November 12, 2025 • 43 mins
Is your dog chewing furniture, barking nonstop, or destroying toys in minutes?
What if they're not misbehaving—but actually asking for more? In this episode of The Dog Who Asked for More, we dive into what destructive behavior really means—and how enrichment toys designed for real dogs (like those from Soda Pup) can give your dog the outlet they need. You'll learn how training, enrichment, and even nutrition intersect in ways that help your dog feel safe, seen, and satisfied.
In this episode:
- Learn how enrichment reduces stress and curbs behavior issues
- Understand why tough toys fail—and what materials actually last
- Hear practical tips for managing picky eaters, power chewers, and anxious pups through enrichment
Hit play to discover how smarter enrichment leads to better behavior—and a happier, healthier dog.
The Dog Who Asked for More Extras:
Get a free copy of Paws, Brains, and Fun Enrichment eBookhttps://tinyurl.com/enrichmenttdwafm
Book a FREE 15-minute call with Em
https://tinyurl.com/tdwafmbooknow
Email thedogwhoaskedformore@gmail.com to get in touch with Em
Looking to BOOST your pet’s daily meal? Try PetMatRx supplements, use code FITZ20, and save! https://petmatrx.com/?ref=tdwafm
This podcast explores real-life dog behavior and training through the lens of a canine nutritionist, dog coach, and retired vet tech—diving into reactivity, dog obedience, dog health, dog food, dog habits, dog lifestyle, canine enrichment, pet enrichment, dog myths, and what it actually takes to support reactive dogs safely and calmly. Whether you’re a dog mom navigating reactivity, building the human–dog bond, choosing dog products, or just trying to create a calmer dog life with your canine, you’ll find grounded strategies to build trust, improve dog behavior, and help your dog feel safe, understood, and supported.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
What if your dog's worst destructive behavior is really a
silent plea for mental stimulation, safer outlets or
better materials? Welcome to The Dog Who Asked for
More, the podcast helping dog parents who feel stuck and
overwhelmed by their pup finallylet go of the guilt.
Learn to communicate clearly andbuild the bond you've always
(00:20):
dreamed of through a partnershipbased approach that combines
training, nutrition and enrichment instead of chasing
the quick fixes that don't actually work.
I'm em. You'll learn how soda pup turned
1 pet parents frustration into durable enrichment forward
products made in the USA. Why modern power chewer toys
(00:41):
fail and what features actually survive real dogs and how you
can use thoughtful enrichment materials and listening to give
your dog a voice beyond behaviorstruggles.
Today I'm joined by Adam and Chris Co, founders of Soda Pup,
and they specialize in tough chew toys, slow feeders, lick
mats, and enrichment systems forespecially powerful chewers
(01:04):
designed for longevity, safety and joy.
Adam, would you please tell me the story of how Soda Pup began?
I was actually working in the sporting goods industry at the
time that I started thinking about the pet industry.
We at the time had three dogs and two cats and were big animal
lovers. And honestly, I started walking
(01:24):
through pet stores more from a professional perspective than
from a private dog owner perspective.
And the thing that struck me is that it was always the same
stuff that was there. It never really changed.
After a while it was a bit boring and so I thought to
myself, could we create really functional products like the
products that were already on the shelves, but could we
(01:45):
somehow make them more interesting to the people that
are actually buying the products, which is primarily
women. In the beginning, the idea was
to create really functional products that were safe and
American made FDA compliant. But check all those boxes of if
you could have it all, what would you want?
And you would want durable toys that are safe for your dog,
(02:07):
preferably made in the USA. And if they look really cool,
that's a great benefit as well. And so we kind of started from
there and started creating the Soda U brand.
Probably the biggest difference is trying to create designs that
captivate the imagination of theof the person who's actually
doing the buying. Well, you have beautiful designs
and I am a colorful person. Anybody who knows me knows that
(02:29):
I'm a colorful person. I have rainbow.
Hair and tattoos, yeah. Exactly.
Exactly. So it's very appealing to me.
And I'm sure anybody watching can see the color behind you.
You have a variety of colors andpatterns and all kinds of
things, which just makes it. It does make it fun because when
we get involved in our dogs in Richmond, it should be fun for
(02:51):
us too. And a little bit of color never
hurt anybody, so there's nothingwrong with that.
But if you make it fun for the consumer, they're more likely to
do it, which is. Exactly.
Exactly. And then, Chris, you kind of
expanded the mission by startingyour podcast, which I was
recently a guest on. Would you tell everybody a
little bit about why you decidedto expand in that direction?
(03:14):
Well, if you had told me a year ago that I would be hosting a
podcast, I would have said you were out of your mind.
But. We.
Talked about this idea for quitea while and we were really just
wanting to expand the conversation about enrichment.
That was one aim and the other thing that we really wanted to
do was to celebrate the people that use our products.
(03:38):
Some of the people that we do have on the podcast are people
who are just out there doing enrichment day by day and doing
a really interesting and beautiful things.
So we wanted to meet those people, talk to them about their
experience and and shine a spotlight on them a little bit.
Very cool. What do you each see as your
(04:00):
role in making enrichment? My role is to build beautiful
product that get people excited about doing enrichment with
their dogs and to create a business that allows that to
happen. And I am home with the tend to
be home with the dogs more. So my role, at least personally
in our enrichment lives is to actually serve up enrichment for
(04:21):
our dogs. And then of course, as we just
talked about to try to the conversation on the Soda Pup
Enrichment Lab podcast. Many pet parents experience toys
that break in minutes. Can you tell me about maybe the
key materials or design decisions you make it soda pup
so that you can ensure products last?
(04:42):
Sure, the reality is that I don't think there's really any
such thing as an indestructible dog toy, but there are things
that you can do to improve your chances of having a long lasting
dog toy. We use a range of different
materials in our products. So if if you look at our dog
toys, the first products we madewere natural or rubber products.
And the nice thing about naturalrubber is that it's what's
(05:04):
called a cross-linked polymers. During the curing process in the
injection molding machine under high heat and pressure, the
molecules actually change. They cross link and when they
cross link then it has really great tear strength.
And so it's it's more difficult for a dog to destroy a natural
rubber dog toy. Now the thing about rubber is
that not all rubber is alike, right?
(05:26):
So we engineered compounds specifically for high tear
strength. And what that means is we have
very few fillers in the materialwhen you buy usually, and these
are generalizations, but you know, when you buy a rubber dog
toy produced in China at a really low price, you're like,
how can they afford to make a toy for this price?
(05:48):
Well, the reality is they're putting a ton of clay into the
rubber material. When you add fillers like that,
which is quite common, that means there's less natural
rubber. And if there's less natural
rubber, then there's less cross linking.
And so those products don't havethe same tear strength.
And so even though our product and and their product both look
like natural rubber, rubber, they feel the same, they don't
(06:10):
actually perform the same. It's a little bit of buyer
beware. And with soda pop, like I said,
we've engineered a really premium rubber compound and
we're all for a 30 day replacement guarantee because
we're confident that the material will hold up.
So that's the first thing. The second thing is designs have
a very big impact on the durability of a dog toy.
So for example, if you if you look at a product shaped like
(06:34):
some things you've seen before, but you know things like that,
you don't like that, which is not, it's an awesome toy.
But where dogs destroy it is on the small, small globe at the
top because they can get it in their back teeth.
And if they can get it into their back teeth, then they can
kind of saw through it because they have a lot of leverage.
For example, when we made our Snowman toy, the difference
(06:55):
between this and the other toys just showed you is that both
snowballs are the same size. And so just by a simple design,
it's very difficult for a dog toget this toy into its back teeth
to be able to destroy it. So certainly the shape, the
design of the toy has a lot to do with the durability as well
as the material. We also make nylon chew toys and
(07:17):
nylon is a very, very hard material.
So dogs can't destroy it in the same way that they can destroy a
rubber chew toy. And nylon behaves in a different
way. You actually have to engineer
the material to be softer than adog's teeth because if a dog is
really aggressive and bites downtoo hard, if your material is
too hard, then the dog will break his teeth on the toy.
(07:38):
And so you actually have to engineer the nylon material to
be softer. So the material will lose in a
battle between the dog's teeth and the material.
And so that's why the nylon toyswill fray as dogs chew on them.
And that's actually by design. That's the safety measure to
prevent the dog from damaging his teeth.
It also creates a rough, bristlysurface, which helps keep the
(08:00):
dog's teeth clean and improves their breath, gets rid of plaque
and things like that. So there's a benefit to those
materials wearing down with use.There's a lot of products in the
pet industry that are just kind of cheap and cheerful.
They get destroyed immediately. Have you ever had any issues
with dogs swallowing that nylon?No, that's never happened.
There's warnings obviously if the dog is wearing the toy down
(08:24):
to a nub, then that becomes a choking hazard.
And so it's really on the pet parent to understand when it's
time to throw that toy away. Although with most dogs, if you
look at the way that they chew abone shape, a nylon bone, most
dogs will just chew on the knuckles.
And when when they're done with the knuckles, they're not really
interested in the shaft on the toy.
So we actually designed, this isa, this is a nylon toy called
(08:50):
the Honey Bone. And we actually designed this
partly with enrichment capabilities so that you could
put food in the, in the groove. And the deep grooves were
designed specifically because dogs like texture.
And so we wanted a really heavy texture on the knuckle.
But the really interesting thingabout this toy is because we
realized that dogs weren't chewing on the shaft of the toy,
(09:11):
we actually took a lot of the weight and material out of the
shaft. You can see we kind of, it's
kind of like an i-beam construction.
Sorry, I'm geeking out on you. I'm a I'm a dog toy nerd, but
the idea was to to eliminate allthat waste because most, you
know, most dogs are going to chew the knuckles and you're
going to throw the thing away and you don't need it for
strength to that that informed the design of this product.
(09:33):
Not to mention it looks like a honey dipping stick, which fits
beautifully in our honeypot. I love that and geek out because
the people who are listening areprobably really interested in
this kind of stuff. I'm interested in this kind of
stuff. I want to know why it's designed
the way it is. But to your point, I am a big
proponent of be invested, be involved.
(09:53):
Be aware of what your dog is doing.
Pay attention. You give your dog a lick mat or
a toy or whatever because you need to get stuff done fine, but
don't just not observe what is happening because that is when
accidents happen. I worked in a veterinary clinic
for a long time. It's kind of like the classic
plush toy. You've got subscription boxes
out there that put two or three plush toys in a box and then
(10:16):
some treats. And then your dog destroys the
toys in the first couple of daysand then poops polyester for a
couple of days and then they're on to the next, on to the next
box. That's probably not so great for
your dog either. So yeah, it's important to
supervise your pet. Even if you trust the toy, you
should supervise your pet. How do you test the durability
of your toys and bowls and everything?
(10:38):
With with things like the Nile and the rubber, those have all
been tested in a lab, mostly tested for food safety.
All of our products meet FDA compliance standards.
The standard is actually a little weird.
The standard that's used is for food containers for storage.
And so the test is crazy. You put the material and some
(11:00):
very acidic solution for hours and then you heat it and you try
to get it to leach out nasty stuff.
It's so kind of over the top crazy because it's not any a
condition that these materials would actually be used in in our
products because we're not making food containers for
storage per SE, but that's the standard that's applied.
And then of the other thing, we make things and we learn, you
(11:23):
know, we try stuff and some things don't hold up and then we
discontinue them and then we're we learn and then we move on to
the next toy, try to make something that's going to last
longer. This is one of our least well
known toys, but it's one of my favorites.
This is called of the double trouble.
Now I don't know if you know thehistory of Kong, but the guy
that founded Kong, Joe Markham, he was a Volkswagen mechanic and
(11:44):
the original Kong dog toy was a suspension part from AVW
Microbus. And he had a German shepherd and
he would take the parts off off the cars and throw it out in the
yard for his dog. And he saw that his dog liked to
chew on it. So he developed a dog toy.
So that's kind of the, the, the genesis of Kong.
We have a, a work van, Ram Promaster van.
(12:05):
And I was in the parts department at my Ram dealer
getting something for the van and I saw a about a suspension
part for a pickup truck. And it helps prevent the bed of
the pickup truck from sagging when you're carrying a very
heavy load. And it looked like this.
And so except that it was cut inhalf.
And I like, huh, that's pretty interesting.
That would be a cool dog toy. And but what I like about it and
(12:26):
the reason we call it the doubletrouble is because it's, it's
wide on both ends, just like oursnowman.
And so it's very difficult for adog to get this in his back to
you. So super durable toy.
It's not as visually compelling as some of our other designs,
but very, very functional. Do your own dogs test the
(12:47):
durability of your products? Do you put them through the
ringer in your own home with your own dogs?
Yeah. And it's interesting with dogs,
they all have different preferences.
So over the years we've had somedogs that really like rubber
toys. We had a black lab named Buddy.
We lost him a couple years ago, but Buddy was a great rubber toy
tester because we adopted him asan adult and he came with
(13:09):
baggage and the way he dealt with stress was by chewing on
stuff. So he was a great rubber toy
tester, but he didn't care aboutnylon at all.
Now we have a dog named Ladybug,and Ladybug loves nylon, so
she's a good tester. But yeah, so and we've had a lot
of dogs over the years. We have Ladybug and Sugar Plum
now and Sugar Plum she's she'll use rubber treat dispensers, but
(13:32):
not to chew on only only for getting the treats.
And she's not a nylon chewer, atleast not anymore.
She's getting old and she's. Am I interested in like lick
mats? Neither of the dogs we have now
are Uber food motivated, but depending on what you put in the
lick mat you can get them interested in for at least for a
little while. What do you think?
(13:53):
Has been your biggest challenge with your own personal dogs and
putting enrichment into their daily lives?
Well, I I. Would say, I mean for me some of
it is just is planning ahead. And then again, you know, right
now in terms of food based enrichment, our dogs are not
super food motivated. And so sometimes if I'm going to
(14:14):
provide food based enrichment, Ireally have to think about it.
One of the things I've discovered with both of the dogs
that we have now is that they don't really tend to go for
things that are are frozen. And I don't know if it's the
temperature or if there's not asmuch sense or what it is.
But I've learned that I can put lick mats or stuffable toys in
(14:34):
the freezer. But if I'm going to give them to
them and have them at least be immediately interested, then I
need to, I need to take them outa little in advance and give
them a little bit of time to start to warm up.
One of the things that I have been learning about more partly
because I've had to because I can't realize so much on food
based enrichment is just other kinds of enrichment.
(14:55):
So I have become more aware of that and ways to provide that.
You know what? A lot.
Of people do in terms of food based enrichment because we all
lead busy lives as Chris mentioned take some forethought
and planning to to to be able todo this consistently in wealth.
But what a lot of people do willwill be on a Sunday night,
(15:16):
they'll mix a week's worth of, of moist food.
And then they'll have an array of devices, different slow
feeder bowls and lick mats and, and things like enrichment cups,
like the honey pot enrichment toys.
And they stuff it all and pack it all in the freezer so that
during the week when they're really on the go, they can just
kind of grab and go. That's one way to help overcome
(15:40):
the planning challenge because you, you don't have to think
about it every day. You can just think about it once
a week, the planning. Part is kind of clutch for most
people having the ability to plan for a few days or even a
week ahead of time is phenomenal.
And I like to make little treatsthat frozen treats or whatever
in like little ice cube trays and then put them all in like a
(16:02):
Pyrex dish with the lid so they don't get the frostbite on them
and things like that. That helps too because like you,
my dog, if there's if it's got freezer burn at all, he's not
eating it. He's just not.
It's OK for them to have their own preferences, especially when
it to food. And I think a lot of people
struggle with the picky eater thing.
I did for years and years and years.
(16:23):
But it really I think just comesdown to experimentation.
Like you said, figuring out whatthey like and then being
conscious of that and mixing it up for them.
Because if I had to eat the samething every single day, I would
be so bored and so mad, especially if it was kibble like
gross he land boring yuck. So I really do feel like
(16:43):
enrichment is one of those things where it gives us a
moment to give our dogs something extra and we should
absolutely take advantage of that with our.
Dogs mixing it up makes I think a big difference for them yeah
makes it harder for them to go back to to the basics.
They get a little spoiled when you start giving them freeze
dried chicken and all the other goodies that are out there now.
(17:05):
Yeah, well, it. Really requires paying some
attention, right? Especially if you've got more
than one dog or animal and, and they're not a super food
motivated is that you really have to do some experimentation
and paying attention to what's awinner and, and what's not.
And like with our sugar plum, I think I have determined that she
(17:29):
really does not like flaxseed. And so there was a brand of
peanut butter that we were usingand she would eat it and then
suddenly she just turning her nose up at peanut butter.
And I thought, what is going on?And then I realized that the,
the formulation had changed and there was flax in it.
And I've noticed there's some other treats that we have and
(17:50):
that they have flax in them. She doesn't want anything to do
with them. And so some of it's just that
kind of sussing out what are they like, what are they not
like, what maybe is affecting like I said, like the
temperature, what it's affecting, their willingness to
engage with stuff and. Food sensitivities, too.
Maybe it doesn't make her feel good when she eats that.
It could be, yeah. It could be so many different
things. But again, enrichment is one of
(18:12):
those things where we just kind of dive in with curiosity that
makes us ask those questions anddig a little bit deeper.
I want to jump back to the conversation about the rubber
compounds because it's my understanding, understanding
that you have different rubber compounds for each of your toys.
So if someone came to you and said, Adam, I have a dog that
(18:32):
does this, this and this, how would you go about recommending
which toys to give that person? So we actually.
Use two different rubber compounds. 1 is natural rubber,
which is I was describing beforeand the other is a synthetic
rubber compound that we've also developed in conjunction with a
(18:53):
the supplier and it's also engineered for high tear
strength. But in reality it's not quite as
high as the natural rubber and the properties are somewhat
different. Other other benefits to our Pub
X material 1 is that it's odor free.
Natural rubber comes with an odor that we try to mitigate in
formulation, but you can't get rid of it all together.
(19:15):
So if somebody has a real power chewer dog, I'm going to
recommend a natural rubber dog toy over one of the toys that we
make in in the pop X material. The other thing where we do use
pop X, we we're using it in things that are less chewing
specific, like the end use isn'treally hardcore chewing.
(19:36):
So it's a reasonable place to use the material.
The other thing that's interesting about about about
material choices is that often times we equate hardness of a
material with durability. So our nylon materials really,
really hard. And so you think, oh, that's got
to be really strong. If that's not necessarily true
with rubber, if your rubber material is too hard, then it
(20:00):
provides resistance when your dog is biting on it, and that
resistance allows them to chew pieces off.
And so one of the materials thatwe've developed is really,
really soft and we put it in oursqueaker balls and we're getting
ready to release some new products, retrieving balls,
(20:21):
things of that nature. And they're really soft.
And what's interesting is these balls, even though the material
is quite soft, they don't get destroyed.
And the reason is because the dog is getting the gratification
of squeezing the toy, chomping on it.
And so it's not providing the resistance for them to like
(20:44):
literally bite into it and get achunk and pull it out.
And so it's a little bit counterintuitive you'd think of
these soft toys are just going to get demolished and then they
don't. So we're really excited about
some some newer things that are coming out soon made from that
soft material I'm. Excited to try that out.
I have a ball obsessed dog and his favorite thing to do is sit
(21:06):
there and chew on the ball. He will entertain himself for
hours if I just let him sit there and chew on the ball.
So it's all all about finding that right ball that gives him
just a little bit of room to wiggle and move versus him just
shredding the thing into a million pieces.
So I'd be happy to put yours to the test and see how it goes.
(21:28):
We'll send you some. Samples.
You can give it a go. I'm going to just.
Hold up a couple of things here for anybody who's watching to
see. Unfortunately, we'll have to
describe everything for listening, but the thing that I
really like about what you guys do here is you do things.
And I love that because I am oneof those people that I decorate
(21:48):
a certain way and I pick certaincolors for certain rooms and
things like that. So being able to have like a
theme to create a whole day of enrichment for my dog.
We go from the honey pot to the lipstick and then we get the mat
and they're all, these ones are all yellow, they all have a
honeycomb design and they all have bees on them and I
(22:09):
absolutely love it. I think this is probably my
favorite 1. So I was really thrilled when I
opened the box and this is what I found.
But I really want to talk about this, the lick stick, because I
am still just totally enamored with this thing.
As a trainer and somebody who has worked on teaching my dog to
(22:31):
follow a stick and do nose touches to a stick.
And also then using a spatula tohelp the dog with anxiety in the
car or a lick mat on the window and things like that.
This thing is going to be a lifesaver for me because the
biggest problem with a spoon or a spatula is that after the
peanut butter is done being frozen, it just slides right
(22:53):
off. But with this, it has as like a
divot like it goes in. So if I spread it out enough,
even if they lick some of it off, it's still going to stay
inside of here. But it also, like you said, dogs
like texture because they can sense that and understand that
and that's calming for their brains with their tongue.
(23:14):
So now you've got like this little enrichment stick that can
be used for training and enrichment at the same time,
which is just so cool. So could you tell me how the
heck you came up with the idea for this thing because I am so
obsessed with it. Well, so first.
Of all that was a great explanation.
You're hired. The consumer insight is that
(23:36):
people were doing just like you said, they're using rubber
spatulas and wooden spoons with peanut butter.
What did they say? Necessity is the mother of
invention. So people were creating their
own product, if you will, to satisfy this need.
But there were drawbacks to a wooden Spooner spatula.
Like you said, food will run offof it.
They're not long enough really for a lot of people,
(23:59):
particularly if you have a smaller dog.
And so because we are enrichmentfocused, we're always looking
for for ways to bring this type of thinking into new products.
So here were some precursors to the lipstick.
The first was when we got into nylon dog toys.
I thought, well, what can we do that's different and meaningful?
(24:22):
Because Lord knows there's enough dog toy brands out there
making bone shaped nylon chew toys.
The world doesn't need more bones.
And so one of the products we created was the peanut.
And really what the peanut is, is a lick mat made out of nylon.
Your dog can chew on it. Your dog can lick it.
We were looking for a way to morph a nylon shoe toy into an
(24:45):
enrichment product, and that's what this became.
And then we thought, OK, we haveenrichment bowls.
We have shallow enrichment bowlsthat we call enrichment trays, E
trays. We have enrichment mats, E mats.
And then I thought, OK, if your dog has separation anxiety, you
need to leave the house. You can't give your dog a lick
mat because it's thin and it's made out of a rubbery material
(25:07):
and your dog's going to destroy it.
So you have to supervise the dogwith a lick mat.
So I thought, well, what could we create to solve this problem?
And we created a product that wecall an E coin.
So this is made of nylon, but it's basically a small, super
hard licking device that you cangive your dog if you have
separation anxiety and you wouldbe safe to leave your dog alone
(25:31):
with it. It's too big for the dog to
choke on. It's more durable than a lick
mat. OK, so the next evolution of
this is just putting it on a stick.
But most innovation is incremental.
It's not it's not revolutionary,it's evolutionary.
And so that was the idea was to say, well, what if we could
create a more useful enrichment device to replace a wooden
(25:53):
spoon? And then it's the texture that
keeps the food in there because it provides friction, if you
will. And it's also the thing that
satisfies the dog because dogs love texture.
And then I just love the fact that you love that we've built
themes into the product line because I don't know of any
other company that's doing that.And that's really a different
discipline altogether. And that's more of a
(26:14):
merchandising discipline to say,if we create a bowl and a lick
mat and a lick stick and a rubber treat dispenser and an
enrichment cup, and what if we weave it all together over time.
And of course, we didn't build all these products at the same
time. We've built them over years.
And so oftentimes I will go backand say, OK, if we're going to
create this new device, how can we tie it into something else
(26:38):
that we're doing. Ultimately, merchandising is
storytelling. We want to tell a story and
we're, we're trying to get consumers to fall in love with
soda pop, not, not necessarily with anyone product, but with
everything that we do and why wedo it and how we do it.
And so being able to create these diverse product types and
(27:00):
tie it all together around the theme is it's, it's lovely
storytelling and it helps an independent pet retailer do
really creative merchandising intheir stores, which you know, no
big box retailers never going todo.
They don't have the kind of the bandwidth to do that kind of
thing. And so we're also giving
independent pet retailers additional tools to bring these
(27:21):
product stories to life if they buy into the bigger concept.
And you know, it's been fascinating to watch on
Instagram because there are consumers out there that are
buying all these things from us.And then they're doing this
incredible imagery and they're doing the merchandising in the
images that they're posting, which is so gratifying for us to
see that people are paying attention to what we're doing.
(27:42):
And it's a. Matching set.
People get collars and leashes and harnesses that match, and
then their treat bag needs to match.
And then maybe their own purse or rain jacket needs to match.
And then the next thing he knows, you see this lady walking
down the street and everything is purple floral, and everybody
knows that she's coming and, andwho her dog is because they've
(28:04):
accessorized together. And that's literally what you're
doing with this. Yeah.
And we have. Lots of things we have, you
know, we do have floral themes that work across the line as
well. And then, you know, we have a
lot of outdoor oriented things. We have a lot of ocean oriented
things. So the honey inspiration is just
one of probably 5 or 6 major themes we've built across the
(28:27):
product line. My favorite?
Thing about the honeycomb is theis the design here.
I'm going to hold it up again for the viewers, but these are,
I mean they're deep. I mean my finger can go into
each one of these. My favorite things to do with a
lick mat like this is to take anegg and scramble it and then
pour it on here and then microwave it for 2 minutes.
(28:49):
That will last your dog forever,especially in something like
this where they actually have todig in there to get it out.
And also it's flexible, so if your dog bends it up to get the
get it out, it's not going to damage it.
And that I think is also something that's really
important because sometimes you get lick mats and they're
(29:10):
they're too stiff or they're notstiff enough and then they just
crack or tear apart. And that hasn't been the case
with yours. We did our first.
Lick mat in 2020, so not that long ago.
And now we have 35 or so different lick mat skis.
So we have done a lot with lick mats.
(29:32):
I come from the sporting goods industry, specifically apparel
and footwear. I tested a lot of lick mats
before I designed 1 and I reallyliked the idea, but I didn't
like the products that I tested.I thought they were flimsy.
I thought they didn't take my dog very long to look clean.
So I was like, how much enrichment is my dog really
getting here? They warped in the dishwasher.
There are a lot of things. And so it's like, OK,
(29:54):
interesting idea, not thrilled with the execution.
So that's where I started from. And my dog Buddy, who we
mentioned earlier, Buddy was very food motivated and he could
look, you know, competing product, he could look that
clean in under 5 minutes. And so I was like, OK, I got to
create something really hard to take Buddy, you know, 4045
minutes. So we set out to make more
difficult lick mats. That was the first objective.
(30:17):
And now if you look at our totalrange, we have a range of easy,
moderate and difficult lick mats.
And we actually use a rating scale on our packaging to
indicate how difficult the mat is, so you can match the food
drive. If I give Ladybug a very
difficult lick mat, she's going to lose interest.
She just doesn't care that much about food.
So we have to use easier products with her to keep her
(30:39):
engaged. As an example, the first design
we did was called the jigsaw, and it's literally a jigsaw
pattern. And one of the things we noticed
was people were decorating the jigsaw.
So they're literally like mixingup yogurt with spirulina and
other things for different colors and they're essentially
painting by numbers. And because the the jigsaw
(31:00):
design had all these self-contained shapes, that's
what allowed them to put different colors in each of the
shapes. Whereas most lick mats up until
then were things like nubs. If you put liquid in it, it
would just spread throughout themat.
Well, with ours, if you put liquid in it, it would be held
in that space. And so I thought, wasn't that
(31:20):
interesting. I didn't expect people to do
this with, with a liquor mat to decorate it.
It was fascinating to me. But of course, you know, people
were home during the pandemic and they're, you know, they're
stuck and they're looking for things to do and they're getting
dogs and treating their dogs like their children.
They express love through food. You know, that's how a lot of
(31:41):
moms express love for their children.
And so anyway, we recognize thisdecorating phenomena, and it was
also a social media phenomena because it's not enough to
decorate it. You got to take a picture of it
and show everybody what you did.And so there's this performative
element to it as well. And so I thought, OK, that's
really interesting. What if we do more designs that
also have that ability to decorate?
(32:03):
And so we leaned heavily into that.
And now if you look at our lick mats, any of our shallow slow
feeders, our deep slow feeder bowls, they all have that
characteristic. And that has fed social media
and people have just been doing unbelievable, beautiful designs,
which again, it was just that one insight is like, oh, what if
we keep doing that and lean intothat?
(32:25):
What would people do? And so one of the most fun
things for me to do is to createa new design for like a bowl and
put it, putting it out there andjust waiting to see what people
post on it. We'll do.
Some wild stuff with that. Well, they do.
And one of the things that's been really interesting in terms
of talking to our customers on the podcast is to find out the
(32:49):
degree to which for a lot of people, they love decorating and
filling the bowls or the lick mats because they like giving
really healthy food to their dogand a real variety of food.
But I have also been really struck by the degree to which
people have told me how therapeutic it is for them as a
(33:12):
creative outlet, just personallyfor them.
And so it, it serves this for a lot of people, it serves this
dual purpose. It's nurturing and taking good
care of their pet, but it's alsonurturing them, which I didn't
expect. It's just a.
Really cool combo. I I have several friends who are
really really masters of decorating their bowls or lick
(33:35):
mats for their dogs. I mean, to the point where they
buy themed cookies and dried flowers and they have all
different colors of the spiraling.
I mean, it's unbelievable to me,but it's, it is, it's so much
fun to watch. And I mean, I get it.
It's quite soothing. I understand why some people
paint or do artistic things. It's probably the same kind of
(33:59):
mental emotional release for us,like you said, that the dog is
getting from having the benefit of the lick mat.
So what a what a neat thing to accidentally stumble upon.
Yeah, it's incredibly. Gratifying.
You know, when we started this business back in 2013, it was a
hobby business in the basement. I wanted to see, first of all,
(34:20):
if we could create something from nothing in a, you know, an
industry where I had no experience, no contacts and
literally create something from nothing.
But the bigger question was, could I apply the principles
that I learned earlier in my career in a different industry
and apply those principles and get people to fall in love with
a pet supply company, which is alittle bit unheard of.
(34:40):
I knew that we didn't want to behave like a traditional pet
supply company. We wanted to behave more like a
consumer products company, whichis to say to create beautiful
objects of desire that consumerscan have an emotional connection
with. And so what's been so
interesting is to kind of watch this unfold.
And it's come about because we've paid attention to how
(35:04):
people are responding and we're learning.
And like I said, I mean, I've designed a lot of junk and it's
not in the line anymore. You try things and you see what
works and what doesn't. You get rid of the stuff that
doesn't, learn from the successes and the failures, and
then keep iterating and take consumers on a journey through
all these new products. And so it's been the whole kind
(35:24):
of Instagram piece has just beenwild for us.
It is. A It is a crazy creative world
out there, that is for sure. And it's an.
Instant feedback loop. It's like it's like a focus
group in real time. I love.
That it does something positive for your business because social
media, it can go one way or the other.
(35:44):
So hearing a positive story about how social media has
affected your business is reallyit's heartwarming and it it
gives me some hope for how it will be in the future for
others. What's?
Gratifying for me is that we're helping people in a way that I
didn't anticipate. Like Chris said, for a lot of
people, this is therapeutic and if our designs inspire and help
(36:09):
in that journey for that consumer, I mean that's just a
bonus, right? It's interesting.
It's I feel like we're doing a duet and you've.
Created a community and I love that you said full circle
because what I would love to do is I would love to add something
to that full circle because I think a lot of people
misinterpret dog behavior. Dogs do things to communicate
(36:33):
when their needs are not met. In your experience, how do
owners misinterpret or miss those cues, and how can they use
your products to help keep theirdogs from behaving in ways that
they don't want them to? A lot of.
The enrichment products and enrichment activities, it offers
dogs the ability to engage in what are natural behaviors to
(36:58):
them. And, and I think sometimes that
people have the impression that,I don't know, maybe if you let
your dog chew on something or you let your dog shred a
cardboard box or something like that, that you are going to
encourage your dog to chew on other things or to chew shred
the couch cushions. But I think the opposite is
actually the case. If you give them sanctioned ways
(37:21):
to satisfy those behaviors, thenthey're not going to be eating
your couch or licking a hole in the rug when they're interest.
So, so a lot of of providing food based enrichment, which is,
which is what our products do and also provide for chewing
outlets to behavior. It it, it provides dogs outlets
for things that they they reallyneed and things that they
(37:44):
normally do. So we're actually helping them
by giving them those opportunities.
Absolutely. And I think that that is
probably where a lot of people get lost.
Enrichment is not a bonus, it's not extra.
It is something that should be given every single day, every
single day. So we're adding a new segment to
(38:06):
the show, and it's called Brain Boost.
This is for enrichment episodes.And what I would love is if you
could give a simple enrichment idea with or without your
products to help a listener helptheir dog release stress, feel
safe and engaged our brain in meaningful ways.
Sure. One of the first one that comes
(38:27):
to mind is one that doesn't require any kind of toy or lick
mat or equipment, and that is tojust scatter feed outside in the
yard or on a rainy day, you could do it inside for a treat
for walking, use a a freeze dried raw food.
The pieces are pretty small. And so when I get back from a
(38:49):
walk in particular, sugar plum is very interested in this and I
she's ready when we get back from the walk, she starts
dancing around saying to me, let's do that thing.
And I just take a handful of thethe treats and I just fling them
into the yard. And then she snuffles around and
finds all the finds all the food, and she gets excited about
(39:13):
that every single day. And dogs.
Combine their senses, they smell, they taste, they hear,
they think all of these things together and it does it.
It really helps them bring that mental, emotional level to where
they need it to be. Somebody described it to me as
think about when you were a child and you would go to school
(39:35):
all day and you would read and you would do math.
And then you would go outside and play for recess.
And then you would come back in and maybe you would have a nap
or maybe you just have quiet time.
But then you would go back into the whole routine again.
And you would go to different subjects all day long.
And then you would come home from school and you would play
and you would eat dinner. And then you would just be
zomped for the night. And that really hit me because
(39:59):
for so many of us, until we learned about enrichment, that's
what our dogs were doing. They were just sitting at home
doing nothing all day. So take your dog to school with
enrichment. Give them something to do.
Give them new places to go, new sense to smell, new things to
see and hear and taste that thattap into their predatory
sequences, that tap into those natural instincts that are
(40:22):
worming around in their brains and give them some relief.
It's really easy. Easy to look past that when
we're not thinking about dog brain.
But once you understand dog brain, it really transforms how
you look at your dog. Well, I think.
We're so used to thinking about the in sort of the traditional
understanding of pet dogs in particular, we're just used to
(40:43):
the idea of you take them on a walk twice a day and that's
going to satisfy their needs. And, and that's great.
I mean, obviously exercise is a really important part of that,
but there are so many other things that we have come to
recognize as being important to their physical and their mental
(41:03):
well-being. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Well, thank you both so much for
being here today. I would love to know what you
would like to leave the person in listening with today.
It doesn't have to be on topic. It can just be something
straight from your heart or it can be telling them to shop your
products and I you. Know would love for you to try
our products, but I will also say on the other end of that is
(41:24):
that in order to do and with your dog, you don't have to
invest in a lot. Are there many, many ways that
you can do it without investing in anything or with things that
you have around the house or at really low cost just so I would
just encourage people to educatethemselves and then to not be
afraid to experiment and that itdoesn't have to be perfect and
(41:48):
beautiful unless you want to make it beautiful.
It it'll you know your dog will love it either way and if it
makes you feel great and they can beautiful do that too.
We have. Covered a lot today, from why
durability matters to how enrichment gives your dog an
outlet for energy and prevent problem behaviors.
But most importantly, we've seenthat enrichment isn't about
(42:10):
spoiling your dog, it's about giving them what they're really
asking for. So remember, be kind, spread
joy, and remember, enrichment isn't extra, it's essential.
Dig in, be creative and try sodapup.
You can use code TRY Dash US TryDash us for 20% off your first
(42:32):
purchase with Soda PU. Thank you for listening to the
dog who asked for more and forgiving your dog this time
through your learning. If your dog is bouncing off the
walls, no matter how much you walk them, it can feel like
nothing is ever enough. The truth is, most dogs don't
need more exercise. They need the right kind of
enrichment to settle their brains and their body.
(42:54):
That's why I put together a freeenrichment resource packed with
easy, fun ideas that you can tryright away.
You'll find the link in the shownotes.
New episodes drop every Monday and Wednesday.
I'll see you next time.
What if your dog's worst destructive behavior is really a
silent plea for mental stimulation, safer outlets or
better materials? Welcome to The Dog Who Asked for
More, the podcast helping dog parents who feel stuck and
overwhelmed by their pup finallylet go of the guilt.
Learn to communicate clearly andbuild the bond you've always
(00:20):
dreamed of through a partnershipbased approach that combines
training, nutrition and enrichment instead of chasing
the quick fixes that don't actually work.
I'm em. You'll learn how soda pup turned
1 pet parents frustration into durable enrichment forward
products made in the USA. Why modern power chewer toys
(00:41):
fail and what features actually survive real dogs and how you
can use thoughtful enrichment materials and listening to give
your dog a voice beyond behaviorstruggles.
Today I'm joined by Adam and Chris Co, founders of Soda Pup,
and they specialize in tough chew toys, slow feeders, lick
mats, and enrichment systems forespecially powerful chewers
(01:04):
designed for longevity, safety and joy.
Adam, would you please tell me the story of how Soda Pup began?
I was actually working in the sporting goods industry at the
time that I started thinking about the pet industry.
We at the time had three dogs and two cats and were big animal
lovers. And honestly, I started walking
(01:24):
through pet stores more from a professional perspective than
from a private dog owner perspective.
And the thing that struck me is that it was always the same
stuff that was there. It never really changed.
After a while it was a bit boring and so I thought to
myself, could we create really functional products like the
products that were already on the shelves, but could we
(01:45):
somehow make them more interesting to the people that
are actually buying the products, which is primarily
women. In the beginning, the idea was
to create really functional products that were safe and
American made FDA compliant. But check all those boxes of if
you could have it all, what would you want?
And you would want durable toys that are safe for your dog,
(02:07):
preferably made in the USA. And if they look really cool,
that's a great benefit as well. And so we kind of started from
there and started creating the Soda U brand.
Probably the biggest difference is trying to create designs that
captivate the imagination of theof the person who's actually
doing the buying. Well, you have beautiful designs
and I am a colorful person. Anybody who knows me knows that
(02:29):
I'm a colorful person. I have rainbow.
Hair and tattoos, yeah. Exactly.
Exactly. So it's very appealing to me.
And I'm sure anybody watching can see the color behind you.
You have a variety of colors andpatterns and all kinds of
things, which just makes it. It does make it fun because when
we get involved in our dogs in Richmond, it should be fun for
(02:51):
us too. And a little bit of color never
hurt anybody, so there's nothingwrong with that.
But if you make it fun for the consumer, they're more likely to
do it, which is. Exactly.
Exactly. And then, Chris, you kind of
expanded the mission by startingyour podcast, which I was
recently a guest on. Would you tell everybody a
little bit about why you decidedto expand in that direction?
(03:14):
Well, if you had told me a year ago that I would be hosting a
podcast, I would have said you were out of your mind.
But. We.
Talked about this idea for quitea while and we were really just
wanting to expand the conversation about enrichment.
That was one aim and the other thing that we really wanted to
do was to celebrate the people that use our products.
(03:38):
Some of the people that we do have on the podcast are people
who are just out there doing enrichment day by day and doing
a really interesting and beautiful things.
So we wanted to meet those people, talk to them about their
experience and and shine a spotlight on them a little bit.
Very cool. What do you each see as your
(04:00):
role in making enrichment? My role is to build beautiful
product that get people excited about doing enrichment with
their dogs and to create a business that allows that to
happen. And I am home with the tend to
be home with the dogs more. So my role, at least personally
in our enrichment lives is to actually serve up enrichment for
(04:21):
our dogs. And then of course, as we just
talked about to try to the conversation on the Soda Pup
Enrichment Lab podcast. Many pet parents experience toys
that break in minutes. Can you tell me about maybe the
key materials or design decisions you make it soda pup
so that you can ensure products last?
(04:42):
Sure, the reality is that I don't think there's really any
such thing as an indestructible dog toy, but there are things
that you can do to improve your chances of having a long lasting
dog toy. We use a range of different
materials in our products. So if if you look at our dog
toys, the first products we madewere natural or rubber products.
And the nice thing about naturalrubber is that it's what's
(05:04):
called a cross-linked polymers. During the curing process in the
injection molding machine under high heat and pressure, the
molecules actually change. They cross link and when they
cross link then it has really great tear strength.
And so it's it's more difficult for a dog to destroy a natural
rubber dog toy. Now the thing about rubber is
that not all rubber is alike, right?
(05:26):
So we engineered compounds specifically for high tear
strength. And what that means is we have
very few fillers in the materialwhen you buy usually, and these
are generalizations, but you know, when you buy a rubber dog
toy produced in China at a really low price, you're like,
how can they afford to make a toy for this price?
(05:48):
Well, the reality is they're putting a ton of clay into the
rubber material. When you add fillers like that,
which is quite common, that means there's less natural
rubber. And if there's less natural
rubber, then there's less cross linking.
And so those products don't havethe same tear strength.
And so even though our product and and their product both look
like natural rubber, rubber, they feel the same, they don't
(06:10):
actually perform the same. It's a little bit of buyer
beware. And with soda pop, like I said,
we've engineered a really premium rubber compound and
we're all for a 30 day replacement guarantee because
we're confident that the material will hold up.
So that's the first thing. The second thing is designs have
a very big impact on the durability of a dog toy.
So for example, if you if you look at a product shaped like
(06:34):
some things you've seen before, but you know things like that,
you don't like that, which is not, it's an awesome toy.
But where dogs destroy it is on the small, small globe at the
top because they can get it in their back teeth.
And if they can get it into their back teeth, then they can
kind of saw through it because they have a lot of leverage.
For example, when we made our Snowman toy, the difference
(06:55):
between this and the other toys just showed you is that both
snowballs are the same size. And so just by a simple design,
it's very difficult for a dog toget this toy into its back teeth
to be able to destroy it. So certainly the shape, the
design of the toy has a lot to do with the durability as well
as the material. We also make nylon chew toys and
(07:17):
nylon is a very, very hard material.
So dogs can't destroy it in the same way that they can destroy a
rubber chew toy. And nylon behaves in a different
way. You actually have to engineer
the material to be softer than adog's teeth because if a dog is
really aggressive and bites downtoo hard, if your material is
too hard, then the dog will break his teeth on the toy.
(07:38):
And so you actually have to engineer the nylon material to
be softer. So the material will lose in a
battle between the dog's teeth and the material.
And so that's why the nylon toyswill fray as dogs chew on them.
And that's actually by design. That's the safety measure to
prevent the dog from damaging his teeth.
It also creates a rough, bristlysurface, which helps keep the
(08:00):
dog's teeth clean and improves their breath, gets rid of plaque
and things like that. So there's a benefit to those
materials wearing down with use.There's a lot of products in the
pet industry that are just kind of cheap and cheerful.
They get destroyed immediately. Have you ever had any issues
with dogs swallowing that nylon?No, that's never happened.
There's warnings obviously if the dog is wearing the toy down
(08:24):
to a nub, then that becomes a choking hazard.
And so it's really on the pet parent to understand when it's
time to throw that toy away. Although with most dogs, if you
look at the way that they chew abone shape, a nylon bone, most
dogs will just chew on the knuckles.
And when when they're done with the knuckles, they're not really
interested in the shaft on the toy.
So we actually designed, this isa, this is a nylon toy called
(08:50):
the Honey Bone. And we actually designed this
partly with enrichment capabilities so that you could
put food in the, in the groove. And the deep grooves were
designed specifically because dogs like texture.
And so we wanted a really heavy texture on the knuckle.
But the really interesting thingabout this toy is because we
realized that dogs weren't chewing on the shaft of the toy,
(09:11):
we actually took a lot of the weight and material out of the
shaft. You can see we kind of, it's
kind of like an i-beam construction.
Sorry, I'm geeking out on you. I'm a I'm a dog toy nerd, but
the idea was to to eliminate allthat waste because most, you
know, most dogs are going to chew the knuckles and you're
going to throw the thing away and you don't need it for
strength to that that informed the design of this product.
(09:33):
Not to mention it looks like a honey dipping stick, which fits
beautifully in our honeypot. I love that and geek out because
the people who are listening areprobably really interested in
this kind of stuff. I'm interested in this kind of
stuff. I want to know why it's designed
the way it is. But to your point, I am a big
proponent of be invested, be involved.
(09:53):
Be aware of what your dog is doing.
Pay attention. You give your dog a lick mat or
a toy or whatever because you need to get stuff done fine, but
don't just not observe what is happening because that is when
accidents happen. I worked in a veterinary clinic
for a long time. It's kind of like the classic
plush toy. You've got subscription boxes
out there that put two or three plush toys in a box and then
(10:16):
some treats. And then your dog destroys the
toys in the first couple of daysand then poops polyester for a
couple of days and then they're on to the next, on to the next
box. That's probably not so great for
your dog either. So yeah, it's important to
supervise your pet. Even if you trust the toy, you
should supervise your pet. How do you test the durability
of your toys and bowls and everything?
(10:38):
With with things like the Nile and the rubber, those have all
been tested in a lab, mostly tested for food safety.
All of our products meet FDA compliance standards.
The standard is actually a little weird.
The standard that's used is for food containers for storage.
And so the test is crazy. You put the material and some
(11:00):
very acidic solution for hours and then you heat it and you try
to get it to leach out nasty stuff.
It's so kind of over the top crazy because it's not any a
condition that these materials would actually be used in in our
products because we're not making food containers for
storage per SE, but that's the standard that's applied.
And then of the other thing, we make things and we learn, you
(11:23):
know, we try stuff and some things don't hold up and then we
discontinue them and then we're we learn and then we move on to
the next toy, try to make something that's going to last
longer. This is one of our least well
known toys, but it's one of my favorites.
This is called of the double trouble.
Now I don't know if you know thehistory of Kong, but the guy
that founded Kong, Joe Markham, he was a Volkswagen mechanic and
(11:44):
the original Kong dog toy was a suspension part from AVW
Microbus. And he had a German shepherd and
he would take the parts off off the cars and throw it out in the
yard for his dog. And he saw that his dog liked to
chew on it. So he developed a dog toy.
So that's kind of the, the, the genesis of Kong.
We have a, a work van, Ram Promaster van.
(12:05):
And I was in the parts department at my Ram dealer
getting something for the van and I saw a about a suspension
part for a pickup truck. And it helps prevent the bed of
the pickup truck from sagging when you're carrying a very
heavy load. And it looked like this.
And so except that it was cut inhalf.
And I like, huh, that's pretty interesting.
That would be a cool dog toy. And but what I like about it and
(12:26):
the reason we call it the doubletrouble is because it's, it's
wide on both ends, just like oursnowman.
And so it's very difficult for adog to get this in his back to
you. So super durable toy.
It's not as visually compelling as some of our other designs,
but very, very functional. Do your own dogs test the
(12:47):
durability of your products? Do you put them through the
ringer in your own home with your own dogs?
Yeah. And it's interesting with dogs,
they all have different preferences.
So over the years we've had somedogs that really like rubber
toys. We had a black lab named Buddy.
We lost him a couple years ago, but Buddy was a great rubber toy
tester because we adopted him asan adult and he came with
(13:09):
baggage and the way he dealt with stress was by chewing on
stuff. So he was a great rubber toy
tester, but he didn't care aboutnylon at all.
Now we have a dog named Ladybug,and Ladybug loves nylon, so
she's a good tester. But yeah, so and we've had a lot
of dogs over the years. We have Ladybug and Sugar Plum
now and Sugar Plum she's she'll use rubber treat dispensers, but
(13:32):
not to chew on only only for getting the treats.
And she's not a nylon chewer, atleast not anymore.
She's getting old and she's. Am I interested in like lick
mats? Neither of the dogs we have now
are Uber food motivated, but depending on what you put in the
lick mat you can get them interested in for at least for a
little while. What do you think?
(13:53):
Has been your biggest challenge with your own personal dogs and
putting enrichment into their daily lives?
Well, I I. Would say, I mean for me some of
it is just is planning ahead. And then again, you know, right
now in terms of food based enrichment, our dogs are not
super food motivated. And so sometimes if I'm going to
(14:14):
provide food based enrichment, Ireally have to think about it.
One of the things I've discovered with both of the dogs
that we have now is that they don't really tend to go for
things that are are frozen. And I don't know if it's the
temperature or if there's not asmuch sense or what it is.
But I've learned that I can put lick mats or stuffable toys in
(14:34):
the freezer. But if I'm going to give them to
them and have them at least be immediately interested, then I
need to, I need to take them outa little in advance and give
them a little bit of time to start to warm up.
One of the things that I have been learning about more partly
because I've had to because I can't realize so much on food
based enrichment is just other kinds of enrichment.
(14:55):
So I have become more aware of that and ways to provide that.
You know what? A lot.
Of people do in terms of food based enrichment because we all
lead busy lives as Chris mentioned take some forethought
and planning to to to be able todo this consistently in wealth.
But what a lot of people do willwill be on a Sunday night,
(15:16):
they'll mix a week's worth of, of moist food.
And then they'll have an array of devices, different slow
feeder bowls and lick mats and, and things like enrichment cups,
like the honey pot enrichment toys.
And they stuff it all and pack it all in the freezer so that
during the week when they're really on the go, they can just
kind of grab and go. That's one way to help overcome
(15:40):
the planning challenge because you, you don't have to think
about it every day. You can just think about it once
a week, the planning. Part is kind of clutch for most
people having the ability to plan for a few days or even a
week ahead of time is phenomenal.
And I like to make little treatsthat frozen treats or whatever
in like little ice cube trays and then put them all in like a
(16:02):
Pyrex dish with the lid so they don't get the frostbite on them
and things like that. That helps too because like you,
my dog, if there's if it's got freezer burn at all, he's not
eating it. He's just not.
It's OK for them to have their own preferences, especially when
it to food. And I think a lot of people
struggle with the picky eater thing.
I did for years and years and years.
(16:23):
But it really I think just comesdown to experimentation.
Like you said, figuring out whatthey like and then being
conscious of that and mixing it up for them.
Because if I had to eat the samething every single day, I would
be so bored and so mad, especially if it was kibble like
gross he land boring yuck. So I really do feel like
(16:43):
enrichment is one of those things where it gives us a
moment to give our dogs something extra and we should
absolutely take advantage of that with our.
Dogs mixing it up makes I think a big difference for them yeah
makes it harder for them to go back to to the basics.
They get a little spoiled when you start giving them freeze
dried chicken and all the other goodies that are out there now.
(17:05):
Yeah, well, it. Really requires paying some
attention, right? Especially if you've got more
than one dog or animal and, and they're not a super food
motivated is that you really have to do some experimentation
and paying attention to what's awinner and, and what's not.
And like with our sugar plum, I think I have determined that she
(17:29):
really does not like flaxseed. And so there was a brand of
peanut butter that we were usingand she would eat it and then
suddenly she just turning her nose up at peanut butter.
And I thought, what is going on?And then I realized that the,
the formulation had changed and there was flax in it.
And I've noticed there's some other treats that we have and
(17:50):
that they have flax in them. She doesn't want anything to do
with them. And so some of it's just that
kind of sussing out what are they like, what are they not
like, what maybe is affecting like I said, like the
temperature, what it's affecting, their willingness to
engage with stuff and. Food sensitivities, too.
Maybe it doesn't make her feel good when she eats that.
It could be, yeah. It could be so many different
things. But again, enrichment is one of
(18:12):
those things where we just kind of dive in with curiosity that
makes us ask those questions anddig a little bit deeper.
I want to jump back to the conversation about the rubber
compounds because it's my understanding, understanding
that you have different rubber compounds for each of your toys.
So if someone came to you and said, Adam, I have a dog that
(18:32):
does this, this and this, how would you go about recommending
which toys to give that person? So we actually.
Use two different rubber compounds. 1 is natural rubber,
which is I was describing beforeand the other is a synthetic
rubber compound that we've also developed in conjunction with a
(18:53):
the supplier and it's also engineered for high tear
strength. But in reality it's not quite as
high as the natural rubber and the properties are somewhat
different. Other other benefits to our Pub
X material 1 is that it's odor free.
Natural rubber comes with an odor that we try to mitigate in
formulation, but you can't get rid of it all together.
(19:15):
So if somebody has a real power chewer dog, I'm going to
recommend a natural rubber dog toy over one of the toys that we
make in in the pop X material. The other thing where we do use
pop X, we we're using it in things that are less chewing
specific, like the end use isn'treally hardcore chewing.
(19:36):
So it's a reasonable place to use the material.
The other thing that's interesting about about about
material choices is that often times we equate hardness of a
material with durability. So our nylon materials really,
really hard. And so you think, oh, that's got
to be really strong. If that's not necessarily true
with rubber, if your rubber material is too hard, then it
(20:00):
provides resistance when your dog is biting on it, and that
resistance allows them to chew pieces off.
And so one of the materials thatwe've developed is really,
really soft and we put it in oursqueaker balls and we're getting
ready to release some new products, retrieving balls,
(20:21):
things of that nature. And they're really soft.
And what's interesting is these balls, even though the material
is quite soft, they don't get destroyed.
And the reason is because the dog is getting the gratification
of squeezing the toy, chomping on it.
And so it's not providing the resistance for them to like
(20:44):
literally bite into it and get achunk and pull it out.
And so it's a little bit counterintuitive you'd think of
these soft toys are just going to get demolished and then they
don't. So we're really excited about
some some newer things that are coming out soon made from that
soft material I'm. Excited to try that out.
I have a ball obsessed dog and his favorite thing to do is sit
(21:06):
there and chew on the ball. He will entertain himself for
hours if I just let him sit there and chew on the ball.
So it's all all about finding that right ball that gives him
just a little bit of room to wiggle and move versus him just
shredding the thing into a million pieces.
So I'd be happy to put yours to the test and see how it goes.
(21:28):
We'll send you some. Samples.
You can give it a go. I'm going to just.
Hold up a couple of things here for anybody who's watching to
see. Unfortunately, we'll have to
describe everything for listening, but the thing that I
really like about what you guys do here is you do things.
And I love that because I am oneof those people that I decorate
(21:48):
a certain way and I pick certaincolors for certain rooms and
things like that. So being able to have like a
theme to create a whole day of enrichment for my dog.
We go from the honey pot to the lipstick and then we get the mat
and they're all, these ones are all yellow, they all have a
honeycomb design and they all have bees on them and I
(22:09):
absolutely love it. I think this is probably my
favorite 1. So I was really thrilled when I
opened the box and this is what I found.
But I really want to talk about this, the lick stick, because I
am still just totally enamored with this thing.
As a trainer and somebody who has worked on teaching my dog to
(22:31):
follow a stick and do nose touches to a stick.
And also then using a spatula tohelp the dog with anxiety in the
car or a lick mat on the window and things like that.
This thing is going to be a lifesaver for me because the
biggest problem with a spoon or a spatula is that after the
peanut butter is done being frozen, it just slides right
(22:53):
off. But with this, it has as like a
divot like it goes in. So if I spread it out enough,
even if they lick some of it off, it's still going to stay
inside of here. But it also, like you said, dogs
like texture because they can sense that and understand that
and that's calming for their brains with their tongue.
(23:14):
So now you've got like this little enrichment stick that can
be used for training and enrichment at the same time,
which is just so cool. So could you tell me how the
heck you came up with the idea for this thing because I am so
obsessed with it. Well, so first.
Of all that was a great explanation.
You're hired. The consumer insight is that
(23:36):
people were doing just like you said, they're using rubber
spatulas and wooden spoons with peanut butter.
What did they say? Necessity is the mother of
invention. So people were creating their
own product, if you will, to satisfy this need.
But there were drawbacks to a wooden Spooner spatula.
Like you said, food will run offof it.
They're not long enough really for a lot of people,
(23:59):
particularly if you have a smaller dog.
And so because we are enrichmentfocused, we're always looking
for for ways to bring this type of thinking into new products.
So here were some precursors to the lipstick.
The first was when we got into nylon dog toys.
I thought, well, what can we do that's different and meaningful?
(24:22):
Because Lord knows there's enough dog toy brands out there
making bone shaped nylon chew toys.
The world doesn't need more bones.
And so one of the products we created was the peanut.
And really what the peanut is, is a lick mat made out of nylon.
Your dog can chew on it. Your dog can lick it.
We were looking for a way to morph a nylon shoe toy into an
(24:45):
enrichment product, and that's what this became.
And then we thought, OK, we haveenrichment bowls.
We have shallow enrichment bowlsthat we call enrichment trays, E
trays. We have enrichment mats, E mats.
And then I thought, OK, if your dog has separation anxiety, you
need to leave the house. You can't give your dog a lick
mat because it's thin and it's made out of a rubbery material
(25:07):
and your dog's going to destroy it.
So you have to supervise the dogwith a lick mat.
So I thought, well, what could we create to solve this problem?
And we created a product that wecall an E coin.
So this is made of nylon, but it's basically a small, super
hard licking device that you cangive your dog if you have
separation anxiety and you wouldbe safe to leave your dog alone
(25:31):
with it. It's too big for the dog to
choke on. It's more durable than a lick
mat. OK, so the next evolution of
this is just putting it on a stick.
But most innovation is incremental.
It's not it's not revolutionary,it's evolutionary.
And so that was the idea was to say, well, what if we could
create a more useful enrichment device to replace a wooden
(25:53):
spoon? And then it's the texture that
keeps the food in there because it provides friction, if you
will. And it's also the thing that
satisfies the dog because dogs love texture.
And then I just love the fact that you love that we've built
themes into the product line because I don't know of any
other company that's doing that.And that's really a different
discipline altogether. And that's more of a
(26:14):
merchandising discipline to say,if we create a bowl and a lick
mat and a lick stick and a rubber treat dispenser and an
enrichment cup, and what if we weave it all together over time.
And of course, we didn't build all these products at the same
time. We've built them over years.
And so oftentimes I will go backand say, OK, if we're going to
create this new device, how can we tie it into something else
(26:38):
that we're doing. Ultimately, merchandising is
storytelling. We want to tell a story and
we're, we're trying to get consumers to fall in love with
soda pop, not, not necessarily with anyone product, but with
everything that we do and why wedo it and how we do it.
And so being able to create these diverse product types and
(27:00):
tie it all together around the theme is it's, it's lovely
storytelling and it helps an independent pet retailer do
really creative merchandising intheir stores, which you know, no
big box retailers never going todo.
They don't have the kind of the bandwidth to do that kind of
thing. And so we're also giving
independent pet retailers additional tools to bring these
(27:21):
product stories to life if they buy into the bigger concept.
And you know, it's been fascinating to watch on
Instagram because there are consumers out there that are
buying all these things from us.And then they're doing this
incredible imagery and they're doing the merchandising in the
images that they're posting, which is so gratifying for us to
see that people are paying attention to what we're doing.
(27:42):
And it's a. Matching set.
People get collars and leashes and harnesses that match, and
then their treat bag needs to match.
And then maybe their own purse or rain jacket needs to match.
And then the next thing he knows, you see this lady walking
down the street and everything is purple floral, and everybody
knows that she's coming and, andwho her dog is because they've
(28:04):
accessorized together. And that's literally what you're
doing with this. Yeah.
And we have. Lots of things we have, you
know, we do have floral themes that work across the line as
well. And then, you know, we have a
lot of outdoor oriented things. We have a lot of ocean oriented
things. So the honey inspiration is just
one of probably 5 or 6 major themes we've built across the
(28:27):
product line. My favorite?
Thing about the honeycomb is theis the design here.
I'm going to hold it up again for the viewers, but these are,
I mean they're deep. I mean my finger can go into
each one of these. My favorite things to do with a
lick mat like this is to take anegg and scramble it and then
pour it on here and then microwave it for 2 minutes.
(28:49):
That will last your dog forever,especially in something like
this where they actually have todig in there to get it out.
And also it's flexible, so if your dog bends it up to get the
get it out, it's not going to damage it.
And that I think is also something that's really
important because sometimes you get lick mats and they're
(29:10):
they're too stiff or they're notstiff enough and then they just
crack or tear apart. And that hasn't been the case
with yours. We did our first.
Lick mat in 2020, so not that long ago.
And now we have 35 or so different lick mat skis.
So we have done a lot with lick mats.
(29:32):
I come from the sporting goods industry, specifically apparel
and footwear. I tested a lot of lick mats
before I designed 1 and I reallyliked the idea, but I didn't
like the products that I tested.I thought they were flimsy.
I thought they didn't take my dog very long to look clean.
So I was like, how much enrichment is my dog really
getting here? They warped in the dishwasher.
There are a lot of things. And so it's like, OK,
(29:54):
interesting idea, not thrilled with the execution.
So that's where I started from. And my dog Buddy, who we
mentioned earlier, Buddy was very food motivated and he could
look, you know, competing product, he could look that
clean in under 5 minutes. And so I was like, OK, I got to
create something really hard to take Buddy, you know, 4045
minutes. So we set out to make more
difficult lick mats. That was the first objective.
(30:17):
And now if you look at our totalrange, we have a range of easy,
moderate and difficult lick mats.
And we actually use a rating scale on our packaging to
indicate how difficult the mat is, so you can match the food
drive. If I give Ladybug a very
difficult lick mat, she's going to lose interest.
She just doesn't care that much about food.
So we have to use easier products with her to keep her
(30:39):
engaged. As an example, the first design
we did was called the jigsaw, and it's literally a jigsaw
pattern. And one of the things we noticed
was people were decorating the jigsaw.
So they're literally like mixingup yogurt with spirulina and
other things for different colors and they're essentially
painting by numbers. And because the the jigsaw
(31:00):
design had all these self-contained shapes, that's
what allowed them to put different colors in each of the
shapes. Whereas most lick mats up until
then were things like nubs. If you put liquid in it, it
would just spread throughout themat.
Well, with ours, if you put liquid in it, it would be held
in that space. And so I thought, wasn't that
(31:20):
interesting. I didn't expect people to do
this with, with a liquor mat to decorate it.
It was fascinating to me. But of course, you know, people
were home during the pandemic and they're, you know, they're
stuck and they're looking for things to do and they're getting
dogs and treating their dogs like their children.
They express love through food. You know, that's how a lot of
(31:41):
moms express love for their children.
And so anyway, we recognize thisdecorating phenomena, and it was
also a social media phenomena because it's not enough to
decorate it. You got to take a picture of it
and show everybody what you did.And so there's this performative
element to it as well. And so I thought, OK, that's
really interesting. What if we do more designs that
also have that ability to decorate?
(32:03):
And so we leaned heavily into that.
And now if you look at our lick mats, any of our shallow slow
feeders, our deep slow feeder bowls, they all have that
characteristic. And that has fed social media
and people have just been doing unbelievable, beautiful designs,
which again, it was just that one insight is like, oh, what if
we keep doing that and lean intothat?
(32:25):
What would people do? And so one of the most fun
things for me to do is to createa new design for like a bowl and
put it, putting it out there andjust waiting to see what people
post on it. We'll do.
Some wild stuff with that. Well, they do.
And one of the things that's been really interesting in terms
of talking to our customers on the podcast is to find out the
(32:49):
degree to which for a lot of people, they love decorating and
filling the bowls or the lick mats because they like giving
really healthy food to their dogand a real variety of food.
But I have also been really struck by the degree to which
people have told me how therapeutic it is for them as a
(33:12):
creative outlet, just personallyfor them.
And so it, it serves this for a lot of people, it serves this
dual purpose. It's nurturing and taking good
care of their pet, but it's alsonurturing them, which I didn't
expect. It's just a.
Really cool combo. I I have several friends who are
really really masters of decorating their bowls or lick
(33:35):
mats for their dogs. I mean, to the point where they
buy themed cookies and dried flowers and they have all
different colors of the spiraling.
I mean, it's unbelievable to me,but it's, it is, it's so much
fun to watch. And I mean, I get it.
It's quite soothing. I understand why some people
paint or do artistic things. It's probably the same kind of
(33:59):
mental emotional release for us,like you said, that the dog is
getting from having the benefit of the lick mat.
So what a what a neat thing to accidentally stumble upon.
Yeah, it's incredibly. Gratifying.
You know, when we started this business back in 2013, it was a
hobby business in the basement. I wanted to see, first of all,
(34:20):
if we could create something from nothing in a, you know, an
industry where I had no experience, no contacts and
literally create something from nothing.
But the bigger question was, could I apply the principles
that I learned earlier in my career in a different industry
and apply those principles and get people to fall in love with
a pet supply company, which is alittle bit unheard of.
(34:40):
I knew that we didn't want to behave like a traditional pet
supply company. We wanted to behave more like a
consumer products company, whichis to say to create beautiful
objects of desire that consumerscan have an emotional connection
with. And so what's been so
interesting is to kind of watch this unfold.
And it's come about because we've paid attention to how
(35:04):
people are responding and we're learning.
And like I said, I mean, I've designed a lot of junk and it's
not in the line anymore. You try things and you see what
works and what doesn't. You get rid of the stuff that
doesn't, learn from the successes and the failures, and
then keep iterating and take consumers on a journey through
all these new products. And so it's been the whole kind
(35:24):
of Instagram piece has just beenwild for us.
It is. A It is a crazy creative world
out there, that is for sure. And it's an.
Instant feedback loop. It's like it's like a focus
group in real time. I love.
That it does something positive for your business because social
media, it can go one way or the other.
(35:44):
So hearing a positive story about how social media has
affected your business is reallyit's heartwarming and it it
gives me some hope for how it will be in the future for
others. What's?
Gratifying for me is that we're helping people in a way that I
didn't anticipate. Like Chris said, for a lot of
people, this is therapeutic and if our designs inspire and help
(36:09):
in that journey for that consumer, I mean that's just a
bonus, right? It's interesting.
It's I feel like we're doing a duet and you've.
Created a community and I love that you said full circle
because what I would love to do is I would love to add something
to that full circle because I think a lot of people
misinterpret dog behavior. Dogs do things to communicate
(36:33):
when their needs are not met. In your experience, how do
owners misinterpret or miss those cues, and how can they use
your products to help keep theirdogs from behaving in ways that
they don't want them to? A lot of.
The enrichment products and enrichment activities, it offers
dogs the ability to engage in what are natural behaviors to
(36:58):
them. And, and I think sometimes that
people have the impression that,I don't know, maybe if you let
your dog chew on something or you let your dog shred a
cardboard box or something like that, that you are going to
encourage your dog to chew on other things or to chew shred
the couch cushions. But I think the opposite is
actually the case. If you give them sanctioned ways
(37:21):
to satisfy those behaviors, thenthey're not going to be eating
your couch or licking a hole in the rug when they're interest.
So, so a lot of of providing food based enrichment, which is,
which is what our products do and also provide for chewing
outlets to behavior. It it, it provides dogs outlets
for things that they they reallyneed and things that they
(37:44):
normally do. So we're actually helping them
by giving them those opportunities.
Absolutely. And I think that that is
probably where a lot of people get lost.
Enrichment is not a bonus, it's not extra.
It is something that should be given every single day, every
single day. So we're adding a new segment to
(38:06):
the show, and it's called Brain Boost.
This is for enrichment episodes.And what I would love is if you
could give a simple enrichment idea with or without your
products to help a listener helptheir dog release stress, feel
safe and engaged our brain in meaningful ways.
Sure. One of the first one that comes
(38:27):
to mind is one that doesn't require any kind of toy or lick
mat or equipment, and that is tojust scatter feed outside in the
yard or on a rainy day, you could do it inside for a treat
for walking, use a a freeze dried raw food.
The pieces are pretty small. And so when I get back from a
(38:49):
walk in particular, sugar plum is very interested in this and I
she's ready when we get back from the walk, she starts
dancing around saying to me, let's do that thing.
And I just take a handful of thethe treats and I just fling them
into the yard. And then she snuffles around and
finds all the finds all the food, and she gets excited about
(39:13):
that every single day. And dogs.
Combine their senses, they smell, they taste, they hear,
they think all of these things together and it does it.
It really helps them bring that mental, emotional level to where
they need it to be. Somebody described it to me as
think about when you were a child and you would go to school
(39:35):
all day and you would read and you would do math.
And then you would go outside and play for recess.
And then you would come back in and maybe you would have a nap
or maybe you just have quiet time.
But then you would go back into the whole routine again.
And you would go to different subjects all day long.
And then you would come home from school and you would play
and you would eat dinner. And then you would just be
zomped for the night. And that really hit me because
(39:59):
for so many of us, until we learned about enrichment, that's
what our dogs were doing. They were just sitting at home
doing nothing all day. So take your dog to school with
enrichment. Give them something to do.
Give them new places to go, new sense to smell, new things to
see and hear and taste that thattap into their predatory
sequences, that tap into those natural instincts that are
(40:22):
worming around in their brains and give them some relief.
It's really easy. Easy to look past that when
we're not thinking about dog brain.
But once you understand dog brain, it really transforms how
you look at your dog. Well, I think.
We're so used to thinking about the in sort of the traditional
understanding of pet dogs in particular, we're just used to
(40:43):
the idea of you take them on a walk twice a day and that's
going to satisfy their needs. And, and that's great.
I mean, obviously exercise is a really important part of that,
but there are so many other things that we have come to
recognize as being important to their physical and their mental
(41:03):
well-being. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Well, thank you both so much for
being here today. I would love to know what you
would like to leave the person in listening with today.
It doesn't have to be on topic. It can just be something
straight from your heart or it can be telling them to shop your
products and I you. Know would love for you to try
our products, but I will also say on the other end of that is
(41:24):
that in order to do and with your dog, you don't have to
invest in a lot. Are there many, many ways that
you can do it without investing in anything or with things that
you have around the house or at really low cost just so I would
just encourage people to educatethemselves and then to not be
afraid to experiment and that itdoesn't have to be perfect and
(41:48):
beautiful unless you want to make it beautiful.
It it'll you know your dog will love it either way and if it
makes you feel great and they can beautiful do that too.
We have. Covered a lot today, from why
durability matters to how enrichment gives your dog an
outlet for energy and prevent problem behaviors.
But most importantly, we've seenthat enrichment isn't about
(42:10):
spoiling your dog, it's about giving them what they're really
asking for. So remember, be kind, spread
joy, and remember, enrichment isn't extra, it's essential.
Dig in, be creative and try sodapup.
You can use code TRY Dash US TryDash us for 20% off your first
(42:32):
purchase with Soda PU. Thank you for listening to the
dog who asked for more and forgiving your dog this time
through your learning. If your dog is bouncing off the
walls, no matter how much you walk them, it can feel like
nothing is ever enough. The truth is, most dogs don't
need more exercise. They need the right kind of
enrichment to settle their brains and their body.
(42:54):
That's why I put together a freeenrichment resource packed with
easy, fun ideas that you can tryright away.
You'll find the link in the shownotes.
New episodes drop every Monday and Wednesday.
I'll see you next time.
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