up camera

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equipment and backgrounds. And I know I did a photo

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shoot with a company that I was a partner in

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that we sold clothing with it, which was animal based

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with different breed t shirts and sweatshirts and things of

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that nature. And I spent a day doing the whole

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photo thing with a couple of friends that were actually

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and between the background and the lighting and the angles

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and everything that was involved in it, it was let

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me tell you, it was a tough day. It was

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hard work just checking on all these things. Like you said,

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it isn't what it is today. We didn't have photoshop,

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we didn't have any of these computer programs to enhance it.

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What's your shot is what pretty much what you got,

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and so you had to make sure that you know,

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everything was just right. But as I said, number two

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hobby was aquatics aquariums, and I remember selling literally hundreds

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of ten gallon aquariums. It was, you know, it was

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an easy hobby to get into. They were inexpensive. The

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equipment was fairly simple, you know, an air pump, filter,

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an aquarium and water. And then of course they became

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much more sophisticated as time went on, different types of

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filtration systems and things like that. But the one thing

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that we had it was very really really easy back

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then was the water you could fill up your aquarium

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with tap water. Many cases you didn't have to do

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anything with it. If you lived in a city. Some

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of the cities we did have special drops that you

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added to the water to neutralize the chlorine that was

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added to our drinking water or tap water, and that

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was it. And because it was so simple, because the

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water was clean to start with, we did not have

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issues that we have today with the fluorides and the

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chloromines and the pharmaceutical chemicals that are found in tap water,

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where you actually have to buy special water now for

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your aquarium. And this is especially true when it came

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to the salt water area. We used to just buy

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a box or a bag of a sea salt mix,

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a sea mineral mix, and just added to regular tapwater

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and we were good to go. Now basically most of

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the commercial saltwater set up, so that sort of thing

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that are out there in restaurants and hotels and other

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public buildings and even in homes. Many of these, most

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of these at this point in time, they're literally trucking

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in seawater. It has to be collected by the way,

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sometimes a mile out the sea to get clean water.

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To be able to get these tanks to be stabilized

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in the fish to thrive. It's a big, big difference

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in what we have today, just on that aquatic side. Now,

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when I started again in the industry, pet shops did

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not carry pet foods or dog foods anyway. We carried

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pet foods but things for small animals and rabbits, birds

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for the most part, and of course fish food, but

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doug and cat food was almost non existent. It wasn't

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until nineteen fifty five that the first kibble was introduced.

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It wasn't until the nineteen seventies when some of those

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specialty diets started to come out of the scientific formulations,

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and of course the whole plus raw of products that

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followed behind it. And it was partly because of the

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way it was marketed. We could actually make money on it,

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because prior to that, if you were buying a commercial

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pet food, you were buying it either at a feed

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store and or a supermarket where the margins were extremely low.

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Of course, the pet shops were usually found in higher

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rent areas shopping malls and shopping centers, department stores, things

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of that nature, where the rents were really high, so

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the margins had to be much much greater and the

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specialty boutique type foods scientific diets then came about because

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they gave us a platform and a marketing tool, if

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you will, to start to sell the products. Of course,

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back then we also had a captive audience. Back then,

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pet shops sold dogs and cats, and I know today

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there's a lot of controversy whether they should or not.

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I know New York has just passed a law pretty

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much banning the sale of dogs and pet shops and

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even special boutiques. There's a lot of Like I said,

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there's a lot of controversy around that. But if they're

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coming from reputable breeders, and actually there is a whole

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part of that industry that is very, very reputable, does

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a good job of genetics and nutrition, providing healthy puppies

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and kittens that are guaranteed, and the people that are

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involved in it to take a lot of pride in it.

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Of course, there are some bad people, and that's basically

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now where most of that business is going to go

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is underground in the black market in New York state.

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California has already done it as well, but again a

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different time. I remember as an associate and then as

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a manager going into the pet shop to work was fun,

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and everybody there was on a level of almost expert

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if you will. You know the guy running the fish

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department in many of these stores, you know, they started

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out as a ten year old kid hanging out in

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the pet shop because they were into the tropical fish

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hobby and learning all that they could, so by the

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time they were old enough to work, they had a

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pretty good education and what they needed. Same thing with

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bird readers. I remember when I started in the pet

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shops as well. I had a fear extensive collection of

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breeding birds that I had, and then of course I

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sold through the stores. But it was again another part

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of the hobby that we all enjoyed and we became

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experts in this field. Today. Unfortunately, most of the big

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box pet type stores, you know, they're running like a supermarket,

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and of course, you know how much help you can

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get in the supermarket if you're looking for specialty foods

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and things of that nature. And I know that a

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lot of supermarkets today will have you know, various events,

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if you all, even if they're like pop ups, small

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pop ups where they're doing a recipe or showing you

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how to do a dinner or something like that at

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an endcap from a particular company, But as far as

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overall information, you just don't get it. Where as in

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the old specialty stores, you know, we had that. In fact,

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our sponsor, Paleo Pet, we joke around that on Fridays

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and Saturdays, as much product as they sell, there's probably

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as many recipes that are being exchanged and shared as

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there are concerning the pet health and stuff like that.

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I mean, it's just a fun place to be sometimes

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we cover a lot of information there. Again, it's another

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big change, you know that basically, I guess I'm trying

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to bring back to the industry that that fun part

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where we're actually helping. I remember to one of my

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colleagues today before I left to do the show, that

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our pre holiday business used to be selling tons, I

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mean literally shopping carts full of pet toys for your

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dogs and your cats and the Christmas stockings. And when

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I first started, that's when the pet clothing part of

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it started to pop up. And of course we were

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doing a lot of fancy collars and things of this nature.

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So it was a fun time. But today much of

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our time and effort even here to holiday times are

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centered on the health of the animals, you know, the

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healthy treats, the chemical free products that we have, the nutrition,

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how the nutrition builds up the body. So it's a

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completely different atmosphere. We're actually having to work pretty hard on,

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you know, making sure that our animals are healthy for

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the holidays, rather than just celebrating like we did when

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we were kids. So it's one of those areas that

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you know, we kind of miss a little bit, you

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know it. You know, treats of course, were primarily a

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day thing too. It wasn't this year round activity that

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we see today. I know, I did a show I

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believe last week on do it yourself treats and that was,

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you know, again a lot health related in that. You know, again,

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back in the seventies and nineteen eighties, we didn't have

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these problems because the foods weren't nearly as bad, the

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disease rates, the health issues that our pets had were

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not there. Things were just much simpler, And it kind

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of saddens me a little bit that we have to

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be going through these challenges instead of just being able

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to enjoy. Again, I want to mention that the chat

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room is open if you've got any questions, any stories

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that you might want to relay as well, You're more

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than welcome to put down your comments. A couple of

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other areas that we used to cover in the pet

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industry that you don't normally see today. I know a

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few pet concerns do handle different things, but we used

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to do a lot with some of the basically kind

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of thought of our wildlife as part of our pet

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industry as well, especially in the wild bird area. A

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lot of the stores back then and back in the

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seventies and even in the eighties used to have fairly

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large wild birds feeders selections, and of course a lot

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of specialty diets because we had developed over the seventies

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and eighties different ways of feeding that attract certain birds

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to your yard, some of them close to your house

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so you could really enjoy them. That was kind of

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an extension of our bird hobby, if you will. I know,

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one of my stores that I managed was up in

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the Philadelphia Southeast Pennsylvania area, and that was one of

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the biggest wild bird areas, feeding areas and bird watching

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areas in the whole country. There were, I mean, all

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kinds of social groups and clubs that you could join

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and work with, and that just made it really exciting.

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We learned a lot about our pet's diets just through

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that how the bird what birds needed. It wasn't just

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that dos at orange box of canary seed that you know,

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you could buy at Woolworth's or Montgomery Wards or any

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of these basically the department stores and of course the

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regular food stores. It developed into a very very specialized

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seed mark, which benefited our cage birds a lot too,

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because it opened up the door to a lot more

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variety and rotational diets which we talk about with dogs

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and cats a lot. But that was also very very

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important not only for our cage birds community and hobby,

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but also our small animals. We learned that we could

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defeat a different type of food. And then, of course,

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just like with the dog and cat, over time, super

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ultra processed diets became available supposed DESI typically formulated and

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today I mean, unfortunately, we've seen the lifespan, for instance,

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of a parakeet, a pet parakeet. When I started in

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the industry, it was two years, two to three years.

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With just the changes in diet that we had incorporated

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back in the early seventies, we were getting fifteen and

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twenty years lifespans on a parakeet and which was unheard of,

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And now we're seeing it going backwards again because of

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the high processed food, and I mean I hear stories

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all the time from clients the high vet bills for

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small animals, rabbits and guinea pigs, and of course even

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with birds. And to be honest, back in the seventies,

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you know, a veterinarian that it was a bird specialist

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was almost unheard of, and doing surgery on a guinea

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pig was certainly not even in that realm, because again

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we didn't have the type of problems that we have

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developed over the last almost fifty years. Like I said,

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I've been in the business for over fifty five years,

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so this is a lot of new stuff, and of

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course some of the stuff we've also are seeing on

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the livestock side. You know, you've got a lot of

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hobbyists out there that in the rural areas that might

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have things like pygmy goats and you know, other more

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exotic animals, if you will. And again, as we moved

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into the more processed types of food and more and

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more veterinary intervention, we're seeing large large jumps in the

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cost of keeping these animals, and it's just been pushed

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more and more and more that we have to do

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this stuff more scientifically and more expensively than we did

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back in the seventies and in the eighties and even

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before that. But a little bit of the history there

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of the ped industry, and we'll get into a little

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bit more of it right after this quick break.

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Does your pets suffer from allergies, cancer, digestive issues, poor

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joint and skin problems? These can be from poor nutrition,

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00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:14.400
and my Pilio Pet can help. Don't let your pets

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00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:17.720
suffer for poor diet and nutrition. At my Paleo Pet,

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00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:22.440
we provide fresh human brain USDA approved biocomplete raw food

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00:20:22.599 --> 00:20:25.359
entrees for dogs and cats. Whether you're looking for healthy

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00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:28.480
food for dogs or natural herbs for pets, we provide

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00:20:28.519 --> 00:20:31.119
you with exactly what they need to live a happy

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00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:34.839
and healthy life. Our raw food for pets surpasses traditional

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00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:38.000
raw dog food and cat food that you find in

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00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:41.319
your local pet store. Our raw food is made fresh

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00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:44.799
on the premises, source from local suppliers, and are made

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with only the utmost quality with specific nutritional and functional benefits.

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We deliver locally to areas in South Florida, including the

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00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:57.599
Palm Beaches, and we ship frozen nationwide at mypilio Pet.

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We strive to offer the best in rotation diet formulations,

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00:21:01.640 --> 00:21:05.599
clean raw human graide fresh food in our eco friendly,

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resealable package. For more information, visit mypaleopet dot com. I'll

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call nine five four nine seven one two five zero

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zero if your pet is overweight, suffers from skin problems,

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or you suspect food allergies, My Paleo Pet is the

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solution for you. Our natural and fresh foods for pets

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are USDA approved and is sure to bring the puppy

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00:21:31.160 --> 00:21:34.400
or kittens back into your pet. My Paleo Pet carries

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00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:38.880
a full assortment of healthy, holistic frozen raw food entres

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all natural dehydrated treats, local raw dairy products and apple smoothies,

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00:21:44.039 --> 00:21:48.480
as well as natural supplements, treats, juices, tank grooming products.

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Products can be ordered online twenty four to seven at

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mypaleopet dot com and ship nationwide to your doorstep. Called

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nine five four nine seven one twenty five hundred to

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speak with our friends staff today. Let my Pelleo Pet

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help keep your pet papier and healthier.

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00:22:17.720 --> 00:22:19.720
And welcome back to the Pet Health Cafe, the show

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where your pet has a voice. This is build a

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Pet Health Guru. And you know, I want to remind

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you to go ahead and share and subscribe and to

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00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:31.720
like this program. Enter your questions and your comments into

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the chat which is open again. We want to get

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00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:37.119
as much information out there and bringing you a little

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bit about the past and pet industry today. Since I've

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lived in it for over fifty five years in this space,

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and I can you know, I can attest I've worked

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in all different phases of it. I've been in retail,

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I've been in manufacturing, wholesale distribution. I was a manufacturer's

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rep on the road, helping to develop and design products.

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One of the theory is that I worked a lot

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of exclusively in the late nineteen eighties, was the grooming industry.

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When I started in this business. Yes, there were pet

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shampoos that were available, and we did wash our dogs

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usually once or twice a year, you know, and if

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we did so, it was usually because they got into

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something rolled in something that was really really nasty. Of course,

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you have to remember in the sixties and the seventies,

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is when we started bringing our pets in from the

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garage and from the backyard into the houses and living

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quite a bit different. But also the big change that

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happened was a lot of it in the nineteen eighties

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with the changes in pet foods, especially dog foods, where

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we came up with no mixed formulas using artificial flavors

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so that the dogs would just eat a dry kibble

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type food. Enough. Along with that, that's when we just

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00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:03.720
covered we started having dental problems. Prior to that, the

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dental wasn't even a part of the veterinary code. It

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wasn't taken care of because we didn't have dental problems

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in our dogs. But with the introduction of these artificially

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flavored dry foods, which were at for a while even

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even marketed as crunchier for cleaner teeth, and that had

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to be taken down because it was a false claim

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because it's actually the carbohydrates that were causing the dental problems.

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But we also started to have more gastro problems and

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more skin and coat problems because that dry food does

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00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:43.440
not have the fatty acids in it to give us

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a good healthy skin in code and as a result

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of that, our dogs started to become smellier and smellier.

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That dog yodor, which you know now that they're in

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the confines of our house, was something we didn't want.

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We had to develop different methods of grooming. I actually

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worked with or at least a half a dozen different

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shampoo companies over my tenure, and we went from basically

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soap or detergent based shampoos, which were very harsh on

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the skin. And that's one of the reasons why you

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00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:24.920
didn't bathe your dog very often, was because it would

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dry out the coat and cause scratching and itching. And

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now we had that because of the shampoos causing it.

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Now we got the dry food causing it as well.

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So we had to come up with new technologies, and

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in the later eighties we came up with the botanical shampoos,

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which are basically a surfactant based shampoo. We're not using

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00:25:51.319 --> 00:25:57.799
detergents to scrub down the animal. We're actually using the

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water itself. That the hydraulic pressure which when we use

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a surfact and base shampoo basically breaks that tension of

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that water so it can actually get under the dirt

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particles and lift them out without removing the natural oils

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which protect the skin. That's actually one of the areas

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that we still have a problem in because a lot

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of shampoos out there still use the old technologies because

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it's cheap, and you know, that's creating again more problems

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for the pet owners, causing more expense. The other thing is,

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00:26:38.079 --> 00:26:42.039
of course, is we've gone to more groomable breeds, if

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you will. People thought that that lots of opso and

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that poodle shitsu Maltese, the longer more grooming intense breeds

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we're now in vogue. And because of that it started

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to develop into a whole new part of the industry. Again.

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When I started in the industry, for the most part,

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00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:12.400
if your dog was groomed, and generally that was poodles

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pretty much exclusively. You know, there was somebody in the

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pet shop and that would set up a table in

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the back and you know, as seat of clippers and

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a pair of scissors, and that was it. Now, uh,

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you know, grooming has become a regular part of the routine.

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You know, it's not uncommon for people who had their

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dogs roomed every three to six weeks, eight weeks on

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a regular basis, Like I said, we've got a lot

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more code intense breeds now that just require more grooming.

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And of course the other part of that is that

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The Modern Evolution of the Pet Industry

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