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Under the Canopy
On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, former Minister of Natural Resources, Jerry Ouellette takes you along on the journey to see the places and meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and Under The Canopy.
Under the Canopy
Episode 54: Natural Pet Treats and Dog Food Making
Can embracing a raw diet truly transform your pet’s health? Get ready to be inspired by Lawrence from Lakefield, Ontario, as he shares his journey creating Raw and Easy Pet Foods, a company dedicated to providing healthier, raw food options for dogs. Not only does Lawrence delve into the history of kibble, but he also offers invaluable tips for crafting homemade dog food. You’ll hear heartwarming stories about his own pets and the benefits of a natural diet, shedding light on why more pet owners are moving away from commercial options.
Dive into the nitty-gritty of ethical sourcing and the dehydration process for dog treats, where Lawrence explains how to utilize animal parts efficiently and safely. He emphasizes the importance of quality and purity in dog treats, ensuring they are free from additives. We also touch on the market dynamics for various animal parts and Lawrence’s commitment to sustainability.
Lastly, get inspired by the incredible journey of Jerry Ouellette, who has unlocked the medicinal wonders of the chaga mushroom, urging us all to live closer to nature. And don’t miss our exciting celebrity guest appearances, adding a touch of star power to our passion for hunting and fishing. This episode is packed with practical tips, heartfelt stories, and a celebration of natural living for both humans and their furry friends.
What brings people together more than fishing and hunting?
Speaker 2:How about food?
Speaker 1:I'm Chef Antonio Muleka and I've spent years catering to the stars. Now, on Outdoor Journal Radio's Eat Wild podcast, luis Hookset and I are bringing our expertise and Rolodex to our real passion the outdoors.
Speaker 3:Each week we're bringing you inside the boat tree stand or duck blind and giving you real advice that you can use to make the most out of your fish and game.
Speaker 1:You're going to flip that duck breast over. Once you get a nice hard sear on that breast, you don't want to sear the actual meat. And it's not just us chatting here. If you can name a celebrity, we've probably worked with them and I think you might be surprised who likes to hunt and fish. When Kit Harrington asks me to prepare him sashimi with his bass, I couldn't say no. Whatever Taylor Sheridan wanted, I made sure I had it. Burgers, steak, anything off the barbecue. That's a true cowboy. All Jeremy Renner wanted to have was lemon ginger shots all day. Find Eating Wild now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.
Speaker 5:As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Ouellette and I was honoured to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal applications used by Indigenous peoples all over the globe.
Speaker 5:After nearly a decade of harvest use, testimonials and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession and I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of the strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places, meet the people. That will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and under the canopy. So join me today for another great episode and hopefully we can inspire a few more people to live their lives under the canopy. Okay, thanks, lawrence, for taking the time and being able to come on the podcast with us. We really appreciate that. Now, lawrence, tell us about where you're from.
Speaker 6:Well, I'm based out of Lakefield, Ontario, which is about a half hour north of Peterborough. I've been there for 18 years. Oh yeah, I've been there for 18 years.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, so well, there's all kind of people now Now just for say, okay, matt, in Highland Indiana. Now, matt, I got your order out and there's a little something special in there for you. I need your opinion on it. If you could, once you get your order, take a look at that. But just so Matt understands, we're east of Toronto, probably east northeast about what an hour and 20 minutes sort of thing. So people gain an understanding worldwide.
Speaker 6:Between an hour and a half. I'd say closer to an hour and a half, to two hours.
Speaker 5:Well, I guess it depends on how you drive.
Speaker 6:Yeah, well, Highway 401 is always very slow.
Speaker 5:Yep. So, lawrence, tell us what's the name of your business and tell us a bit about your business.
Speaker 6:My home business is called Raw and Easy Pet Foods. I make raw dog food, I make pet treats and I make bone broth. I do it all from my home and I buy my stuff from specific vendors so that I know that the product that I'm putting out is clean and healthy. I got into the business 17, 18 years ago because I had three dogs and I wanted them to have the best food that I could possibly give them and have them as healthy as possible. So I started doing my own dog food at that point.
Speaker 5:So about 17 years ago is when you started, and because you had your own dogs or you weren't liking what was happening out there, or you just thought that you could do things better, how did that come about? How did?
Speaker 6:that come about. Yes, I did not like the idea of buying kibbles, because back then kibbles were not as high grade as they are becoming now. But even now I'm not really a kibble person. I've always thought that dogs should be on their natural diet, so even my dog food is all beef. So it's beef organs and beef muscle, and so I grind it all up, chop it all up, freeze it, block it and then use the bandsaws to cut it into smaller sizes.
Speaker 5:Well, something that I happened to come across. I have not checked the validity of it to make sure that it is the reason why, but my understanding was that kibble was first developed as a result of when World War II came along and they no longer were allowing them to make use the metal to make cans for dog food, so they had to come up with an alternative, which ended up being kibble that came in kind of sealed bags, which is a big difference from the way and that's the way kibble kind of first started. But I haven't verified that, but that's just one of the things that I had heard out there. I think it was a program I saw it's called PET, p-e-t, f-o-o-l-e-d. I think it was on that particular documentary that I saw that how kibble came to be, which is interesting. So you got started 17 years ago. You felt it was a good idea to come up and start making your own and some of the things that.
Speaker 6:Well, I had to come up with an idea of doing it, because when you're trying to feed three dogs, it's very expensive, so buying kibble was one alternative, but I didn't have the finances to go through and buy for three large size dogs. So I just, you know, I'm going to come up with something better, and that was I knew some guys that were at the local Peterborough farmer's market and so I started buying stuff from them, and then it just kept blowing up further and further and I got into making my own food.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I know we had the president of the Ontario Sporting Dogs Association, john Bell, on the show, and John right now I think it was last week had 38 dogs. Can you imagine feeding 38 dogs, lawrence?
Speaker 6:That would be. You'd have to have a whole herd of cows for every feed.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's quite a bit. So, john, he uses all natural products as well and feeding his where he gets a lot of the basically aged out stuff. He gets what's called the dead stock license here in Ontario and that allows, if you can negotiate with some of the stores when their meat becomes dated. So John will utilize a lot of that and process a lot of that to feed his dogs, all naturally. So you guys started about 17 years ago.
Speaker 6:We started looking at so whereabouts do you get your product from in order to process it and then tell us about you know how you process it well, I buy my products like I buy from all kinds of different outlets, but my for my food I buy my products like I buy from all kinds of different outlets, but for my food I buy primarily from vendors that I know, people that I know, with clean farms. Their farms are inspected and so their beef doesn't have hormones or steroids or any of the injection. They're fed with healthy diets themselves. They're fed with healthy diets themselves. So for my raw dog food I buy the organ meat as well as the muscle meat.
Speaker 6:Like the heart, my raw dog food is heart, lung, kidney, trachea and beef. It's all mixed together in a big vat or ground up and mixed together in a big vat, and when I grind it up I then turn around and freeze it in big 50-pound blocks. Once the blocks are frozen, then I start cubing the blocks and I then start cutting it down to individual pieces that are about three-quarters the size of a cell phone size oh yeah, you know, by maybe a two-inch by half-inch size, right? And then I bag them up into four-pound bags and I use that for my dogs as well as I sell that at the farmer's market.
Speaker 5:Okay, so now, what kind of dogs have you got? How big are your dogs?
Speaker 6:Well, sadly, I just put down one dog just a little while ago. She was a collie shepherd. Her name was Lady Timbit. She was 18 and a half years old when she passed away. Okay, my other dog was Maggie Mae, and she was a Doberman hound Mm-hmm. And Riley Elizabeth, who is a Bullmass, and Black Lab Right. And now that Lady has passed, I have gone out and got a new dog who is a rescue dog. All my dogs are rescues, right, and this new dog is from up north north someplace and her name is Melody and her second name, I think, is going to be Dot, because she has two dots on her forehead.
Speaker 5:Okay, so I just wanted to kind of get the size of the dog. So how much of this homemade material, the raw dog food that you make, how much would you feed them on a daily basis, and how often? Once a day, twice a day?
Speaker 6:I feed my dogs once a day. My big dogs are getting usually six or seven ounces, I guess is the best guess maybe a little bit more per dog. When they're eating the raw food and it's all meat, all raw food they are digesting everything that they have, so they're not getting a lot of filler, a lot of crap. So people get all concerned about the amount that I'm giving them, and my dogs are very much in shape and very healthy with the amount of food that they get. They don't get just the food though I mean, obviously, since I make raw treats and I also use bone. So my dogs get bone, they get treats.
Speaker 6:I'm doing this job every single day, so they're always going to get. They're sitting beside me drooling while I'm cutting it up, um, looking, hey, come on, dad, throw some out to us. So I I always give them a little bit of the raw food at the same time while I'm cutting it all up. And you know I'm when I'm making the, the treats. Uh, that's four or five hours every day after I get back from my work job.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 6:And so they get bone, they get cartilage, they get raw meat, raw muscle, whatever.
Speaker 5:Right, okay, so now just go over, because I know I use one of your products the lung and my dog just loves it. I have one of those big rubber Kongs I think k-o-n-g they, and what we do is we we put some, uh, uh, three or four of the the lung bits in there and then I seal it over with a bit of lightly, with peanut butter, and that makes my dog happy for the longest time. So what, what kind of products do you actually have? And so you get, obviously get lung, and what other sorts of ones are there? And what do you do when you now? Do you go to the abattoir when they're they're they're slaughtering these animals and get the lung there and and cut it up, or how do you go about that process?
Speaker 6:actually that's exactly right, so that my stuff is fresh, it comes right from the abattoir. After the farmers get their farmers get their cattle butchered, their pigs butchered or whatever. I go to the abattoirs and get the stuff right from the abattoir. They know that I'm coming, they know that they're holding it for me. So I will get liver, I will get lung, I will get kidneys, I will get heart, I will get tongue, and that's just from the beef. I also have a company called Great Lake Foods over in Chatham, ontario, that they fish smelts and I saw their smelts being sold in a grocery store and so I contacted the company and said I need to get your stuff on my table and they said sure, fine, so I order sm snouts from them.
Speaker 6:I get duck feet from a company called King Cole Duck out of Newmarket. Oh yeah, king Cole Duck makes duck dinners and things that you find in your frozen food section. They also sell whole ducks and everything out of their shop. But when they butcher their ducks they will sell you whatever that you want to buy from them. You can buy duck feet, duck heart, you can buy their duck necks, you can buy the carcass itself. So I generally stick with the duck feet and the duck necks. And again, that's all sourced food, so I know it's clean. Once I get that stuff, I dehydrate everything. Lastly, sometimes I go and look at the grocery stores and if they have a sale on something that I'm looking to do, I will then buy it, as long as it's within a certain price point, so that I can afford to buy it and not lose money. I don't care about making it, I just don't want to lose money. And then I also turn around and dehydrate sweet potato and a couple of other vegetables that dogs like too.
Speaker 5:So when you dehydrated, lawrence, do you take it down to a certain moisture content, or just when it's brittle, or how do you gauge that?
Speaker 6:I, I dehydrate everything that I sell for a minimum of 24 hours, um, because, uh, I could. I could probably do it a little bit less on some of the items, um, but I, I mean to me, I want it, it as safe as possible, and what you have to do with food is bring the core temperature up to 165 degrees.
Speaker 5:So is that what you said? Your dehydrator at 165?
Speaker 6:Yeah, so for a significant amount of time. The temperature rises and lowers, rises and lowers, and that's how it dehydrates. With a fan that blows the heat over top of the food, food is is dehydrating at the same time because of the heat, and then after the 24 hours the liver and the lung is usually done. The tendons tendons I tend to do for a little bit longer, like 20 48 hours, because they seem to take a little bit longer to dehydrate. Depending on the size of the duck feet or the chicken feet, that can increase from 24 hours to 36 hours or more as well.
Speaker 6:I make sure that everything is dehydrated thoroughly that way, if you turn around and I have people that ask me Lawrence, how long does your stuff last, I have never had anybody tell me that their stuff has gone bad because they've had it too long. First of all, that would mean that they're a bad dog owner and their dogs aren't getting their treats. But second of all, if I have stuff in my bins I've had stuff that I've had in bags that I've misplaced and found that are like six months old and they're still good I mean my dogs, my dogs will eat it. I wouldn't sell it at that point, but I would give it to my dogs.
Speaker 5:Right, yeah, and you know you mentioned King Cole ducks. I know it. Just I'd worked with some senior officials from China when I was an elected official and one of the groups was. I took the president of King Cole Ducks and we met with these individuals and she was a very interesting person who informed us that they're the largest duck processor in Canada.
Speaker 5:Now I'm not sure about North America because we didn't get into competitions in the States, but they do sell them to the States and King Cole Ducks from egg to start to finish, right from egg to finish, and King Cole ducks from egg to start to finish, right from egg to finish, processes in excess of 2 million ducks annually for the Canadian market predominantly. And when I was with the individual from China, he contacted his friend from China one province in China alone, just the one province and he said that he was telling us that he actually processes in excess of 200 million ducks just for the province that he lives in, let alone the other competing duck producers in that area, and they wanted to enter into a joint venture. But it was very interesting that these Chinese individuals were looking at the technologies and things here to process and and looking at joint ventures to try and expand into the Chinese market. But anyways.
Speaker 6:I would be happy if King Cole duck expanded that way, but I wouldn't want them expanding this way.
Speaker 5:Exactly, yeah, so yeah, king Cole ducks, but yeah, so you get quite a bit of the stuff from places like King Cole and you mentioned about the smelts and the things like that and various lung. Now these are just unused parts of animals that like because I thought there would be markets for liver and things like that. Is there not a market?
Speaker 6:No, no, there is markets for them. I am at the control of the farmers, because if the farmer needs the liver, then he keeps the liver and I don't get to have it. Most farmers don't want the material that I get. Like I get green tripe. Green tripe is an awful stuff. Green tripe is the cow's stomach. They have no market for that, other than if they want to send it away and have it bleached, and I don't know anything about that part of it. But green tripe is the cow's stomach, so chopping it up and grinding it up, turning it into dog food, there's no market for that. There's market for tongue, um, but again, the farmers, if they, if they've got sales in that they'll, they'll do that. If they don't, then I can buy it. All right, you know? Um, so I buy. I believe that and I mean that's one of my, my thoughts as well. If you're going to kill an animal, you should use everything that you possibly can right.
Speaker 6:You have to respect the fact that an animal is a living being and that if you're going to kill something, you don't just use the good stuff and then throw everything else away.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 6:To me, the good stuff is the stuff that I'm getting for dogs.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so some of it is. These people that you're purchasing your goods from are actually farmers who are utilizing it for themselves and or selling it at markets or things like that. This is, this isn't the abattoirs that sell for grocery stores and things like that that you're getting the product from no, no, this is for farmers that are selling at the peterborough farmers market.
Speaker 6:It's also. They also are selling at the lind's Market and they are also selling out of their farms, right. So they're small, small outfits, as am I, and so when they are having to butcher their stuff, like I know, the farmer takes over two or three head of cattle a week, right, and when he gets two or three head of cattle butchered, he has all that stuff treated properly and gets ready to use and then he sells it, as I said, at the farmer's markets or at the farm itself.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 4:Back in 2016,. Frank and I had a vision to amass the single largest database of muskie angling education material anywhere in the world.
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Speaker 5:And now it's time for another testimonial for Chaga Health and Wellness. Okay, we're here in Lindsay, ontario, with Rusty, who's up from California and visits us every year, and Rusty has been a faithful Chaga user for a long time. Rusty, maybe you can just tell us about your experience with Chaga.
Speaker 7:Well, I feel that it's had a significant impact on my health and well-being. I believe in what I'm doing. I think that Jerry is very knowledgeable on it. If he says something, I take that very seriously. He has spent most of his life in the health care field and certainly knows what he's talking about, and I like to be around people like that because that's what keeps me healthy, and I'm 80 now and I'm going to try to enjoy what I've created with the motorcycle and one thing or another, which will require that I live for at least another 10 years to get back what I've invested in my health and wellness.
Speaker 5:So you're seeing a big benefit from it an overall, uh, healthy environment. And when, when you go back to california next month, you actually take it quite a bit with you back to california, don't you?
Speaker 7:oh yes, we're going to be there for eight months and we don't want to run out, uh, so we take it back and we take it every day and uh, you know, I, you know, like I say, it's not a problem for me.
Speaker 5:Right, so how do you take it, rusty?
Speaker 7:I put a tablespoon or a teaspoon rather in my coffee each morning. Okay, when I brew the coffee, yeah, and I put it in as the coffee's brewing. I put that in with it.
Speaker 5:Oh, very good.
Speaker 7:And I put a little bit of cinnamon in with it too, right. And then I sweeten my coffee because, take the bitterness, a little bit of bitterness. I use the chaga and maple mix. Very good that you make up for those that want to be well and stay well, okay.
Speaker 5:Well, thanks very much. We appreciate you taking the time and sharing your Chaga experience with you, and we'll make sure you have a safe trip back to California.
Speaker 7:Sure enough, all right, okay, thank you Jerry. Yeah, thanks, rusty. Thanks sir.
Speaker 5:My pleasure. We interrupt this program to bring you a special offer from Chaga Health and Wellness. If you've listened this far and you're still wondering about this strange mushroom that I keep talking about and whether you would benefit from it or not, I may have something of interest to you. To thank you for listening to the show, I'm going to make trying Chaga that much easier by giving you a dollar off all our Chaga products at checkout. All you have to do is head over to our website, chagahealthandwellnesscom, place a few items in the cart and check out with the code CANOPY C-A-N-O-P-Y. If you're new to Chaga, I'd highly recommend the regular Chaga tea. This comes with 15 tea bags per package and each bag gives you around five or six cups of tea. Hey, thanks for listening Back to the episode Now, lawrence.
Speaker 5:I don't know if you know or not, but my wife Diane and I have been making our own dog food for years now as well, and we have a bit of a process that we go through. My wife Diane and I have been making our own dog food for years now as well, and we have a bit of a process that we go through. Essentially, we use three pounds of ground meat Most of the time it's a chicken, turkey or beef Whichever one's on sale is what we end up using. There's three pounds of that, and then I'll take about six and a half cups of washed, boiled rice, cooked rice, along with and most of the time I use a jasmine rice there. Don't ask me why. If it makes a difference or not, I couldn't tell you. It just happens to be the one on sale that we pretty much get most of the time.
Speaker 5:And then I have about three cups of rolled oats and then eggs. Depending on the size of the eggs, whether they're medium or small, I'll probably use, say, five. If they're extra large, then I'll use probably four. And then I use a third of a cup of olive oil, along with five pounds of sweet potato and apples. I use, if they're very large, apples like the Honeycrisp or the large Cosmic Crisp sort of ones.
Speaker 5:We'll use four of those, or five medium or basically six small, three large carrots, two stalks of broccoli, and we take all of those, the sweet potato or the apples, the carrots and the broccoli, and of course we'll peel the sweet potato or the apples, the carrots and the broccoli, and of course we'll peel the sweet potato and the apples and they'll go into a food processor where they're processed right down and then it's mixed all together with the boiled rice, the raw ground chicken, turkey, beef, whatever is the three pounds of that. Sometimes it's a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less, but on average it's usually about three pounds. And then, once it's all mixed up, I add a heaping tablespoon of garlic powder, oregano, a heaping tablespoon of each of them, oregano, same with rosemary, ginger, parsley and marajam. And then we mix that all together and I put it in a large pan which is about 21 inches long, 13 inches wide and four inches deep. It's a stainless steel pan and we will bake that for 82 minutes at 400 degrees and then I cut that into four or, sorry, nine sections, so that it's.
Speaker 5:It basically lasts nine days and I feed half in the morning and half at night for for our chocolate lab and he does very well and he he can't wait for it.
Speaker 5:And I know when I was dealing with John Bell, the sporting dogs president, who, as I mentioned earlier, had 38, currently has 38 dogs's getting low it used to be a lot more and he and John said he says well, you can always tell if the the right amount of meat is there. If the dog's putting on weight, then you got too much, but if it's losing weight, then you haven't got enough in there and it seems to to work very well. And we make our own food a little over once every nine days, and if we're're going away we'll freeze it in one-day sessions so that we can open it up when we're taken away or going up to camp and things like that. We've been having a good success with our dog feeding him that since we started that quite a few years ago. Then it's just like yourself. We saw that we weren't happy with the way things were and so we thought we'd make something a lot better, and we certainly try to do that.
Speaker 6:But go ahead, lars. It sounds like I mean I am a firm believer in raw food. I believe that raw food is the best way for your dog to go. I'm not a purist that says you can't give your dog anything else but raw food. But, like you, I also make a bone broth and in bone broth, um, I'm I use, I make the broth itself and then I add green beans and yellow beans and kale and sweet potato and turmeric and garlic and apples and blueberries, um, and whatever other vegetables I happen to have around the house.
Speaker 6:Uh, because I make a vat about I think it's probably a 30 gallon vat that I make bone broth out of and I use that for my dogs and I also sell that at the farmer's market as a healthy topping. So to me, I mean that's also very good for those people out there that are buying their dog food as a kibble or as canned food. They have to look at the nutritional value as they do anything else and decide whether it's what they want for their dogs. As you said, I look at my dogs and say are they able to run out in the field and be happy and frolic? Yes, and they're doing good, as long as they're not putting on too much weight. If they start putting on weight, then I'm taking some of the treats away.
Speaker 5:And I know Josh, our oldest son, has a dog, Benny and Benny. When Benny comes over and we're dog sitting, he just loves to eat and can't wait to get to our dog, Anson Gunner, his share of Gunner's food because he just loves it so much. And then we had a problem when he would go back. He'd stay with us a couple of days. When Josh is, they're often out and about and we get Benny for a couple of days. And when he goes back home he was reluctant to eat his own dog food unless they mixed it with the material that we just said, with all the sweet potato and the apples and carrots and broccoli and all the ground meat that we put in ours. They'd have to mix that with it, Otherwise he wouldn't eat because he was getting spoiled. So we regularly get disciplined about how we spoiled their dog.
Speaker 6:You can also turn around and buy stuff at the grocery store. You don't have to go to an avatar, as you said. They also have things like chicken hearts and chicken giblets at the grocery stores. Most butchers are more than willing to help you out. If you ask for specific things, Most butchers won't have the quantity that I get. That is your typical neighborhood butcher store and they wouldn't have things like green tripe and stuff. But you can still get muscle meat and you can still get some guys will sell you some of the organ meat that they have. If you want to mix and match, then that's a healthy diet for your dog as well. I can't tell you how to feed your dog. I can tell you what I have available if you wanted to look at it, and I will tell you. As I'm very high on my own opinion, I will tell you what I think is right, but to me it's what is best for you and what you think is best for your dogs.
Speaker 5:Right. So now do you add additional ingredients when you're dehydrating, or any preservatives or any kind of stuff like that in any of your programs? Salmon Is that your pro-salmon Salmon.
Speaker 6:There are so many dogs out there that are having allergies nowadays that I will not add anything to my stuff, so my stuff is all pure meat. So when I make my raw food, somebody asked me if I'll throw vegetables into the raw food so that they can give that to the dog. Nope, sorry, I can't do it. I cannot take a chance of, or I will not I guess that's a better word. I will not take a chance of dogs getting sick. To me, my business is about dogs. It's not about money, it's not about anything else, it's pure enjoyment.
Speaker 6:Every Saturday I get to go to the farmer's market and give out dog treats to dogs all day long. I have a lady that comes to my booth and sits down for a couple of hours every weekend. She's a friend of mine and she loves giving out dog treats. So it's like can your dog have a treat? Can your dog have a treat? Can your dog have a treat? To me it's about the dog, so adding stuff to it. I will never take a chance on some dog getting sick, so it is straight meat. When I dehydrate, it's straight dehydration, right off of the chopping block and onto the dehydrator so that nobody can say Lawrence, my dog got sick poison because your meat was tainted by mushrooms or tainted by whatever, because sadly nowadays I mean, I know people who have dogs that are allergic to grass so you have to be so careful about that yeah, I had a beagle that was chewing her paws raw and I took this poor beagle to I don't know half a dozen vets, maybe more, and none of them could figure out.
Speaker 5:And finally one vet who was beside the store where my wife was managing and Brad says he says, look, take it to this one guy. And we took it up to this one vet in a place called Fenland Falls Now they've retired since then, but he did great work and he did testing and he found out that our beagle was actually allergic to grass pollen and he said the reason your dog's chewing his paws raw is because it's allergic to grass pollen. He said when you bring it home, just wash his paws off and it'll be fine. And guess what? We had a little bucket of water there and wash your paws off real quick and no problems after that at all. So it was very interesting.
Speaker 6:Well, that's it With the dogs. Nowadays they are over-vaccinated. That's another thing that I firmly believe in is controlling vaccinations. The vets are no longer altruistic and are what you used to watch on TV. I honestly believe that there are good vets out there, but they are still in it to make a dollar and so they will over vaccinate. So there's ways of getting around that. But to me, a healthy dog that doesn't have any um allergies is the best thing. But there are things out there. There are supplements out there that will help uh immune systems, so that the dogs that have compromised immune systems or even just a low immune system, they can use these products that will help boost the immune system, help with their skin and coat and work as a dietary supplement.
Speaker 5:Yeah, well, certainly we're not vets, nor you know pet care professionals. But I know that Health Canada has recognized Chaga and you know Chaga yourself as one of the materials that can be utilized by dogs, cats and horses. And I had a number of individuals whose dogs had arthritis, was using Chaga and had complete reverses of the arthritis. And I know one guy. He was telling me that they had to buy a bigger bed because they had a big lab and used to sleep on the bed and then he couldn't jump up anymore. And I said well, try this Chaga. And they tried it and he said I can't believe the difference. All of a sudden the dog's back sleeping on the bed where we like him, and when we know that he's not jumping up anymore, it's time to give him some more because he's got arthritis bad, and so it helped with the pet arthritis as well, and another lady used it for tumors and a bunch of stuff in those areas as well.
Speaker 5:But vets have a function out there. That is a very strong necessity in keeping our animals healthy as best they can. It's a very strong necessity in keeping our animals healthy as best they can, and you know ours is. The food that we feed them is probably one of the most important things that we have and, as you're saying, you're not adding any additional ingredients or preservatives to any of your materials when you're making them. Right, right, yeah, and so how often? How much should you? Does it matter? Like, for example, I'm giving my dog lung, the lung treats and basically it's, it's. It's just breaks it up, it's very dry and I give it to lung, but it's not a problem giving it too much lung, is it? Or is there a problem in those areas or some of the other treats that you have, that a dog can end up with too much of that material?
Speaker 6:Well, if you talk to your dogs and ask them, they will say that they can take as much as you can give them. However, there are enzymes in the liver and so I always tell people you have to pay attention to your dog. You have to know your dog Liver. When I dehydrate liver, I dehydrate it. It's about a quarter of an inch thick. It's called doggy crack by my clients and when I snap it off it snaps off into whatever size piece that I want it to be snapped off on. And when I'm feeding it to the dogs I try to give within reason To me.
Speaker 6:Giving a dog the liver treats every day is fine, as long as you're not giving them a half a pound. My lung is called doggy popcorn. Again, my clients named it that. I'm not really sure why popcorn, but I give them the popcorn and there's no badness in any of this raw food as long as it's coming from a healthy place. To how much you want to give them? You just don't want to give them stuff that they're going to get start adding weight.
Speaker 6:I don't use it as um. I don't use it as a uh food supplement. I use it as a treat um because it's going through a dehydrator and being cooked. I find that some of the the goodness of meat when it's cooked, uh, you lose some of the goodness out of the meat. So my food is what is their meal? My raw dog food is what is their meal. So they're getting that. The treats the treats are just meant as a treat and my dogs, uh, duck feet, chicken feet, they will take as much as I'm willing to give them so do you dehydrate the duck and chicken feet as well?
Speaker 6:oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I, I dehydrate them again, like I said, for you know, a minimum of 24 hours, depending on the size. Um, I don't do the necks for the duck, I do do chicken necks, because chicken necks are mostly cartilage and chicken meat and a little bit of chicken fat. They don't have hardly any bone in it and the bone that's in the neck dogs don't even blink. I mean, I have chihuahuas that eat the neck, right, I am very, very careful about what I give out. So there are dogs out there that are like the mini Bostons and the pugs and stuff like that.
Speaker 6:I have no clue of what I'm talking about about this, but because I am so paranoid about a dog getting sick, I will not sell feet to people who have pugs or little Bostons, because they have a weird breathing issue and I'm always afraid that it's going to choke on the bone. To people who have pugs or little bostons, because they have a weird breathing issue and I'm always afraid that it's going to choke on the bone. I have chihuahuas that will take a chicken foot and a duck foot, but for some reason I just will not sell to people who have pugs or the small dogs that have the breathing issues. I will not sell them any of the feet, but that's my own thing, that's my own hang up. It's a mental thing that just says no, don't do it.
Speaker 5:I know I've seen the number of dogs coming to markets just to get your treats and they come as if it's okay, it's their Saturday event to go out to the dog treat guy to get their treats. And not only that, but it brings a lot of people to the market. So you bring a lot of individuals into these markets with their pets in order to get through and it's kind of like it's an outing for their pet their dogs in this case to come out and see Lawrence, the dog food treat guy, which is kind of interesting.
Speaker 6:It's also like I said. Mean they if, unless the owner leaves my booth, uh, I will continue to give their dogs free treats? Um, I have the lady that comes with me, uh, sandria, she, she hangs out at my booth for a couple hours every saturday and that's what she does. She wants to give out treats to dogs.
Speaker 5:It's like, go ahead and give it away now, it's not just sandria that shows up at your booth. All the time, though, is, is it?
Speaker 6:No, I have a few other people that like to come over and do the same thing, and then I have a whole lot of little kids. They come over to my booth because my dogs are extremely gentle and very, very well behaved. So parents like to bring their newborns and their little kids over to my booth to meet dogs for the first time, to bring puppies over to my booth to meet for the first time, and then they all get to give treats either to my dogs or to other dogs that are in the area.
Speaker 5:Right Now, Melody, you're making her people friendly by doing something special with your treats as well, are you not?
Speaker 6:I do that with all my dogs. Um, I do that with all my dogs. So so with Melody, I mean, she's my dog. Hopefully my hotel owners aren't going to hear about this, but my dogs come to my hotel guests who come to my hotel with their dogs as well. But everywhere I go, my dogs come with me and anybody who is near me that wants to give out treats absolutely go ahead. In order to teach my dogs to be social and friendly, I take them where people are. So I've gone to sit in the entrances of Walmarts with a bunch of treats and had people. You know people will love to see puppies. It's like here, take my dog, oh no, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it and let them hold the dogs and let them give the dogs treats, and that will teach them how to be gentle.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 6:And all three of my previous dogs and hopefully Melody after she gets a year old. All were registered as therapy dogs where we used to go in to do visits at seniors homes and group homes and things like that, because I liked the feeling I get about visiting with people and you know it's the same as my organization. They go to the hospital and a bunch of other places.
Speaker 5:Right. So how now to become a therapy dog? Is there a special designation for that?
Speaker 6:It's not like a service dog.
Speaker 6:There's lots of people out there that are wearing having their dogs wearing vests that say I'm a service dog.
Speaker 6:Service dogs are very specialized and they are also very well trained and highly trained. They have to go through a lot of rigorous tests. I know because Lady Timbit used to be a service dog, a therapy dog. On the other hand, you have to go through a test, to pass the test to prove that your dog is social with people, to prove your dog is social with other dogs, because our organization doesn't send just one dog to a location. They send multiple dogs, so they have to pass a behavioral test and the behavioral test will tell you whether you can be a part of the therapy organization or not. I highly recommend to anybody who has ever thought about it you have to go through a criminal background check yourself and your dog has to go through their criminal background test to make sure that they're not going to be bad dogs to come to it Right, and it is probably one of the most rewarding things you'll ever do being a visitor for people who are shut in that don't get to have visits.
Speaker 5:Right. So now, what's the difference between a service and a therapy dog, and what training is different between the two?
Speaker 6:A therapy dog is not a registered dog, so a therapy dog is just a. You know. You'll get a little certificate from your organization that says you know this dog is a therapy dog. She's allowed to meet with people, mingle with people. Therapy dogs are allowed to go into the mall If you announce yourself to the mall office or whatever. They're not allowed to go into food service places, so they're not allowed to go into restaurants. They're not allowed to go into the grocery stores and things like that. Most stores that are not food-oriented will allow you to bring in a therapy dog. But the difference between a service dog and a therapy dog is. A service dog is something like seeing dogs or dogs that are trained to detect people with seizures. They're meant to protect people.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 6:And so I mean I, I have service dogs come to my booth. I will not serve a service dog any treats, but any service dog that does come through my booth gets a free bag of treats that the owner picks and the owner gets it to do, because you're not supposed to interact with a service dog, um, unless the owner says it's okay.
Speaker 5:Okay, well, that's interesting. So, lawrence, are your treats and the things that you produce, are they just for dogs, or do cats eat them as well? That I couldn't tell you. I don't know. I make them for dogs.
Speaker 6:But a cat loves liver. A cat loves let me rephrase that I shouldn't say that Cats are a little bit finicky, so not all cats will eat my stuff, but I mean cats don't always eat my smelts, but they will eat the liver or the lung. So I have a number of people that will buy treats for their cats from me. They won't buy the chicken feed and the other bigger stuff, but they will buy the liver, the lung and the smelts for them.
Speaker 5:Now in the liver, I think it almost looks like jerky, does it not? Is that the one that looks like?
Speaker 6:very flat, very thin, Yep, very flat, very thin and brittle, so that when you're breaking it up, like a liver is about, if you picture a football cut in half lengthwise, that's the shape of a liver, Okay. And so then I slice it off of that and try to slice it within, you know, maybe a quarter of an inch or less, trying to slice it thin so that it can go onto a dehydrator flat, and then the pieces are four or five, six inches round as I'm putting them onto the dehydrator. But you know, any organ is odd shaped, so they don't come out in little round disks or stuff. They come in all different shapes and sizes and pieces. And it's also because I do everything myself and all I use is is knives, um, to to cut up my stuff. Um, it's only as good as my fingers. Let me.
Speaker 5:Right, well, well, that's certainly interesting. Um, and a lot of individuals you know people with a lot of pets gain some more information about some of the options that are out there and things along this line that have a lot of benefits or a lot of utilization full utilization of some things that sometimes just went in the waste but now are being turned into something very positive out in the society. Except, this society is the pet community. So, lawrence, where can people find out about you and your products, or how do they get about and how can they reach out and get more details, and where can they find you to buy some of your product?
Speaker 6:Well, as I said, I base my stuff out of the Peterborough Farmer's Market. So if you're anywhere near the Peterborough area on a Saturday morning, from 7 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon, we're at the Farmer's Market, and the Farmer's Market is year-round. During the summer we're outside, during the winter we're inside. I also have a website and I have an email address. So my email address is rawneasy, so R-A-W, the letter N, and then easy petfoods at gmailcom, and my website is rawneasycom.
Speaker 5:Well, thanks very much, lawrence. We really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us and certainly this is an option or something that people learn something a little bit different and how can they enjoy predominantly their dogs with their people out there under the canopy. Thanks, lawrence.
Speaker 6:My pleasure. Thank you very much. How did a small town sheet metal mechanic come?
Speaker 2:to build one of Canada's most iconic fishing lodges. To build one of Canada's most iconic fishing lodges. I'm your host, steve Nitzwicky, and you'll find out about that and a whole lot more on the Outdoor Journal Radio Network's newest podcast, diaries of a Lodge Owner. But this podcast will be more than that. Every week on Diaries of a Lodge Owner, I'm going to introduce you to a ton of great people, share their stories of our trials, tribulations and inspirations, learn and have plenty of laughs along the way. Meanwhile we're sitting there bobbing along trying to figure out how to catch a bass and we both decided one day we were going to be on television doing a fishing show.
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