Understanding Your Dog's Gut Health - No Bad Dogs Podcast

All right, Rob, just tell us about yourself.

Well, uh, lifelong entrepreneur. Started when I was 14. I don't want to do the math.

What do you mean you started when you were 14? What's I started a window cleaning business. Oh, okay. And uh, yeah, I mean, cuz I was thinking in my head, what do you do at 14? Yeah, you start a window cleaning. I I was actually too young to scoop ice cream. I wanted to work at 31 flavors or do something I could do. Mhm. I want I just want really really badly wanted a job. I love to work and I couldn't do it. So, I just decided to clean windows. Did it privately. Then my dad was a mortgage banker and he did a big town home project. Sold a bunch of homes in there, town homes. and he got me in touch with the sales lady and I ended up having like 163 town homes to clean, hired my buddies and I said, "Oh my gosh, this entrepreneur thing is awesome." And that just set me forward.

Yeah, that's early. It was really early. Yeah. And then 17, I started a window painting business. So, you know, gosh, I can't even do the years. That was uh uh I was like 17. Um, who cares what the math is, but it was a long time ago and it was right before they moved to laminates. So, you remember car dealerships probably still do, you know, big sales, a big big letters and so did Taco Bells, McDonald's, Jack in the Box, all of those did the same thing. And um I said I could do that, but I can't actually paint. So, this I lived in San Diego at the time and I hired a couple artists that I found at a car dealership, husband and wife team, and I said, "Hey, how about I get the business and you guys do the painting? I'll keep you really busy." And uh lo and behold, I uh started I got 163 Jack in the Boxes. Wow. Actually, it was more than that. Sorry, it was much more than that. It was 223. and um Jack in the Boxes, McDonald's, and Taco Bells, mostly Taco Bells. And uh then I sold it to them. Uh the laminates started coming out and I don't know what happened to them at that point. Um yeah, and I evolved out of that.

And then I got a little burnt out and I started working for people. Um, you know, my my big dream I like to, like I said, I like to work. My big dream was to to plan Super Bowl halftime shows and really big events and uh so I again lived in San Diego, drove and applied in Los Angeles to a bunch of firms, got a job with Murf Griffin Productions. Do you know who that Do you know who Murv is? No. How old are you? 36. 36. Okay. Yeah. So, you're probably just at the cusp. Well, MV was like a big deal. He was like Oprah back in the days when there was three big channels, right? But he was a really big deal. And he went on to invent Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy and he became a billionaire. Sure. And then he went to buy all these event companies and I and he bought a company that I went to work for. They had just been bought and uh I was actually a co- producer event producer with a New Yorker um Bethany Frankold. Do you know Bethany? No, I don't. New York Housewife. No. Yeah, she's she's, you know, really she's everywhere. She's um she started Skinny Girl Vodka. Okay. Yeah, I know that. Yeah. And um and she's exactly the way she was way back then. I mean, this was a long time ago. And um she's been very successful. And um and so uh I decided that the event space, the people in the event work world wasn't really for me and I just branched out on my own. I went and started event production company, worked for Steve Win, lived in Las Vegas for a bit and then from there decided really I I like this entrepreneurial thing. I'm pretty good at it and I'm going to do something like that matters and I care about and I got into the internet and my first business was Surprise for Dogs. Surprise for Dogs. Yeah. Well, it was I'm saying surprise. It was about dogs because that's really what I'm passionate about. I thought you meant the name was Surprise. Gotcha. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I went to start a uh so this is in 99. I got my first black lab buddy and I just jumped into that business of digital marketing and all of that. Yeah. And it was to call out the pet industry and all the bad stuff they were doing. And it was called pet consumer reports and it was a back in the day you could actually make money on e magazines and you know like blogs type things. Yeah. But like we didn't have blogs back then. It was like right at the beginning of of the internet. So it was like you know newsletters you know e magazines and all that. Yeah. And uh and then new uh Consumer Reports called me because I copied their font and try to make it look similar. And they said, "Yeah, you can't really do that. You have to give us that domain, you know, the head legal department." And so I did and I said, "Okay, I'm going to do something else." And that just set forth my my interest. I started working for a lot of different companies, big banks, big learning on the on the backs of some really big companies. and um and then from there um said, you know, I'm going to come back to to pets and I think that I can serve dogs really really well and you know, make a go of it. Yeah.

And so now you're now you're I mean now it's kind of seems like you're doing a kind of a a bunch of different things, helping out other companies, helped me out quite a bit and some of the stuff that I've done. So catch us up to speed with where you're at now with Gussy's Gut. And Gussy's here, so chilling. He's a good boy. How old is he? He's eight. Cool. Looks good. Yeah. Well, that's what a raw diet will do. That's what, you know, regenerative healthy, you know, gut. Look, he's he's ready for the command. He's like, just say the word. Yes. Talk to me about talk to me about all that because I'm so interested in that. I've been recently in my own health journey and with dogs, it's like this whole new stratosphere for everybody, but for me, I'm very fascinated in the dog space and the health space and the regenerative farming and the grass-fed like we have the grass-fed beef which you've helped source for us and everything. So, tell us a little bit about all of that. Like I'm so interested in that cuz I I know what I know and that's you know obviously that's all you can know and I've I've myself got into like super health with biohacking and eating clean and understanding where my food comes from and understanding what processed food means and what it can do to you and obviously you know I feed a raw diet. You feed a raw diet and so talk to me about all those things because that's something Yeah I'm really excited about.

Well it's interesting you said the way you just the way you phrased it what it can do to you. You can do food can do something to you or for you. And so the to you part would be all the things that are in food that we're now learning quite a lot about um prochemical derived dyes, chemicals, you know, um synthetic additives in the form of vitamins. And they look sometimes they look really decent and you know innocuous on a package, but the way they're made and processed and then what they do to you in you know when you're when your body's trying to transform them is very different versus the what food can do for you is like you know the soil it's grown in matters. The health of the animals that you eat matters. um what they eat matters. The way they're treated matters. So, we know a lot more about that now. We didn't 20 years ago. I mean, there's just I mean, there was grass-fed cows, but there wasn't like grass-fed marketed cows in the grocery store. So, we're in a good place now. I mean, we know a lot more. And so, when you know better, you do better. And um the, you know, rawfed dogs. So, I just fed Gus today because I'm traveling here um a freeze-dried really high quality raw meal, but it's freeze-dried. And I noticed his poops were huge. And I thought, well, that's interesting. Like, he didn't really absorb a lot of that. Well, when you I feed him one and a half pounds, sometimes 2 lbs of raw meat, organs, bones, meat a day. A day. His poops are not 1 and 12 to 2 lb. They're like a quarter, right, of a pound. So, where does all that go? It's not all moisture. He's absorbing this and he's processing it. It's kind of crazy, you know. So, I look at that and then I look at all the details like, you know, every single thing that's in it, the life of the animal, you know, for our treats that we have uh at Gussy's Gut, we get all of that from Georgia at a place called White Oak Pastures from Will Harris. And I've been on the farm. I've been with the pigs um literally um and there's just there's no animals treated better. I mean, they're treated like pets and um and the what they eat is incredibly clean and they're not organic certified, but they're better than organic. They're regenerative and they're a savory hub. They're people just Google that, you'll you'll see it's quite impressive. And it's just because they made a decision. They don't want to be bound by the organic standards. They don't believe those are worth what they used to be.

So, what would be the difference between organic and regenerative?

Well, regenerative is organic and better. So, regenerative just means that the soil's treated better, cleaner, um, and turned over more naturally. So, there's a carbon cycle. So, people can Google that. Um, and the carbon cycle is turned over more and more. Some organic farms are not. They're, you know, just one or two crops that are that are grown on and they're they're technically the organic standards, meaning no pesticides, no herbicides. So, you don't have the nasty chemicals that are going into them, but the soil isn't quite as nutritious. So, the you know, the things that are grown on I don't care if it's lettuce or a cow, things that are grown on those on that dirt is going to be healthier in a in a fully regenerative farm. And you there's there's organic regenerative. It's just another certification. I' I'd take a really high quality regenerative over organic any day. Yeah. Yeah. And then not to be confused with biodnamic. Biodnamic is another way of treating the soil that um is very interesting, but I think really what it comes down to when you look at like what's available in most grocery stores and most pet stores, you're not going to really see a lot of biod dynamic. It's kind of a specialty. It's going to be organic or regenerative. Yeah. And hopefully we see more regenerative. Yeah.

It seems like a more sustainable thing too uh in in how you use the soil and h and how you're like almost harvesting the so the soil.

Y I learned a lot about that on the I've listened to the owner of I think white oak pastures before on Rogan's podcast and I watched how all that work. It's very interesting how and again like you said I think it's important to understand like what we put like the animals that we eat, the fruit that we eat, the vegetables that we eat, all that stuff. It matters where it's grown, how it's grown, and it's just the same thing for dogs and what they eat. And so I've been on this path of no processed food for my dogs for a long time. Yeah. So that's why when we go to the vet and they have like the big milk bones and they're like, "Can I have a treat?" And I'm like, "Oh, thank you." They will just explode on that, you know, I'll I'll pay for it later. He may like it, but or maybe not. I mean, so so my point is is I've been really researching all of the health and how it affects your energy, how it affects Yeah. your skin, how it affects your mental I was just going to say, yeah, your mental state of mind, your anxiety, your lack thereof. And so with dogs in the last, I don't know, 10 years, we are now seeing a more commercialized, no processed, high, highly processed food with the raw diets. and you can go extremely granual to going to the neighborhood butcher and getting all your own stuff or ordering from a company like we feed raw or any other company or Yeah. So, it's interesting this shift in education and and I try to explain to people because people feel like I am um vict like making them feel bad or blaming them for eating kibble their dogs of course and I'm like I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I'm just trying to educate you on what is reality. Yeah. Because of course sometimes raw food can be more expensive than the but but it's you get what you pay for. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

So, now catch me up to speed to after you've done like the So what are you doing now? Treats with with your with Gussies or or what are you what are you that's where you left off. What what are you doing with that?

Yeah. Well you were asking about Gus. So, he just real quick, I'll just top that off with, you know, he eats organs, he eats meat, he eats bones, he eats, you know, fat, lots of fat. He does not eat a low fat diet. And if you look at him, he's built like a coyote. And that's a Labrador. You know, it's not common. Um, people, if it wasn't for some of the gray he's got, people think he's a puppy if they see him from behind.

What What fat do you use? What do you animal fat for?

Oh yeah. Whatever he's eating, I just get the fat. Whatever protein he's eating, you'll do the the fat. Yeah. If I mean if um, you know I mean even down to like the turkey will be brown the brown meat as opposed to the breast, you know, right? Or I'll just give them what did I do yesterday? I had some of my tallow that I fry things in for me and grass-fed tallow. And I just gave him a tablespoon, you know, as a treat. He gets a little thin slice of grass-fed butter every morning and at night, like just as a treat. It's what I wake up and give him, you know, and he gets he gets yogurt because I eat really high quality stuff, so I share it with him. He gets crazy high quality grass-fed uh yogurt. Um, it's regenerative also. And, um, you know, he'll get olive oil. If I have some, I'll throw it in his bowl. If I want to make him drink, I'll throw olive oil with water. Mix it up. Make just on demand. You know, you know how useful that can be when you're busy and you just want him to drink. And he gets coconut water. So, yeah, I do I I you know, I just bought him coconut water and gave it to him the hotel before we left. And uh I'll do 50/50, you know, just dilute it. Spring water. Just dilute it. Yeah. and he just gobbles it up. So it's I I can control his urine, you know, when I when so I'm not caught on a plane with, you know, him uh you know, needing to go. But um yeah, I mean that's that's really all I do. And those micronutrients in those things, the organs and the fat and I mean it's in chicken skin, it's in bones. Certainly people think bones are just calcium. They're full of nutrients. They're a complete food. So, if you give enough of those things, um he's lived most of his life without any supplements. The only thing he's um really had the last few years are what I made, which is now Gussy's Gut and a product called um Ion Biome, uh Intelligence of Nature makes it, uh Dr. Zack Bush. Do you know Zach? Oh, yeah. You should meet Zack. He's great guy. And that's tightens the the junctions of the gut in a very different mechanistic way than Gussy's gut does. And I it's very different. Yeah, we could technically source that and make it. We don't think we could make it as good as they do. So we have like we are we'd rather be in partnership and support them than be in competition with them. They they do that at a crazy high level. So we

And what what what is that? Is that a vitamin?

It's a liquid. It's tasteless. I mean, you just take You could take a tablespoon of it and it's like just water.

What What is it? What What's the benefit? What's in it?

It's fulvic and humic acid and it's in a alkaline base which is good for dogs and it's got some silica in it for dogs. The human one does not. And that's the stuff that is comes from like ancient deposits deep deep in the ground. And it actually is really good for our gut. By tightening the the junctions, the junctions of the gut, the terrain of the gut, they protect you from outside invaders, whether it be viruses, pathogens, but also chemicals and, you know, all that other stuff. Poison keeps poisons. Yeah. Keeps the stuff out and keeps the good stuff in.

That's really cool. Yeah. We'll have to put that in the show notes if people are interested in that. So, how did So, h how does the how does your company now like and the reason why we're bringing all this up is like we got to this point of Gussy's gut because you've really educated yourself on health, wealth, and all the things that make you uh healthy and think clearly. So, how does how is Gussy's gut born?

Well, it's named Gussy's gut because it was all about his gut. He got in the trash uh destroyed his gut. He didn't eat for 7 days. The last 3 days he didn't drink. So, I was super freaked out. I imaged him. Nope. We couldn't find it. I have really good vets. Really good vets. And we went to a really state-of-the-art place. Couldn't find it. So, it was really freaked out like last four days. And then he stopped drinking. That really freaked me out. And um one day at the end, he uh it's about day seven. He went asked to go out and I thought you can't possibly need to go poop like and I he was going to squat. I went what? And then he let out a yelp and it was a bottle cap from a um half and half container and it was crushed. He bit it. It bent a little bit and roughed up and then he pooped that thing out. So it had gone through his whole digestive tract and imaging never found it. Wow. And so it wre havoc on his whole I mean you just imagine it going through these you know little spaces. So he um and he's a little guy. I mean he's not that big. He's 49 pounds. So um so when I started to see like his his poops were crazy weird. Like I've never seen anything like this. And I'd take pictures. I'd send it to the vet and I'd be freaked out like what am I supposed to do? Like so I'm a kitchen sink kind of guy. So I threw the kitchen sink at it. I don't need like if my dog's in distress, I don't need to figure out what is helping. I want a bunch of things to be working instantly. And that was the genesis of our first product, you know. So, we then we call that daily. That's the name of our product. We're we're actually going through this about next two weeks naming it daily boost because it is such a kitchen sink product. Has 19 superfoods that we ferment. I mean, we've went over the top with it and it's really what I did for him and it caused just a traumatic dramatic turnaround in his gut health. I mean, it was just like almost instantaneous. It was like 3 weeks. I was like, whoa. Wow.

So, you created So, that's how that's how this was created is Gusiada cap went through his whole body, messed him up. He was It's the same thing like when you go on a really harsh antibiotic or something, right, where it just destroys like I did um what did I do? Oh, hoxicylin I think I got cuz I got nipped by a dog and so I was on a really heavy antibiotic and then my wife was telling me that after you should do something like that. He she was following this guy that had had drinks like aloe, aloe juice, and all these things to to replenish your gut basically in your calm your terrain. Yeah. Just to calm everything down. What is in something like that? Cuz I like I said, I'm I'm super fascinated with this in in my eyes, this new revolution of of dog health. Yeah. like understanding that we can give them vitamins and and and supplements if needed and we can add things like Gussy's got I add it to the to the raw food that that my dogs eat like what what is in a product that that makes it like why does it work you know like what are we doing?

Yeah. So, so I I created this on my own, but I actually realized that 25 years ago when I got my was now 20, what seven years ago when I got my first black lab buddy, uh I hired Dr. Ian Billinghurst to teach me how to feed raw. So, um we did phone consults. He lives in Sydney, Australia. And uh are you familiar with Marty Goldstein? Dr. Marty? Yeah, I've heard of I've heard of him. Yeah. So, he was he was also my vet. Tellahalth. This is from San Diego. So, tellahalth um consults and Marty has a brother named Bob. Both of them are geniuses uh vetinarians. Uh they both said, "You need to be raw right away and you need to go read this guy's book." I said, "I don't have time to read a book. So, is he available like for me to consult with?" So, we did phone consults and what I saw in the change of my black lab buddy was miraculous. It was within four weeks. I was like, "What?" And I was always the guy who we grew up like when we barbecued and we had spare ribs, we'd give them to the dogs, but they were cooked. So, we thought that you cook bones before you give them to the dogs. It's actually the opposite. When you cook them, you change the molecular structure. You they splinter and that's dangerous. You never want a splintered bone uh swallowed. So when you give them raw, they break and they they could be crushed really easily. And it's really the way they should be. So for millions of years that's how wolves their predecessors ate and um that is called biologically or species appropriate biologically appropriate or species appropriate feeding for animals. Makes sense, right? It's just the way they have evolved to eat. Dogs and cats are pretty similar in that they eat prey. The gut contents of their prey have fermented foods. Those are usually plant-based. You don't need that much because I don't care what a wolf is taking down. The gut is in relationship to the animal is much smaller. And certainly for cats, mouse, uh, rabbit, bird, little guts. So, you don't need that much. A little goes a long way. So, that's why our product is like you just need a teaspoon per like 20 pounds of your dog's weight. It's nothing. Um, and it provides a really um substantial benefit per day. So we just uh daily the first product that we're calling boost coming up that is 19 superfoods and they are all designed to do different tasks. So um, you know, when you eat kale it has a benefit when you eat lettuce it has benefit when you eat carrots it has a benefit. We looked at those and we said let's provide this range and in this this u formulas recipe and then let's ferment it. And so by fermenting it, you do the job of the gut. You, you know, we mimic that prey animal. And we make it easier for your dog or cat to digest because it's been fermented. It's like broken down. It's like predigested already. And that creates probiotics. Prebiotics uh are from the ingredients. The prebiotics are fiber and postbiotics. And postbiotics are stuff or they're really the metabolite of fermentation. Most people don't know about them or understand them. They're the really the payoff and the big bang, the big bonus. Yeah. But prebiotics are really great because they feed good prebiotics feed good path um microbes. Bad prebiotics, sugar, honey. There's a lot of different types of prebiotics. Those feed pathogens really, really nicely. And you don't want to feed the pathogens. You want to feed the good guys because the good guys will stay around in your gut and your dog's gut and your cat's gut. and the bad guys would they'll be forced out.

What do you what do you see from the dog's perspect? So you said that it was a miraculous change or difference or even now with the dog that you have now like what do you see like when I feed Gussy's gut? It's not like I'm like oh um his eyes are brighter. But it's like the same thing for me is like when I take you know vitamin D or something. It's it is it's not like oh I can run faster or jump higher now. It's it's just something that I know that I'm deficient in. So, what are you seeing when you're And you can start with raw food and and I and again I think it's important for people to know when we're talking about raw food, which I've had several people on to talk about raw diets and go different directions and why and when. It's, you know, I don't want anybody to feel discouraged if they're feeding kibble. I would say 99% of pe people feed kibble. However, you can you can do a little bit of both and the more you know, the better it's going to help you make these decisions. And so when when you switched when you when you had that phone conversation with who did you have it with? Dr. Ian Billinger in in Sydney, Australia. He said go raw. And you said how you consulted with him. What are things that you're seeing?

Yeah. Well, first of all, I was scared out of my mind cuz he literally told me to buy turkeys and hack them up. I bought a cleaver for the first time. I literally was It's overwhelming, right? Yeah. It's over Yeah. and and l literally my puppy was dragging around a carcass um on my I had lenolium in the in the kitchen. I said, "Thank God I have lenolium." And I'd have to like take a cleaner and clean it twice. Like it was crazy. Um feeding gibiblets and I'm like, "Isn't this the thing I'm supposed to like wash my hands two times after I touch it?" I'm like, "I'm giving this to my like what is happening?" But then you realize like your dog is super It's different. Your dog is very differently built. I mean, they can literally eat roadkill. They can eat salmonilla, uh, you know, all the things we can't eat. And I'm not suggesting that we feed them salmonillaa, but they have such a resilient high acid stomach. And they're built differently. And so they can eat that way. And even if they were to get a bad dose of, let's say, E.coli or Salmonila, they get like malaise for like a day, a healthy dog. Um, maybe flu-l like symptoms maybe. But I've never had that with my dogs. And so you just keep them healthy by rotating their proteins, rotating their diets, keeping them on really good quality food and their what happens is their immune system goes up and their resilience goes up and like you don't have all these crazy issues that everybody has. You don't have these ear issues all the time where you know paw licking and rashes and all this stuff you know. So, first and foremost, I want to say, look, um, nobody needs to be guilted into anything, you know, and what you feed is what you feed, okay? And if you want to learn how to feed raw, go feed raw, okay? I think it's the pinnacle. However, if you can't afford it, I get it. And just know that I'm not selling Gussy's gut as a fix to any bad diet. Whatever your diet is, if you're if you have a bad diet, we can't fix it. But we can help and we can help support the gut. And also know that, you know, that thing you may want to cure, it may be food that cures it, you know, and even though our product is 100% foodbased, it's like it may not be enough, you know? Like we get we get questions all the time like can this fix my dog's you know, chewing his paws and like raw like I don't know if the cause is his gut we might be able to we might have a chance but I can't promise it you know I mean it's like um you know until you meet a dog like you know people say well my dog does this thing and you're like well there could be a hundred maybe a thousand reasons why they do that thing you know so same thing for us It's, you know, what's the medical history, what's the genetic history, what's the epigenetic history, what are you feeding? Um, you know, some dogs are rescued and they've been in and out of shelters three or four times. They've been vaccinated three or four times in a year. Just assaulted by medications, deworming, and on and on and on. That's a lot to recover from, you know. So, you really have to invest in that dog if you really want to get that dog right. So I would say that you know for us we we play this small role in gut health and wellness and it just so happens that when you address the gut properly a lot of really cool magical things start to happen and resolve and we don't know what that'll be for your dog. Um we just what we say is give us 90 days because it takes about 90 days for almost anything to work. It'll take 90 days for you to respond to your grass-fed beef, you know, for what you're feeding. I know you're you just went through this with your son, you know, changing his diet up. It takes about 90 days. And that's why you look if you look at any of these diets on Mediterranean diet, this and that and the other. They're all like 90-day diets. Uh a juice cleanse is 90 days. There's reasons for this. It's just 90 days.

There's a couple things that vets have told me in confidence, and I'll only reveal these two things because it's not a big deal. Um, but it's very interesting when you know the best vets in the world, what they tell you like over a 3-hour breakfast or dinner. You know, I'm sure you've seen this in your life. It's, you know, it's very, very interesting. And you have these really frank conversations. And two things they've told me is people don't give the right things enough time. Number one, they're switch they're, you know, switching just grasping at straws trying to do take action and you know, but they're not giving things enough time. That's number one. Number two is they don't realize that 30% of all dogs respond great to anything. I mean, it doesn't matter what you put pretty much a good quality product. 30% so 30% have no response at all. So, it's maybe it's 33. Okay. So the math works out. But that is really the general rule. And it makes sense. I mean, because again, you can't it's statistics at the end of the day. You can't really be sure like where the history of this dog is and their age. I mean, just their age alone is one thing. Their breed is another. And then of course like that other stuff, their medical history, their diet history, all that stuff. Yeah.

So, when in your product what is what is in there? And you said is kale and things like that.

Oh yeah. So all plant Yeah. So daily is um is a about 19 superfoods but in one of them is uh keir. We use that for like what we call a wild fermentation. So we use uh Redmond's real salt and kefir and we, you know, ferment the old-fashioned way. For thousands of years people have been doing it. So we don't do anything special. I say we what we do is we do what we do at a very high level and ingredients are quality as well. Quality. Yeah. Quality. So you know you've got you know when you buy a supplement uh there is the sourcing of that supplement. There is the extraction of that thing and then there is the processing of that and then the um maybe purification or refinement of it. There's a lot of steps. There's a lot of filters there. Yeah. And so the more steps you go through, the more you have to pay attention to. It's, you know, most people don't know like uh glucosamine for example, you can get glucosamine from like, you know, oyster shells and, you know, you can get zinc from um muscles and, you know, other things. So there's food sources of those things. But what the companies have figured out is well, we can process like algae or, you know, bacteras or um petroleum to make things. You know, I mean, most of the caffeine drinks, I don't know if you know this, most of the caffeine we drink, um, it's petroleum derived. Like, it's crazy, you know? So, you not coffee though, right? No, coffee is, you know, you mean like the the the uh the actual like like the monsters and the Red Bulls type things. I mean, yeah, I wouldn't want to name any names, but you know, most of the the caffeine ingredient comes from petroleum derived. And um most of the ways that that you can make these things are very clever. You you take a petroleum based product and you add um you put in a in a like a you add you hire a microbiologist and then there's a process to consume um what's in the petroleum ingredient and then the byproduct of it is this thing maybe caffeine. It's really interesting. Yeah. Then they're then they're putting it into other drinks. Is that what you mean? They're just that little tiny piece putting that into flavor uh, you know, flavors. Yeah. right with with uh club soda basically. Yeah. Yeah. And it's great and it's economical so the companies can buy caffeine affordably and you know um you don't have like with actual coffee beans. You got to grow those suckers and you got to pay people well to you know all that stuff and you know and then you got to um roast them and then you got to ship them. They have a weight. I mean there's all all that stuff but not so much with petroleum and we have a lot of petroleum byproducts. We want to get rid of them. So you don't want to just throw that away. You want to monetize that whole cycle. So that's what companies do. They they find ways to monetize whole cycle. I mean this is exa exactly what we're finding out about fluoride. So they're selling it to municipalities. They put them in the water and it's a it's a sellable product. But it's a byproduct of, you know, one of the one of the ways you can make it is a byproduct of aluminum production. Didn't uh what was a state in the United States that just banned it? They just banned uh fluoride drinking water. Yeah, you're right. Uh that was brand new. Yeah, it just came out. They they banned fluoride and drinking water now, which makes total sense. Yeah.

So, Gussy's gut I I use it with my dogs and I don't use it every day. I use it like a couple times a week. Mhm. And then I'll add like the kefir in sometimes. Y and that that's the thing, man, is I I don't know like what what should I be doing? Like if if I'm just a dog owner who has dogs and there's nothing necessarily there's no symptoms of things. It's But again, it's like me when I take my supplements. Yeah. I definitely notice a difference over time when I do take supplements. Yeah. and and boost my immune system and take the B's and the C's and the D's and the all the things, right? But like for dogs, I mean, what what can we be doing? I I know that you're saying, "Okay, we have this Gussy Scott product. It's all these superfoods. It's fermented. It's good for them." What else what else is going on? Like I mean talk to me about like the what I'm interested in is the kibble industry and now the raw food industry becoming very popular and now there's this what I'm seeing online like I posted I get you know I'm a what we would consider a balanced dog trainer right so I believe in balance and believe when dogs are good we tell them that they're good and when they do something that's going to cost them their life or hurt somebody else I tell them that it's wrong so to me that you know that's subjective I guess but you know that's just how so my point is is I get more [ __ ] for posting things about what I feed my dogs. Wow. Than how I train my dogs. Maybe because I'm an expert in dog training and I've dedicated the last 13 years of it. You know, I know a lot about it and I can back up with evidence. But then when I post like, hey, this is what I fe because pe because people ask me all the time, Tom, what leash do you use? Oh, I made my own leash. What treat pouch do you use? I made my own treat pouch. What treats do you use? Here's the nubs. Like, I've I've curated this catalog of if you want what I'm using because I'm an expert and this is what I use because it's the best thing right now for this dog. Yeah. So, when I posted the raw thing, like there was this other day, this this one girl, I try not to read comments too much, but sometimes I know for like raw food, I like I'm like, who's what's it going to be? What comment is it going to be? And this one girl is like I I stay I stay in my lane. and I'm not a trainer. I don't tell you how to train, but you're not a nutritionist, so don't tell people how to or what's good for their dogs and what's not. And what she really had a hard time with was I just said processed, highly processed food's garbage. And she couldn't take that. She's like, no, it's not true. And I'm like, well, to each his own. Like I I think that the highly processed food that we would eat the McDonald's that that is processed so much. There's a hundred ingredients in a slice of cheese for a pro, you know, something like that, right? So it's so I'm just out here on this world and again I'm not a nutritionist and I'm not an expert in nutrition, but I do know as a human that if we have a product that is is not processed, right? So, it's not cooked. It's not broken down. It's not steamed. It's not rolled around and die. It's not added dye. It's not baked at 400°. It's just there's an animal that was living. It was now harvested for production of meat. And now I'm going to take that liver and it's going to be divided up. And then I'm going to take a little bit of the lung and I'm going to take some of the backbone and we're going to grind all this up. And then we're going to put it and it's never going to be cooked. It's never going to be processed. It's the only process that it is is it's combining them all together. Yeah. It's going to be flash frozen and then your dog is going to eat it at some point. Yeah. Versus the And I And again, I don't I know I I've never been to a kibble factory. I don't know where they're sourcing this stuff. I know a lot of their vitamins and minerals that they do add are from China and from other parts of the world. Yeah. Do I mean, how much do you know about that stuff? I mean, what is what's going on?

Yeah. Well, like I said, uh so when I was 20, I was like 28, uh was when I got into all the digital marketing world when I got my first dog and I started that petconsumerreport.com. Um and people can look that up. Just go to archive.org. You'll see what I did. You'll see the logo that I, you know, copied of consumerreports and all that. It's a shortlived business. But, um my intentions back then were to call out the pet industry. I mean, I was really angry cuz I was just getting this puppy and I was doing all this research and um, you know, they're they were I'll just say they were okay. They've done a little bit better, but they're they're in the business to make a profit. All right? And they're in the business to make millions and millions and millions of pounds a month of food and they're in the business of convenience. And that appeals to people and great, you know, and if you want to feed kibble, feed kibble, you know, just know what you're feeding. Just know what you're doing. Um, you know, I'm not interested in getting into, you know, squirmishes and and tiffs with people. You know, my north star every day I wake up and it's to improve the lives of the dogs we serve and increase the years of the animals we serve by a million a million a million years added to the lives we serve. That's what wakes me up in the morning. That's what drives me. Um, anything outside of that is a diversion. It takes away from that goal and I won't do it for sure. Um, and surprise, you know, diet has a lot of opinions. I mean, look at all the diets we have out there, you know, look at all the experts. So, you know, if you challenge, you know, uh, you challenge somebody who's teaching the Mediterranean diet and you were to say that, you know, eating a high seafood diet, let's say, has a higher potential to have heavy metal poisoning, let's say. We are challenging those folks and they don't like it. Surprise. You know, I mean, but we have to live in a world where we can hold multiple thoughts at at the same time. Yeah. We have to live in a world where you say, well, not everything is like binary. It's not yes or no or good or bad. It's like yes and, you know, it it doesn't even have to be but. It just say yes and. And if we can do that, we if we can hold multiple thoughts at the same time and people can not be so challenged. I'm assuming people are being sincere, by the way, and they're not just trying to stir something up to get to get something viral from you, which is a little cheap. Um, but if somebody's being sincere and says, "Tom, you don't know what you're talking about." We'll just say, "Well, educate me. You know, you tell me why you think that's what it is." And if you, you know, really wanted to get in into it with them and that's fine. You know, give us your opinion. It's great. This is my opinion based on all the things I've looked at. And I just find it very it's like some not even anything I can understand that somebody tries to shut down another person and says they're better than or bigger than. It's just it goes on and on. It's going it's going on currently right now as we speak. You know, it's just Yeah. You know, it's just funny to me that somebody would say, you stop talking. Yeah. Right. That's that's what I mean is it's like a it's a I wasn't it I just think in general like when when I talk about feeding dogs raw. People are they ask me all the time, Tom, what do you you have dedicated your life to the well-being of dogs. What do you feed your dogs? Interesting. Like same same thing with like a I don't know a Gary Brea. Like what do you what do you eat for breakfast? because you've you know so much about biohacking and and and and being healthy. I'm interested. It's like not a nutritionist, but he's like, "Well, this is what I do. This works for me because I've I've invested a lot of time and energy in in health." And so or or anything else, right? It's like asking Mr. Rogers how he's so happy. You know, the the

Proof is in the pudding. Yeah. You are happy. How did you get that happy? You're you're really buff. How did you get really buff? Yep. Whatever.

So, so for me that uh you know, that's what I say it's like, "Oh, I I just feed a raw diet." And it's very simple. I feed a raw diet because I know that highly processed foods are not great for you. Yeah. Period. Yeah. And there's other reasons. We talk I talk about the podcast all the time that my my St. Bernard when he would eat four cups of kibble, he would poop out four cups of kibble. Yeah. Yeah. When he ate four pounds of raw food, he would poop out little tiny nuggets and then they do turn into dust when I touched them, you know. Yeah. I call them spent fuel rods. The the bones. Yeah. Yeah. It's like little It's like little owl pellets. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You got all that energy out of it. Yeah. They soaked all up. That was it. I don't need I don't need the why or the what. That's it. Yeah. Done. That's it.

But but that's what I mean is I think dogs have this this you're pushing buttons on on dogs harder than anything. You know, you could say um hey, I feel so much better. I lost 20 pounds because I went on this diet. Nobody would say a word, I don't think. Yeah. But if I say my dogs eat this, people want to claim what's right and what's wrong with dogs so much. They want to say, "No, no, no, no, no. I've done my." And I just tell people, it's like back in the day when we would flick through channels. Yeah. Or and now you flick through Snapchat or whatever, you just whatever you're interested in, you're like, "Oh, that's you know, but if you're not, you just keep going." Yeah. That's right. People have a hard time with that. Yeah.

But but for me, I just remember that. Do you remember that uh uh documentary that came out on Netflix called Pet Fooled? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was pretty behind the scenes if anybody's listening. Still should be on there. But it basically goes pulls the curtain of u what's in dog food and and and again there's good dog food. There's high quality dog food and and never my intention is to is to is to make people feel bad about their choices of what it is. But for me I would be like why didn't you tell me? Yeah. Why didn't you tell me that this was out there? It's, you know, I fed like Hawk, our our our staff dog. He eats kibble. We got somebody out. He he eats um from I think. Mhm. Yeah. He eats kibble. He loves it and he's fine. He's healthy. Whatever. I don't care. Yeah.

Well, there's a Dr. Marty Goldstein has a great documentary out there. I'm not sure where it plays right now, but uh that's a good one. Uh it's it's a bit old. Um highly recommend that one. Um Dr. Dr. Marty was, you know, did a a veterary show for Martha Stewart. He was Oprah's vet. He done, you know, he was quite out there and served a lot of New Yorkers. Um, and really the go-to guy. I mean, he's got a lot of really great books that people are into books. And then there's another one for regenerative called Kiss the Ground. Did you see that? Sounds That's a good one. Sounds good. It's narrated by Woody uh Harelson and it's about why the soil is so important and because we're running out of it, right? Yeah. Look, you know, we've got that issue. You know, people that are interested in the environment are would be interested to know that, you know, carbon restoration, it's all natural. The the most people think that, you know, trees are the number one way. Well, soil is actually the number one way to absorb any of the negative um the negative amounts of carbon that we we believe we want to get rid of. And it's also coming out right now. A lot of stuff is coming out about carbon as well. Um because we need it to live. So, it's very interesting. Um and and it just real back around what on what you said. So, you know, what you basically said was, you know, trust but verify, you know. So a lot of people come with distrust and they don't want to verify and I think that's really unhealthy. It doesn't serve them uh to have an open mind. I think you know when it comes to health you know we need to if this was sort of a a wheel what we know usually can be found on a pinky and what we don't know is all the other fingers and all the the bottom part of the the circle. And if you know very little about something but you don't know what you don't know it's a very dangerous place to be. if you have no humility and can't at least come from that place of like, you know, gee, tell me, you know, let me learn, you know, what what do I not know here? Um, and that's I've spent my whole life hiring the best people literally in their field in every way I can and asking them, what do I not see here? You know, what am I not seeing? What's my blind spot? I read a book a long time ago and I thought that was really interesting. And so I always even as a teenager when I'd hire great people, I'd say, "What is it I'm not seeing here?" Or another my other favorite question is, "If you were my brother or you were my sister, what would you do in this situation?" Or, "What would you advise me?" So I I ask really, I think, high quality questions that I I'm not afraid to admit what I don't know. And I get really good answers.

But people on the internet come at you and they immediately have this like you know distrust and there's contradictions everywhere. You can immediately see them. So for example, somebody will say I'm a nutritionist. Uh this food has to be I see this all the time and it's not in my business because we're a supplement company, not a food company. But, uh, in these food companies, you these poor food companies that are trying their damnedest to do a great job and make food healthier and convenient for pets. And our friend Amy at We Feed Raw is doing it at a high level and is just doing an amazing job. But they'll, you know, and all these food companies, and I know many of them, they'll I see these comments, you know, that food has to be balanced and it has to and where's your sourcing from? Do you source from China? Well, the supplements that a lot of companies have to use, and I'm talking about vitamin and mineral supplements, those come from China. Mhm. That's what I heard a lot. So, like, you know, so and so you're here you are like worried about China and one breath and the other breath you're you want a vitamin mineral supplement to balance. There's all I'm saying is what we don't understand is that we we know far less than what we know. That's and I think coming at it from that perspective is a healthy perspective for you and for your dog or cat or you know your farm, you know, any of your animals.

My cat eats raw food and it made him a it turned him into a savage. It did it like I'm not even exaggerating. He so he is now 14 and when we switched him to a raw diet, there's a company around here called Raw Organics and they make raw high quality raw food and they they have a catnugget that they make which are little like um 2 oz nuggets to make it easy. Mhm. And he was on uh you know Pyina Kitty Chow or whatever it is, right? like whatever, you know, the big orange and blue bags. Oh, yeah. With the little cat in the front hitting the hitting the fish, you know, just beautiful marketing. Oh, yeah. But it's food colored sweet corn basically is what it is. Little chicklets. So, he was obsessed with that. Like would would just love that. Just get it. Go crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

So, when we tried to switch him to a raw diet, cuz the dogs were on raw and I knew I was like, well, if I can switch my cat to a raw diet, he'd probably live a a healthier, longer life, I would assume. So, we switched them and and who know, you know, who know I I also had cats that live 18 years old with on a kibble diet, whatever. It's just I had dogs that lived to 14 on kibble their whole life. Yeah. And it may be just how you feel, too. And we'll never really know how dog they wake up. You go, "Hey, you feeling all right?" They're like, "I'm a dog. I'm always happy." Who knows? Whatever. So, or I'm a cat. I'm always pissed off. I don't know. So, I had So, when we switched him to raw, we put the raw in the dish and he would he would turn it away. Turn his nose up to it for days. Turn his nose up. No, I'm not. Where's the good [ __ ] You know, where's the Skittles? Where's Where's the crack? Where's the sugar? So, you know, and and so it was funny because at one point like we just fasted him. We're like, you're not you need to eat this. Trust me. Yeah. And then he started eating it and all I think jokingly my marriage suffers now because of it. Jokingly, but it's she my wife is like had it up to here with the cat because what he does now and I don't know what happened but he now understands that there's this whole new diet of raw food. And so now I've never seen a cat do this. I've never seen my own cat do this. He never did this. He will get on a counter and take the food off your plate. He'll just he'll just you're just sitting there and he'll come up and just be like, "Right." Or we have two young boys and you know when they're done with their dinner or whatever and it's it's a it's a circus at night, whoever has kids can relate. It's like you're doing the bath time and they're brushing the teeth and you got it's crazy, right? Which is good, you know? It's fun. Yeah. But then the cat's like gets on, takes the mac and cheese, takes this, takes that. He He turned into a savage the other day. Wow. I defrosted a uh this is how bad it is. I defrosted like a sirloin steak that we got at the farmers market. Everything was frozen. We put it So, I put it in the sink and I just left it in there. And then the next morning, I came out and it's ripped up. There's blood everywhere. He's like bloated in the corner. Oh, boy. He will he will he'll open a bag of like the nubs. Yeah. I can't leave those out. Whoa. He'll open he'll he'll claw that bag open and eat the beef liver. He is I don't know what happened to him. Did he get any fatter? No. He's still healthy. Yeah. Like he does not overweight, he'll get he'll he will like you'd leave to go to the bathroom and come back and he's eating your breakfast. So now what we tell the kids is, you know, if they're like I got to go pee and we're like, "All right." So I take their plate, I put it in the microw I have to put it in the microwave and shut it to bring him. That's how much of a savage he is. Whoa. You need those those uh like fancy chef uh like for room service. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Like the little tin things. We And I used to I did a uh I did like a one of those um electric mats when you step on it and it he didn't give a [ __ ] He just didn't care. And I was trying because it was so bad. Yeah. Like he would it got to a point where we couldn't have food out cuz he would just get into So I don't It's like you tapped into primal. Exactly. I tapped into this like his It's interesting because we're talking about diets and I tapped into something into this cat that I've never heard of or seen or experienced. As soon as we started giving him raw, he turned into a different animal. Yeah. Which is crazy like mentally. And he's he acts like and I'm not around a ton of cats obviously. I'm a dog person, but he acts like a kitten. Like I I c like in the morning you would have thought he'd never eaten. He's sitting there going just constantly and I'm like, Jesus, this cat is nuts. Same thing at night for dinner. He's sitting. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's 14. And he'll just sit there and he'll just hit you. He just wants to be fed. And it it was this very, very, very, very sudden shift. The moment he started eating raw food, he turned into a completely different cat. All he wanted to do, he was almost pissed off. He's like, "Where's this been?" And now he can't stop. Yeah. Yeah. He ate a whole That's tough. Uh that's nothing disruptive squirt bottles. Oh yeah. No. Yelling at him. Yeah. He's like, "There's a steak." And this morning he did it this morning. He did it this morning. He got into something. I can't remember what it was. And I'll chase him off the counter. He'll bring it with him. He jumped off the counter and he'll go hide and he'll eat and then the dogs are chasing. It's Oh, wow. Wow. It's so funny. Really funny. It's so funny cuz I have like this most out of control cat, you know, and my dogs are super obedient and normally it's the other way around. The cat doesn't really bother with anybody. They're just kind of solo, you know, on their own and whatever. And this cat is just Did you bring the cat into the marriage or what? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of like this running joke like anybody who's like, "Man, your cat," my wife Taylor, she's like, "You can have him. You come home." She'll go out and get the carrier. You can have him. He is brutal, man. He he will and there's there's just times where she my wife won't even say anything cuz I just come home and I just know he did something cuz and and then it'll be like dinner or dessert or something and he's just been he doesn't care dude. He he gets into it. He's also a killer. So when so in the summer like any other cat like any other cat he kill he's a killer and he loves to just kill and he'll eat whole chipmunks and Yeah. And it's it's just an interesting because cats if you give them an opportunity to eat instinctually they will rabbits, chipmunks. Yeah. Not too many squirrels, but for me it was my cat will just kill a chipmunk and eat it whole. Yeah. And lizards. That's that's way by the way. Um, if my wife wakes up and sees like a regurgitated squirrel or something on the couch, that's not good. So, my wife and my cat are like, "Oh, yeah." Couldn't tell. It's like it's it's an ongoing thing in my whole like family and household because they're all like, "Oh, did you tell Taylor?" And I'm like, you know, scrubbing up like a Yeah, cats are But and anyway, yeah, I think dogs do too. They will they will primally kill things and and eat them uh if if given the opportunity, which is we talked about this the other day in one of my videos. dog owners, what do they what do we call a anthropomorphism? Oh, anthrop. Anthropomorphism. It's such a long ass word for say, but anthropomorphism. They have this idea that dogs are this and they are this cute like Gus is here. This cute uh dog and you know, they got these little puppy dog. Yeah. Like a character off Disney. Yeah. And you know, and then they'll just turn into savages and start killing things and it's like whoa. Like we I I follow this girl and uh she lives out in the country and she she lives on a a ranch, cattle ranch, and they have I can't remember the breed of the dog. Like big, you know, um hurting Mhm. Yeah. Uh type dogs and they kill coyotes like all day long. Oh yeah. Like so she'll take a video and the dog would just be sitting there wagging his tail just covered in blood. Just covered in blood. Yeah. And uh she say, "Oh, he you know," and she'd go out and she'd blur the coyote, but they just they just kill coyotes for fun. And they're and and so I get into that a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're they're getting into fights. I saw my algorithm's kind of crazy right now on social media, but I just saw this three dogs fighting a grizzly bear. Which was like heart-wrenching because I'm like, how does how does this even how is the dog still alive? Yeah. They were just attacking the grizzly bear and the grizzly bear is like Anyway. Yep. And I was I was actually thinking making breakfast this morning. I'm like, I should have reposted that video. I try not to post things like that because to me it's kind of like it makes my heart drop. I'm like, I hate seeing dogs like under Yeah. You know, like the videos of like dogs near water with sharks and alligators. Yeah. I know. I It's hard for me to watch. But I was thinking I may like maybe I should have shared that because people just think dogs are they're savages. Like they're absolute savages. I saw another video. Again, it's probably how I got in the bear video is the dog chasing the mountain line. It's kind of a famous video. Mountain lion's just sitting there hissing like this. This gigantic powerful mountain lion. This dog's running them down. I'm like, that thing sleeps with you. Yeah.

Cats are assassins. They're sharpshooters. They're, you know, they're usually independent and dogs are usually in packs doing those things. Um, there's a study that just came out about um dogs that are fixed versus not fixed. What is it? Tell me uh what's the study like? What's it? You're going to you're going to tell me probably. Oh yeah. Well, Dr. Karen Becker just posted it and it basically says like we thought that dogs that got that were left unfixed. And Gus is intact. Yeah. And you could see how calm he is. And you know, he's been this way his whole life. Very easily trained. No aggression. He He's incredibly ball driven and no He'll drop the ball, let a dog, any dog take his ball, no nothing. Lab lab life. Lab life. Yeah. And um he he he was my first dog that was intact. Um my vet was suggesting it kind of quietly, calmly, and we have like a super tight personal relationship. He can trust me. I can trust him. And he was just like, "You may want to be thinking about it for this guy. you know it, you know, he'll get all of his keep all of his hormones and that's the that's keeping keeping him intact. Keep him intact. Yeah. And then he said to me the bones become or the the cartilage and the all the connective tissue all that it becomes more brittle and they have ACL tears and all that stuff all the things that big dogs usually have when they're fixed a lot more easily. So when they don't those become those are supple. Well, I'll show you his I can bend his Gus's he's 8 years old. I can bend it all the way so it touches his forearm. I can't do it. But, you know, he's got the flexibility of a puppy. Only puppies have that. And then they lose it over time. It's cuz we fix them. And so, they don't have all of the um benefits of the hormones. The hormones are the the the life force uh that keep us feeling good and like loose and wonderful. And we lose those over time anyway. Um, but he has all the benefits of that. Now the the big thing for me is that for fix the study shows that when you don't fix a dog they become they can become um they can run away and go breed some other you know dog in heat. That's possible certainly with certain breeds and you know this all too well but the the truth is now we're finding out that dogs are can actually be more aggressive when they're fixed. The study shows that. So you can go to Dr. Karen Becker's social media. she just posted it and go find that study and it's just funny. It's just like what we again it's that what we don't we don't know what we don't know and sometimes what we think we know at the time I mean how many how many studies have come out that said one thing and then 5 10 years later they're completely different you know it's if anybody needs proof of that you're just not reading you're not or you're not paying any attention yeah or what we find a lot in the dog industry is just what we find in the human uh organizations and and corporations is just funding Yeah. Who's like the American Heart Association is funded by like McDonald's and Pepsi and Coke. Yeah. So, yeah. There's been Harvard Harvard uh Harvard research papers have been funded by I think it was a cholesterol Yep. Uh uh scientific breakdown and it was funded. They said, "Hey, here's some money. Harvard put this out for us. Thank you." Yeah, we're we're Yeah, we we just found out pretty recently like, you know, saturated fat was demonized and sugar was Yeah. Yeah. was it was the sugar industry and all of that. Yeah.

Oh, dude. I have I don't I might have thrown them away. There's these snacks. These I'll have to show them to you, but I've been eating the I'm addicted to them. They're like uh just grass-fed beef. They're called something snacks. Oh, the jerky. But it's not jerky. Yes. Yes. But it says in the bag it's not jerky. Oh, it's pretty much jerky, but it's like really thinly sliced steaks and ribe eyes, and all it is is grass-fed beef and salt, and they they crisp. They're like chips. Yeah. Yeah. It's out of Austin. I've been going crazy on those. I'm trying to remember the name of that. I ate them on the way. So, I ate a smoothie on the way here and then I'll eat that. So, I'm kind of like, well, I'm eating a steak and something snacks. Carnivore snacks maybe or something. Yeah, it's carnivore. It's carnivore snacks. Yeah, that's the red one. Austin. So good. Yeah. Yeah. I immediately ordered more. Uhhuh. And I was like, I tell my wife, you got to try these. And I she came in today. She was snacking on them cuz she came in. I had a I started training this morning and uh she came in and the boys ate lunch. But anyway, and they're satisfying. So good. So good. So they have ribeye. Yeah, ribeye. There's ribeye in New York State, the strip, and they're they're incredible. That's making my mouth water. Yeah, they're really good. They're really good.

What do you What do you think? And this isn't a yes or no question. This is just in your opinion because you you have a a background in dogs, let's say, in the business side and behind the scenes and obviously you're a dog owner. What do you think the biggest problem is with veterinarians? And I've asked I've asked veterinarians this and I've asked people such as yourself, too. Mhm. What do you think the biggest problem is when dog owners are going to the vet and you know they say like, "Oh, we're on a raw diet." Like what do you think the problem with with veterinarians right now with raw diet? Lack of understanding. That's all. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, you'll go to what you believe and if you're selling food because the the the big pet food companies, um, you know, there's a they're funding these big pet clinics and more and more clinics are getting absorbed by these big companies like Mars. Mars. Yeah. And so, um, they're buying up like mom and pop veterary and they they keep the name so you don't know. You think it's still, you know, Yeah. Jack and Jill's. Jack and Jill. Yeah. Right. Small animal vet. Yeah. And so um those the food goes in and they and it makes a good deal of money. It brings people back into the clinic. The clinic can remind you that you have an appointment or you need to get new vaccines or whatever, whatever. And you know, so I go to great holistic vets um that are pragmatic that believe in traditional things when needed, but they're very very they they can discern between this, you know, they have a wide tool belt. So this needs this tool, this needs this tool. So they don't always go back to like, you know, well, you always feed kibble and you always do this and you always do that. So people just naturally go back to what they know. And then people are also reticent to admit when they're wrong. So if you've been, you know, promoting X for a long period of time, it's very unusual that you're going to Is he drifting over to you? Yeah, he's good. That's Gus drifting under the table. Um, so yeah, you know, it's it's when you when you're explaining it and people are hearing it, people go, "That can't be like that's love animals." Like they they wouldn't do that, you know? But it's human nature. It's just very very simple. People are less interested in seeing what they've been doing wrong. Just, you know, it's just a natural thing and they're not even doing it consciously. Um, it's also the education that they're getting too. Yeah. Or lack thereof, right? Yeah. I mean, you know, the big industries buy the stethoscopes at the veterary schools. I mean, you know, doc again, Dr. Marty Goldstein, good friend, great guy. Um, he's going to his alma mater and, you know, he is trying to change the way they do veterary school, you know. So, yeah. Um, it's it's you're you're up against a big machine. The machine's very big and the machine did a great job in building the machine. Same thing with people. Yeah. The that's what I've been learning and this is just my own preference, my own experience in my own way of life uh in my in my in my life uh so far is just understand. I'm like, wait, it kind of seems that traditional doctors are treating symptoms. They're not being proactive. They're not saying, you know, I go to So now I go to a a naturopath doctor and we do um basically a tighter test really. We're pulling blood and we're seeing what's deficient, what's not. I did the Dutch I do a Dutch test every year. Uh we do methyl genetic methylation tests. I mean, we do everything to just see how things are working, how things are moving to prevent me from getting into the hospital and then getting sick and then staying on this thing. And it just seems the the more I look at the system, that's how it's set up. It's the same thing with dogs is, you know, you know, here's here's uh this vaccine that your dog probably doesn't need. More likely doesn't need. We had a vet on I think the last podcast. Oh, yeah. I watched that. Yeah. And she was like, I didn't my dog I titered my dog for like eight years before I needed another vaccine. And that would have been eight times the amount of vaccine that the dog needed. Yeah. Which is like kind of scary. Yeah. So, it's like the That's what I've been realizing. And it's like it almost seems like I don't want to say doctors, you know, I I have friends that are doctors and my my mom's been a nurse her whole life. They're they're they're in it for the right reasons, but the system the whole system that's set up for the money is not necessarily for, you know, the patient. That's why they make those um those medication uh commercials like people having the fun and it's like this also may kill you and it also may make your head explode. Yeah. Right. It's like diary, but we're sitting here having beers and it's like, okay, the weirdest. Anyway, man, it's just like I'm, you know, just as a human trying to navigate this world. That's why I like talking about nutrition and health because I am every day my mouth is get dropped. I'm like, what that happened? And like even again, even like finding out that you would like I don't trust Harvard anymore. I don't trust I don't trust these these I don't trust science anymore because it's like where's is it real science is it getting funded is and the veterinarian when she was here she's like it happens all the time in our industry like a big company will come in and hire these schools or these these these organizations to run studies to better their brand and then they'll come out. Yeah. And it's like that it makes me really skeptical now as a human to be like what who do I what do I trust? Yeah.

I mean, you know, I I have a different take on it. I mean, I think like like, you know, I think this probably maybe what you meant. Tell me if if I'm right, it's not so much that science is the problem. It's the statistics and the people creating studies and what the studies are looking for and what they're what they're able to um to produce in a study, you know, at the end, what the goal is. Um, what's that expression? you know, there are um there are liars who are damn liars and there are statistics or something like that. Did you ever hear that? No. Oh yeah. So and there's a you know you can you can do a study and provide a set of statistics that can say anything. So yes. So that that's that's what I was referring to is it it you know we see that oh my god and I'm I wasn't even talking about in the dog space necessarily but we see that all the time in the in the dog world where an organization will come out with a set of it'll say science says this and you look at it and it's actually just polls bunch of polls from the same organization and they say oh science and I'm like that's not you know it's really deceiving. Yeah, I mean for us, you know, at Gussy's Gut, we we've looked at the opportunity to do studies and we there's a lot of reasons why we so far haven't and they're expensive. Number one, uh we don't want to put dogs necessarily in a study um the way that most companies want to do the studies. It's very if you want to do it really well, it's harder than you think. And we're just we're doing fermented foods. It's been around for thousands of years. It works. And again, we're not trying to invent anything new. We're just trying to do it at a really high level, starting from sourcing to the way we make it and package it. Yeah. So, if we do that, we let the magic of fermentation do what it does and it's done for thousands of years. And we don't have to micromanage that part. Like there's no manipulation there. We just have to make sure we make something great. Yeah. That's it.

What What do you think people What What can dog owners do that? What supplements can dog owners do to, you know, because you could look at the average person, especially living here in New York State, upstate New York, it's like you probably need vitamin D and there's not enough sunlight. Like what are what could the average dog owner start supplementing and and doing and or maybe how can an average per should an average person do a test on what a dog is deficient in? How do how do you navigate that? What's your suggestion on that? I mean, you know, if you have a dog, like I have my dogs from puppies and I know them. I know their life and I know um pretty much everything about them. So, but if you don't, uh that's a different story. You might want to get some blood tests and and just see what they're deficient in, but honestly, it's really not that big a deal because it takes a couple years to be really deficient where you're in big trouble. Um, you you can feed really high quality food like we talked about and get food sourced nutrients and micronutrients. Um, having a dog go out and play with a ball if you have a ball dog, that ball running around in the dirt, that's those are a form of probiotics and so are streams. They run through the ocean, wherever you live. Honestly, the air has trillions of microbes in the air. So, you get natural probiotics. The the thing that most people aren't doing well enough is the diet portion so that the terrain health of the gut and the diversity is is sustained and and maintained because what you want is your dog goes out and plays with the ball. The good microbes get in, the bad ones are kept out. That's the goal. That's it. And they can get all of their probiotics from bushes and sniffing a dog's butt and eating dirt. truly, you know, the question is, can they hang on to them? You know, is the is the gut welcoming the good guys and keeping the bad guys out? And that's where our product can come in. That's where, you know, probiotic supplementation's great for, you know, more acute issues or diarrhea, chronic diarrhea. Some dogs, a lot of dogs have that. And probiotics are good for that. But probiotics will not give you gut diversity because there's only a limited range, Tom, in what could be made in a laboratory and sold. Very limited range. You've got at least that we know of 500 species, 500 um good microbes and a thousand subspecies that we know of in a dog's gut. You will never find those on a store shelf. you'll find a handful of those, a very small sliver of those. So, it just is simple sense that you'll not be able to create balance or diversity quote unquote in gut from a from a store-bought probiotic. You do that from the environment and keeping the gut terrain, the lining of the gut really healthy so that it can actually be hospitable to good microbes and keep bad ones out. And so, you know, to answer to your question, sorry, I'm just going off on a quick tangent, but but it's really good food. And even if you're feeding kibble, throw in some different organs, some heart here and there, some liver. You don't have any, you don't have to dose anything. Look, feed your dog more. If you can't 100% feed your dog more like you feed your kids or yourself. None of us eat by spreadsheet or formulation calculator or you know except that guy except that guy on Netflix. Oh, that dude try not to die or something. I think he does do that. Yeah. No, is that the is that the um Yeah. Is that the one with the Ryan Johnson or something like that? Yeah, he's trip. It's the try not to or what is it? Abby is like try not to die or something where he don't die. Yeah. Don't die. Anyway, that guy probably does live on a spreadsheet, but normally people don't. Yeah. And and so, you know, we we managed to live into our 90s. The people who live into their 90s and even the people who live in past 100, they're not living on spreadsheets, right? For sure. And they're eating a diverse range of nutrients. And so, what the good news about food derived supplements is the body is more intelligent with those. So, it knows when it's not made in a laboratory, the the body knows, you know what, I'm going to take from this thing. Let's pretend it's um a carrot. I'm going to take the beta carotene I need today and I'm going to store the rest. So, when on a rainy day, I'll be able to pull it out and use it. And the rest of the stuff I'm just going to poop out, pee and poop out. And so, it's very intelligent. But when you take something synthetic and you know it's made in a laboratory and those are a lot of different supplements you h you don't have the body doesn't recognize it and so it you you're like for example on a beta carotene or vitamin A supplement you can overdose you really can't overdose on carrots I mean you'll your dog will have diarrhea you know because it just has too much carrots and fiber but it it is more intelligent with the carrots as opposed to the supplement of betaarotene or vitamin

What's a what would you what would you say like a complete something I've been reading is like you need a complete raw diet from my understanding that would be vitamins, minerals, bone, organ muscle meat. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. I mean, uh, whenever I I just got like cringe every time I hear complete because usually it's complete imbalance. And that was created by the the the um, uh, processed food industry, let's say. And basically what that's taught us is you don't know how to feed your dog. You don't know anything about feeding your dog. Feed our thing and you'll be fine. And so it's just kind of got it's gotten us to just go, "Oh, I don't know what I'm doing and I'm just going to buy this thing and it's binary, so I'm I'm either safe or I'm not safe." Then the popularization of raw came out. And that was, you know, Dr. Billinghurst, if you anybody Googles him, he's considered the father of raw feeding. He's been doing it saying the same thing in all of his books and for 40 years. Over 40 years. got to get him on the pod. Yeah, he's great. And he just says, "Look, um, you'll achieve balance or perfection over time." So, when I heard that 25 years ago, that landed on me for some reason. It landed on me and I felt okay. And I cuz I was a victim of like, "Oh my gosh, how do I do this? This is a Yeah, it's a different species." Yeah. You know, and that's normal. And so what he what he taught me is first of all breathe. You're going to be fine. And you're going to feed something today that he needs, tomorrow that he needs, the next day that he needs, the next day he needs. And over time, you're going to have perfection. You don't have to. There's no perfect balance every single day. In fact, he even recommends you don't feed your dog at exactly the same time because where in nature does that ever happen, right? So the body's not used to it. And it never gets a square four every day, right? Like it never gets your your boys don't get a a perfect four. There's just like it doesn't exist. So we're we're reaching for something that's completely um it's honestly it's impossible. Plus I can even top that. The Chihuahua, what the Chihuahua needs here in New York is different than what the Chihuahua needs in Colorado, than what the Chihuahua needs in in Franklin, Tennessee, etc., etc. The microbiome of all those dogs is completely different. In fact, the microbiome of the dog down the street from you, even if they were brother and sister uh or sister and sister, they would be different because of where they live. Literally, it's that specific. So, there's no one no one dog, no one uh format, no one standard. And so, that's what we're doing. We're standardizing things so that it's marketable and it's easy to sell. Love it. And it's and it's something that so for the Gussy's got it's for people who are listening it's like a it's a bag and it's I don't want to say it's a powder it's a l it almost looks like loose leaf tea there's all these different things and there's a bunch of stuff going on and so what I do is I think I take a tablespoon and I put it in and then I mix it around and sometimes I'll do a little bone broth sometimes I'll do a little kefir sometimes I'll do uh the a lot of times the we feed raw will have like the blood depends on the temperature Like it's funny that you say that because about uh dogs never get fed on the same time cuz for me it's like I'll feed uh my in-laws are so funny cuz they're very like you know boom boom boom yeah it's like anal about stuff. They're like yeah this is when dinner is this is when and I'll I hate your cat too. Yeah. And they're like this cat's going to freaking eat our stuff too. Yeah. No, they they what they'll do is they'll feed very on a schedule. And it's funny when they come over it'll be like 2 PM. I'm like, "Hey, can you feed Burley breakfast?" They're like, "Breakfast?" I'm like, "Yeah, he didn't eat this morning." You know, cuz life got in the way, right? We went for a run and then I had to do this call and then I had to go to jiu-jitsu and then I had to do this and the babies. And so, it's funny that you say that because that's exactly what happens all the time. Or even like today I brought in a bag and I got two packs that we feed raw and so I fed him for uh lunch and then I fed him for I put it in the That's a cooler by the way. It's not really an air. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. So he's he's always got raw food just all over the place. And so so when you put the gusty's gut in is it something that you would do every day or every other day? What do you suggest? Yeah, I mean, you know, consistency and regular um regular nested wins the day. So, you know, we say and it of course it depends on if you have a puppy you need less of what we can offer you than you would have a you know middle-aged you know or an adult you know and a older dog. um you know, it's you need very little of what we do because a little goes a long way. Um, so, you know, we say that an ounce sorry a teaspoon um of our our powder let's call it is the equivalent of about an ounce of of chopped vegetables. So it's that you know because we you know freeze dry it and and you know it's very condensed. Um, so a little goes a long way. And um, the fact that it's fermented means there's better absorption. So again, you don't need as much. Like, you know, when you have a six to 10 time absorption rate when you ferment something versus the raw, you can imagine you'd have to feed a lot more of the raw stuff to get the benefits, to get the numbers, you know, whatever those numbers may be. So, we I'm really proud of our company because, you know, we don't sell something that you need a ton of to feed and a little goes a long way and it's potent and it does its job, you know. So, consistency always works. Now, if you're in a good spot, you know, after say 90 days, you're in a really good spot, go every other day, you know, but just be consistent with it.

And what what should a what should I be looking for or a dog owner if they're trying Gussy's gut to get that probiotic and to get all those nutrients and the superfoods that we've been talking about? Like what do you look is there a way to gauge it? Is there a way to say, "Yeah, this is working." Yeah. The I mean, one of the easiest ways is the poop looks great. Like that's one of the big things we see. Yeah. And and for for people who feed kibble, what would what would like a what would that look like? Firmer. Uh, yeah. I mean, it will theoretically kibble. Kibble's hard. It depends on the type of kibble. It those Do you have a good Sorry, I'm going off topic here, but do you do you have a good kibble that you recommend? Like, is there a is there a Well, my first thought, is there a good kibble brand that puts out high quality? And the only reason why I don't know is because I don't feed kibble. It's not that I'm saying they're all garbage. They're all junk. Mhm. Um I know there's there's probably a spectrum for raw food, too. There's, you know, so do you know any? No, I don't. [ __ ] I don't make it my business. I don't know much about it. I I It's been a long time since I've been in the stores. Uh if I did look for one, um I mean, like I said, I travel with some freeze-dried raw. That's what I that's what I brought. So, uh kibble would have been convenient, but now with freeze drying, it's great. So, that's what I use. Um, anybody who's doing kibble, you can add things to it. Like you could you could do a a beautiful pasture-raised egg, just add that to it and you'll see crazy results. Like just, you know, just the difference, the delta between, you know, just the kibble and that new thing you're

Adding or a little bit of liver, or, you know, a little piece of heart, or I mean, whatever you can afford. Tongue, um, marrow from bone. Just pop out the marrow. Just natural. Yeah, we're talking about it seems like we're talking about proteins here, but it's just natural food. Yeah.

Like for us, like when I eat, I'm a big, like in the morning, I'm a big smoothie guy. I've eaten, I've had a smoothie every morning for probably the last seven years. It's just mainly because I don't have a huge appetite in the morning. So, I'm not a big, like three eggs, yeah, sausage, meat type guy.

There's days that I am, depending on where I'm at in the world. Yep. Uh, so, and the schedule too, like if I work out or I do jiu-jitsu in the morning and I come home, I'll be hungrier and I'll need that fuel. But for me, I guess my point is, is I'll eat like organic blueberries, organic peaches, organic apple, or organic, um, uh, uh, coconut water, organic avocado, and then like some, some protein. And that's what I'll eat every single morning. And then on the way down, like today, I ate the, the snacks, the carnivore snacks. So, my point is, is I need fuel because if I eat something that tastes, you know, probably better, like a, like if I ate, um, pancakes and syrup and all that stuff, like it's going to be great. I love that [ __ ]. Yeah. But then within 20 minutes, I'm going to be crashed out. Uh-huh. Or hungry again. Or, yeah. Or hungry again. It's not fuel. Yeah.

And I realized that as I matured and as my, as I took my career more seriously. So, when I would travel to a different country to do a seminar where all these people came out to see me and I was jet-lagged and I was in a different time zone and the, the water went down the different drain, you know, it's like, whoa. Yeah. I realized that that, like in the morning, I was like, I need fuel, like, you know, I. Yeah. Like I stay away from the, the, from the, the pastries and the cinnamon buns and all that stuff because when you're kids, I mean, for me anyway, my parents were like, whatever. Fuel is fuel. Cocoa Pebbles and, and, and pancakes and muffins. And that's for most people. And again, that's a whole rabbit hole. And I'm not trying to piss off 90% of the people who listen to this, but just saying, like, I definitely notice a difference when I'm eating things that are not processed and I'm eating things that are, are fuel. So, I gotta imagine it's got to be the same thing for dogs. So, when you see even working dogs, police dogs, hunting dogs, dogs that are doing like even protection work and trials and agility, these are athletes. Especially if you get like a, a Vizsla or a Border Collie or a dock diving. Like, these are machines. Yeah. We're using, we're stretching them. We're using acupuncture. We're putting, uh, wraps on them. Yeah. They're machines. Yeah. I could only imagine it's the same principles for them that if they eat, you know, something, yeah, like garbage. Yeah. I don't, I don't know. Yeah.

My friend, my friend, um, um, is working right now with, uh, pasture-raised, um, proteins, you know, cows in the military right now. And that's exactly right. I mean, if it's just all fuel and dogs utilize fat like we utilize carbs. So, they're, you know, if you put them on a ketogenic diet. I love carbs. Me too. And I, you were talking about P, your, your wife Taylor gave me, first of all, she suggested I stay in Saratoga Springs. So, which is a great town. So, it's one of the only reasons why we're still here. Oh, it's amazing. So, I, I stayed there. I've been walking town and she gave me a bunch of these crazy bakeries and stuff. She's like, "These are the place to go to." So, I looked in the window. I'm like, "Nope. I just, you know, I don't, I don't, you know, I nap for like 10 minutes. I usually do that. Like a power nap, but I don't want to have to take a nap like sugar. Oh, those pancakes killed me. You know, but I love all that stuff. Like, I love it." Yeah, that's the point, right? Sugar and flour and you, um, we went to a, there's a place in, uh, New York City called Bubbies. They also have, uh, a Bubbies in, uh, LaGuardia Airport in the Delta Terminal for JFK. And they have the best. They're sourdough, uh, pancakes. They're insane. Insane. Oh, see, I would get that if they're in Saratoga Springs. But, um, yeah, but anyway. Yeah. No, and I love sourdough bread, big time. I, I buy this, um, triple, what is it called? Like extra sour, three week. It's like, it's like triple fermented and it's super sour and it's so good. It's just great with, you know, grass-fed butter and whatever.

Is, um, Kerrygold grass-fed? Because that's what I use. Well, I used to use Kerrygold. I read something about it. I, I didn't bother looking into it. I have that. It's about the wrapper. Well, yeah, there's that, but, but, uh, that it's, it's supposedly not 100% grass-fed, and I don't know if that's true. Um, I haven't, I just haven't taken the deep dive. Instead, I just said, "I don't have time for this." And I went and bought. But is it, is it marketed? I'm going to ask Chat GPT if it is. Yeah. Yeah. Is it marketed as grass-fed? Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, you, it's, there's a distinction between 100% grass-fed and finished, right? Like same way beef. Yeah. As opposed to like, there's grain in the diet. And the difference is just the omega-sixes. That's all. It says here that according, uh, to Kerrygold, their cows graze outdoor in lush Irish pastures for the majority of the year. Majority. Yeah. Yeah. So, it, and then, yeah. They're indoors eating grain or something. But it's, it's not, you know, I'll take Kerrygold any day over, and, you know, can I just ask you? Yeah. Over lakes. Yeah. Why is grass-fed good? Okay. So, cows are amazing animals. So, they are fermentation tanks on four legs. And fermentation, if you, we haven't gotten it by the end of this podcast, is like amazing because it processes and makes available to us and our digestive systems what we're eating. It makes it more accessible. It just unlocks it. So, um, when you, when a, a cow eats grass, it's super high nutrient-dense and it processes that and puts that into the meat, into the protein. Well, into every part of it, to the milk, everything. The milk and everything. Yeah. And so, you want that. So, again, what your animal that you're eating eats matters. How that animal lived its life matters. Even if it's under stress, that matters. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I went to the grocery store recently and I saw the steaks were super red and I said, like, these are all grass-fed and I said, "Why are they super red?" And they said, "Well, I think those animals were under extreme stress." And I was like, "Oh, boy." Like, you know, I just didn't buy those steaks. I don't, I don't want that. Um, and it's adrenaline. It's all this stuff. And for example, like Wild Oak Pastures, they have, um, the corral before the slaughter, um, designed by Temp, by Temple Grandin. And so, they're super duper calm. They're humane. They're, they, they live a great life until the very end and it's just, that's it. It's quiet. Boom. It's instant and it's painless. So, that's the kind of food I want, you know. And same thing with hunting. If you, if you have a good shoot, if you have a good shot, you know, never saw it coming like one day and boom, done, lights out. So, you know, those are the most humane ways, uh, when you take an animal through stress in these pens and these machines and then they put a, you know, a, a bullet, not a bullet thing through their head. Um, and then they hear and they feel all the other angsts of the other animals right behind them, in front of them. It's just not good. Yeah.

We had Dr. Stephanie Cotti on the podcast. She is a, has a PhD in animal welfare and agriculture. So, she does, she, that's her thing. She has a PhD in it and, and, and we talked about that. Um, that's a tough, if you like animals, that's a tough job because you got to go into factory farm. Well, I don't know what she does. I can't say what she does particularly, but for most people, you have to go into like factory farming and, yuck, it's awful. But again, that's why for me, it's either, yes, we're hunting together because my, my dad owns a bunch of property in Indiana, southern Indiana, and since I was a little kid, we always harvested deer off the property. A, because you need to manage it because if not, it's going to turn bad and they're going to get diseases and they're going to, whatever. And, uh, we always ate, you know, it's like, I know what this deer was eating, where it was eating and, uh, Yep. You know, that was always part of like my life was just, you know, and it's interesting, anybody that, Yeah. Yeah. That's a whole rabbit hole, but the, um, yes, I, I totally agree with you. Back to grass-fed. Sorry. Yeah.

So, I mean, it's, it's, the people can research why, why the grass is so nutritive. You can go and Chat GPT as well, but it's really highly nutritive and, and especially when it's on a regenerative because the soil is healthier, so the grass is healthier and it's, it's a, it's a cycle that feeds itself, right? Versus grain. Oh, versus grain. Yeah. So, the grass-fed, so, there are grain-fed animals that are well, well done that they don't have high omega-sixes in them. High linoleic acid. That's, uh, so, you got three, six, and nine. You don't, you need like a little smidge of six and a little bit of nine and a lot of three, omega-3. Yeah. Grass-fed beef has high omega-3, um, and the right omega-3, and it's converted in the, the chambers of the guts of cows and the omega-6 is low and the omega-9 is low. So, it doesn't mean that all grain-fed is bad or even like finished grain finished. I mean, I eat it. It's, you know, I feed it to my dog, but I like grass-fed and I like regenerative. So, I'm supporting regenerative. It's especially on its way up. I think it's really important. It's something I can do that I think is good for the planet and human beings. And, um, and I, I just, I, I prefer to have my meat, the muscle, have been fed on grass. That's what I like. Yeah, that makes sense.

I, I, uh, when I was, I guess when I became an adult, uh, in my adult years, I had a, I had, I almost was like lactose intolerant a little bit. Not really like extreme, but if I had like ice cream, I'm just cut up. Like my stomach's all messed up and it, it's like acid reflux and it just feels like I, it's just not a good feeling. I don't feel, I feel very, very uncomfortable. Uh, but I was a, I'm a serial killer. Mhm. Love cereal. M, love cereal. I, I'm like, grew up on it. It's like my favorite snack. It's like a comfort snack. It's dessert. Yeah, it's dessert. And now we get this, uh, shoot, Rachel's something or other. It's like a really good, um, like honey, like real honey with almonds and it's kind of like a Special K mix. I get. It's like $14 a box. It's insane. But I'm like, okay, it's better for me than Froot Loops. Although Froot Loops is great. You know, like back in the day, that's what we grew up on. Anyway, love cereal. It's like my go-to snack. And, uh, I just started getting, same thing, I started getting stomach aches from the milk. And so I switched to, um, I switched to a, yeah, no. Um, A2 grass-fed milk. It's cream on top. And it is so good. It's like sweet and I can eat it without any problems. Yeah. I get no, um, I don't know what it is with other milks. Yeah. Yeah.

The A2 is, is a, like a, a genetic selection that helps with lactose intolerance. The, I just read a meme and it says something like, there is no such thing as lactose intolerance. There's, there's, um, there's a lack of ability to digest the milk protein. So, raw has the enzyme, the natural enzyme in the milk to, to digest, cuz it's not pasteurized, to say. That's right. So, when you pasteurize or homogenize or heat, um, you kill that enzyme, so it, it lacks the enzyme. So, some people have a, a tougher time breaking down that milk protein and that's what you have. I don't have that problem, but I drink raw. Can you eat ice cream? Okay. And, Oh, yeah. Yeah. You don't get stomach ache or anything? No. I love ice cream, too. It's another. I do too. That's the shitty part. Yeah. I know. I know. Yeah.

My, my, uh, son, um, we give him, like all of our kids so far, the two they did, uh, my wife would go to raw milk after breast milk. Yeah. And in New York State, uh, is difficult to get raw. You can't get in stores. You have to buy a share. Yeah. Well, you have to, yeah. You basically have to go to a farm that is licensed to sell it. Yeah. It's like a drug deal. Yep. A legal drug deal, basically. Right. Which is crazy. You got to meet, meet a guy in a corner. Yeah. Pretty much. The farmer on the corner. Um, and, and I, you know, I shouldn't say it's crazy because maybe it's because, uh, there's health reasons. I, I don't know. I don't know the reasons, but I do know that. Yeah, we, we do that, um, with the raw milk and you have to get it from a licensed agricultural farmer. Yeah. I mean, you, you obviously want somebody who's doing it the right way. They're, they're, they're in clean conditions. I mean, obviously, you know, but if you have healthy animals and a clean, uh, uh, facility to collect that, you should be fine. And, you know, I just don't, like I said, sourcing is everything. So, I pay attention to all of that part. I'm, I'm, I always pay. Know your rancher, know your farmer. You know, if you know those things and you can shake your farmer's hand and look them in the eye and you know what they're doing, you're, you're good, you know? Yeah, that's important. We all, like, we're so disconnected from our food supply. We hear this all the time, but it's true. You know, you go to the grocery store and there's some people when they, they, they survey them, they actually don't know that these come, their steak comes from a farm or ranch, like, you know, or facility. They think it comes from the store, literally, you know. Now, I'm not. So, they don't think it comes from cows. They, they just don't ever think about it. I think grocery store hitman. Yeah. So, you know, we're just completely disconnected and, and if you're a big food company, wouldn't you want it that way? You're one of the big food guys and so you think that they all, it's all coming magically from, you know, the food fairy and it's, it's not coming from a farm, but you know, if you take the time to go to a farmer's market, uh, I was just at the Franklin, Tennessee farmer's market where, where we now live and, you know, the, we brought the whole company there and the longest lines I paid attention to where the longest lines were, it was number one at the Amish egg. All she did was, they're Amish folks that sell eggs. That's it. That was the longest line. The second and third longest lines were the meat, the grass-fed meat, and the third and the fourth was vegetables. I mean, of all the things they sell, and they sell some pretty cool stuff there. Yeah. But that's the craving that people have. And so, that's a level of convenience going to a farmer's market or start going on Google Maps, just say, you know, grass-fed farms, just start looking and go, "Oh my gosh, there's like five in within 15 miles of me." Call them up. Hey, do you sell direct? Yep. You know, and you'd be surprised. It's really, really easy. And you know the story. You can go visit the cows if you want or not, but you know exactly, like you, you know the story of your food. It's really great. It's cool. It's cool to know you know the sourcing of everything. You know what they're living in, what they're eating, what environments they're in. And that's really cool. I, I have. It kind of sucks, man. Once you, once you know, you can't unknow. Yeah. I know. You know, so now I fly in all my me. I say fly in like it's some bougie thing. It's just an online. Like my dog. Is it on a private jet or? Yeah. No. No. That's it. It's kind of what it sounded like, didn't it? It's like, uh, no. So, now we, yeah. Yeah. Just a, just a steak, just seatbelt, seatbelted in. No, it's, we get it in from companies that, that will freeze it. Like when we went to, um, we did a seminar in Seattle and we went to the market there. Pike's Place, or is that what it's called? Pike's Place. Yeah. Yeah. Where Starbucks was originated. Yeah. Right there. And, uh, but they have all the fresh salmon. And I'm a huge, that's like my favorite. I love salmon. My son loves salmon. We all, we're big salmon. The Davis special at my house is salmon, white rice, and broccoli. It's like the go-to. Probably for most people, too. But that's what, that's our jam. So, we, uh, we, we had some of that and I was hooked and I was like, I can't eat anything else. So, now we, there's a, they just, if you order more than like 75 bucks, which, you know, lasts you a couple months because you're getting multiple meals, you're not eating fish every night. Yeah. They ship it to you for free to your door and it's, it's like days old versus farm because these are all wild-caught too, I should say. And, you know, versus the farm-raised and died and all that stuff. But once you know, that's the hard thing is like, once you know, like, you know, we deal with this right now with, you know, with the grandparents, we're trying to like train them. Like my son is the same thing. Like, you know, yeah, we give him cupcakes and stuff and gummy bears, but we, we really try to make sure it's, it's, it's limited where a lot of people are shoving and down goldfish and Doritos and cookies and then they go, we see it, the kids are going crazy. Yeah. You know, and people like, why is you? Why you? We, we got a compliment. We went to the dermatologist, going back to the gut, working with the gut and my son Shai's eczema, um, has been an interesting tie of the, the skin issue of the eczema was, is a direct tie of the gut. Yeah. So, we did the, the gut test. We have that whole panel. But anyway, he said, and both of my kids, were both of my, and he's like, "Are they always, is he, is he like, are they always this calm?" He said, "Yeah, because they're just so used to just, you know, all the time and they got a lot of structure." So, we have structured naps and bedtimes and anyway, you know, like dogs. Yeah. Like dogs. And that, and I, and same thing, I've, I've noticed a gigantic difference in comparison. Same thing with going out with a dog that has structure and balance. That's right.

Do you get, are you getting dragged or are you, you know, is your, you know, whatever? Yeah, that's right. So, what's, what's, what's the? So, how do you like Tennessee? Like, what's the? Oh my gosh. Um, what's it like? So, you, so, where, where were you before Colorado? Just Boulder. Yeah. Yeah. Our office was in Denver and, you know, I love Colorado. It's beautiful. Obviously, I was born there. So, um, where were you born? Springs. Okay. Uh, it's beautiful there. Um, you know, and, and, you know, I have really good roots there. I, I, uh, I ran a bunch of humane, um, animal humane, uh, initiatives for the governor there. I was, I'm, you know, very involved in the state, but I thought it was time for us to move the company over as we start to hire more people. Um, I love, you know, for this Southern California born and raised guy, like I just love Southern people and I love like the, you know, their, their work ethic is amazing. They're, they're no ma'am, yes, ma'am all the time. They're polite. They're lovely. They're, they're very positive and, um, I just, you know, I usually move someplace for the people. That's usually my big, my big thing. I think my future is going to take me into starting a regenerative farm in some way in the next, as soon as I have a little bit more extra time. But I think that's kind of where I'm going. So, my sights were, are set ahead of, you know, the next few years on that. Very cool. And, um, and it's just, it's gorgeous and it's just south of Nashville and so I have access to a big city if I need, but it's, yeah, it's quiet and it's lovely and it's small town feel and, um, I don't know. I love it. You know, it's.

How long have you been there now? Uh, it's been a couple months that we've been. Yeah. Just great. And of course, when, when a place is new, it's, it's super magical. But I know that once that, even that newness wears off, it'll be, you know, I mean, it's crazy. Like, there's just great amazing talent walking in town. You know, it's like I grew up in Los Angeles and, you know, you, you might see celebrities, but people are surrounding them and, and all the country music people live either in Franklin or just north of it and nobody bothers them and people are nice and it just, it just feels, you know, very nice and calm and lovely. Yeah, I like Tennessee. We just did a seminar right outside of Nashville. I don't know when the heck that was, but last couple, probably like three or four months ago. And it was, we go to Nashville all the time for, for work and my, my wife loves it there. And, you know, we, yeah, we, we'd love to, to go somewhere where, uh, we could, we could spread our wings a little bit because the, I think the hard thing for me coming from a small, like for travel is hard for me because we're getting opportunities all over the world now. Yeah. Sydney, London, LA, wherever. And upstate New York, you know, we have Albany and, uh, you know, we have to hub everywhere. And, yeah, it's, uh, it's just, and, and for people to get to us or whatever. Like, whenever I'm doing meetings, they're like, you know, what airport would we fly into? I'm like, Albany. They're like, or they'll say JFK or LGA. I'm like, Albany. You know, it's, it's, it's.

You should hop on the jet with your salmon. Yeah. Yeah. With my, with my strapped-in steaks. Yeah. So, it's, it's, um, yeah, it's, it's kind of, uh, it's, it's nice to have roots here, but, you know, I was born in Colorado and then we moved to Indiana and then we moved here and my wife is, and I get it. My wife is like, she's been here her whole life, her whole life. She was born here and she's like, I just want a change of scenery. I don't want to like live my whole life knowing this place, you know? Especially. But the, the good, the good thing about our, our careers is we get to travel a lot, you know, and that's what I keep telling her and reminding her. I'm like, "Yeah, but you know, just hold your, you know, just blink and we're going to be somewhere else anyway." Yeah. You know, traveling and that we kind of have that, what you were saying, is that novelty of being in a new place and it's this special moment. We kind of have that continually because we'll be in a new city every other month, you know, and sometimes every other week depending on the time of year. Yeah. And that's a really cool thing is right when we start to be like, know the streets and the restaurants and the, you know, whatever. That's the best. Yeah. You know, Abby, when she, she travels with us too and she'll find the coffee spots and, no, you know, we'll find the breakfast spots and we'll just kind of, this place is good and then before you know it, right about when we get comfortable, we're gone off to the next place and it's like the best, the best of both worlds, you know. So, yeah, that's, that's cool that you're enjoying, enjoying that.

So, um, what else, what else can you tell the people about Gussy's Gut and the things that they can do to help their dogs? Because it seems like you've, you've devoted your, your life to, um, helping dogs. You took your entrepreneurship, uh, your, your entrepreneurship, craftsmanship, and then developed it into into a company with dogs. And what are, what do you, what can people do? You know, it doesn't even have to be a health thing. Like, what are you, what are you finding through talking to people like me and other people like Amy from We Feed Raw and other dog companies that you're, you're helping out and, and, and working with? Like, what, what can people do to, to have a healthier life with their dog? Yeah, obviously it depends on who, mostly we serve folks who don't have a lot of time, a lot of extra time. So, we, we understand that and if you, you know, I started a company, uh, for and with Dr. Billinghurst called the Billinghurst Institute. Um, so instead of do, it's institute, www. um, and we teach people how to feed raw, um, so on their own and in a, in this, you know, complete and balanced way, if you want to use that term, although Dr. B does not like that term, um, but effectively. Okay. So, we have a pet parent course and we also, um, we certify people to teach that, um, to other people. So, on a consult, consultation basis, what do you, what would you call them? Like, if I got certified, what would I do? They're BRNC, uh, Billinghurst Raw Nutrition Certified. So, BRNC certified. And, um, and so we have a, a pet parent and a pet professional course. And Dr. Nick Thompson is also, um, an instructor in that, uh, program. He does a course as well, also for pet parent and also for pet professionals. So, that's very cool. We have that and then, um, and that's, uh, been a tremendous help to a lot of people and, you know, Dr. Billinghurst doesn't have a lot of time. He's retired. He still does consults, but they're costly and you get a lot more of him in the Billinghurst Institute. It's all created by him and he even hops on once a month and talks to all the students. So, you can ask him anything you want. Um, so that's that. And then, you know, uh, we're expanding our, we're coming out with a very, um, an amazing product that's for big dogs and multi-dog households. It's going to be, uh, more affordable than the first product we had come out. And we're really excited about it because it's going to be able to offer a, a suite for people to like start with our first product that has 19 ingredients, you know, really throw the kitchen sink at improving the gut in 90 days. So, that's a 90-day start. Head start. Then you can move to our new product. Well, it's somewhat new called Youthful Grasses and Sprouts. We just ferment grasses and sprouts. That's all we do. There's seven of them. And then the new formula we have coming out is going to have nine ingredients. And they're all varied and different, so you can mix and match. You can, you know, provide a variety of gut health. And so, that's what we do really well is all gut health. And we stay in that lane. And then we have a treat called Gutables. That's with Heritage Regenerative Ranch Pork. We put our own fermented blend in there. It's a small little, you know, ingredient blend and, uh, raw organic Manuka honey from New Zealand. And that's also really good for the gut, just a little bit. And so, that's our suite of services. We're a nice little small family-run company and we want to do what we do at a very high level. We don't want to go outside of gut health. And I'm working right now on launching a new company with three holistic vets that will be a little bit more on the supplement side, but at a really high level. Um, again, paying attention to that sourcing and that processing and the way we make from from the sourcing to the cap, encapsulations or the bottling of that product. So, we're hoping to set a new standard in pet supplements with that company. And that's something we'll announce, you know, this summer. Cool. Yeah, that's exciting. They're very excited about it. Yeah, that sounds good.

I, you know, I, it's something I always think about. I'm like, what? Because I take, it takes me like, you know, in the morning, it's like the AG1 and then the creatine and then the aminos and then, you know, the vitamins and it's like, and I'm like, and my dogs look, I'm like, I wonder, I've always thought about that like if there was a multivitamin, but a lot of that is is in the food that that they eat anyway. Yeah. Because that, they're animals, right? Yeah. So, um, yeah. You know, my, my first two dogs I, that I, I had as an adult, you know, I, we never, we hadn't talked about like, I, I would honestly say I was pretty traumatized when I was 16, like how quick my, like how little I had my dog. Uh, and when when that dog died, I was like, what, like how do, how can I keep this dog living longer? So, I started diving into all these books about human longevity because there wasn't at the time anything about dogs and I became super interested in that topic. So, even at the age of 17, we're talking, you know, um, 1990, you know, um, I was talking about what we're talking about now, hydrogenated oils, cuz I was reading these books, omega-sixes, um, glyphosate, you know, uh, herbicides, pesticides, all these things. I was reading about these things and, and then I was learning from, you know, like Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw. They have a, a company called Life Extension and the book was called Life Extension, really thick book. And I was not really a great reader growing up, but I was just devouring this book because it was so interesting. It was teaching how nutrients, individual nutrients could be levers and dials in your health, you know, and I like that idea, like the manipulative, like I can affect positively my change by dialing this up and bringing this down. And so, you know, I'm 53 now, so it's been a long time. And I've just been immersed in this field for not only myself, my family. I'm a, you know, I'm, I'm the annoying guy who sends all this stuff about, you know, health to all my family. Always have been. And then I brought it to my dogs. At the beginning though, I made the mistake of supplementing my puppies. And, you know, I think that I would stick that I have with Gus is I've stuck with more food as a supplement. You know, obviously a meal is a meal, but using food-based, uh, ingredients as a supplement whenever I can because that's always the best. Some vets now believe like you can create like, you know, supplement gut where you're over, you know, you're just throwing so many supplements in instead of really good quality food. Yeah. So, there's this disparity between the food giving the nutrients and these nutrients and these things are not recognized easily by the bodies. So, you know, if you look at like, uh, for example, glucosamine, you know, we've gotten away from the original origin of glucosamine and we're now figure, we've, we have figured it out, meaning scientists have figured out how to make it from other things and the body doesn't necessarily quite get it, you know, so I've gotten away from that and now I'm, you know, Gus is eight, so when he becomes like 12, 13, 14, 15, I'll probably bring in some, introduce some things that I, I think are a little bit more like targeted to whatever I'm seeing from him, whatever I think I need for him. And that could be different for every dog. So, there's not even any point in bringing it up. But, you know, I've also put my, my last two labs, Buddy and Owen, I've put them through hyperbaric. They've had IV nutrients. So, they've literally had a port in their arm for like 5 days. I take them to the vet, you know, in five days consecutively, they get a Myers cocktail and glutathione, all the stuff, all the stuff that people are getting now. And, you know, that, and I mean, laser therapy and chiropractic and acupuncture and, um, the, uh, what are those called? Um, the RF beds, the, you know, for, yeah. So, all those things that like, you know, thoroughbred horses were getting because the money's there, you know, but we're finding out it works great for dogs. I was trying to look at how you, now they're available, you know, you should create a, uh, a health institute in Franklin, just like that, where I'm sure everybody in Franklin would love that. Everybody flies down to go to the, uh, dog institute. That would be huge because that's like for me, when I go to, uh, I'm doing NAD drips and, Oh, yeah. I'm doing the, the cocktails too, just for hydration and travel and, you know, beating my body up basically of just pushing through, you know, whatever it takes and, you know, it's huge. It's like, there's tons of them and even in Saratoga, there's like five places that you can go get IV therapy and they're just popping up. Yeah. But imagine if you did a, like a dog, a dog retreat, like, uh, the place down in Austin, ways to where they're doing all the stem cells and stuff where people are flying in to to get all that really cool treatment and you'd be like the first person maybe and definitely in Tennessee that opens up a clinic specifically for dog IVs and Ky and you get all these holistic vets that would, that would be cool. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I mean, it, it would be very, like the, the hyperbaric, the reason I did hyperbaric was obviously there's lots of benefits to that. But they actually were just finding out when I started doing it that it creates stem cells. It creates it naturally. Yeah. Naturally allows the body to create stem cells. And one of my dogs, Buddy, had like a neurodegenerative issue in his back end. You know, the hind legs would kind of start sinking. Yeah. Sure. So, I'd always call him a land shark because he had to keep walking in order to not sink. You know, if he stopped walking, he just, Yeah. Um, but, you know, I did, I just, again, kitchen sink, I threw it all at him. And I mean, he'd have somebody, um, do electroacupuncture and Cairo and like, I did eim to him. I mean, this dog was like getting all kinds of stuff to keep his quality up. It's great, you know, and you sometimes, if that's what you want to do, you have to do it. And, um, and it, those things do pay off, you know. There's a lot of things you could do that aren't exactly the best first order thing to do, but if you, if you figure out what those things are and you get the right advice, you, you know, you'll, you'll get to the heart of it. Yeah.

I think it's exciting, right? Because for me, I'm just, I'm just interested in in learning more about this stuff like as I, and it's overwhelming because you go online and you listen to podcasts and you listen to people and this is new, do this and don't do that. And there's like a meme where it's like the guy's washing his fruit. Don't wash your fruit because the fluoride and then he takes out, he's like, make sure you do that. It's just like, he can't eat the fruit because all these different things and that's ridiculous. It's crazy. It's crazy. And, and that's how I feel all the time. But I'm just trying to navigate it as a human, but also, you know, do it, do it with dog people who are like doing what you're doing. You're reading these books and you're making your own, you, you've made your own company of of a superfood for the dogs, b, the gut biome. And it's just fascinating to me to see how dogs can also benefit from the things that we are now learning and we are now benefiting. Like, oh, you know, you know, I, I ate, I ate this steak the other day and I knew exactly where it came from and I knew what herd it was in. And like, that's just stuff that nobody, well, I shouldn't say that. Back in the day, that's all they had was. I, I, I made my own farm and I knew all the pigs by name and whatever. But now we're so far away from that because of fast food and processed stuff, like convenience. Yeah, man. And like the freaking airports of the. That's why like finding finding that company, Carnivore Snacks or whatever, I am like fired up because I'm like, I can pack, I'm thinking like how many I could pack in my suitcase. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I do the same thing. I do, uh, grass-fed jerky and that brand or others and, uh, dehydrated mango. That's all I bring. I'm a huge. It's funny. I'm a huge dehydrated mango guy. Yeah. It's like, that's it. Huge. What, what company? I like the Soleli. S O L E. Oh, that's what I get. Yeah. Um, that one. Uh, I love their branding. Yeah. There's a couple that, um, there's a couple that are regenerative that I'll buy. They're less tasty lately. I don't know why, but I, I just think it's what they're picking or how they're slicing it. But, um, see, my mouth is watering thinking about it. But, uh, I don't like the really sweet mango, like super, super sweet, like, or, you know, but those two things, I could basically survive on for 3 days. That's so funny. That's where I ended up, too. Yeah. And it's just easy. In my car, you'll find a package of Soleli organic mango fruit and, and you'll find like some sort of beef something. And it's funny because that's what I crave. I'm like, I want a little fruit. I want a little protein. Yeah. And I use Element. That's it. Yeah. We use, um, actually, I, we, we started off with this company. We, we started off with, um, Liquid IV, then we went to Element. Now we have, um, we have Waterboy is what it's called. Okay. So, it has, it has B in it and it has one other vitamin in it. Okay. Okay. So, it's the same sodium, I think, and it's the same electrolyte intake as Element, but it has B and something else in it. Okay. Yeah. Now, I, I use, uh, half of a package of Element. I don't need it to be a sweet. And I add in this Baja Gold salt to make it more. I like salty. Yeah. Yeah. I love salty. Yeah. And I give it to Gus, too. More salt. Cool. Rob. Yeah. It's been great, man. Uh, you want to plug anything, social medias, websites?

Well, I want to plug fermentation. So, you absolutely don't need to buy from us. You can ferment on your own. Go to a farmer's market, buy stuff, uh, that you want to give to your dog. Feed any way you want seasonally. You can ferment almost anything. And so, I just want to say, absolutely get fermentation into your dog. And you don't need a lot. So, um, if that's what you want to do, do it. And just feed raw fermented, um, you know, just put in a food processor and you'll get it done, especially if you have a lot of dogs, but if you want to come to us for that, great. You know, and, but I just want really want to, um, support like the raw food and the biologically appropriate feeding and, and that includes some small element of fermentation and bones, you know, and, um, and if, if feeding raw the right way is something you want to learn, come to Billinghurst Institute, you know, and, uh, come to our site, gussiesgut.com, and you'll learn about the new company we're launching with three vets, and that'll be a completely separate company. That's great. Thank you, man. I appreciate you coming on. Thanks for the opportunity and the invite. And, uh, for coming along, too. All right, guys. Thank you for listening. Talk to you next time. Bye bye. [Music]