Lianne Shinton (00:01)

Hey everybody and welcome. I'm Lianne Shinton from Automation Dogs. Welcome to my podcast where I commonly interview people that are speaking to dog trainers. And today I have the pleasure of interviewing someone that I think will speak well to folks that have a pet or as dog trainers who have a personal dog. ⁓ yeah, without further ado, I'm gonna probably say your name wrong, but I love saying it.

Raysa (00:29)

There you go! ⁓

Lianne Shinton (00:30)

now I'm laughing so but sorry Raysa Raysa which is a beautiful name I got the the rolling Rs that I learned in my French Canadian

training and Raysa is from Healthy Smiles Pet Dental and what part of the world are you in?

Raysa (00:41)

Hmm.

So I am in Florida, United States. ⁓ We actually have four locations here, but we do have a location in Texas, in Houston.

Lianne Shinton (00:56)

Okay, cool. And what part of Florida are you in?

Raysa (00:59)

⁓ I am right now in Dania, which is like 20 minutes from Miami and 20 minutes from Fort Lauderdale. So it's literally the city on the beach that is right in the middle of both.

Lianne Shinton (01:12)

Okay, cool, cool. I ⁓ love Florida. We're planning on moving there in August. So I'm really excited about that. Yes, yes. So I'll be bringing Flirty to you so you can see her ⁓ healthy smile. She doesn't have a lot of teeth left. She is a retired working dog, sport work. And so she's done a lot of like biting the bad guy stuff and.

Raysa (01:18)

Oh my god! Oh that's awesome!

Yes.

Lianne Shinton (01:40)

It wore her little teeth down. Yeah, so. So tell me a little bit about or tell all our listeners about what you do and what healthy smiles does.

Raysa (01:42)

that's great. Mm-hmm.

That's great.

So here at Healthy Smiles, we do non-anesthetic dentals for cats and dogs. So it's basically the same type of dental cleaning they get when they go under general anesthesia. We just do it without. So that way we eliminate all the risk of anesthesia, the side effects, and any issue that is caused due to medications. So the animals are completely awake, start to finish. The process takes a little bit longer than an anesthetic dentals because we do stop, we give them breaks, we let them walk around.

So it takes about 45 minutes to an hour, an hour and a half sometimes for the older pets, but that way we can make sure that we do a perfectly clean teeth inside and out. ⁓ We use the same tools, it's same, know, hand scaling, ultrasonic scaling, we polish the teeth, we do a full dental report for them, ⁓ before and after pictures also in the report. So it's everything that they're going to get, we just have eliminated all the risks.

of the anesthesia.

Lianne Shinton (02:52)

That is excellent. I've definitely had a couple issues where I've had dogs that were put under for surgeries and they had seizures. ⁓ And then I think certain breeds might be a little bit more prone to certain side effects from certain anesthesias too. Maybe whippets might be one, which I've heard.

Raysa (03:01)

Mm hmm. Yeah.

Yes.

Yes.

And also like brachycephalic dogs, so basically dogs that have no face, like the Frenchies that are super popular, the Pugs, the Shih Tzus, all those dogs with no face, they are also higher risk for intubation properties. So here, by the way, we do Frenchies almost every day.

Lianne Shinton (03:18)

Mm-hmm.

⁓ yeah.

I bet they're very popular. Yes.

Raysa (03:39)

Yeah, they

are so popular.

Lianne Shinton (03:43)

Now is

this is Healthy Smiles, all these locations in Florida and one in Texas, is this your business?

Raysa (03:51)

Yes, ⁓ we are not a franchise. Some people think we are, but we are not yet at least. ⁓ So they're all under the same umbrella, same company. And actually you will probably find me at all five locations too.

Lianne Shinton (04:07)

Yeah, the life of an entrepreneur. how did you get... Yeah.

Raysa (04:10)

It's wonderful.

Lianne Shinton (04:19)

And actually before

I go into asking kind of how you developed this and created this big business with like, it sounds like five locations, amazing. Congratulations, by the way. But I like to start with some icebreaker questions. My first is if Jurassic Park were a real park, like there were actual dinosaurs that we could go see, would you go?

Raysa (04:32)

Thank you. Thank you.

Yes. Definitely, actually. I don't even have to think that.

Lianne Shinton (04:48)

Okay. That's what I said too. It's, yeah.

Yeah. Bring it on. I want to be able to click.

Raysa (04:55)

Yeah, I am

Lianne Shinton (04:58)

Yeah, you...

Raysa (04:59)

obsessed

with Jurassic Park obsessed so for me it's like yes yeah absolutely

Lianne Shinton (05:02)

Ha ha ha!

Yeah, I'm the same. It's funny when people say no, because I'm like, why wouldn't you want to check that out? I definitely sign me up for clicker training. I have velociraptor. No problem.

Raysa (05:20)

you

Piece of cake. ⁓

Lianne Shinton (05:23)

Yeah, now healthy

smiles actually cleaning the teeth though that might be a no.

Raysa (05:31)

Mmm.

I think they're going to require sedation for those.

Lianne Shinton (05:37)

Yeah. Now,

I guess before we go into all the amazing details of your business and what you've created here, but like, what do you do with a dog that has a bite history or is just really uncomfortable with being handled? Do you recommend they have to go for a dental at a clinic that does anesthesia?

Raysa (05:58)

So sometimes we do. take every case is different. So and every dog is different. If we're talking about, you know, a little nippy chihuahua, we can still work around that dog. ⁓ If we're talking about an aggressive husky, most likely that dog is going to have to go under anesthesia. ⁓ You know, we've been doing this for 16 years and in 16 years we've never really had a casualty and nobody has been gone to the hospital. Farrow Bay's understanding animal behavior so well.

Lianne Shinton (06:24)

Knock on wood.

Awesome. Awesome. So ⁓ how did you get started in this? Are you a veterinarian?

Raysa (06:36)

Yes, so I'm a vet and I came to the States many years ago. You don't have to the math there, ⁓ but it was 2005. And then I work only dentistry. Since the moment I got here, I work for six years straight, just dental cleanings with anesthesia. ⁓ But being in the behind the scenes in an animal hospital, you get to see really what

what happens behind the scenes in some of the cases and how we end, we ended up losing patients that were just there for a dental cleaning because of a side effects of the anesthesia. So it came to the point that it's like, this isn't wasn't worth it. Especially when you look at a healthy dog and just the idea of that terrible thing happening when it's just a routine dental cleaning. It's like, mean, come on.

So I started doing dentals just without anesthesia and see if the dogs stay. And if they let me actually get my hands in there and put tools in their mouth to realize that they do stay. And they do pretty good. They do not fuss. They do really, really good. For the little dogs, we swaddle them like babies. ⁓ Everything is done on the floor level. So it's not like there's no table or nothing like that that they can fall from.

So we're laying on our bedding mat with the dogs and they do really good. The little dogs in the swaddle, it's perfect for the large dogs. We do them exactly how they wanna be done basically. So like a German Shepherd or a Husky, we're not gonna swaddle. ⁓ But we do them exactly how they wanna be. So some dogs, I do them standing up and some dogs, I do them sitting down. ⁓ So you kind of work around the behavior. So I love that this podcast. ⁓

has a clear connection with trainers, because trainers, it's something that they would totally understand this part of like, you have to work around their behavior. Every dog is different. and that's, it's crazy because some of our techs, their background is actually more in training, and those are very, very successful when they transition into this.

Lianne Shinton (08:35)

Mm.

Wow. Yeah, I would think it would be. Yeah, that's very cool. Because a lot of trainers, they're running their own business and they get burned out and this might be another field that they could work in. I think it's really cool that you've built four locations in Florida and now one in Texas. Did you plan on that?

Raysa (08:56)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yes.

Lianne Shinton (09:24)

How did that happen?

Raysa (09:25)

Not at all. Not at all. At the beginning, we were just mobile. So I partnered up with animal hospitals and grooming facilities and pet boarding locations and maybe even some trainers. And we went there and we did just group of dogs for them. ⁓ So, and that way we also started getting recognition and just proving our concept that this is possible and the animals do stay and they do pretty good.

So then COVID hit and I feel this is like a story for all every business out there. It's like the before and after of COVID. But when COVID hit in 2020, we were kind of like a standstill because most of the house calls we were doing, the people didn't want us there. And then the partner locations we were doing, well, they don't really want us there. So I was like, oh, this is crazy. So during that time decided to like, you know.

I think this is the time that we should just do our own. And when the world comes back online, then we should just have our own location. So we did the first one, a plantation, and that was, I think that lease was closed at the end of 2020. ⁓ And then after that, ⁓ all the, that one was very, very successful, very soon. So, so it really like pumped us all to like make sure that, that we did more. So then we did for Lauderdale and.

the one in Houston and then Miami and then the newest baby is Boca. ⁓ That is doing really good, but it's only been there for a few months, but it's doing really good. So the idea is to make sure that, I mean, if we can be everywhere, we'll be everywhere, really.

Lianne Shinton (11:07)

And so I would think you'd be hiring people and looking for people as you're growing. ⁓ What kind of, yeah, so trainers, anybody that can read animals. And a lot of times it's just, I feel like it's natural, but when you go to get a dog out of the crate, which I'm sure you might have dogs drop off in the morning and you use a kennel type environment and just.

Raysa (11:15)

Always.

Yeah.

Lianne Shinton (11:36)

getting the dog out of the crate and being careful there. That's something us trainers, know, it's sometimes it's natural. Sometimes we have to learn it. Sometimes the dogs teach us, but there's just so many areas where things can go wrong. So definitely having team members that understand a little bit about behavior, I'm sure helps a lot, especially when you got your face and your hands right around.

Raysa (11:46)

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yes, 100%. And you know, it's a funny thing because like at the beginning of Healthy Smiles, we were only hiring like bed techs. And it was just like bed techs, you needed to have a hospital background, you needed to be certain amount of years doing anesthetic dentals. And then we came to realize that it wasn't about that. It was really about the attitude and the personality of the person. And believe it or not, like we found that a lot of trainers, even groomers,

ended up being better than the, than the bed techs. And that, and that has a lot to do, you know, with, their own, like their own personalities and how they like, the dogs are awake. So I think bed techs came in not understanding that, Hey, now is where, things, where things change. Like now the dogs are fully awake. They're not sleeping and you're used to bed and sleeping while the groomers and the trainers have patience because they are used to dealing with the animals awake.

So it's like, ⁓ it was like a full revelation. I'm so glad that we opened it up and gave a few people a try to realize like, my God, there is something here.

Lianne Shinton (13:04)

Yeah.

Yeah, very, very cool. ⁓ Amazing too that you've opened up five locations. That is just so exciting. And maybe share your website so people can learn more about where to find you.

Raysa (13:12)

it.

Yeah. ⁓

Yes, so our website is healthysmiles.pet. ⁓ They can find all the locations there and also a lot more information about when to know that your pet needs ⁓ an dental cleaning. We have a fantastic blog there and there's a lot of really, really good articles that they can find. like home remedies, things they can do at home. There's so much now.

Lianne Shinton (13:31)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Raysa (13:54)

⁓

I feel now it's a really good time for being a pet parent. There's a lot of information out there. mean, there's a lot of information out there. ⁓ But there's also like a lot of home remedies and things that you can do at home. Not everything has to be like, you know, what it used to be.

Lianne Shinton (14:10)

Could you share a few home remedies so maybe people could be a little more proactive with their pets now and get some takeaways that they could help their teeth?

Raysa (14:21)

So my favorite and the one that I've seen that actually work amazing for the teeth is actually coconut oil, which is the simplest thing ever. ⁓ But we have clients that instead of brushing with regular toothpaste, they're brushing straight up with coconut oil. And I'll tell you what, I started doing myself that with my dogs. And it's a complete different day and night. When they are due in six months, they barely even have anything.

when we have other dogs that are like full built up using like regular whatever toothpaste that they buy at the store. So it's a million times better. know, coconut oil is a natural anti inflammatory, natural antibacterial, natural anti-fungal. It really works for a lot of things. ⁓ So that's an easy, super easy ⁓ thing they can do. We even had a client that put a tiny bit of baking soda on the coconut oil.

And she's just brushing with that but I gotta tell you these dog's feet are brand new and the dog is 14

Lianne Shinton (15:23)

Yeah, we had one ⁓ Wippet who just had a dirty mouth and we had to really stay on it. just regular brushing did make a world of difference. Now, it may seem like a small thing, but the finger toothbrushes or a real like toothbrush.

Raysa (15:41)

It depends. Personally, I like the Real 2 brush more. I feel that you have a lot more reach, that you can go all the way to the back. Imagine that the dog's mouth composition goes all the way up here. So with the regular brush, you can easily just get in there. With the finger brush, well, you are putting your hand in there. So it hurts a little bit. We've gotten people that are like, yeah, then he bit me. It's like, maybe not your finger.

Lianne Shinton (15:49)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it hurts a little bit.

Raysa (16:11)

But the finger brush, we have some clients that absolutely love it and that's the only thing they use. Whatever you're gonna use, if you're gonna go down the route of using a regular toothbrush, just make sure that the bristles are soft. A lot of animals have gum sensitivity, so if it's a super rough toothbrush, sometimes they bleed a little and then that discourage people of continuing.

Lianne Shinton (16:37)

Any other home remedies like something they should be chewing on or not chewing on?

Raysa (16:42)

The easiest one of chewing and and this one is something that a lot of people have already at home is raw carrots so those baby carrots are Amazing. They're amazing. They are supernatural. They clean up the tea. They're high in vitamins. So like why not? But I'll tell you if you can get your dog to actually like those you will see a difference for sure So instead of like giving them

know, greenies. This is actually a lot healthier, a lot better.

Lianne Shinton (17:12)

yeah.

Yeah, and more affordable probably too, so that's cool.

Raysa (17:19)

I'm more

Yeah, you know, we're having a lot of issues right now ⁓ with everything that's out in the market when it comes to dentistry in general. ⁓ One of them is the yak shoes. So that big block of like the Himalayan yak shoes. Yes. So it's just too hard for the little breeds. So we've seen a lot of fractures in the teeth. Also the antlers. That's another thing that is just too hard for the little dogs.

Sometimes it's too hard even for the big dogs. Like we just had a dog that we couldn't do because he has a fresh fracture and the tooth is bleeding and it was actually antlers. So ⁓ anything like that, obviously, you know, stay away from any chicken bones or anything that breaks. ⁓ That's also super unhealthy. But when it comes to fractures and broken teeth, we're seeing this more and more and more ⁓ than years prior.

You know, it's funny because I just came back from Global PEREXPO not long ago. And in the PEREXPO, I got to talk to the people from the YAK-2s and the Antlers and nowhere in the bag, nowhere, it says like, by the way, this may actually break your thoughts, Steve, like, or like be very vigilant of it, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, so I think I should add something.

Lianne Shinton (18:40)

Yeah.

Raysa (18:49)

to the back to make it clear that yes, this can happen and yes, this is not suitable for little dogs.

Lianne Shinton (18:56)

Okay, yeah, like a disclaimer to help people make good choices for what

Raysa (19:00)

I mean, something, it's devastating when we have to tell them like, hey, like this is happening with your dog and this is the reason why he stopped eating or whatever happened, what happened. And it's usually one of those two. It's usually, I gave him something I just bought, like, God, you know, and you can see it, like it's hurt, it's bleeding, it's more of a medical emergency at that point. And that needs to be done on their anesthesia because most likely the tooth will need to be extracted.

Lianne Shinton (19:16)

Yeah.

Yeah, stuff to think about. I definitely want to start brushing Flirty's teeth. She's probably not gonna be happy about the baby carrots. I can tell you that right now, but I might have to dip them in peanut butter for her. ⁓

Raysa (19:40)

What? Oh, there

you go. Oh, there you go. For real. Oh my God. You give her the good life.

Mm-hmm.

Lianne Shinton (19:51)

⁓

Is there anything else that you wanted to share as far as at home remedies or bones that they should chew or shouldn't chew? Anything else that we need to dive into there?

Raysa (20:05)

In general, I always tell people, ⁓ when you go to the store, put your whole nail into it. ⁓ If your nail doesn't even go through it, don't give it to your dog. It's just too hard. If the tree doesn't bend at all, it's just too hard. Get him things that are more bendable. ⁓ There are some good options in the market. Groobies is one of the treats that we like.

They also have grooves so as the dog chews, it kind of like cleans the teeth. ⁓ Greenies, it's probably the most popular one just because it has probably the most budget. ⁓ But ⁓ even though it's the most popular one, we really haven't seen any big improvement with greenies. ⁓ But we have a lot of people that are using them, you know, and a lot of people swear by them. We just really haven't seen.

Lianne Shinton (20:45)

Yeah.

Raysa (21:00)

great improvement, but there are a lot of like good treats in the market. They can try, ⁓ stay away from things that you cannot understand or you cannot read. Like I just saw a toothpaste that I couldn't understand any of the ingredients. So like, you know, like that's crazy. Like there was no one ingredient that actually makes sense. just like, always like, even though it is for your pets, always read the labels.

and make sure that it's things that you can understand. If you're not gonna be comfortable using it on yourself, don't do it.

Let's see something that they do not know. ⁓ Maybe the most shocking thing to our clients is the fact that we do cats and that we do a lot of cats. So it's a constant like almost like convincing the pet parents ⁓ of cats like yeah for sure bring them in let's see let's see because it's a constant like no I don't think you can do it no there's no way there's no way but believe it or not.

Cats are sometimes even better than dogs. They are like, they have less teeth. Let's start with that. So a cat have only 30 teeth and the dog has 42. So we're starting already with less teeth. The teeth are a lot smaller. And then remember when I said that the dog's teeth go all the way up to here? Well, the cats go all the way up to here. So like, you don't have to push that lip that far.

to actually find the teeth, ⁓ which makes the dentals a lot, a lot easier, a lot faster. And most of the cats are almost like in shock. So when we're doing the dental cleaning, we do swaddle them, but I gotta tell you, I don't know if it's like swaddle effect, just a shock effect of what are you doing, but they do stay and they stay pretty good. So I would encourage people that, hey, like if you have a cat, let us try it.

Like you'd be surprised, you'd be surprised. Rarely we decline cats and I think very, very rarely we decline even because of behavior.

So in general, cats are better.

Yes. Yeah, not at all. Not at all. Like I said, like we haven't really experienced that. And we're really good about telling like, ⁓ let's not mess with that cat. But in general, the cats that we do, it's crazy because a lot of the cats are really just noise. So they start with the hissing and all that, but they never really go full to like attack mode.

So yeah, I think if you put a cat next to a chihuahua, the chihuahua most likely will go to attack mode than the cat. So you're safer with a cat. So yeah, no.

Thank you.

Well, would like to... I would love this year to put two more locations. ⁓ One of them is more like Northern Florida. And deep inside between you and I, I would love to go to New York. So ⁓ that's really ⁓ where my heart is at. Also, I feel New York has so much concentration of pets. ⁓

and even larger veterinary facilities. And it's crazy because they're like a block away from each other. So that really speaks of the volume of how many pets do you have just in that teeny tiny little space. ⁓ But I think it would be amazing. We do get a lot of New Yorkers here, a lot. Also a lot of people just moved to Florida.

Yeah. So we get a lot of New Yorkers and it's probably a daily thing, especially in our Miami location of like, when are you guys going there? When are you going there? So it's like, ⁓ let me survive this five.

Yeah.

Yeah, you know, it's a it's it's really a struggle. I'm not going to lie. ⁓ Just like you say, like I feel entrepreneurs in general, we do have like shiny ball syndrome and like it's a constant like, my God, we can't. No, no, no, no, that's crazy. But we can do this. No, no, no, that's going to be going to take too much time and that's going to be very expensive. like ⁓ it's a constant like having to reel back and like, hey, go back to basics. It works. It's fine. We already proved concept, you know.

In general, we do around a thousand dogs a month amongst all of our locations. So it's like, I think the concept has been proven. ⁓ We do really good. like, almost like if it ain't broken, but I agree with you, it's a struggle. It's a struggle. Like maybe in a month, if you ask me, be like, I want to do this.

probably exactly what I'm doing. I would love to be the best at doing ⁓ not anesthetic dental cleanings for cats and dogs. Yeah, I personally, I love what we do. Love it, love it. I will do it every single day. ⁓ The challenges with managing a business is not really the process. the service is amazing. It's so happy to see the pets come in happy and live happy.

You know, it's just managing the business. That's what the struggles are.

Hmm.

Yes.

Yeah, definitely.

Thank

the

I think I would definitely be in healthcare, maybe working in a hospital. I love ER. I'm obsessed with ER shows. I watch them all. I just finished the fifth. And I always think that, man, I would have been really good at that.

So it's probably the one thing I would like to do, maybe just ⁓ an ER doctor.

Yes.

Yeah, so my dad is an ophthalmologist. ⁓ And my mother is not, she's an accountant. But in general, ⁓ both of them entrepreneurs and both of them ended up, you know, doing things separate from even what they were doing. He ended up actually putting a printing business. ⁓ That was pretty big and very important for where we're from, that is Dominican Republic. So...

So yeah, so that's kind of like a little bit of the background, but I just love medicine. I love diagnosis. I love mystery diagnosis. I love home remedies and things that you can do by yourself without needing so much, you know, very expensive pharmaceuticals.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. We do. First of all, every case is different. So in general, we try to stay between the grades of periodontal disease one and two. That is like the minor grades. ⁓ Level threes are the ones that we do based also on the history of the pets. So we have some 18 year old dogs, 17 year old dogs that come to us. You know, those dogs, they don't have any other option. So this is their option to get their teeth cleaned.

And believe it or not, we've been able to get some of those dogs to like even at 18, the teeth still look pretty good. With any type of dental routine, whether it's anesthetic, non-aesthetic, home care, whatever, consistency is the key. If you do not stay on top of it, forget it. So that you have to do the dental cleanings. You have to brush at home if you can.

There are water additives now, so there are some easier products that people don't even have to get in there that will help. So those are ⁓ something else to consider in general, that what we do is not magic. ⁓ We can clean up the tea today, but it really is up to the pet parent to take on now the work that we did and just like homework at home. ⁓ As for stories of dogs that we've done and cats that we've done, I mean, with...

We have so many stories, but it's always nice to see them through the years and see how they develop and how the mouths have developed. have dogs that we, this is the only process that they ever got. And today they are 15, 16 year old and the teeth still look brand new. So it's something, it really gives us that good feel of validation that what we're doing is important. It does make a difference. It's not only cosmetics. So there's definitely like...

something there. In general, probably the most shocking case I've ever did was the dog that came to us. And it came to us with the issue that the dog has stopped eating like a few days before. But this lady went already to like four beds. after, they all told her like the teeth are really bad, you need a dental cleaning. So she ended up with us. But the moment I started the dental, I was like, well, the teeth are not.

that bad to cause the dog to stop eating. ⁓ But then just checking the mouth even more, the dog had a huge mass in the mouth. Huge, huge. I have pictures I'll send it to you. it's huge, huge mass. So it's just like, and it was one of those things that you could see that this didn't look pretty, it was pretty bad. So at that time we were able to tell her, we...

found out what's going on with their dog. This is what's going on. So we refer her to another bed. The dog ended up obviously having cancer. It was a form of melanoma in the mouth, but he got surgery. He got surgery and we actually got to see her after and she literally stopped by just to say, thank you. You guys saved my dog's life. ⁓ Cause nobody could figure out what it was. And it's almost like, how could they not? Like it's a...

It was a pretty sizable mass. Being in this industry for so long, I think that you just go through the motions sometimes and just check the teeth real quick and move on ⁓ when there's a lot more that can happen to the mouth. So that was a really feel-good moment for all of us that this dog ended up living a really good life because we caught it on time. It actually got the surgery and it was good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ha ha ha ha.

Absolutely. The first time, clients are the ones that we know, like, ⁓ let's see how he does. ⁓ But we have clients that come religiously every six months. So when they come back, most of those dogs are totally fine. They already know what's happening. They already know, like, hey, this is not going to hurt. It's fine. You'll be fine. So that's also one of the reasons why we created our membership program.

And in the membership program, you pay a low rate ⁓ for the dental cleaning, lower than the retail price. And then we split up the payments. So you pay monthly and then you come back in six months. You don't pay anything when you come back. ⁓ So that way we made it super easy for people to like, you know, if it was ever about affordability, then let's put that aside.

You know, a regular anesthetic dental, at least here in Florida, costs anywhere between a thousand to $1,200. Our dentals are $209. And then if you do sign up for the membership and you have a small dog, that drops to $165. So, and then we made it even easier. We'll split up the payments in $27 a month. And then just come in six months, you already pay your $165, you're good.

And that is like, you really can't make it any easier than that. that, and we have over a thousand members. So you gotta believe that it's a good time to be a pet pairing. It's a good time to be a pet. There's a lot of like, you know, options for care.

Right.

Right.

Right, right. And it works both ways. Yes, we do have consistent revenue, but we also have something that kind of like to force people come back in six months. ⁓ Because if not, then they will come like once a year, once every two years. And it's like at the end of the day, we would love to see this bet twice a year. So that way we can stay on top of it too.

and prevent anything and just keep the mouth clean. So this is a good way to achieve that. ⁓ Most of our members do come every six months and once in a while we get our straggler that still pays for it, but it's like once a year type of client. But in general, ⁓ they do come back in six months.

⁓ I wish they understand that this is going to be very comfortable for their pets. It's going to be, it's not going to be painful. get that question asked a lot. Like, is it going to be in pain? my gosh, it's going to hurt. It's not going to hurt. You know, it shouldn't hurt. If we feel at one point like this animal is in pain or he's experiencing something else, there's root exposure or things that causes pain. We're not going to proceed with that dental.

You know, those are the dentals that we tell them like, hey, like you do want to get this done on their anesthesia, it might need extraction, cetera, et cetera. But, but in general, no, a dental clinician should not hurt. ⁓ It should, it should be, and, and it's also very like, ⁓ for those clients that are super nervous for them to know that, Hey, you can always stay in the location and you can always even peek at your dog. Like all of our rooms have glass doors. So.

So it's like, there's really nothing, it's not like the dogs go to the back and you never see them again. They are like, if you wanna stick around, if you wanna see your dog, if you wanna see how he's doing, you can do that. So, and if that gives you some type of peace of mind to understand that, that it's not gonna be like you'll be completely separated from your pet and never know what happened. That's really not the case with any of our locations. Also, we don't really have cages at our location. ⁓

All the every single pet get their own room. So the procedure takes anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour. But during that time, that's your pet in their room with their tech. And then, and then, you know, when the next pet comes, then then we switch. But, but in general, there's no really like a cage or nothing. They're not tied up, nothing like that.

So, there's not a bus for those people that are like, I don't want to have any cages. We don't have any cages. And they're always welcome to like take a tour of the locations and see them.

Yes.

Yeah, you know, I'm doing this, I've come to the realization that people are more afraid of the dentist than what you think. Because it's like, I hear that comment a lot, like, my gosh, is it going to hurt because it hurts me. It's like, well, it really shouldn't hurt you though. You know, it doesn't hurt me.

Yes, mm-hmm, yeah, that's it's, yeah. I feel that, I think he messes up. I think that's people think. So it's, but you know, in this stage where people are so humanizing the pets too.

It's like a constant like, you know, because he hurts me, it probably is going to hurt him. It's like, no, no, no, no, no, it shouldn't hurt you or him. like, you know, a dental cleaning really shouldn't hurt. There's maybe some parts of a dental cleaning are a little on the uncomfortable side, but they're not painful. so it's a, yeah. So, so yeah, that's, that's another conversation, but I, but to your point, we hear that a lot. We hear that a lot.

We hear lot of guys, is it going to be comfortable? Is it going to be painful? Is it going to be okay? Like, yes, yes. But at the end, like if you, if you actually want to triple check and quadruple check, you can actually stay, you know, nobody's going to kick you out. Also like our lobbies are very comfortable. You have coffee. Like it's, it's very, it's very nice.

Yeah, yes, yeah, a thousand percent. And you know, and most of the times we try to explain that to the parents like, hey, you know, he'll do better without without if he doesn't see you, if he doesn't hear you, you know, because if not, he literally spends the whole day just trying to reach for you. But a lot of people do get it and they understand. But and then we also do the

the reference with the, it's like a toddler, they do better with strangers. So that's kind of like that, but you do have the client that is like, no, my baby, I'm never leaving. So that's okay. Yeah, I'm sure.

I think I would do definitely a market study and just see what makes where in the city makes sense. ⁓ In places like New York, just the square footage of the location is going to be very important just because just what they charge for square footage is an arm and a leg. So like ⁓ you want to make sure basically that you make it as small as possible but functional.

A few years ago when I had the opportunity to go into Miami, because Miami is very like New York, and the space that we gather is the smallest space. It's only 680 square feet. However, the space totally works. And it has the divisions that it needs to have. It has all the rooms that it needs to have. It's perfect. So that gave me hope of like, hey, this will be the concept for the big cities. It's teeny tiny like this.

Finding the location, it's number one. Making sure that you're in a really good area. Food traffic is very important. ⁓ Very, very, very important. Don't even think that it's not. Try to get yourself out there as you can. All of our locations are either in Plaza's right next to Publix, or in Texas, it's right next to Kroger. But then the...

⁓ and then the one in the, Miami is the, is the one that it's, it's literally in this Mac middle of, of the city across from the mall. So it's like, if there's so much going on. So that's, that's probably number one. And then number two will be just, just the hiring process. ⁓ when you go into a new city, you have to like, make sure, you know, you have the staff to fulfill that location and that could take a while.

So I will probably start hiring, even when we start doing the construction, just start hiring and making sure that we have a good team, strong team, you know, reliable because this day and age, it's kind of hard to find, which is crazy. like, you know, 16 years ago, I wouldn't have said that, but, but now I feel like reliability is a thing, punctuality is a thing. ⁓ Just finding people that.

Yeah, it's hard. It's gotten really hard. And I have a lot of friends that are still in the vet world, that are doctors. And it's a thing. It's a thing across the industry. It's like just being reliable and having work ethic. It's incredibly hard to find now.

So, yeah.

You

Thanks.

Mm-hmm.

You do, you do, you do. And never let desperation take the wheel. like, you know, cause I feel that at times we've all been there by the way, we've all hired that person that we knew it wasn't the perfect fit, but with the hopes of like, you know, I can fix this ⁓ just to realize that no, no, you cannot. ⁓ So, so yeah, so that's, that's like, I always tell.

other business owner, don't let desperation take the wheel. Take your time. Even when things get hard, you hire that person that when you go home, you feel really good about. But if you're someone with the hope, I'm going to change her or I'm going to change him, like, it's not a good fit. It's like entering a relationship with someone that you're like, I don't really like him that much, but I'll change him.

I'm sure, I'm sure. It's a tough time and it's tough for also like, feel our business, dog training, know, maybe grooming, all of that sits in a place where it's really like, ⁓ it's almost like a luxury type of business. You ⁓ you wanna train your dog, yes, but it's like, ⁓ just like us, by the way, just like us. That's why I think, you know, memberships are a good move.

⁓ and just keeping people engaged, maybe creating different programs. Like maybe now you're, you're done with this training. Maybe now you move on to level two or level three and it just keep people like engaged and keep the dogs engaged. Cause it's just, it's, it's just not like we're not the vet. You guys are not the vet. So it's not like an necessity type of business. It's more like. Yeah. So, so that's kind of like where we are. That's what we always brainstorming and thinking like, okay, what else can we do? How can we.

How can we bring in more people? What other things can we do? You know, we do a lot of events also at our locations and we do like pictures with Santa and Mother's Day event. They're like just things to like bring them in and remind them that, we're here. So, so that's, ⁓ but it's not easy though. It's not easy. Like owning a business in general, it's not easy and owning a business also in that specific, it's not easy at all. I know a lot of trainers that started.

And so went down the road, you know, deserted and ended up doing something else.

yeah, of course.

my God. Things feel really hard. ⁓ Let me think. ⁓ think in general, okay, so one of the things that we have today that we didn't have, it's a little bit more of just automatization when it comes to our software. So now we have like automatic, you know, texts and email.

Um, and all of that, a lot of that was manual years ago. So, so that was, that was one of the things, you know, one of our big wins wins was that we finally got our software now to connect to our Google analytics. So basically we can see if our Google ads that we pay a lot of money by the way are working. So, which is a, it's a huge win. It's a huge win because a lot of the times, you know, you want to advertise and you want to do, you know, whether it's meta ads and Google ads.

whatever it is, but then what happens when you don't even know for sure if it's working? So that's been a really, really big win. Those things used to be very hard. Now it's kind of like easy PC. We can actually see whether the ads are working or not. And at least that makes you feel better about the money that you're spending, especially Google, because Google is very expensive.

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

I will probably, I feel like I need a year off actually. I'll probably go to Punta Cana in Dominican Republic. So I'm originally from the Dominican Republic and I love it there. I miss it there. ⁓ If you haven't been, I encourage you to go because it's it's paradise and it's a wonderful place.

It's a wonderful place. So spending a year in the yard. Yeah. That's probably where my heart is at. Yeah. I always say that every time I retire back home.

Yeah.

in Canada.

you

Florida is awesome. Florida is awesome. It really is like a mix of every culture you can think of. Like we are all here. So I think ⁓ it's a wonderful place. It really is a wonderful place. You're gonna love it here for real. Nothing against Canada. I just feel that the winter in Canada is too long. ⁓ my God.

It's too much. ⁓ It's a little too much. But in my traveling to Canada, I absolutely love it. I think it's beautiful. I've never been there with the cold, cold though. ⁓ So I've always tried to go there in the summer.

⁓ hmm. This is about the business or personal.

⁓ have, I have one, I have one. This is, this one is, is actually really good. You know, ⁓ in 2020, when I wanted to like pivot to the, to the locations, ⁓ I actually met an investor and he was, ⁓ investing at the time in mobile veterinary services. And, and so he fell in love with the, with the, with everything with the way, what we were doing, the services and everything. So.

So he's actually the investor that helped us to get to where we are today. I think the small decision, it looked small at the time, now it's huge. ⁓ To like take the investment or something I was avoiding by the way for like 10 years. So for everybody that came and was like, I was always like, no, no, no, no, no, it's fine. I feel almost blessed that I did it when I did it because during COVID we were closed for three months.

And I was able to keep the whole staff pay and everybody okay because I had already taken the investment. So had I not done that, I think we would have lost them all. So that's, ⁓ it was almost like God told me, take it. Sometimes I guess opportunity come knocking and we either notice it or we don't. ⁓ In that specific case, after saying no for so long, I finally say.

say yes, and he's been wonderful. He's been wonderful. So I am super grateful to everything. If we got to where we are today and talk about more locations and expansion and everything like that, it's because we are well back, for sure.

A little. A little bit of a aww. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like, I don't think I need the help. ⁓ I'm gonna bootstrap this whole thing. ⁓ It's crazy, because I was very no, no, no until one day I was like, you know what? I really wanna do our locations. Let's do it. And like a month after that, COVID hit. I'm like, my God. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. But I, I like to tell people, you know, I've, I managed to meet a lot of people in, in my life that have been very no, no, no to other people investing. ⁓ and they don't wanna, they don't wanna give away a piece of the business or even a tiny bit of equity, nothing. ⁓ but it's like, Hey, like just imagine just giving away that tiny bit where you can be.

you know, and the things that you can do. So I would encourage people to like sit with the deal, read it, come back, know, say something else, but don't say no right off the bat. Like not every investment is bad.

Yeah.

No, just come see us. And you, when you move, when are you moving?

Okay, that's awesome. My God, you guys are like just packing it up and coming. I love that.

Wow.

Oh, Florida is wonderful. Florida is wonderful. You guys are going to love it here. You guys are really going to love it here. My biggest thing to all the trainers and non-trainers that are listening is just understand that there's different ways to make a cake. like, know, up until now, we were just like, there was only one way to train. There was only one way to...

do a dental cleaning. like, we're trying to figure out ways that, hey, you know, training has changed a lot too, for what it used to be. even like disease or malign times, like training has changed a lot from that to what it is today. ⁓ Same thing with dentistry. there are options for your pet. You know, your dog's too old, if your dog is too sick, if your dog has kidney failure or liver failure or heart murmur, hey, there's an option. We can still get the teeth cleaned.

clean ⁓ without affecting the issues in the organ. So that's my biggest recommendation. Just keep an open mind and you'll see.

Yeah. Yes, their website is healthysmiles.pet. is P-E-T. And then when you go in there, just go to the blog, just go everywhere. And it's amazing. It's amazing. Our website has a lot of information about what we do and.

and the dentistry for cats, for dogs. like, think it's a good, ⁓ and if any of the trainers that are listening want to contact us and get even more information or maybe how do they even start or wherever they are or want to bring their pet, whatever, ⁓ they can always contact us on the website or they can contact me directly. My name, Raisa, at HealthySmiles.Pets.

Yeah. Thank you.

No, you're good.

Thank you. Thank you.