220. Safe, Sustainable, Made in USA: West Paw’s Guide to Real Enrichment

0:00 Grass fed, which is really important because when you have bison they are by nature on the prairies and on the grasslands. The grasslands are the largest opportunity for agriculture to have carbon sequestration happen, which is really a foundational concept of why regenerative AG to your point earlier Jessica is going to save the planet when when you have big animals like bison and cattle on the grasslands, they are directly contributing to carbon sequestration. If you take those animals off the grasslands, the carbon sequestration drops. You need the animals to be there. And this is science that that a lot of native cultures knew forever. We're rediscovering it now when we buy our bison, when we buy our beef. The reason it's grass fed is because we want to make sure that those animals are spending all their life or the majority of their life on grassful lands because that's better for the planet.

0:50 It also creates A healthier, more nutrient dense products for the dog. Welcome back pet parent. I have another. Really cool interview for you today. I have been a big fan of Westpaw for more than a decade now and I have Spencer Williams with us today. He is the creator. He's the founder of Westpaw which is a Bozeman, Mt based business. They produce eco friendly pet toys and treats. Their beds are some of my favorite. In fact, if you walk into my house, I have way more beds than I have pets, and they are all Westpaw beds. 100% of them are Westpaw beds. They focus on environmentally friendly business methods and product materials, including recycled, recyclable, regenerative and organic materials.

1:40 Westpaw became the first pet product manufacturer to become a certified B Corp, which we'll talk about today. In 2015, they also became Montana's first benefit corporation. Spencer, thank you so much for being here with us today. How the heck are you? Jessica, this is such an honor to be with you and what an amazing introduction. Thank you so much for just welcoming us on to the show here and and for the education that you provide to all your viewers and listeners. It means a great deal to be a part of this, Jessica, so thank you very much. Thank you, I appreciate it. So for those of you who are new here, my name is Jessica. I am the host of the pet parenting Reset podcast that you are listening to right now. I am a certified cater nutritionist and a holistic pet health coach.

2:23 And on this podcast we talked about improving our pets health and well-being and with that also our health and well-being. One of the things we talked about a lot on this podcast, because I am very passionate about it, is how we need to do better to take care of the Earth, of our environment. I'm very passionate about regenerative agriculture. I believe it will save the planet. And so I'm really actually the very first thing I did before I ever became a dog trainer was I decided I was going to start an online store for pet supplies and I had the darndest time because at the time I was like all well, it had to be 100% US made products and I had the hardest time, but I did have West Palm products on my site. So I have been a big fan of West Palm for a very, very long time. And just like I know I told you I got super zoo when we met this year, I've been to the Super zoo. I mean, I've been to the West Palm booth at Super Zoo every year that I've been, but this year was the first year that I got to meet you.

3:34 And I tell them every year, please bring back the hemp. But sorry, pet parents, you already know that I talk all the time about needing to stop as much as we possibly can, feeding our fur babies garbage, for lack of a better word. That's what we talk about here a lot. And again, doing the best we can. That is the message above any and everything else. The more we learn, the more we know we need to make some changes. And by the way, let me know how

6:18 it goes. You know me. You can always reach out to me on Instagram. I'm here to talk to you all the time. I want to know. Let me know about it. To try Legacy Biome for your dog, visit legacybiome.com and use code TPPR 10. That's TPPR 10 for 10% off. I've been to the Super Zoo. I mean, I've been to the westpaw booth at Super Zoo every year that I've been, but this year was the first year that I got to meet you. And I tell them every year, please bring back the hemp. Those are in the way back. So we used to, you know, so we have over the course of our so W Paws in our 30th year, we'll celebrate anniversary this summer and it's amazing journey.

7:03 And it started with plush toys and beds. The product lines grew and evolved and, and as you know, sadly like we don't produce beds anymore, but a lot of our beds, thank goodness are still in use today. And we were always really innovative with the materials. And so you mentioned hemp, right? And we even had color grown organic US cotton beds. I mean, we've had all this really innovative thing because we wanted to bring great quality environmentally fronting materials to our production. And we wanted to do that not only to sell a better product for for pet parents, but when a manufacturer like Westpaw is able to create demand in the supply chain, then that creates goodness all the way up the supply chain, which is what we want, right.

7:48 When you mentioned like the hemp product, you know, sourcing hemp is a really great material. It's great for the planet, super durable, and it can be incredibly soft. So we made the hemp leashes, we made hemp toys. But what we really doing is how does West Paw stimulate the economic engine that allows for producers to create these more environmentally friendly materials? That's one of our jobs at West Paw. It's not only thinking about the pet parent, thinking about how do we create a supply chain that matters. And while we don't do those kind of products any longer, Jessica, they have been a legacy part of West Paw because they've developed, I think a brand and appreciation people have for the way we look at materials and the way we look at manufacturing and the way we want to serve our planet and our pets together.

8:33 Yeah. Well, I really, I want to get like a better introduction from you for sure. But I just want to say that it was, it was my first introduction into the benefits of hemp was learning buying these hemp beds and like learning why I wanted them. And I am a big fan and proponent of lots of different hemp products today. And that was my first introduction. So it did exactly what it was supposed to do. Yeah, that's important. Let's rewind a little bit. Can you tell me a little bit about like how you started Westpaw and why you chose the mission for Westpaw and not just make more pet toys because anybody can do that? Yes, that's a great question, Jessica. So I'll go in the way back, right? So I've always been connected to the land here in Montana. My family were homesteaders and so they came out and worked the land and created a ranch in the town that I grew up in. It's a rural part of Montana in Columbus, Mt and my dad still lives there.

9:35 So growing up, you know, around animals growing up on the land, you developed an appreciation for how you're going to care for the animals, how you're going to care for the land and the productivity you get from all of that. And so I guess I grew up really hands on, but you have to then Fast forward to the early 90s. Economics in Montana aren't great in Montana has a very rural state. It's becoming less rural. But when I started this business in 1996, the first thought I had was how do I create a job for me that has the ability to create more jobs in my community. And by building this idea of like 1 + 1 could be more than two, I thought, gosh, couldn't this company continue to manufacture product right here in Montana?

10:18 And so as I thought about that, it was the guiding light through the whole development of this business over nearly 30 years now is how do we manufacture here rather than importing it from some foreign factory. And don't get me wrong, Jessica, I don't mind that there's foreign factories that are producing incredible products worldwide. This is not a sort of political statement. It's more of an investment statement into my community. If I manufacture here, there's a couple things that happen. There's a tangential, direct, tangential benefit to our local community with a more diverse workforce. Manufacturing is one of the most beautiful types of businesses in my mind because you have all sorts of diversity.

10:58 We've got men, we've got women, we've got people who are able to work on injection welding presses, We have people who are able to do accounting and product development and sales, everything in between that exists in manufacturing. That diversity is a beautiful thing. That's why we wanted to create this business here as a great jobs in our community. And to do so, we thought let's source the materials that we'd be proud to do in our own factory and then be able to tell that story to differentiate the brand, to give more value, more benefit to our customers. And that was the origin story is let's create jobs with dignity in Montana and then grow the business to a global supplying pets around the world. And and that's been a fun journey. It's been a really exciting and challenging journey. This is not something that people write about in their textbooks at Business School.

11:49 Hey, let's let's start a pet product manufacturing company in rural Montana in the next port around the world. It's not an easy path, but it's the right path for us. Yeah, well, and I, I do want to say, you know, you're still making an incredible toys for dogs and everything that I have ever purchased from West Paw is still in circulation in my home today. And that to me is like a huge testament for the quality of the brand and why I have been wanting to have you on the the podcast for so long. I still to this day, every time I talk to people, everybody's like, cats love catnip. To this day, everybody I talked to, I'm like, I wish Westpaw still made cattle.

12:33 This is how far back I'm going. You going way back? That's awesome. That's awesome. I swear it was the best catnip ever. Yeah. Well, it was, it was again, this is the idea of like we starting in 1996, we were buying catnip grown in Oregon, certified by Oregon Tilf as organic. There was no USDA organic at this time. So we actually paid a premium to have a third party certified as organic. And I would say like in Bozeman, Mt in 1996, I don't know if you could have bought a head of lettuce that was certified organic, but we were selling organic catnip worldwide. And I think when you wonder why was that catnip so good, there's a couple things about it.

13:16 It was wait the way the way we had it harvested and when so that it had the most pungent catnip order for the cats. But it was also about this idea of clean agriculture. This farm producing organic catnip created such nutrient dense soil and in their organic management practices pictured back in the 90s, very, very much part of the earth in that practice and it created a much better product. So you pay premium products for organic work with a local farm really with nutrient dense fields and it's just creates an incredible product. So that's where the idea of philosophy of like taking good care of the planet meets high premium quality product that pets love.

14:02 I swear we're going to talk about products that you have available today. I just, I want people to understand that this isn't trendy for you. This is something you've been doing for a really long time with intention. And even today, because you have expanded into treats and chews and different things, there's intention behind it. So can we just first start talking a little bit about the toys and the intention with the toys and the the components of the to like how you're making the toys? Because like I said, every single thing that I have ever purchased from from West Paw is still in use in my home. That's awesome.

14:45 That's awesome. Well, you talk about durability is, is really when you think about the way in which we can impact the planet in a positive manner is that we have things that are very durable. So if you think about reduce, reuse and recycle, right, how do you reduce waste durability, right? How do you reuse something durability. So if you think about the three Rs in our recycling sort of logo, you think, OK, recycling would be the last piece, right? And West Paw hits all three of those reduce, reuse and recycle through our product life cycle. And that's really important. What there's there's durability from a sustainability standpoint is one of the most fundamental ways we can reduce impact on the planet and reduce resources.

15:30 It's also the way in which consumers can spend a little bit more and have that spend last a lot longer. And in our highly consumptive society, we need people to be thinking about that. What do you buy that last longer so you don't have to keep buying rebuying cheaper? And so durability is both a really important part of the environment, but it's also really part important part of the economy. The other piece that is really interesting about how we decided to manufacture and source our materials is by not importing finished goods from around the world, we're directly reducing the carbon impact of our product. And that's been a really good thing because when we think about producing our product as close to the largest market we have as possible right there, that transportation costs and the impact from that goes way, way down South. Durability and regional manufacturing makes a huge difference.

16:25 These are around this idea built around this idea of durability from the beginning. Jessica, just to your point, they're still lasting in your home. That makes me really, really proud. Yeah. And you have toys for all different kinds of dogs. One of the things that I see with especially like larger breed dogs is people are like, I have such a hard time finding things that are going to last for my dogs. And I feel like Wes Paw is one of those brands that is making toys that dogs who play rough can use for a while. It's not going to be destroyed in 15 minutes when you bring it home. So you have like a line and there's toys that are not stuffed, which can make a big difference for some dogs as well. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

17:13 So behind me, I have a toy that I'll, I'll bring down because it's it's one of the ones that you might have. So this is our Hurley dog toy and it's called Hurley because it's great to literally hurl and fetch, but it's also really durable for a dog to chew on. So it's one of our most famous durable chew toys. It's not huge and yet incredibly durable. It's also very flexible. So the fact that our material, which we call Zogo Flex, that's how we make all these products, is from our proprietary material. And that material is not only durable, but it's free of phthalates and BPA, things that you don't want to have in your dog's mouth. It's also free of latex, which can be an allergenic to people. We also focus on the fact that this is all FDA compliant material. So what's that mean, right.

17:56 When you manufacture a product as FDA compliant, the raw material that we get has to run through a very stringent manufacturing process before we even get it. And that has to be certified as being on a production line that is compliant with FDA regulations. Why have we always specified everything about these toys is FDA compliant? It's because we believe that if it's going into if it's, if it's good enough to go into a human's mouth, it's good enough to go into a dog's mouth, it's safe. So we start with safety first. So FDA compliant material, we manufacture these right on the other side of the wall here, Jessica. And, and this is one of those great toys that is a great chew toy. It's fetch. It's it's soft and, and on their teeth doesn't hurt their teeth. It's coming off that is really important and it floats. So it's just a perfect toy.

18:43 I love this toy still and it's a great seller for us. They're Hurley, so that's one of them. And that's kind of where we started that toy we invented in 2004. So it's been on the market for a lot of years and and still selling very, very well. People love the versatility and the durability. And then you come out with different colors all the time, which is so fun. Yes, yes. And, and one of our, one of our best selling products is our very famous Topple toy. And so you talk about color, this is our, our newest Harvest yellow color that's just coming out and going to market right now. And then it's combined with our, our Harvest green, which will stay through the holidays. So we have all these fun colors that come out throughout the year and, and Topple being one of those toys. The, the really fun thing about this product is again, it's, it's soft yet very durable.

19:30 And the invention here is that these products click together and so they can connect. And as you know, now you have a slow feeder that you can make harder or easier by simply loosening the top or putting them further and further together. So the tighter they are, the more challenged the dog will have. What we know, and you know this better than I, Jessica, from all Your education is enrichment is key for dogs. So enrichment can look like fetch, Enrichment can look like water play, and sensory enrichment can be around puzzle. So when we think about puzzle toys, and we invented the puzzle toy at West Paw, this category is really important to us because we knew that if a dog worked for 15 minutes on getting this apart and getting all the treats out as it rolls along the floor, that 15 minutes of mental stimulation is equivalent to taking the dog on an hour long walk in a park.

20:25 Some people don't have time for an hour long walk in the afternoon. Perhaps they're busy with a Zoom call or something. They can give them a topple, either click together or as a slow feeder where people can put all sorts of goodies in here and freeze it. And a lot of people love to do that with our topple. So it's either a puzzle toy click together, or perhaps a frozen toy with all sorts of deliciousness in there that the dog has to spend 20 to 30 minutes getting out of there to enjoy their snack. So it's a wonderfully versatile toy. It is and I love seeing pictures and I don't know how many of these pictures you see, but people put like really beautiful bowl pictures on Instagram all the time for their dogs. And I love when they use things like the topple with species appropriate foods, because then you can actually see like I'll see like a sardine or a duck foot or and it and it just it's so beautiful.

21:22 And I'm like, I wish I could be that kind of person that puts these things together, but I'm like just throwing it out. Like I'm just, you're getting fed to death. Right, yes. And I think there's, I think there's a place for all of that, right? People are at different times in their life are going to create these amazing concoctions. So if you really want to see a lot, hit #topple Tuesday or hop on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok on Tuesdays and you see topples everywhere because Topple Tuesday is a big thing. People want to share their creations. And for those who have that time and that creative energy, they know about nutrition. Like there's, there's infinite ways in which people can dress up their topple, right? And we love that this is just a huge Internet movement. But we also recognize that people are, are sometimes just busy and they just need to feed their dog. In this case, like Jessica, if you had a a busy day and you had some freeze dried premium foods, you could put it in into something like the extra large topple and it could be a slow feeder or you can if it's small enough in form factor. You put the large and the extra large together and depending on the size of your dog, now you have a puzzle that they can slowly eat their nutritious food that is maybe freeze dried. But people can do a lot of raw in here too. And it just depends on where people are at in their in their journey and how much time they have. Yeah, I think, and that's kind of a good segue into the treats that you're doing.

22:44 There's all kinds of things. You have food toppers, you have dental sticks, you even have some beef sticks that are regenerative, which I love. Yes, single ingredient treats. So what? What made you decide to start producing foods and treats? Great question. It kind of comes back to the origin story of West Pond General, right. So let's let's create an impact that's positive in our communities and let's also focus on how that's going to be beneficial to the planet. Let's think about how our products work to help pet parents and their dogs to health and nutrition. And what we know over the years is that people continue to ask what treats should I put in Topple or Rumble or even Quizzle. Those are some of our best selling treat products and we thought we have an opportunity to one, provide really clean ingredients for our pet parents who love W paws cling durable, safe products.

23:36 We also have an ability to impact the planet and community. So let's talk about grass fed. So when we use like our bison treats, and I've got one here, this is incredible. Bison tripe. Dogs love tripe. Tripe is healthy. People, not so much. Right. And and so not a lot of people eat tripe. No. Well, it smells really bad. It smells. It can smell really bad. Yeah. This product is we're going to talk about tripe, but first let's talk about grass fed, which is really important because when you have bison, they are by nature on the prairies and on the grasslands. The grasslands are the largest opportunity for agriculture to have carbon sequestration happen, which is really a foundational concept of why regenerative AG, to your point earlier, Jessica, is going to save the planet. When we have big animals like bison and cattle on the grasslands, they are directly contributing to carbon sequestration.

24:36 If you take those animals off the grasslands, the carbon sequestration drops. You need the animals to be there. And this is science that that a lot of native cultures knew forever. We're rediscovering it now when we buy our bison, when we buy our beef. The reason it's grass fed is because we want to make sure that those animals are spending all their life or the majority of their life on grass full lands because that's better for the planet. It also creates A healthier, more nutrient dense product for the dog. Now when it comes to this bison product, you think tripe smells? We have been able to use a natural process to steam this so that it is lightly steamed and therefore not stinky. People love this because the dogs love it, but it doesn't stink up their whole kitchen.

25:22 Also, with all of our animal proteins, we've been very focused on using organ meats. Why is that so important to West Paw? They are really good nutrients. Organ meats are something that a lot of people consider a waste. When you have animal proteins that go to waste, you're directly harming both the producer, so that's the rancher, and you're directly harming the planet. We want to stop that, and we have been successful at that. By buying organ meats, the rancher gets more money, more profit for the work they put into raising that animal. That's a good thing that helps restore rural areas in our country. Second, without that protein going to waste, now that protein can become energy for another living thing, which is awesome. We're not filling up landfills or rendering plants. So that is our two pronged approach on why organ meats great for the dog, nutritious, healthy, great for people on the planet.

26:17 And so we've expanded that the product line for that and we can talk more about regenerative when you want to go their way too. Go for it, I love it. Well, you, you know a ton about regenerative and regenerative is something that not a lot of people know about, but I can make it really simple. It's, it's, if you can imagine that a way in which we can produce our foods. So that's fruits and vegetables and it's animals as well in a way that regenerates the land, literally adding nutrition, nutrients, adding a carbon back into our soils, into the land. And ultimately the land becomes more productive. More productive land creates more opportunity for the ranchers and farms to get rewarded for the efforts on regenerative. So there's a tremendous movement that's been going on for really about 40 years, started with a lot of holistic management mindset work and books that have been written around holistic management started Allen Savory as well regarded in this work as an earlier pioneer is taken off and spread around the world to create an opportunity where ranchers and farmers can have better yields while caring for their animals better and creating a place where the ground gets healthier without the chemicals and the pesticides that are conventionally used and rancher and farming.

27:34 So to break down regenerative agriculture is simply creating a better product, healthier product without artificial input, input inputs that is restoring nutrient and carbon in our soils. What's not to live about that? Right. Yeah, I know. So if you're listening and you haven't heard the episode I did with Ian Somerhalder, it was just a few months ago, They're the documentaries Kiss the Ground and Common Ground that are out. I think you can watch them on Prime, Amazon Prime. And they are all about regenerative agriculture and how it's going to save the planet. Just what you said, it's going to put life back into our soil. When we have dead soil, the planet dies, basically.

28:16 And yeah, that was a fun, fun episode I got to do because it is just such a passion of mine. And I know that for some of us, it's, it's not easy to feed ourselves, much less our pets, grass fed and regenerally raised animal products or or even plant products. But the more we can shift to that, even if it's a little bit at a time, you know, our money, what where we choose to spend our money is kind of how we vote in this life for what, what matters, it matters to us. And so even if we can do a little bit at a time. So I like that you're kind of making this more accessible to people for their pets. And I think accessibility is really important when you think about this better than ingredients and better than for the planet.

29:02 It's really important to make it as accessible as possible. And this kind of comes back to the to your point of like, it doesn't have to be everything as regenerative. It doesn't have to be like everything you buy is always the most durable in the planet, right? But if you start to make those choices and you vote with your dollar around the ingredients and the durability over time, there's a huge impact of people making those different choices. And so when I think about like what we're doing with our foods, there's this idea of our our raw biotic toppers, which I think you were talking about. And why do we call it raw biotic? Is this is Western raised trout and beef, but we call it raw biotic because it's actually got pre and probiotics in the in the food. We want to make this accessible. So a Topper like this doesn't of like we should have fed the kids this right?

29:46 Like this has been good for our boys, you know, So it's it's how do you make it accessible? That's why we did a Topper because everybody can put it on the top of their food and maybe they're not able to buy an entirely regenerative bowl. Totally. That's a lot of investment. But could they top with something that's grass fed and better than and yes, we all could put a little bit there. That would be a huge a step in the right direction. Yeah, it's funny because I walked into an open house the other day and the first thing I noticed was the dog bowl and it was full of kibble. Like they had just fed the dog before they left. But on top there were like remnants of freeze dried. And it was very obvious that the dog ate all the freeze dried and was like, OK, I'm done, I'm not eating the rest of this. And then I turned and I looked in the kitchen and they had a very minimalist kitchen.

30:42 It was very small, but they had like 3 cookbooks and one of them was the forever dog life. And I'm like, yeah, they're trying, you know? And but I could see it was like the first thing I look at because I'm a nutritionist, right? The first thing I see is this dog bowl. And I'm like they had toppers and the dog only went for the Topper. That's it. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, it, it, you know, when it's, it's really nutrient available, like freeze dried is great because the nutrients are very available, right? It's can be considered a raw food at that point. But what we also notice is like with our Montana beef stick, it is our first fully regenerative product. Those animals are raised regeneratively here in Montana, They're processed here in Montana.

31:24 And those beef sticks are made just down the road from us here in Montana. And dogs love it because it is just is irresistible is what I'm trying to say. It's like your example of the of the freeze dried on top of the bowl, like the dog was clearly picking it off. And with our, our, all of our treats are single ingredient treats, but especially that regenerative beef stick. It is just irresistible to the dogs because they they crave nutrition. And what we know about regenerative and grass fed is that there's more nutrition per gram in those products and more and more studies will be coming out as as humans and pets eat more regenerative about again, it less can be more. By eating a little bit of regenerative, we actually get access.

32:08 Our bodies get access to more nutrients than conventional foods, which is awesome for health. It is, it is. It's amazing how different the nutrients are when we eat regeneratively raised foods. You also have, well, gosh, you have so many things. I'm like, what do we want to talk about next? So you have the single ingredient treats. We just talked a little bit about the food Topper. We just talked a little bit about you have bowls and mats as well, which I am. So you, you mentioned earlier about enrichment, which I'm a huge proponent for, for our dogs, but I'm also a very big proponent for not just feeding species appropriate foods, but feeding them in a species appropriate way. So I'm not a huge fan of like a traditional bowl. We need, we need something like that for containment of liquids often.

33:08 But, but I really am a big, big fan of feeding our dogs and our cats in a more species appropriate way, which is a flatter surface. And not, not just a flatter surface that could be fine on its own, but also when we can kind of put little obstacles in the way that can kind of mimic how they would eat a prey animal. I'm a big fan of that. Yes, that's great. Well, I'll let me talk about the feast that which I think you saw. We've got two different types of feast mat. I have one in front of me, the easier 1 is in front of me now. So the feast mat is, is, is very much of a flat product. It's sizable and so it works for any size dog. And this is the waves pattern.

33:53 And so the waves literally allow the feeding to happen all the way across here. And you can change it up with the dog's needs, but it's meant to be a little bit easier, but also kind of keep them focused going from one to the other of each of the channels. It's deep enough to hold liquids. And then the other piece about it is it's very flat on the bottom so it doesn't slip. And that's important for cleanliness, but also just to keep it orderly. The the backside is also our our lick mat. And so this is a a patent depending product where we have a lick mat on one side, a feast mat on the other, and we call it a feast mat because we, we, we really want dogs to feast in it. So we have this and then we also have a bubbles one, which is a bunch of circles that is a little bit more challenging. So great product from a cleanliness standpoint, dishwasher safe, like all of our products go in the dishwasher, Jessica, I think you know that.

34:40 So this can go in the dishwasher, make sure it's clean for the dog and and the material is a fun story too. But first, this is this is our solution to getting dogs to eat healthier and being able to keep it tidy in somebody's home and able to put in the dishwasher. Yeah. So that is not the same material because it's not a that didn't look as flimsy or I don't want to say flimsy. It wasn't flimsy, but like. It's it's pretty thick, which makes it sturdy, but it's also very flexible. OK, Oh, I see that now. Yeah. And so this material is made from 15% ocean bound plastic. And so we have our conventional products like these which contain recycled content from our consumer take back program.

35:25 But many years ago, we wanted to create a product line that could actually again create demand on harvesting ocean bound plastic, plastic that will inevitably end up in the ocean and turned it into something that's really safe and good. So Sea Flex was born and CFLEX does just that. This material, we work with our U supply chain who works with Oceanworks, a third party certifier who ensure that people are being paid well, safe environment to harvest jugs, plastic remnants. We get them all back to the United States where they're cleaned, chipped into very small parts and then super heated to melt. So all contaminants are wiped out.

36:06 Everything is clean. And remember this is an FDA compliant process. We blend that. I said 15%, I'm sorry, it was 12%. We blend 12% of the ocean bound plastic with our Zogaflex and we create this FDA compliant, phthalate free, BPA free durable material called C Flex. And that's what our Feast mats and our bowls and our mats are made out of. Awesome. So I'm looking on the website just to see what else there is and I actually remember this from Was it 2 years ago? Maybe at or three years ago. Anyway, it won like the best new new. I don't remember what it was at Super Zoo, the dog's best friend game which looked so cute to me do.

36:50 You want to talk about fun and enrichment, I'm going to grab it right here because it's right next to me. So the dog's best friend game. This is awesome. So this is really, really fun. It's it's welcoming your dad, your dog to family game night. And it did. It was two years ago won best in show. What we have in this in the is a game board really. You can see there's a bunch of cards that you get to draw. There's cups to that are part of the play. There's a squeaky bone and a die so that it really is family game night. There's nothing like it where you actually get to invite your dog to play with you. And the whole idea here was sitting with our boys around the table and and looking over at Nico and being like, wouldn't it be fun if Nico got to play with the family on game night?

37:34 And that's the the birth of this. This was from that idea and people love it. So you draw a card and the cards are funny and fun. They have a little bit of light training, but it's not meant to be a training game. It's meant to be fun, create laughter and joyful connection with your dog. But of course in that play there's not only bonding that happens, but there's a lot of mental stimulation and some physical stimulation as well as dogs got to solve problems. So we have scent games, we have fetch games, we have maze games, they have to go around the cups. We have games that the people have to play instead of just the dog. So remember, the dog is participant just like the human is. Yeah. And so our roles become one and the same as we work through this game. So if you don't like a card, if it's too hard, set it aside, draw the next card.

38:19 And then at the end of the game, you get a certain number of points for each card for the difficulty, and you have a light competition on who won the most points. But it's meant to be really, really fun. Yeah, it looked really, really cute and really fun, and I wanted to make sure we included it today. Thank you. Justin. One thing that I I mentioned at the beginning and we haven't really talked about yet, but what is a certified B Corporation? So that's a great question. There's been this movement that's happening for the last nearly 20 years to look not only at the product or the materials a company makes, but more importantly about the whole company. So think of it this way. We talked about organic. You can have organic coffee, it's better for the planets raised organically, but how does the company treat its employees? How well run is the company?

39:07 We don't know. So the shift is away from just certifying a product to a whole company. And that's what the B Corp movement is all about. How do you certify with a third party rigorous assessment that a business is more than just good marketing that actually has the proof behind how it treats its workers, how it treats the environment, its employees, sorry, its customers and its community. And when you put those areas of focus under a certification, you achieve a certain rating based on how you perform as a business. You submit this to a third party and then they give you feedback on that and they help you understand if you pass. What I love about it is it separates, again, good companies from those who are just good at marketing.

39:48 And Westpaw became certified as AB Corp in 2013. We were the industry's first certified B Corp. It was very early in the movement and we've been very active both in the pet industry and in Montana and around the world and getting more businesses to certify as B Corp because we believe it's all about people using business as a force for good. And and so the B Corp movement has grown tremendously since we were one of the first few 100 and now there's over 10,000 B Corps worldwide. Yeah, I remember back when I was buying all the bed, like little cards would come with them talking about how you had people, local people in Montana coming into the factory.

40:30 Like basically by purchasing this bed, you're keeping these people like who was sewing this bed and who sewed this part? And where like I, I loved getting those little like cards because it made me not only feel good about like I bought this really cool bed for my pet, but like I know who's making. I don't know who's making it, but I like, I kind of felt like I knew who was making it, which was really fun. I think when we humanize business, when we think about there's actual people who grow our food, there's actual people involved in sewing a toy or molding a toy or shipping that box. When we humanize business, it brings our world closer together and I think it brings real value to what we spend our money upon. Yeah, for sure.

41:16 So with W paw, there are lots of different things that we could be doing with our pets, with our dogs. Love that. Like I feel like I've obviously you've been around a lot longer than than I have been a customer, but in the time that I've been a customer, there's been just a whole lot of changes. And it seems like you're really just trying to kind of narrow down and be like the best you can be at what is most important to the, you know, the company values. And I and I love that very much and that you're bringing quality. Again, like I said at the beginning, you're not just bringing more products into the marketplace, you're actually bringing quality products into the marketplace, which for me is like you just said earlier, you might spend a little bit more, but it's going to last you so long. It's going to last your dog so long. I just, I just love everything you're doing and appreciate the why behind it all.

42:12 And all of that's on your website too. If people want to go and like, and you have all of these products in what was it like 7500 stores or something like that? Where can people, like I just said, people can go to your website and read more about you, about the company, but then how do they actually find the products? Well, one way is to go to westpaw.com and look at our retailer locator, which is has a lot of our retail locations are listed on there. And and what we've tried to do over the years is, is thoughtfully grow our partnerships with independent retailers, with pet specialty chain stores and try to get our product available on Internet as well. And over those many years, we've just performed some incredible partnerships. We're just so grateful for the retailers who've been with us and continue to grow with us over all these years in major markets throughout the United States would carry W paw and our dealer retailer locator would help help guide somebody there. And so of course, if they want a quick look westpaw.com if they want to see online and we supply the large Amazon, the Chewy's as well.

43:11 I would start always recommending like your local store, right, go in and and visit them, support the local customers. And we just have over the years also expanded internationally. So we're now in over 40 countries and we have thousands of stores internationally that carry our product that are all made right here in Montana. That's amazing You don't hear about that much, so I appreciate that. And it's, it's interesting as we think about what's, what were the opportunity to grow is for this industry, right. We, we know that nutrition will be a big part of our future growth. We think that we have both this story around better nutrition for dogs, but also better for ranchers and farmers on the planet. And we think we can do that really well in our future. And we see lots of innovation around new materials and new toys and new ways of feeding coming down the pipeline. So it's, it's always a fun thing here at West Palm where we get to brainstorm with our team, a small family business, right? So our team is all part of the brainstormer. Like what's next?

44:05 What do our customer need? What are you hearing? How do we serve them better? And and that's a really fun part of this business is that we get to develop products that will help the future, which is cool, Yeah. I love that I was going to ask you what's next, but you kind of just. Said jumped Jump. No, you're good. You're good. I just thank you again for being here and for helping to educate us about the why behind the products that you're bringing to pet parents. That's my favorite part of the story is, is the why. And because it's not just, oh, I want to make money, right? Yeah. That's a part of it. You need to to keep it going. But especially, you know, the sustainability part is it's, it's so important for us to think about today because like we've talked about so many times already, it's everything we buy is anymore feels like it is so cheap that it lasts, like a piece of clothing is going to last you what, like 10-10 tin tin wash cycles. And it's like everything just feels so temporary. And I even with a lot of the products that I have for my pets, it's like things get thrown out, things get, you know, donated, things go away.

45:19 But the Westpaw products have been in my home longer than anything else I've had. And I just really, really appreciate that so much. So thank you so much for for being here and helping to educate us about it. Jessica, thanks for all your business that you product you bought from us over all these years, all the good things you've been able to say about us today and in the past for the referrals appreciate you and your work helping educate pet parents today. Thank you of. Course and guys, thank you so much for being here. I know next week we're going to have an incredible new guest for you. I hope you appreciate it. Everything we brought to you today. I know you do because you're here and you listen to me talk about all of this every single week about how we can help your pets be healthier and happier. And with that, I'm just going to say thank you from me and from Spencer this week.

46:08 Please give your pets some extra love and I will talk to you next week.