Speaker 1: This is Pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets.
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Best Bets from Pets. I'm
your show host Michelle Bourne. So if you have dogs,
you've probably experienced this, you know, and it's July fourth,
or it's New yor Zeve and the noise just gets
to them or thunder. Oh my gosh. One of my
dogs used to hide in the shower and shake the
entire time, and July fourth one of my favorite holidays,
never was ever one of my dog's favorite. While my
guest today has a solution that is really different from
anything out there, and I cannot wait to introduce you
to her. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 4: Let's talk bets on Petlife Radio. Dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome Kirsten Brand. She
is the founder of Conex. Welcome Kirsten.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: I'm so happy to have you. Can you give us
a little background on yourself.
Speaker 5: Sure. I am an engineer packaging engineer for most of
my life, so I've done a lot of new product
launches with different materials that your products come in from packaging,
some new product launches for dog and cat food. So
I've always kind of been in the pet related space
somehow and loved it because I worked for a company
where I could take my dog to work, So learned
a lot through actually taking her to work. So my
own dog and why we invented ponics. She's scared of
thunderstorms and fireworks, just like many of the dogs out there.
And she was also traveling with me to make these
dog and cat food treats, and so she'd be on
a plane with me and just the overhead slamming was
getting to her as well, just any kind of loud
noise as she was getting older, and so one day
I put my own human headset on her. She calmed
right down and I was like, Wow, I can do this.
But this is super awkward holding this human headset on
her little head. So I was like, how do I
basically take the plastic off and make it something that's
just for them and comfortable for them.
Speaker 2: Okay, talk a little bit about Conics, which is what
you created, their noise canceling headphones that help calm your
dog during periods of when they might be anxious, like
loud noises, which is mostly what it is, that's what
mostly brings up their anxiety. There's other stuff on the market.
I was reading about your product. I know you've tried them.
I tried them, the shirts, the oils, and nothing worked.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly That's where I was.
Speaker 2: So can you give our audience, our listening audience. This
is a challenge, but a good description of what Conics is.
Speaker 5: Sure. Ponics is a noise canceling solution for dogs. So
what it does has the only electronic in the market
that takes the noise in and basically makes the ante
noise for your dog so that it doesn't hear the
loud noises as much. And it also has the ability
so that you can play music or white noise for
them to help calm them down. And these are placed
in like a helmet basically around their head to help
it stay on. Like you said, there's plenty of things
out there on the market. We don't disparage them. They
just didn't work for our dog. They work for a
lot of dogs out there, and we also recommend them,
like in conjunction with each other when your dog has
been struggling with this for a long time, because over
time they release a lot of cortisol in their system
and their fight or flight just becomes stronger and stronger,
and it takes a lot to countercondition them out. So
when we have really bad cases, of course, we want
everybody to try ponics, but we also say, hey, if
you have a thunder shirt, you might as well wear
that too, because it's different compression points. And you know,
we haven't personally tried any of the aroma's out there,
but we've had a lot of customers say that, you know,
in in combination it helps.
Speaker 2: I tried one for my cats and it was okay.
For my dogs, it didn't work.
Speaker 5: And all dogs are different, right, Like some dogs have
the problem at all. Some dogs, like just the vest
is a solution. Some dogs, you know, need every single
solution out there, just because they've been scared for so long.
Speaker 2: Right now? Does ponics also work in the car for
dogs that are anxious in the car?
Speaker 5: My other dog, Teddy, he is not so much afraid
of the loud noises. When he sees his sister Emma
put hers on for thunderstorms or fireworks, he's like, I
want mine, I want mine. But he's a boy that
gets very anxious in the car and gets carsicked very easily.
And I noticed on a couple of road trips if
I just put his own ponics on him, he chilled
out and just went to bed and there was no
longer like you know, the big drool that comes with
the anxiety or any throw up. So it's been a
good solution for us to also use it for that,
And we've also taken it into our veterinary appointments to
help calm him down and kind of just be in
his little own space by himself. And it really seems
to work for him for different anxiety situations that may
not just be related to loud noises.
Speaker 2: Okay, And to dive deeper into how it works, so
you know what it reminded me of. This shows how
old squallly am you know, the jughead kind of hat.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yes, yeah, with the ear flaps.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, So it kind of looks like that, which
is adorable on your dogs. And it has, you know,
like you said, there's earphones inside. You can charge it,
of course not when your dog is, you know, not
on your dog. Charge it separately, and you can play
white noise. You can play other types of music as
well to get on your dog.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of great studies out there that repeatedly
show that classical music and reggae because of the slow
beats per minute, have a very calming effect on shehell dogs.
And so I recommend that to our pet parents, and
they've agreed with me that their dogs tend to have
certain favorite artists that they get drawn to, and whether
that's because you play it in your house a lot,
or it's a slow beats per minute, they really get
soothed and kind of just take it into a nap time.
We also have some other features that aren't as obvious.
It does wrap around their whole head, and they do
have pressure points like in their cheeks and of course
like in their forehead. So you'll notice when you're rubbing
your own dog that they kind of relax when you
hit those spots, and so we're adding a little pressure
to help induce those acupressure points to help calm them
as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks, we're going to talk more about pun X.
But you were on Shark Take and had an exciting experience.
I was, yes, I watched it. Can you tell us
about your experience?
Speaker 5: Sure? All the whole team that produces it is just
a fantastic and no matter how scared you are or
how you don't want to go on TV, they really
take all the end of the scary work out of
it until you hit those doors, those doors that open
right before you walk down the hallway. It just kind
of resets you. And I was there standing and holding
Emma and all I remember, which didn't air, but it's
kind of funny, was the doors hadn't opened yet, and
I just said, you know, Jesus, take the wheel and
I thought it was internal. And afterwards the producers were like,
that was so cute. We don't know if it's so cute,
and I was like, oh my god, I said that
out loud, like you just kind of like you know
what you're doing, but you don't because it's such a
huge set, and it's they have a vibe about it
right to kind of like pump you up. But also
I have you a little intimidated of the sharks to
make some good TV. But we got out there and
the sharks were wonderful. You don't get to see exactly
like how nice they are because sometimes you know that
it's supposed to be sharks. So a little bit of
me was thrown back by that about just how nice
they were. Over the period of time that we were
out there, I have a lot of fan mail and
customers that say the Sharks didn't get it right, and
they all understand this challenge that we have with dogs
that are so scared of loud noises, so we love
every time it re airs. We get a lot of
fan mail, whether it be on social media or direct emails.
So it's really great that not only are we helping dogs,
but we also provide a little entertainment factor for people
that kind of know of the situation but maybe not
have a dog that has this, or maybe they're going
to adopt a dog in a couple of years right
and maybe have that situation, so they'll have us in
the back of the head. So it was a real
fun time. May not look like it for everybody all
the time on the show, but Emma and I had
a really good time.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what I wrote in my notes. Do you
think the sharks just did not get it because you've
presented fantastic?
Speaker 5: Well, thank you, yeah right.
Speaker 2: Mark, if you been gave you kudos, great, But all
the sharks were just at the end of it, you
didn't walk away with any deal with them. Although I
think you were so successful in presenting connics, they all said,
you know, oh, just get a foam thing and put
it on your dog's head. And I'm thinking, you guys
are smart, educated people, How do you not get this?
This is more than that.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I mean at the time, there weren't that many
versions of something that was just like a hat for
your dog, right, So there also wasn't anything in the
dog space except for like invisible fences that was at
the price point that we're at that's one ninety nine,
and that's solely because of you know, the electronic that's
in there and everything that we did to put into
the electronic that specifically for the dog. They didn't get
it right, and they're used to operating at a much
lower price point at much higher, like very high volumes,
so that they can spin things really quick and get
the margin that way. So I just wasn't a good
product for any other portfolio. And I can totally understand that.
I just wisher. I had like a really die hard
bet shark on the panel that day, but I didn't.
Speaker 2: Write because you know, you have the price point out there.
And for one ninety nine, think about the one time
your dog escapes, because that happens so much around you know,
July fourth and New Year's and times when there's loud
noises and dogs are nervous, your dog escapes and gets hurt.
How much is that vet bill?
Speaker 5: It's a lot more, way more. The uptick is like
six times the volume goes into the shelters at that
period of time. And it's no longer just fourth of July, right,
It's right now your neighbors are setting off fireworks for
like a month straight, right.
Speaker 2: And if you live in a place where there's where
I am, where there's rain and thunderstorms and all that craziness,
you know, you look at the cos benefit and there's
just a huge value in ponics. Okay, We're gonna take
a short break and we'll come back and talk more
about how ponics works and super easy even if everyone listening.
If you're thinking technology can't handle it, yeah you can.
I'll be right back after this message.
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Speaker 2: Done, petof Radio, Petline Radio.
Speaker 4: Pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. We're talking to Kirsten Brand, the founder
of ponics. So, Kirsten, how does ponics work? So we
talked about the electronics. There's in the actual conics little
like cap there's or headset rather head what would you
call it a hat a dog.
Speaker 5: We call it a hat a helmet. I mean, okay,
rugby helmet, but it's super cute on your dog.
Speaker 2: So it's really cute and there's little headphones inside and
it's chargeable. So how exactly do you set it up
and change music and all of that? Because some people
out there, and I know because I save the emails
or like, technology is not for me. And it's not
only people that are really old. I get it from
all walks of age. So how easy is it to
set up?
Speaker 5: It's pretty easy. So so when you get it, we
recommend that you do a little treat training to introduce
your dog to it. Let them smell it, you know,
kind of offer a treat at the same time so
they see it as a positive and not just always
associate it with a loud noise and a negative. Because
if you introduce it with positive reinforcement, they'll end up
asking for it over time, Like they will know that
a thunderstorm is coming long before you do, and they
will go and basically say, hey, something's wrong, I want
my ponics, like give it to me so you can
put it on their head. After a bit of treat training,
we suggest that right before loud noises, and then it's
simple because there's a little button to press and lights
will come on to tell you how much charging it has,
and then there's one blinking light that says that you
can pair it with something with bluetooth, so that could
be your iPhone or a tablet or a pad or
something that's a smart device where you can play music,
but you don't need to actually play the music for
it to work. So we had it so that the
active noise canceling is always on, and so if you
don't feel like pairying it or the bluetooth step is
a little challenging, we also have directions for that on
our site. But it's that easy that basically it's on
and then you can put it on your dog's head
and kind of hang out with them, get them out
of shaking in the bathroom, get them back to cuddling
on the couch with you. Some people use it and
turn it on and take their dog for walks, because
you know, there's nothing worse than after fire works than
trying to get your dog to go to the bathroom,
so they find comfort there. How the electronic actually works
is that there's a couple of microphones in it that
pick up on the loud noise and they go and
they basically, through the software program make the exact opposite
of the noise, so that the wavelengths sorry for too
much physics, but the wavelengths will knock each other down
as it goes into your dog's ear. And so that's
the main benefit of this noise canceling. Everything else is
a nice to have to help calm your dog down
and change their reaction over time to the loud noises.
Speaker 2: It's an incredible product. Do you foresee something for cats?
I know it's like mission impossible to get any clothing
on cats, but my doggies are now in doggy Heaven,
so now I have cats. My tester, though Tilly, is neurotic,
and she did really great with her products, but I
was wondering. I almost wanted to try to put it
on one of my cats, and I thought it might
freak them out.
Speaker 5: The only thing is that with the cat's head, since
they're so small like the little dogs, is that sometimes
it becomes a weight issue because of the current size
of the electronic So sometimes, like I have had a
couple of cats and they just go into like the
little petrified stance right where they're more like, oh, this
feels different more so than having it on their head.
So when we can figure out how to get a
speaker to be small enough for a cat, then we
totally will do it. But right now we have challenges
like everybody else did in the chip market, and we're
focusing on the core, and then when we can have
research and development time to figure out how to make
it smaller, we totally will. We didn't want to go
the air bud route right of like putting something in
your animal's ear, because I personally don't know how far
it can go in or not, and I wouldn't want
people to be damaging their pets ears. So that's why
we went with the you know, kind of lays into
the ear or is over the top of the ear,
so that there was no worry of how far do
I insert this.
Speaker 2: I think that was this smart move because their ears
are sensitive and for dogs, for cats, I have two
cats with ear hematobas, which is supposed to be a
rare thing. So why did two thirds of my feelines
have it? I don't know, but I know about their
ears even more than I want to as a pet
parent because of that, and I think it's smarter to
lay it over. What about sizes you mentioned, you know
it's a little hard for smaller dogs, So what is
the range of canine that the pawn expit?
Speaker 5: So the smallest we basically say if your dog's head
is eight inches in diameter and the vertical so like
around the top of their head through their chin, then
the extra small is pretty good. And then we have
sizes all the way up to our friendly Great Danes
and Pyrenees and big guys and an extra large.
Speaker 2: Does the ponics stay on pretty well? Do dogs keep
it on? I know we talked about in the first
half of treat training, but once it's on and they
get used to it, they keep it on for the
most part.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for the most part they keep it on. A
lot of dogs just end up chilling out, relaxing and
kind of going to sleep. The more active dogs can
be a little challenging, so we have some velcrol loops
around that can go around their collar. We added a
bungee since launch, so it can act like a hoodie
and kind of tighten around their face to help puld
it on. So we've done a lot of you know,
comfort engineering, I'll call it from feedback from our customers
over the past four years, and I think we're at
a good spot of more about relaxation. We're working on
some versions that maybe for more active dogs and dogs
that are in airplanes and more for protection of hearing
than dogs actually being scared, and so those may be
a little more streamlined and a little more helmety and
a little bit more compressing to help fit. So stay
tuned for those because we're still in the research and
development and phase of that, but we are working on
new versions, and the current versions stays on pretty well
as long as you kind of have a chill dog.
If you have a super active, ramunctious dog, then they
may not want to keep it on their head, and
we just urge you to, you know, kind of try
some more treat training to see if they'll stay calm
and introduce it kind of more at nap time and
times where they're not as rambunctious.
Speaker 2: And that's pretty much true for just about anything you're introducing,
you know, take them to the dog park around first,
wait till they're chill, you know, because when dogs are
high strung, it's hard to introduce them to anything new.
What about puppies.
Speaker 5: We've done a couple puppies, and generally the biggest concern
is what if my dog grows out of it? And
we're pretty generous to work with sizing, like if we
get the sizing wrong on the first time, we offer
a free swapout of sizing of the outer headset. And
same with puppies. Right like, you don't know how fast
they're going to grow out, especially if you're not exactly
sure what kind of breed they are and how big
they'll be, especially if you get a rescue puppy. So
we suggest getting you know the size they are right now,
and then come next season if it's spring, summer, fireworks specific,
then we'll work with you to just swap out then
for the new size.
Speaker 2: It's perfectly safe for puppies. Ears.
Speaker 5: Yes, we have a limiter on it that right now
is fifty five decibels because we wanted to make sure
that we weren't introducing any new hearing damage or anything
for any of the dogs of any age.
Speaker 2: Okay, so what about keeping it clean? Are there she's
with that or does it hold up?
Speaker 5: Holds up pretty well? It's wicking fabric, so you know,
they can get it dirty. They can you know, have
fur all over it. And the electronic is removable. It's
actually in little pockets when you flip the thing inside
out so that you can actually pop it in the
wash and put it in the dryer on a low
temperature heat.
Speaker 2: And we didn't mention this, but it comes in really
cute colors, so you sent me pink, thank you. Tilly's
a female and she's i think part pitball, so it
looks really adorable because she's she's a very friendly dog,
a little bit you know, kind of strong puppy, and
she has this cute little pink ponted sign. So I
already spelled it and said pink. But it comes in
some other colors as well.
Speaker 5: Yes, So our most popular is a gray, which is
like a heather gray, so it's not a solid gray.
And then we have a lighter pink, Yeah, it's more
like a hot pink, and then a lighter blue i'd say,
kind of more on the Caribbean tropical side than you know,
a navy or anything, so can go. Those two colors
can go year round. And then we have a red
because you know, sometimes the boys don't want to have
a softer blue, and sometimes they'd like a different option
than the gray. So you know, red's a very good
strong color for boys and girls. So we have four
colors to choose from and the five sizes.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks, I know that you've gotten some great reviews.
Can you have a customer store you could share?
Speaker 5: Sure. One of my favorites is Charles. He was one
of our first customers. He's a very large dog, so
we actually had to make the extra largest specific for him,
and his ears are very wide, so we went ahead
and made an extra wide, long eared version for him.
And his mom is so great she sends us feedback
all the time. First Charles didn't like wearing something on
his head, and then he got used to it, and
then he would ask for it, and you know, the
summer season, he was wearing it all the time. And
then his mom actually forgot where she put it in
the house and couldn't find it. And so since she
posts so much on social media about how great it
is for Charles and how he also kind of tunes
out his other dog siblings when he's in it, that
we were happy to replace it because she never ended
up finding it, but we just love that over the
past four years that Charles has found so much relief
in it that we were happy to replace it because
we really just our mission is just to relieve stress
and anxiety from pets and pet parents. So not only
did it help Charles, it helped his mom, Pam and
the whole family. So we're super happy that, you know,
we could continue to help, and that's that's one of
our favorite stories.
Speaker 2: I love it. It brought up a question, if you
don't mind answering, is Ponduc's also good. You said that
when Charles was wearing, if he would chill out from
his oblut siblings, if the dog is just a little anxious,
like you know, you when you adopt a new dog
and bring it into your home, and especially if there's
other dogs there, your dog can be anxious, and some
dogs just roll that way, they're just anxious dogs. Can
it help just with that as well as you know,
the other triggers like loud noise and thunder and so forth.
Speaker 5: Yes, I think so, of course, I'm you know, not
in the anxious dog's head. But what I've what I've
seen and what I've heard from customers is that it's
helping in a multitude of situations that we didn't we
didn't set out to market for, right, so we we say,
you know, it's great for the major things, the thunderstorms,
the fireworks. We also have videos of our our own
dogs and customers and cars and helping them in airplanes.
Those are kind of the obvious, but what we weren't
thinking about also was like, oh, what have I called
it a power tool season?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 5: Like, you may have things going on in your house
where you're getting a little remodeling done, or maybe something's
loud outside and dogs have benefited from that, especially when
you're in the city and you're living in an apartment
and no control over like jackhammering going on outside. So
there's been a lot of customers giving feedback of all
sorts of situations that they've found their dog finding comfort
that we didn't think to market to.
Speaker 2: That's so interesting. Kerston Pnics also does some giving back.
Can you share that with us?
Speaker 5: We not only physically help out at shelters, but when
you buy a Ponix, there's a portion of the proceeds
that goes back to two of our favorite charities. One
is the Old Old Muzzle Sanctuary, which is basically this
fible one C three that goes and rescues older dogs
that aren't being adopted out of shelters because of how
old they are. And seeing that we have our own
old dog that really really is next to us, our hearts.
And then where we are in Michigan, right next to Detroit,
there's a really great rescue called Rebel Dogs, and we
donate to them as well, because these ladies that run
this organization, they will go out when it is negative
ten degrees out and be saving dogs. They will go
out in the pouring rain, They open their houses and
rooms when the shelter's overflowing, and it's just it's such
a great organization, especially when we live in a town
that is having food scarcities and things, and just going
out and being able to take care of these dogs
is so important. And then also when people hit us
up for their own charity events, we are super happy
to help out because not everybody knows about us. And
then it's really great when somebody at a charity event
is like, oh, well, you know, there's a bunch of
collars or stuff like that, and then they stumble upon
something like ponics that can really help their dog. It's
a great benefit not only going back to the charity
that is getting the money for their own use, but
then whoever receives the ponics does so and as a
benefit for their own dog.
Speaker 2: That's wonderful. Where can people find comics?
Speaker 5: Sure you can finance at ponics dot com. That's paw
nix dot com and we're on all the social medias
as ponics, A and C.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks, and you also have on your website you
have frequently ask questions. You have sizes, colors, pictures, all
of that. Yes, so they can find everything out. I
can't wait to see what you're coming out with next.
Thank you so much for coming on Best.
Speaker 5: Bets for pet Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2: I hope you all enjoyed this show. I tried Ponics
on Tillie. She is my dog tester and she's a
little high strung and I was so impressed with ponics.
She took to it quickly and mellowed out. Normally she
just goes nutso with loud noises and bangs. I was
throw So check it out ponics dot com. Thank you
Tilly for being my Ponics tester. Thank you to my
guest Kirsten Brandford coming on Best Bets for Pets and
telling us all about ponics. Thanks to everybody that's been
listening to Best Bets for Pets for fourteen years. I
so appreciate your listenership, and of course the show would
not be the same without the magic of Mark Winter,
my producer. Thank you Mark for making me and my
guests sound amazing. Now, remember you never know what we're
going to have next on Best Bets for Pets.
Speaker 1: Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on Petlife
Radio dot com.