E405- I Was Too Late With My Dog… Every Dog Owner Needs to Know This

[SPEAKER_01]: I never thought about that, and even bigger than that Sam is so many people listening to this podcast can't bring their dog to a vet because the dog has aggression, reactivity, anxiety, the owner's freaking out, that's what honestly as a trainer, that's one of the biggest concerns dog owners have.

[SPEAKER_01]: My dog needs to go to the vet, but I can't because of these reasons. [SPEAKER_01]: Yep. [SPEAKER_01]: The tell of that thing is a game changer. [SPEAKER_01]: I got back from Montana yesterday and I was out there shooting a documentary. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm working dogs and it was... [SPEAKER_01]: probably the coolest experience of my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's amazing. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: It was so cathartic and emotional and fulfilling. [SPEAKER_00]: What kind of working docks? [SPEAKER_01]: So essentially, they're borecolleys. [SPEAKER_01]: And I've been super passionate recently about Telery Rollin. [SPEAKER_01]: Good?

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_01]: I've been super passionate recently about... [SPEAKER_01]: uh, working dogs and highlighting working dogs and showing people what working dogs are. [SPEAKER_01]: So I went out to Montana. [SPEAKER_01]: I reached out to this cattle company and they used dogs to push cattle and they do it on horseback, like real cowboy stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I reached out and I was like, I had the love to just come be a fly in the wall. [SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to immerse myself into what you guys are doing. [SPEAKER_01]: And I want to showcase what working dogs are all about. [SPEAKER_01]: Because a lot of people as a dog trainer, a lot of people get working class dogs, border collies, all-sees, different shepherds, malinwals, even personal protection dogs, and livestock dogs.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the reason why a lot of people have behavioral issues with these dogs, and the reason why dog going to struggle with all sorts of different stuff, anxiety, reactivity, aggression, is because these dogs are supposed to be doing stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: They were born to do stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: And so, and they were like super, I interviewed like four or five people and these guys, it's called bear hug cattle company incredible like they were like, yep, come on out and I'm I'm talking real deal cowboy stuff the first day I'm on a horse.

[SPEAKER_01]: riding through and I'm not a horse like I am now like I'm a certified cowboy now But like I didn't grow up riding horses I did a couple lessons before I went out just to prepare myself because it's pretty dangerous if you don't know animals big animals And they're wild too like they're run they're running you know 20,000 acres they're running all day [SPEAKER_01]: So anyway, I get out there and they teach me everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm watching these, I post some on my Instagram. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, this was like watching Michael Jordan in the 90s, like in his prime, like, I'll up there on horses in these dogs. [SPEAKER_01]: We did seven hours on the horse and we were riding through pastures where the cows were grazing and the dogs [SPEAKER_01]: were working.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm riding a horse and the dogs are running with the horses and then when we all stop the dogs are working and at the end of the day the dogs are going and then they just go in the crate and they sleep and they do it into more. [SPEAKER_01]: It was again like one of the coolest experiences in my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Very cathodic, very fulfilling. [SPEAKER_01]: I got emotional like I was just sitting there and I was like, I was like, this is scratching in it. [SPEAKER_01]: I never knew I had ever. [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, [SPEAKER_01]: We're moving to Montana, moving to Montana, like I'm a cowboy now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, same welcome to the podcast, thank you so much for coming on. [SPEAKER_01]: Why don't you just introduce yourself to the people who are listening and watching? [SPEAKER_00]: Great. [SPEAKER_00]: Samantha McKennan, I'm the Chief Experience Officer at Theutch Petting Shirts. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and so basically we linked up because my dog Burley, uh, he, uh, she's had to explain this.

[SPEAKER_01]: He, um, gotten some people know about this and people don't, but he got into a really, um, bad situation where I was in England. [SPEAKER_01]: Do you know about this? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: So you got into a bad situation in England.

[SPEAKER_01]: while I was gone, I was seminarian. [SPEAKER_01]: And long story short, he almost died. [SPEAKER_01]: And it costed me lots and lots of money. [SPEAKER_01]: And I was reaching out, I was talking to a buddy about it. [SPEAKER_01]: And he was like, oh, you should check out Fetch. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I have Fetch.

[SPEAKER_01]: My friend works for Fetch. [SPEAKER_01]: So I checked it out and I was like, okay. [SPEAKER_01]: Somebody from Fetch, she needs to come talk to me because I think dog owners just don't realize [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm going to be honest, I was, I was hit with about a 20,000 plus dollar bill in two days.

[SPEAKER_01]: Easy like that. [SPEAKER_01]: And I was shocked, like, genuinely shocked. [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, okay, so let me ask you this, if I didn't pay this bill or couldn't pay this bill, what would happen? [SPEAKER_01]: And they were like, well, there's no service. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So tell me a little bit about Fetch, the company, like how it was kind of, like how it's, where are you guys, like what your mission statement is? [SPEAKER_01]: What you guys are doing, what you're passionate about and why you guys are doing what you're doing. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'll start by saying that's not an uncommon story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pet parents spend a lot of money on vet care. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a $40 billion industry. [SPEAKER_00]: $40 billion pet parents are spending on vet care in the US alone. [SPEAKER_00]: We see pet parents with vet bills, thousands of dollars. [SPEAKER_00]: The vet care industry is grown so much.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've made fantastic strides in what they can do to save our pets. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what's fueling this, that cares up 60% over the last 10 years, the cost of that care. [SPEAKER_00]: And the shift of people really considering pets to be part of the family is a big part of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll do whatever you can to save your pet. [SPEAKER_00]: see that bills that come in and the tens of thousands of dollars. [SPEAKER_00]: Last year we had a dog that had open heart surgery to save his life and it was a $45,000 bill and we were able to pay that family back $36,000. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what's feeling it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our mission is to help pet parents give their pets a longer, healthier life, and that care is a cornerstone of that. [SPEAKER_00]: The vet community's been able to do and learning from human health care, and we see the same treatments and pet care that we used to see in human health care, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, [SPEAKER_00]: jokingly tell a story about a dog I had growing up. [SPEAKER_00]: We had a black lab when I was a kid and back then she knew she was hit by a car and it messed up her leg and she kind of walked funny for the rest of her life and that was just what it was, right? [SPEAKER_00]: She had a little bit of a limp.

[SPEAKER_00]: But now we see complete [SPEAKER_00]: ACL reconstructive surgery, water therapy, hydrotherapy, and those vet bills add up. [SPEAKER_00]: And so fetch exists to provide insurance to these vet bills so that when pet parents are faced with these financial decisions, they can choose the best care for their pet without worrying about the financial cost.

[SPEAKER_01]: that open heart surgery that is that something that like they they obviously hadn't like fetched pet insurance prior and then they had the surgery done. [SPEAKER_01]: So so [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just I'm talking out loud. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just thinking like, well, they're probably really glad they had pet insurance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, and that's that's one of the things that we work really hard to do as to educate pet parents on when to get pet insurance. [SPEAKER_00]: It's important to get pet insurance when your pet is young. [SPEAKER_00]: If you're sitting in a vet clinic and you're being faced with this vet bill, it's too late.

[SPEAKER_00]: pet insurance does not cover pre-existing conditions, so you need to have the insurance when you're pet's young. [SPEAKER_00]: I'll give you another great example. [SPEAKER_00]: We have two dogs. [SPEAKER_00]: We have personally. [SPEAKER_00]: Yep, personally. [SPEAKER_00]: I have two French bulldogs, Franklin and Beans.

[SPEAKER_00]: Love them. [SPEAKER_01]: Beans of them. [SPEAKER_00]: She's cute. [SPEAKER_00]: Franklin, we actually got from a really wonderful French bulldog breeder in Troy. [SPEAKER_01]: You're here. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, here. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, really. [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I'm going back to Franklin's birthplace.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's crazy. [SPEAKER_00]: I know. [SPEAKER_00]: I know. [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, wait, I know exactly where I am. [SPEAKER_00]: So we've had Franklin. [SPEAKER_00]: And about two months after we got Franklin. [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, I immediately enrolled him in fetch. [SPEAKER_00]: He was running with a stick in his mouth and ran into a Jordan.

[SPEAKER_00]: And [SPEAKER_00]: Got a stick caught in his mouth and it was a thousand dollar vet bill and I had the insurance at the time and so the way that pet insurance works is you go and you pay the vet bill and then you file a claim with us and we pay you back based on your policy pet parents get to choose how much coverage they want they're copay they're deductible so it works on a reimbursement model but that is why it's so important and we do so much to educate pet parents you [SPEAKER_00]: have to ensure the pet early so that when these things happen, you're covered.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, in the case of the heart surgery, they had the insurance, dog is diagnosed with a valve condition. [SPEAKER_00]: They talked to the vet, right? [SPEAKER_00]: The vet performs the surgery. [SPEAKER_00]: The pet parent did have to pay for that. [SPEAKER_00]: And then they take that $45,000 bill and they upload it in our app and file a claim for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're able to process that claim and give them that money back. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's incredible because I know it's like as a as a pet owner, like I'm so skeptical about insurance is in general. [SPEAKER_01]: Sure. [SPEAKER_01]: Because it's like you know when you check out of like in Airbnb or you check out a flight and it's like hey, do you like I remember one time I don't know is like early on in my career of traveling and it was like the it's like a alliance.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's like a a-a-a-l-l-a-n-z or something like that. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_01]: But it's like this insurance that you can like add on like a delta flight or something and I remember I added it. [SPEAKER_01]: It was like a [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it was, some sort of vacation, and I added it, and then something did happen, where I was like, oh, I can't go.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought, because you're going to read the free of the fine print, right? [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, I thought that that that an additional, I don't know, that 250 bucks or whatever it was would be like, oh, if you have to cancel this for any reason, [SPEAKER_01]: We keep the 250 and then, you know, we have a deal with Delta or whatever that reimburses you for your flight or whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: That wasn't the case. [SPEAKER_01]: So I canceled it and I was like, oh, it must have been a thing that I wasn't sure of or something. [SPEAKER_01]: Like it must have been like something was predicated or there was contingencies on something. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't remember what it was and I can't, I had the cancel it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I went and I was like, oh, got insurance, good thing I did. [SPEAKER_01]: I went to him and I'm like, hey, I just, I'm claiming this or whatever. [SPEAKER_01]: I just, you know, want to refund because I didn't, I don't need to go. [SPEAKER_01]: And I got the insurance and they're like, well, why are you canceling?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, [SPEAKER_01]: Uh, well, I just, it just did, you know, as I didn't work out or whatever, I was like, I'm not going. [SPEAKER_01]: So I just, you know, won't just reimburse me, right? [SPEAKER_01]: And they're like, well, no, no, no, we have to, is like, we need a death certificate.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need a proof of like catastrophic event, like, did your house get? [SPEAKER_01]: torn apart by a tornado, something like no, I don't like none of that happened. [SPEAKER_01]: I just got insurance because I thought that if I wanted to cancel this, that wasn't the case. [SPEAKER_01]: So I know that so what I've seen is a dog owner forget about like the professional life that I have with dogs is I've seen pet insurance become such a big thing over the last [SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, I'd say like five years.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's been like a push, not a push in a marketing sense, but it's been a conversation now that it's now existing. [SPEAKER_01]: It's like now it's becoming more mainstream. [SPEAKER_01]: Like you, like, oh, if you have, you know, guy co or state performance ever, you can add on a policy for your pet maybe.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, I'm not sure. [SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, so it's becoming more of a thing where bigger companies are realizing what you said billions and billions of dollars are being spent on pets. [SPEAKER_01]: So the hard thing for I think pet owners aka me is like, okay, well, how how do I choose the right pet insurance?

[SPEAKER_01]: Which again, which is why I had you guys on is because I was like, wow, I actually and I put in the chat and I was like, how is fetch different from others? [SPEAKER_01]: And it was like told me all these things and it was like, oh, this is like [SPEAKER_01]: this isn't like a one-off like you guys this is like a legit company that specializes specifically in pet insurance it's not like oh we cover your retirement and your health and your kids in your dental and then we can cover beans too it's like no you guys are specific to you guys cover all pets or cats and dogs okay so if you have a jirbel or something it's a no go okay just cats and dogs [SPEAKER_01]: What is the, what is the biggest reason why people should get pet insurance coming from inside of the industry, which again, you have such a good fascinating insight on what you're seeing every day.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is, what would you say the biggest reason why people should get pet insurance? [SPEAKER_00]: I think people underestimate the cost of that care. [SPEAKER_00]: I think you think about it, you know what exists, you know you're going to need it. [SPEAKER_00]: But I think people just really underestimate the cost of care.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when it happens it's too late, you need the protection early. [SPEAKER_00]: you know, we say over and over, not all pet insurance is created equal, fetches built. [SPEAKER_00]: We wholly exist to help pet parents give their pets a longer health of your life. [SPEAKER_00]: That is our mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not adding it on as part of a bundle. [SPEAKER_00]: We're not dabbling in it. [SPEAKER_00]: We're not, you know, expanding. [SPEAKER_00]: are our book, in that sense, we are focused on the pets and their parents and the connection really we think about it as there being three, three parties that are involved in the care of your pet.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's you as the pet parent. [SPEAKER_00]: It's the vet community. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's the insurance and those have to work together, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So everything we build at Fetch, we work within the vet community with our vet advisory board to understand is the product that we're building going to suit the needs of the pet in the pet parent, as well as the vet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if the product doesn't work with what the vet community is doing, what are we doing, right? [SPEAKER_00]: It's the same as your example, right? [SPEAKER_00]: If you would know what, you know, you work going to get reimbursed for that. [SPEAKER_00]: You probably wouldn't have taken it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We also do a lot of work to ensure that our pet parents understand what they're buying. [SPEAKER_00]: We want you to know. [SPEAKER_00]: We want you to know why a claim won't get approved. [SPEAKER_00]: And we tell you that as part of your onboarding and as part of [SPEAKER_00]: bringing you on to the policy, which is we don't cover pre-existing conditions, pet insurance in general doesn't cover pre-existing conditions.

[SPEAKER_00]: We do cover something called curable pre-existing conditions, which is where, say your dog has an ear infection, and you go a certain amount of time, it's usually a year without showing signs of that ear infection, then we'll start to cover that condition. [SPEAKER_00]: But [SPEAKER_00]: If your dog is diagnosed with diabetes or a heart condition or something like that, and then you enroll in pet insurance, it's not going to be covered and we're credibly transparent about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were one of the first companies to put that at the forefront of our marketing, which is when you go through our website and you go through to buy a policy, there's a notice, it's like, hey, [SPEAKER_00]: If you're at a vet clinic right now, and there's something wrong, don't buy this right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to be covered for that condition, make sense. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's really about the transparency, and then it's about us building a product that is more complete than any other product on the market. [SPEAKER_00]: We cover more types of injuries and illnesses than any other product.

[SPEAKER_01]: What are some things that other people, other companies wouldn't cover that you guys do? [SPEAKER_00]: Dental. [SPEAKER_00]: Our dental coverage is huge. [SPEAKER_00]: 90% of pets experience periodontal disease by three years old. [SPEAKER_00]: And periodontal disease triggers a lot of other things within pets too.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're talking liver failure, heart problems, you know. [SPEAKER_00]: stomach issues. [SPEAKER_00]: It's really a clean mouth. [SPEAKER_00]: You're a cowboy now, right? [SPEAKER_00]: That's why you look a gift towards the mouth, right? [SPEAKER_00]: You tell by the teeth, how healthy and animal is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And our dental coverage is second to none. [SPEAKER_00]: We cover every tooth on the mouth, not just the four canines. [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of other companies will carve that out. [SPEAKER_00]: They'll say, okay, we'll cover injury, and it's only to the four canines. [SPEAKER_00]: They won't cover disease and illness.

[SPEAKER_00]: We cover gum disease. [SPEAKER_00]: So you have full dental coverage. [SPEAKER_00]: That's the biggest one. [SPEAKER_00]: We also have seven coverages that are first dollar coverage, what we call in the insurance industry. [SPEAKER_00]: It means there's no copay and no deductible. [SPEAKER_00]: So televet service is a big one.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, wow. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you can get on your phone and you can chat with a vet. [SPEAKER_00]: You can ask questions. [SPEAKER_01]: Wow. [SPEAKER_00]: You have a hundred and fifty dollar televet claim. [SPEAKER_00]: You send that to us. [SPEAKER_00]: It's [SPEAKER_00]: So we do that for televet.

[SPEAKER_00]: We do it for behavioral disorders. [SPEAKER_00]: So not like dog training, but your dog has anxiety, behavioral conditions, and you're going to event in the vet's treating behavioral disorders. [SPEAKER_00]: That's also 100% reimbursed. [SPEAKER_00]: We have several of those. [SPEAKER_00]: Those are the two most popular.

[SPEAKER_00]: We also cover wellness. [SPEAKER_00]: It's an optional add-on. [SPEAKER_00]: That's another important thing to look at when you look at pet insurance. [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of exclusions, there's a lot of right what they call writers and the insurance industry. [SPEAKER_00]: So you might be thinking you're buying a great policy, but then there's like, oh, but you didn't add on dental.

[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't add on, tell of that coverage. [SPEAKER_00]: You didn't add on exam fees. [SPEAKER_00]: You didn't add on, you know, other things that have been carved out, things like behavioral that we include, things like, um, [SPEAKER_01]: So as the behavioral stuff and training included in your like what's your base like what would you say your base cover just like [SPEAKER_00]: It's the most complete.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what we do at Fetch as we don't do riders. [SPEAKER_00]: We don't do that. [SPEAKER_00]: Whenever you buy a policy with us, you're getting everything involved in that policy, right? [SPEAKER_00]: We're not carving it out. [SPEAKER_00]: The only thing that's an optional add-on is our wellness program.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the preventative care. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the flea, the tick, heartworm, annual exams, teeth cleaning, the stuff that keeps your pet healthy. [SPEAKER_00]: This planned vet visits, but that's the only optional add-on that we have. [SPEAKER_00]: Everything else is included in our policy and what pet parents can do is pick the copay, the deductible, and the annual limit that they want for their pet to determine what their price is.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, higher deductible, lower annual limit is going to be a lower monthly cost. [SPEAKER_00]: If you feel like you need more coverage, for example, I have two French bulldogs, they've got a lot of problems. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: I knew they were going to have problems. [SPEAKER_00]: That's another thing that we do is we cover breed specific conditions.

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of providers will carve those out. [SPEAKER_00]: They will say, well, you knew you were getting a French bulldog. [SPEAKER_00]: You knew that dog was going to have breathing issues and, you know, was it a risk for IVDD and was prone to cherry eye? [SPEAKER_00]: We're not covering those.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a risk that you took on with that breed. [SPEAKER_00]: That shouldn't do that. [SPEAKER_00]: Franklin had a cherry eye at a year old and that was a $1,500 surgery to fix the little tear duct in his eye and fetched covered that. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, you can change your copay deductible and annual limit to determine a price that works for you, but also think about it from your breed perspective as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So a French bulldog needs a little bit more coverage, right? [SPEAKER_00]: He's got more vet bills, a smaller mixed breed dog. [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe doesn't need a $10,000 annual policy that you can work with something maybe a [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I want to back up to some of that stuff on the, so the, your base package includes everything but the wellness and that's kind of like more preventative care.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's getting like going the extra mile. [SPEAKER_01]: The behavioral stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: What is, and that's again, that's why I wanted to have you on is because I think a lot of people. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, when that stuff happened with my dog Burley, I was like they sent, they gave me a clipboard, all in all it was over 20,000, but they gave me a clipboard for an $18,000 bill.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they said, we don't really know what's going on with him. [SPEAKER_01]: We'd have, we have to, and the reason why it was so expensive, and the reason why it was kind of like a undisclosed thing is because they didn't know what this mass was. [SPEAKER_01]: For people who don't know, he had a big mass, he stopped eating for [SPEAKER_01]: Like four or five days really wasn't drinking, which is completely abnormal for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, it's four pounds of raw food a day. [SPEAKER_01]: So they basically were like, we have to do a bunch of tests. [SPEAKER_01]: We have to put them under and we have to do a CT scan. [SPEAKER_01]: And that CT scan is this expensive. [SPEAKER_01]: We have to use the machine. [SPEAKER_01]: And then he has to stay overnight a couple nights.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when they gave me that bill, [SPEAKER_01]: Luckily, I was able to pay it via Shadow to American Express. [SPEAKER_01]: Luckily, I was able to pay it. [SPEAKER_01]: But after I paid it, I was like, [SPEAKER_01]: what if I couldn't pay it and just so happens there was a guy in the waiting room with me and ended up just talking to him because you know we're all kind of in their nervous together right kind of like a like a human ER would be right like a doctor everyone's kind of like worried about their loved ones behind the closed doors you know what I mean so I ended up just sparking up a conversation with him and he was an amazing guy he was um [SPEAKER_01]: I think he came from like Mexico when he was a kid and then just ended up building this amazing life and he like managed a bank in New York City for a long time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's just nice guy to tell me about his kid to tell me his wife and he told me that he just lost one of his dogs recently and he said it destroyed him and he got emotional and he was telling me about his dog that's behind the [SPEAKER_01]: in the office now and he's like he's the dog stopped walking and he's like and I was like what did what did they say and he said like the doctor thinks it's a neurological thing and then he just got emotional and didn't cry but he was tearing up and he was like I can't afford [SPEAKER_01]: Like surgery or like brain stuff, he's like, and you could just tell he's like a hardworking guy loves his dogs and he he was really sad and because he didn't know what was going to happen and then that's where like my that that instinct of mine immediately kicked in when I was like that was the first thing I signed the paperwork I'm like here you go you know 18k and then I was like man so like if you can't pay for this right now

[SPEAKER_01]: Then what happens? [SPEAKER_01]: And of course, like answering my own question, it would be like, well, then you can't get the care. [SPEAKER_01]: And I've had different, I've had a lot of veterinarians in, and they talk about this a lot. [SPEAKER_01]: And that's why, unfortunately, in the veterinary system, there's high rates of suicide.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a very clouded, rainy, mental health industry because of issues like this. [SPEAKER_01]: And I had an emergency that on, and she was telling me like, [SPEAKER_01]: She was just like, it's so hard for them because they have all the, like, they went to school. [SPEAKER_01]: And they have the skills and experience and knowledge to help said dog.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have all the equipment to help said dog medications. [SPEAKER_01]: But the whole, like, wall or barrier is money. [SPEAKER_01]: And in the human world, it's similar. [SPEAKER_01]: However, and the human world generally speaking, not a doctor and I haven't, you know, been to the hospital many times, but when you get sick or injured, get a car accident, God forbid emergency situation, you go in and if you're in bad situations, they treat you.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't say, well how much money you got in your account? [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of a thought after. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure there's many people out there that do think about that, like the added stress of, I just got into a fender-bender and broke my nose. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I can't afford this, don't treat me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure that's something that realistically happens, unfortunately. [SPEAKER_01]: But this gentleman that was in the emergency room, I was like, I felt so bad for him because they might come out and say, hey, we've seen this before we could fix this, but [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the price tag and this retired bank teller that worked hard as whole life coming from a different country and made this whole thing like he has to make a decision, especially in that situation because with Burley it ended up being a pretty big infection and fortunately they didn't have to do surgery to remove it but they still had to put them under and do a CT scan to figure out what this mass was and they were really great because they

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like, again, as a consumer, I feel like doctors want to cut people open because that's just what they do that. [SPEAKER_01]: You go to a surgeon, they're going to do that. [SPEAKER_01]: This, not everyone, obviously. [SPEAKER_01]: But this place was so great. [SPEAKER_01]: They were like, hey, I don't think we need to do surgery.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's feeling better. [SPEAKER_01]: We gave men about, like, this is great. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, awesome. [SPEAKER_01]: And... [SPEAKER_01]: So that went through my head of like the financial burden of not being able to save your dog or cat is so sad and overwhelming. [SPEAKER_01]: But there's so many people who even, because I think that people will get coverage.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then like you said, there's very discretionary things where they're like, you know, you call your insurance company. [SPEAKER_01]: You're like, hey, this happened when you cover this and they're like, oh, no, unfortunately, you have a French bulldog or no, unfortunately, you had a What are other breeds?

[SPEAKER_01]: Should you know like other breeds that other Excuse me, pet insurance companies would not take? [SPEAKER_00]: It's not that they don't take the breed. [SPEAKER_00]: They carve out certain conditions, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And so you'll think like breathing issues in French bulldogs. [SPEAKER_00]: German shepherds are predisposed to hip dysplasia.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dotsons have back issues. [SPEAKER_00]: So some will say, that's a breed specific condition. [SPEAKER_00]: You didn't buy, you didn't buy the rider as we call it, for that condition, and therefore it's not covered. [SPEAKER_00]: right, you have your dog, as long as it's not a pre-existing condition, fetches going to cover it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't make you go through fine print and figure out, did I opt-in to dental or did I not opt-in to dental? [SPEAKER_00]: Did I opt-in to, you know, hip dysplasia or did I not? [SPEAKER_00]: Did I opt-in to neurological disorders or did I not? [SPEAKER_00]: Right, it's all in there. [SPEAKER_00]: It's the most complete pet insurance that you can purchase.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's all in there and as long as it's not a pre-existing condition, you're going to be covered for that. [SPEAKER_00]: You just, you have to enroll early and you have to do it before something's diagnosed is really the key to it. [SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, because it is it's heartbreaking, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's heartbreaking for everybody involved in that scenario that poor man and I hope it worked out for him. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's heartbreaking for him, it's heartbreaking for the vets, right? [SPEAKER_00]: We talk to a lot of vets, they don't want to do that, right? [SPEAKER_00]: We hear about vets that the practice is going to debt because they end up giving the care anyway, even though they're then having to support the bill for the care, you know?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then... [SPEAKER_00]: Then they're walking into the room next door after this heartbreaking conversation and then, you know, having to welcome a kid with a puppy and kind of, you know, put on that brave face for, you know, the next pet parent. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's really sad. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's why we do what we do is a pet that's protected with the insurance policy.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not faced with that right you're still going to have to put that you're still going to have to pull out that American Express You're still going to have to do that, but then you're going to file a claim and you're you're going to get that back We have talked to pet parents that Didn't have it for a dog their first dog spoke with a woman years ago She had a pickle didn't have coverage for her pickle the pickle got very very sick and she sold her car [SPEAKER_00]: It's still a car to fund the vet bills for the stock and then the next dog she got.

[SPEAKER_00]: She immediately got pet insurance and we were able to reimburse her for those vet expenses. [SPEAKER_00]: Because it is expensive and I think that's the big thing. [SPEAKER_00]: We really try to educate pet parents on how expensive vet care is and for good reason. [SPEAKER_00]: These vets have made such fantastic strides in what they can do for our pets.

[SPEAKER_00]: in saving their lives, you know, 10, 15, 20 years ago, you just, you didn't have the options that you have now and it comes, you know, with a cost and everybody wants the pets to live along healthy life. [SPEAKER_00]: The vet's included and that care comes with a cost and we want to make those vet bills affordable for pet parents so that they're not faced with that decision, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You're you're sitting there in the waiting room and you're thinking, [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, it's going to be okay because even if this is a big vet bill, even if this doctor comes out and tells me I need $5,000 for the surgery, I'm going to have to figure out what credit card to put it on, but then I'm going to file a claim and I'm going to get a good amount of that money back and it's going to be okay versus sitting there and having that heartbreaking thought that that man was having, which is if they come out and they tell me it's you know several thousand dollars to save my dog, you have to make the really [SPEAKER_00]: And then there's really nothing that can be done at that point.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think our saying is with human care. [SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm. [SPEAKER_01]: It's not really it's it's just something that doesn't come up in conversation because you're like we've got to help this person right emergency or Surgerys or whatever, but with dogs like you like we said before we started filming like people They're part of your family.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like you love them especially pet dogs, but even working dogs, you know like I was telling you So the pet so just to give context like pet dogs are the dogs that [SPEAKER_01]: living your home, you would treat them more like family in a sense of they sleep in your bed or sleep in their bed, they're big comfy bed, they have a good food, you know, they go everywhere, they go in family vacations and with like working dogs, like Burley is a working dog, you know, you get them for a very specific reason.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like if you bought a refrigerator that didn't work, you'd be like, okay, well, this, but my point is is going out there to Montana [SPEAKER_01]: He was telling me. [SPEAKER_01]: because we were just gotten the conversation of like, why cowboyin is declining in the United States. [SPEAKER_01]: And he was just saying, he's like, well, part of it is the dogs.

[SPEAKER_01]: The dogs are taking, like each dog takes three to five cowboy spots, it's how much work they do. [SPEAKER_01]: So you got to think like all the money adds up about if you go out and you move 200 head of cattle with one cowboy on a horse and two border collies. [SPEAKER_01]: Like if you didn't have those border collies, you'd need maybe four, because you got to think, [SPEAKER_01]: Like, just for an example, this is really fresh because I just landed last night, you get a herd of cattle, that's like 200 head, right, on horseback, what we did is we went around to make sure they're in like a, in a ball basically and the reason why they do that is so they can check for health.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're looking for calves who are sick, limping, coughing, not moving, you know, bad eyes or whatever, they're checking on them every other, you know, day or whatever to make sure that they're, [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, and they're not suffering, or they're not sick, or whatever, and they're medicating them and fixing them.

[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, with the dogs, they just go, and the dog was, and then the dog was, and then they whistled twice. [SPEAKER_01]: The other dog was like this, and they're pushing them in, and then on horseback, but the cowboys do is we help depending on the size of the herd of the cows. [SPEAKER_01]: We help kind of hold them into a ball, and he was just saying like, and every cowboy I interviewed after, I asked like, what did the dogs mean to you guys?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, it just, [SPEAKER_01]: it's like having 10 cowboys out there. [SPEAKER_01]: So my point is, as I asked them, I said, how much are these dogs? [SPEAKER_01]: It goes 15, 20, 25,000 each, but they live and they work till they're depending on, you know, whatever, but my point is, is if these guys have coverage and God forbid one of their dogs gets hurts or injured.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is like when you think about working dogs, police dogs, service dogs, even therapy dogs, dogs who have a genuine purpose that have been trained very specifically to a very specific human being. [SPEAKER_01]: I worked with a client that had a dog that detected [SPEAKER_01]: It was a blood pressure thing and the blood pressure was like this rare condition in which like if the blood pressure rise and they would have a stroke or something like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the dog was detecting blood pressure. [SPEAKER_01]: But situations like that you got to think and again this is just kind of going off of like if you have a pet and you love your pet pet insurance is obviously. [SPEAKER_01]: the right move, but if you have a working dog that caught and I know certain protection dogs that are 50,000, 60,000, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because they do very particular what we would call like executive protection. [SPEAKER_01]: They go in the clear houses, they go on private jets with people. [SPEAKER_01]: They're like executives, right? [SPEAKER_01]: That need that for their family or for whatever. [SPEAKER_01]: The amount of money the dog is very expensive, but then God forbid something happened and of course like those executives are different with money, but I'm talking about like the cowboys who can't afford that type of money or somebody who gets a service dog donated because maybe there was some sort of fundraiser online.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_01]: Like a go-fun-meant. [SPEAKER_01]: They finally got this dog and that happened with that client that I got a car accident and it was all met and that's why I was there working with the dog and it was just so it's interesting to think that [SPEAKER_01]: There's so many complex avenues that you go down of how much dogs do for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's the working dogs, there's the pet dogs, and they all mean a lot to us in different ways. [SPEAKER_01]: Rather, it's like the cowboy dogs, like the poor call, is they don't go inside. [SPEAKER_01]: They sleep outside, they like sleeping outside. [SPEAKER_01]: They have their little hay bales, and they sleep in their hay bales.

[SPEAKER_01]: He told me, [SPEAKER_01]: He's like, I said, do you ever bring them inside of you? [SPEAKER_01]: Because I brought them inside once and they all had a panic attack and like freaked out. [SPEAKER_01]: And then they ran right back out. [SPEAKER_01]: This is not for us, it's not, it's a, so that's what I mean is, uh, it's just, you know, giving perspective of different lifestyles of dogs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I think when people think of, man, I'd hate anything to happen to my dog. [SPEAKER_01]: And of course, that's true. [SPEAKER_01]: But then if you think like this dog puts food on my table for my family. [SPEAKER_01]: And if they break their leg or, [SPEAKER_01]: Whatever, like not only can I not afford it, but they're not going to recover and then I have to buy and potentially another dog that I can't afford.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, so that's what you know when I was out there, I was thinking about that. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: And again, it's fresh. [SPEAKER_01]: I landed last night from Montana doing this project and I was like, man, that is something that people probably don't think about much is like, what would happen if that, you know, would you be able to afford it?

[SPEAKER_01]: and then how much money would it cost you to not be able to afford it? [SPEAKER_01]: So not only unfortunately, you have to make a really hard decision, but then for people like working dogs, service dogs, it's life threatening. [SPEAKER_01]: Like a dog gets injured, that was donated to you, which happens a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know a lot of service dog trainers, a lot of donations, a lot of foundations, a lot of foundations, God forbid somebody, you know, has some sort of [SPEAKER_01]: disease or a condition in which they need a service dog, and then so they didn't have the means to get the dog in the first place, but God willing they got the dog from a foundation, they get the dog, and then all of a sudden the dog gets sick, injured, breaks a canine.

[SPEAKER_01]: Something as little as breaking a canine and being uncomfortable and not working. [SPEAKER_01]: So, anyway, I digress, but it's, that's why it's important to have you on because I think people just don't Realize, and I went through it. [SPEAKER_01]: That's why we're having this conversation.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had that bill. [SPEAKER_01]: I looked at that man in the eyes that was dead tears And he's like, I don't know what I'm gonna do and I'm like this is this hit me in the face with like Wow, so I'm gonna back up a little bit on the behavioral training [SPEAKER_01]: So is there specific training that you guys cover or don't cover?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so it's not training right in the sense of living with what you do with training of dogs. [SPEAKER_00]: It's behavioral conditions, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So it's things like separation anxiety. [SPEAKER_00]: It's, you know, a cat that is suiling the rug because of anxiety or something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a behavioral issues diagnosed by a vet that are then treated by a vet. [SPEAKER_00]: So it would be really clear, because it's another thing we are really transparent about. [SPEAKER_00]: It's not training. [SPEAKER_00]: We have other services, though, within fetch. [SPEAKER_00]: Right, because at the end of the day, it's insurance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, not everybody's going to file a claim all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: Right, that's the other big misconception around pet insurance, that we work really hard to educate pet parents on. [SPEAKER_00]: You shouldn't have this expectation that you're going to get out what you pay in. [SPEAKER_00]: Right, this isn't a 401k.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, this isn't a, you know, I pay 40 bucks a month and I should expect to get that back. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, little bit of a people think about it somewhat like human health insurance, right? [SPEAKER_00]: You're like, oh, I pay this, but then I do all of these things and I feel like I get enough back on an annual basis.

[SPEAKER_00]: You really shouldn't think about pet insurance that way. [SPEAKER_00]: It's, it's a transfer of risk, right? [SPEAKER_00]: It's, it's what you're talking about, whether it's a pet in the home or if it's a working dog or whatever it is, it's the, [SPEAKER_00]: If an accident happens or an illness happens and they do, right, one and three pets need emergency that care every year.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not uncommon that you'd have the insurance to help you pay for that vet bill. [SPEAKER_00]: That's the big part of it. [SPEAKER_00]: But what we've done at fetch that's really unique, that goes beyond the insurance. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a whole suite of products and services that we're building, that are in addition to the insurance is to [SPEAKER_00]: Continue to fill that promise of giving your pet a longer healthier life are things like our deals program where we work with pet brands to curate exclusive offers for our pet parents so you're saving money every month on dog food.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's training apps that are in there. [SPEAKER_00]: There's walk kits, there's litter boxes, there's cat litter, there's toys, there's treats, there's all kinds of stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: Our pet parents on average save about $40 a month on their pet essentials through our deals program.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have some great videos from you in our app where you can go through eight videos of really good training for your dog. [SPEAKER_00]: Those are exclusive cuts of your videos within our app just for our pet parents. [SPEAKER_00]: We also have a pharmacy that we've built. [SPEAKER_00]: Pharmaceuticals are really expensive for pets.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a lot of pets that have chronic conditions. [SPEAKER_00]: So when you use our pharmacy, fetch pet or X, you get a hundred percent back on your pets meds. [SPEAKER_00]: So we're waving the copay. [SPEAKER_00]: We're paying you a hundred percent back. [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, dogs and cats that have chronic conditions that are on GABA Pintin every month or anti-exciting meds or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you fulfill with our pharmacy, they get delivered directly to your door, and you get a hundred percent of that money back. [SPEAKER_00]: We're also working to launch an embedded telemet service within our app, so anytime you have any questions, right? [SPEAKER_00]: We do a lot of work with shelters.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got a wonderful shelter program where we work with shelters across the US and Canada that newly adopted pets go home with the pet insurance, right? [SPEAKER_00]: One of the number one reasons that pets are returned to shelters because of the cost of that care. [SPEAKER_00]: people get these pets home.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have that first vet visit. [SPEAKER_00]: They're like, oh my god, this is expensive. [SPEAKER_00]: I had no idea. [SPEAKER_00]: And then the pet ends up back in the shelter. [SPEAKER_00]: We want to keep these pets in their forever homes. [SPEAKER_00]: And so a lot of what we do is educating pet parents at the point of adoption.

[SPEAKER_00]: They go home with pet insurance that day. [SPEAKER_00]: The policy and in many cases the waiting periods are waived And so you're going home protected day one and part of that protection is things like televet service So you've got a new pet in your home. [SPEAKER_00]: You don't know right your your kids want a dog And they finally get you to go to the shelter and you get a dog and then the next day you wake up You're like I've got an ant [SPEAKER_00]: in my house and I don't know what to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have all these questions. [SPEAKER_00]: You can go right into your fetch app. [SPEAKER_00]: You can chat with a licensed vet and pet care experts and ask them, like, when do I have my first vet visit? [SPEAKER_00]: What should I know about feeding this dog? [SPEAKER_00]: It's hiding under the bed.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do I help, you know, coax it out? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, what should I be doing to help this pet adjust in its home? [SPEAKER_00]: So there's, there's services like that that we provide that sit outside of the core insurance product to really help pet parents give their pets the best possible life.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a big part of what we do. [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, hearing you talk about whether it's a, you know, a pet that's in the home, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, my dog's sleeping the bed. [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people don't care for that, right? [SPEAKER_00]: They're like, why do you let the dog sleep in the bed?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I have friends that don't let their dogs, right? [SPEAKER_00]: The dog sleeps in a crate and you've got working dogs, right, that want to sleep outside [SPEAKER_00]: It's a core of all of that, though, is it's about the human pet connection, right? [SPEAKER_00]: It's about the connection that we have with these animals, no matter what that is, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's wanting to care for them and give them their best possible life. [SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, whether it's me with my dogs or it's the cowboys with the collies or whatever, you hear them talk about just the passion and love they have for these animals. [SPEAKER_00]: It's when you hear police officers talk about their dogs, they don't call them their dogs.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's their partner. [SPEAKER_00]: Right? [SPEAKER_00]: They care deeply about these animals. [SPEAKER_00]: And having the insurance is what allows you to give the pet the care that it needs no matter what the cost is. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's really important because when you get hit with that vet bill that I just keep thinking about the man that you're talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: like, it's gut-wrenching. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just to think like he's faced with a really difficult decision and we don't want pet parents to be faced with that decision. [SPEAKER_00]: We want them to confidently sit there and go, yes, treat my dog, do the surgery, do whatever's needed, save my animal's life, and know that, you know, when that credit card bill comes due, you're going to have money back [SPEAKER_01]: So the behavioral stuff just to be clear as I work with as many dogs as I do, that's something that if a dog has anxiety, they would have to go to a behaviorist or a vet, that is a doctor, then says, because that's one thing I always think about, like if you go to a vet

[SPEAKER_01]: they need meds and they need training because behaviors don't do training typically they just diagnose what's going on and then they either do medication or they refer you to a trainer like me and so you guys would cover the medication and the visit to the behaviorists got it like okay cool and then just to be clear on what you were talking about with the tele veterinarian thing I know you said that your work so that's something you do do or you're working on it to be in your app [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Jane, it's a great question.

[SPEAKER_00]: We cover up to $1,000 a year in Telavit service. [SPEAKER_00]: That's another one of those first dollar coverages. [SPEAKER_00]: So no copay, no deductible. [SPEAKER_00]: You can use any Telavit service. [SPEAKER_00]: That's live today. [SPEAKER_00]: And what we're doing is working with a really great partner called Thatster.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're based in Toronto. [SPEAKER_00]: They're actually the highest rated Telavit service in North America. [SPEAKER_00]: They're fantastic company. [SPEAKER_00]: We've had a partnership with them for a while, so we recommend them. [SPEAKER_00]: But you can use any televet service that you want and what we're doing is working with Vetster to actually embed the televet service within our app.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so what will happen is you can go directly into the Vets app. [SPEAKER_00]: You can use televet service through Vetster. [SPEAKER_00]: And what we will do is process that claim for you on the back end. [SPEAKER_00]: So you won't have to pull up the credit card, you won't have to file a claim.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll just recognize you as a fetch pet parent. [SPEAKER_00]: We'll say great. [SPEAKER_00]: Go talk to our friends over at Vetster and we take care of everything on the back end. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, it'll be a more integrated seamless experience. [SPEAKER_00]: That's coming later this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's cool. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: That makes sense. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I didn't. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to be kind of embarrassed or not. [SPEAKER_01]: And even know you could do tell that. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no idea. [SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty cool. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a really great compliment to your your standard vet care, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so a lot of things that you would just not think that you could do right, flee and tick medication, you know, you don't have to go to the vet for that. [SPEAKER_00]: You can chat with the tele vet. [SPEAKER_00]: follow-up care, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So your dog has a surgery and you've got to change some bandages or something, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You can talk with a vet, video chat, and them walk you through exactly what to do. [SPEAKER_00]: Follow-up care questions or just getting second opinions on stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: It's also a great way to get access to vets that might not be in your area, like specialists. [SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's oncologists that are available within televets. [SPEAKER_01]: I never thought about that, and even bigger than that Sam is so many people listening to this podcast can't bring their dog to a vet because the dog has aggression, reactivity, anxiety, the owner's freaking out. [SPEAKER_01]: That's honestly as a trainer.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's one of the biggest concerns dog owners have. [SPEAKER_01]: My dog needs to go to the vet, but I can't because of these reasons. [SPEAKER_01]: The tell of that thing is a game changer because if you had a limp or a bump or a [SPEAKER_01]: You know, something that first hand look, they might say, oh, that's this, you need to go in, or they might say, oh, no, you know, whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's an interesting concept from a behavioral stand. [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely. [SPEAKER_01]: It's because so many dog owners struggle with like, [SPEAKER_01]: They're they're they're dog going to the vet. [SPEAKER_01]: I had no idea you could even do tell of it. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, you can't at school.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's very cool. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and you know, we're. [SPEAKER_00]: We talk a lot about dogs, but um, cat parents don't take their right their cats to the vet nearly as much as they should. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, you just think about putting a cat in a carrier and that whole process. [SPEAKER_00]: right and you can chat with a license that while you're at home ask questions right my dog exacting a little weird I don't know there's this thing on my cat or she's limping a little bit or not eating um you know all kinds of care questions and then also those [SPEAKER_00]: Scary moments where you're not sure what happened, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: While back, Franklin ate a mushroom in the backyard, we didn't know what was going to happen. [SPEAKER_00]: And it turned out it was like just a regular mushroom didn't matter, but he jointed it right up. [SPEAKER_00]: We thought, oh god, what's going to happen? [SPEAKER_00]: Like this is, you know, and do a televet session and you talk to them for a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: You get this reassurance of like, hey, [SPEAKER_00]: It's okay. [SPEAKER_00]: You don't need to rush to the vet. [SPEAKER_00]: You don't need to go to an emergency clinic. [SPEAKER_00]: Watch out for this. [SPEAKER_00]: Watch if he's drooling too much. [SPEAKER_00]: Does he drinking water?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is he eating food? [SPEAKER_00]: Is he okay? [SPEAKER_00]: Keep an eye on him and it. [SPEAKER_00]: It's great for that too. [SPEAKER_00]: It's great for that moment of like, okay, it's fine. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't have to run off to the emergency vet right now. [SPEAKER_00]: But even more is the sort of standard care right in the access to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And not only people that are worried about taking their pet to the vet, because of the dog, but think about how many people can't make it to the vet. [SPEAKER_00]: You've got elderly people that love their pets and maybe they, you know, it's difficult. [SPEAKER_00]: They don't have the transportation or they don't have the access to get to the vet.

[SPEAKER_00]: To be able to have that care from the comfort of your home and that access is really important. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I had a couple of that's on. [SPEAKER_01]: She's an oncology vet and then another vet and they run a clinic down in New York City and they think I don't know if they invented it, but they're really making it like theirs in a different way where they're doing mobile that visits.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's one of the biggest things that they said two is a lot of people like elderly or even disabled. [SPEAKER_01]: people that can't make it to the vet, that's what they're seeing like a lot of their clients. [SPEAKER_01]: And one of the things, one of the stories that she had said is one of the, I think it was like a pug, like an older pug that needed insulin shots.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so she hadn't, she didn't have a car, the client. [SPEAKER_01]: And she didn't have a car, and she'd have to take a cab or an Uber to the vet, just for insulin shots like, I don't know, a couple times a week. [SPEAKER_01]: So it was costing her money, all this money in the Uber or the cab, then they go to the, and they're like, listen, we're just going to come to your house.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have, and it's cool because they kind of do this. [SPEAKER_01]: Forget the name of it, but if you guys have listened, it's, it's on there. [SPEAKER_01]: But they, they essentially made it really easy for people to get that type of care in a mobile thing and they have licensed veterinarians that will come out in necessary, [SPEAKER_01]: All of their, they have certified, um, or sorry, yeah, certified or license of that text, too, which I just did a podcast with another doctor and another veterinarian.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she said, the majority of that text are not licensed at all. [SPEAKER_01]: You have to, and it's, and she was just saying, like, it is what it is. [SPEAKER_01]: There's like a gray area. [SPEAKER_01]: She's like, but just be mindful. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's a lot of that text that are not licensed.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't have to be. [SPEAKER_01]: In order to be called like a license about tech obviously you do but anyway, so they were just saying so that anyway that's a cool service to and I didn't even Yeah, put that in the perspective. [SPEAKER_01]: Do you guys have a geographical coverage map [SPEAKER_00]: It's a great question.

[SPEAKER_00]: We cover everywhere in US and Canada, all states in the US and all of English speaking Canada. [SPEAKER_00]: So you can't purchase a policy and new brands with your Quebec. [SPEAKER_00]: But when you think about the vets, right, think about all the different types of vets we've talked about here, that's what's great about Fetch 2s, there's no networks.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can visit any vets. [SPEAKER_00]: Wow. [SPEAKER_00]: So if you're going to your regular vets for your regular checkups and you know [SPEAKER_00]: whatever you're doing with the vet that you see day in and day out if you're vet then refers you to a specialist that's covered if there's an emergency clinic need that's covered if it's a tele vet service that's covered if it's a mobile vet clinic that's covered any vet in the U.S. or Canada will cover so there's no networks there it gives you the freedom to see the vet's that you need to see [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of that's that do refer you to specialists and there's different needs and the same way you have human health care Right you've you've got different doctors that cover different conditions and we want to make sure again that pet parents are empowered to get the care that they need and that cover things to like

[SPEAKER_00]: hydrotherapy, acupuncture. [SPEAKER_00]: We cover that, right? [SPEAKER_00]: If you're, if you go to your vet in your dog has surgery, we've, we have a dog that we've covered for years. [SPEAKER_00]: His name's Ruben, he loves in New York. [SPEAKER_00]: He's was in a adopted shelter pad and jumped off the couch one day and heard his back and he ended up in a little wheelchair, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But he doesn't stop him, right? [SPEAKER_00]: You see him blazing through [SPEAKER_00]: But we paid for that, right? [SPEAKER_00]: We helped them pay for that for the wheelchair, for the therapy that came with that, the treatments, right? [SPEAKER_00]: You don't just, that's the other thing, too, that I think a lot of pet parents don't realize is that it's, that those are rarely a one and done, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's rarely, oh, you go in and then it's like here it is and you're out the door and that's it. [SPEAKER_00]: There's follow-up care, right? [SPEAKER_00]: There's second opinions on stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: There's referrals to specialists. [SPEAKER_00]: There's continuing to monitor if the dogs are covering.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's diagnosis and tests and labs that are run before you even go into that stage, right? [SPEAKER_00]: That's the other great thing about fetches. [SPEAKER_00]: We cover the exam fee. [SPEAKER_00]: So anytime you go into the vet, [SPEAKER_00]: There's an exam fee and that can range, you know, on average from 50 to $300, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's just the price to get into the door and have the appointment with the vet. [SPEAKER_00]: So before anything's diagnosed, before anything's treated before any labs, before any tests, right? [SPEAKER_00]: There's that fee. [SPEAKER_00]: We cover that. [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of other providers will carve that out and say, okay, until you get to the point of diagnosis, [SPEAKER_00]: and we know what's happening, we'll cover it from there going forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: With fetch, we cover that complete sick visit. [SPEAKER_00]: It's full into end. [SPEAKER_00]: So whatever labs they run, whatever tests they run, the exam fee, the diagnosis, the treatment, the follow-up care, it is end to end of that entire experience and what the pet has for the treatment.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's incredible. [SPEAKER_01]: And that's included and I'm going to keep asking this because I'm again, I'm unfamiliar. [SPEAKER_00]: It really burns you on that travel insurance. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I did. [SPEAKER_01]: It's some traumatic event. [SPEAKER_01]: But that's included in your your base package.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's it. [SPEAKER_00]: It's with fetch and it's all included. [SPEAKER_00]: There's no extra cost. [SPEAKER_00]: There's no upselling. [SPEAKER_00]: There's no writers. [SPEAKER_00]: There's no and writers would be like, [SPEAKER_00]: to me be like a out of cart thing right exactly yeah so there's some providers it'll say you know you'll look at it and you'll go oh great this this is a this is a 20 dollar month policy that's that's cheaper than fetches 30 dollar a month policy i'm gonna go with this 20 dollar a month policy but then when you get through that experience and they go oh well the 20 dollars didn't cover pharmacy did you want prescription drugs is part of your policy we're like yeah I want prescription drugs is part of my policy like if the dog is sick

[SPEAKER_00]: needs treatment. [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to need prescription drugs. [SPEAKER_00]: So you add on prescription drugs. [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, oh, well, you didn't include the exam fee. [SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to add exam fee as part of your policy? [SPEAKER_00]: You're like, I guess, oh, your policy didn't include dental.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you need dental? [SPEAKER_00]: And it leaves pet parents wondering, like, I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: Do I do I do I need dental? [SPEAKER_00]: Do I not? [SPEAKER_00]: And you don't, you're not going to know the answer to that question until it happens. [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's why we take it as the most complete coverage.

[SPEAKER_00]: We put it all in there. [SPEAKER_00]: And so you're not left guessing, okay, well, if my dog ends up needing a teeth cleaning and there's an extraction. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's another thing too, dental is so expensive. [SPEAKER_00]: We talk about it a lot. [SPEAKER_00]: at the company and what that means right going to get your teeth looked at for a dog is very different from a human right you for a dog to have tartar removal and a teeth cleaning and really have a full oral treatment they have to put the dog to sleep you're not sitting in a chair right talking to the dentist getting you know your teeth scraped and that's expensive we had beans is teeth cleaned and she had to be treated for some

[SPEAKER_00]: John for cleaning just for the cleaning and she had to have an extraction and there was a little bit of like disease gum disease that was in there and so that whole treatment was $1,200. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it's yeah, it's the whole I should have like a specialist on dental. [SPEAKER_01]: Drop that down that's a good that's a good point because a lot of heads to talk about that like how important dental is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because you think for us, like, we brush our teeth at least twice a day. [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, dogs, depending on what they eat and what they're like, you know, the working dogs, they'll find an antler or boner stick or whatever. [SPEAKER_01]: But a lot of dog owners feed cable. [SPEAKER_01]: and that's not good for the teeth over time, and so it's important to get those cleanings and to your point, like the parodinal disease.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and I learned when I did, I did like a first-aid in CPR course. [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things we talked about was the parodinal disease, and it's really important because basically, if your dog has, like, for an example, has like a bad tooth or an infection, tooth, well, two big things happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: The first thing is, is now that dog is swallowing that infection every day, which then starts breaking down all the organs potentially and spreading that infection, which is not good, but then the second thing that happens is behavioral stuff happens, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So I had a client that has a big mastiff, and I had worked with her a while ago, and she had reached out and just said, hey, Sherman's not acting right, he won't let me put his collar on, like I don't know what's going on.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so my kind of rule thumb is if a dog shows a quick, very, very unmecharacteristic sign of different changes in the behavior, like if they're acting out of character. [SPEAKER_01]: First thing I always point to is like health, like if they are going completely rogue on you for no reason, then it's usually some sort of health thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And sure enough, she had a, he had some sort of assist on his neck, I think. [SPEAKER_01]: But I see it a lot with with with teeth issues dogs will start to do they have resource guarding issues so you feed them and like for for Burley for an example it wasn't his he wasn't eating because of his infection and his neck but a lot of times that happens with like tooth pains dog like you know eats up something they shouldn't or even they eat it antler they shouldn't or whatever the heck it is who knows [SPEAKER_01]: And then they have an abscess or they chip it or it's exposed to the nerve or it just comes out or whatever And it's very painful and they're hungry and they won't eat and then they become they have really bad resource guardians So then they start getting really aggressive if you get near their food, which they never did and then dog owners will reach out to me And they'll say like what's I don't understand and the first thing I always say is like bring them to the vet

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the your dogs communicate with their mouth, they obviously eat with their mouth, they play with their mouth, they investigate with their mouth, so they put their mouth on everything. [SPEAKER_01]: Again, going back to Montana, there's a border call out there, and the owner said, this dogs, this dogs, the vet said that this dogs teeth are going to be gone within two years, because for whatever reason, she loves fetching rocks.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the wildest thing I've ever seen. [SPEAKER_01]: She brings you this big rock. [SPEAKER_01]: The first time I did it, I'm not even in a lie. [SPEAKER_01]: I felt really, really bad. [SPEAKER_01]: First time she brought me a rock. [SPEAKER_01]: She like put it down in front of me and I was like, oh, that's cute.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just picked it up when I tossed it. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I turned around. [SPEAKER_01]: I heard this crunch. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, oh my god. [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, you just bit that. [SPEAKER_01]: She caught it out of the air. [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, oh, [SPEAKER_01]: I felt awful because I never in a million years would have thrown a rock that I thought she was going to catch mid-air Because that's obviously not good for the dog's teeth sure enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: She did she just jumped so I was like And I told Monica Zioner I said man. [SPEAKER_01]: I was like that's probably not good for her teeth She goes now the vet said her teeth are going to be gone within a couple of years and so anyway So there's dogs just do crazy thing in the mouth is like one of those things I think goes really overlooked [SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of vets that I have on talk about that is the dog, um, uh, yeah, a couple of vets had talked about like you really need to get in there and sometimes you do have to put them under to get in there, uh, some dogs will sit through it most dogs won't.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's expensive because then you have to put them under, which is for the anesthesia. [SPEAKER_01]: Exactly. [SPEAKER_01]: And then the cleaning. [SPEAKER_01]: And so, [SPEAKER_01]: that's crazy. [SPEAKER_01]: One thing I want to ask you about is the, does the age of the dog matter? [SPEAKER_01]: Because I think a lot of people who are listening to this are going to have some of them, we're going to have puppies and older dogs or senior dogs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does the age of the dog matter when working with fetch? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it does. [SPEAKER_00]: So we, [SPEAKER_00]: your price is based on three factors, your pet's age, breed and location, and we do that to make sure that we are providing the most accurate and fair pricing for our pet parents.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you live in New York City, where vet care is a little bit more expensive, [SPEAKER_00]: your policy is going to be a little bit more expensive. [SPEAKER_00]: If you live in a rural area where a vet care isn't as expensive your policy is not going to be as expensive. [SPEAKER_00]: It's based on breed because different breeds cost different amounts of money for vet care as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then it is the age too. [SPEAKER_00]: Older pets are more expensive to ensure than younger pets. [SPEAKER_00]: We cover pets ages six weeks and above, cats and dogs six weeks and older, you can expect that price to go up as your pet ages, but what's more important is understanding the pre-existing condition part of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We work really hard to educate pet parents on that. [SPEAKER_00]: If you have a eight-year-old dog that's already been diagnosed with diabetes and a heart disease or something like that, [SPEAKER_00]: Pen insurance isn't really going to make sense for you at that stage, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Because anything associated with the diabetes or the heart disease or anything that dogs been treated diagnosed for in the past is going to be considered a pre-existing condition in that covered.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's really important to enroll your pet at a young age and have that protection early on and then you don't have the fear of pre-existing conditions. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and we're transparent about that. [SPEAKER_00]: We will tell pet parents, especially when they call in, we have a wonderful group of pet advisors that you can call in and ask all these questions about, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's going to be covered? [SPEAKER_00]: What's not covered, you know, what should my co-pay be? [SPEAKER_00]: My deductible, what kind of coverage is best for my brain? [SPEAKER_00]: We'll walk you through all of that. [SPEAKER_00]: We do a lot of that education to through our website, but you can always call in and talk to a licensed pet advisor that will walk you through that as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they'll tell you, like, hey, I have a friend. [SPEAKER_00]: I have a friend that has a dog. [SPEAKER_00]: She's six years old. [SPEAKER_00]: He's with another provider. [SPEAKER_00]: He's really unhappy with the provider. [SPEAKER_00]: I had a conversation with him and said, you know what, we're friends.

[SPEAKER_00]: What did you talk to one of my advisors and let them tell you firsthand? [SPEAKER_00]: And he told him, he was like, you're stuck. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, if you cancel that policy and you enroll in fetch, we're not going to be able to cover anything because you have all these pre-existing conditions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have those really honest conversations because we would rather have you not enroll. [SPEAKER_00]: And just say, OK, you know what? [SPEAKER_00]: This isn't right for this dog and not enroll and understand that and us be super transparent with you. [SPEAKER_00]: And then when it comes around again, people that have pets always get another pet.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then when you come back around and you're ready for another pet or you're getting another puppy or a kitten or whatever that is then you come to fetch right and then you're not worrying about this preexisting conditions because what we don't want to happen is for pet parents to come on and you know enroll their pet and then file a claim and that claim be denied right the the there's three reasons that claims are denied for the most part.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a pre-existing condition, it's for a wellness treatment and you didn't add wellness on. [SPEAKER_00]: So you're filing for flea and tick medication, but you didn't add on wellness. [SPEAKER_00]: And the third is that you didn't file the claim within 90 days of the treatment. [SPEAKER_00]: Like when you look at it across the board, those are the three reasons.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we do a lot of work to educate our pet parents on those three reasons because we want you to get paid back, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So we work really hard to make sure that pet parents understand that that's important and that's what I like about Fetch is you guys are very transparent Excuse me, and you try really hard and you do Yeah, that's why I like like your app that's why when you guys are like, hey, you should do some training And I was like, yeah, because it makes sense because you guys are you guys are proactive.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like not a lot of not a lot of [SPEAKER_01]: companies would try to be like, we don't want to have to pay for your vet bills because we don't want your dog at the vet. [SPEAKER_01]: Right. [SPEAKER_01]: We don't want your dog sick. [SPEAKER_01]: We don't want your dog hurt. [SPEAKER_01]: But if it happens, then we're there.

[SPEAKER_01]: In that context of obviously outside of like regular visits. [SPEAKER_01]: So you said the breed thing. [SPEAKER_01]: So the is there is their particular breeds like again like the and I just for my understanding because a lot of people have the friend cheese. [SPEAKER_01]: They have the German shepherds.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you guys do cover those breeds. [SPEAKER_01]: It's just it's going to be a little bit more money because you guys can use any AI algorithm to say friend cheese are going to have you know these issues. [SPEAKER_01]: or like you said, German shepherds are going to have the hips potentially or, you know, like a Irish wolf hound, like we're going to have some sort of issues.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's something to be mindful of. [SPEAKER_01]: You guys do cover it's just it's going to be a little bit more. [SPEAKER_01]: It would be like life insurance for a skydiver. [SPEAKER_01]: It's like it costs a little bit more money. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it costs more money to ensure, you know, a certain type of car versus another car, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a Ferrari or something. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah and you mentioned to like how how we figure that out right this is a we talked about this at the beginning of the conversation um it's uh it's it's actually not like an AI algorithm that we've kind of leaned into we we based that on over 20 years of data.

[SPEAKER_00]: fetches been around for over 20 years, only focused on pets, right? [SPEAKER_00]: To your point, we aren't jumping into this new, right? [SPEAKER_00]: We're not one of the brands that popped up during the pandemic and the puppy pandemic as they called it. [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, you were even saying like in the last five years, you really started to hear more about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's because a lot of new companies have entered the market because the shift in how people think about their pets, right? [SPEAKER_00]: The rising cost of [SPEAKER_00]: the viewing pets as family. [SPEAKER_00]: All of that's changed, right? [SPEAKER_00]: You've got millennials that are having multiple dogs instead of children or having children later in life.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've got people that are really focused on the pets as part of the family. [SPEAKER_00]: And so we've seen a lot of new companies come into the space. [SPEAKER_00]: We've been around for over 20 years. [SPEAKER_00]: So we have over 20 years of medical records, [SPEAKER_00]: You know, vet bills, just thousands, hundreds of thousands of pets that have been ensured by us that we use all of that to determine, okay, this is what you should be paying for a dog that is this age, breed, and location so that we can keep that really fair.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have other providers that are in the space that subsidize their book, right? [SPEAKER_00]: They charge everybody the same, or, you know, they charge, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: kind of spread it out that way versus the way we view it is, you know, you've got a small mixed breed dog that's less likely to have issues.

[SPEAKER_00]: You should not pay as much as somebody like me that decided to get to walking vet bills that cost a ton of money, right? [SPEAKER_00]: I have to pay a little bit more because the likelihood of them having problems is much greater. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, 100% no, that makes sense. [SPEAKER_01]: One of the reasons I was asking is because I'm just thinking I was like, man, I want to get insurance for those cowboy dogs, like as a gift because it's like they And they even think about that right where they're like they love of course.

[SPEAKER_01]: They love their dog Just because they don't treat them as pets. [SPEAKER_01]: They still love their dogs. [SPEAKER_01]: They're their best fit [SPEAKER_00]: that human animal bond, whatever that is, right? [SPEAKER_00]: It's the way you love a coworker or a brother or a sister, right? [SPEAKER_00]: You, it's still that connection that we have with these animals.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when they're sick and hurt, we want to get them the care that they need. [SPEAKER_00]: It's important. [SPEAKER_01]: 100%. [SPEAKER_01]: So that, so like, let's say somebody has like a three year old border colleague, it would be like, yeah, we can cover it, but it's, you know, it's going to be a little bit more than it would normally would because it's [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the pricing goes up to as your pet ages, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So another thing that we're super transparent about, when you enroll your pet on average for cats, it's about $25 a month for dogs, it's about $35 a month. [SPEAKER_00]: Coming in as a puppy, that price is gonna be lower and it's gonna increase as the dog ages. [SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, a three-year-old border collie is going to be a little bit more expensive to ensure than a six-month-old border collie.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what we would want to do, too, is to know and educate the pet parent on, has this border collie had any issues? [SPEAKER_00]: No? [SPEAKER_00]: Great. [SPEAKER_00]: Is there, is there been treated or diagnosed with anything that we should know about that could be considered a pre-existing condition?

[SPEAKER_00]: No? [SPEAKER_00]: Great. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, let's get that pet enrolled. [SPEAKER_00]: And if there is, and that's not to say, I don't want to, I don't want to scare pet parents to say, like, you know, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: if you've got an older pet that's ever been to the vet like don't get pet insurance, that's not the case, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's really understanding what the pet has been diagnosed for and if they are chronic conditions that are there that would be pre-existing. [SPEAKER_00]: So a good example, you know, your dog has an accident, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like Franklin chewed up a stick, got a stick stuck in his little throat and had to have a little bit of a treatment done.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not a pre-existing condition, right? [SPEAKER_00]: What we're talking about with pre-existing conditions are things like the dogs been diagnosed with arthritis. [SPEAKER_00]: That's a big one, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Been diagnosed with diabetes. [SPEAKER_00]: That's another big one.

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to get the pet enrolled before things like that happen. [SPEAKER_00]: Even things like what we call curable pre-existing conditions, a big one for that is like an ear infection. [SPEAKER_00]: Dogs get ear infections all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: If your dog's ever had an ear infection, you shouldn't think like I shouldn't get the insurance because they'll never be covered, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: If your dog goes a year without showing signs or symptoms of that condition again, we consider it's it's been cured and then if in the future the dog has another ear infection then we'll cover it. [SPEAKER_01]: that makes sense. [SPEAKER_01]: That's really helpful because that would scare people away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you don't want to have what you had with the travel insurance, and you get into something, and then we don't want that to happen, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Our chief insurance officer has always told me my background's not an insurance, right? [SPEAKER_00]: My background is in the marketing world and completely different, and I kind of joke about [SPEAKER_00]: I got into this for the love of the pets and the animals and what we're doing and that human pet connection and what we're doing and I'm like oh yeah wait like this is insurance.

[SPEAKER_00]: I sort of as a secondary thought for a minute and our chief insurance officer has always told me she's like insurance is a promise. [SPEAKER_00]: That's what it is. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a promise that when something happens, we're going to be there to help you. [SPEAKER_00]: And we want pet parents to know that and to understand that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what we don't want to happen is you enroll and then you go, you know, a year and you're paying your monthly payment. [SPEAKER_00]: And then you need to use the insurance and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, no, wait. [SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to cover that. [SPEAKER_00]: That was actually a pre-existing condition.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a ton of education that happens at the point of sale of the product and also at the onboarding to make sure that doesn't happen. [SPEAKER_00]: Because if at the end of the day it's not going to be covered, we don't want you to have that experience, right? [SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to put pet parents in that situation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: So with the one question I have is I have a lot of different bets on holistic bets, integrative bets, etc. [SPEAKER_01]: Conventional bets. [SPEAKER_01]: Is that something that you [SPEAKER_00]: what do you mean so like if somebody went to a holistic vet right they're still a vet yep but maybe they don't practice the conventional lay or something it's covered okay because that's really important because we want you to have that freedom right we want you to be able to go to whatever the care that you and your vet decide is the care that your pet needs we want to be able to cover that [SPEAKER_00]: So if it's a more, you know, traditional route, or if it's a holistic vet, as long as it's a licensed vet, that's performing the treatment, it's covered.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it gives pet parents the freedom to explore options, right? [SPEAKER_00]: A good example of this too, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Franklin, again, like he's showing signs of IVDD. [SPEAKER_00]: We can tell it with his little back legs just aren't picking up as much as they used to and it's it's worrisome and there's an option of a surgery It's a $15,000 surgery Where they go in and they they take away I guess what's building up around the spinal cord and the what's impacting the nerves and they they perform back surgery on him essentially [SPEAKER_00]: That's really expensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't love that idea. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't like to think about Franklin having to go through that. [SPEAKER_00]: So we've been doing a lot of research and there's actually a lot that's showing the benefits from vets doing chiropractic care on dogs. [SPEAKER_00]: that have this problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to pretend to be an expert in the area of vet, but knowing that is an option that I could potentially explore in a conversation with my vet is really reassuring and that if we do decide to go down the path of getting Franklin Chiropractic care that that's also going to be covered by fetch.

[SPEAKER_00]: So whether or not we want to go down the surgery path or a more holistic approach or whatever that is, I have the freedom to make those [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's incredible, because I have a lot of people in that do all sorts of really cool stuff, like a chiropractor or anything. [SPEAKER_01]: And do you guys cover any things like like fecal matter transplant pills, like what's your, when you do the extra care, the, the, what was the ad on the wellness, what is that include that includes like what?

[SPEAKER_00]: So wellness is, think about the insurance, the accidents and injury insurance is the stuff that's the unexpected vet bills, right? [SPEAKER_00]: That's your dog gets sick or hurt. [SPEAKER_00]: The wellness is the preventive care that keeps them healthy. [SPEAKER_00]: It's annual exams, teeth cleaning, [SPEAKER_00]: fecal tests, blood work, routine blood work, I should say.

[SPEAKER_00]: Heartworm test, heartworm flea tick medication, microchipping. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I think I covered all of it for the most part. [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, it's anything that's like a planned visit that you go to. [SPEAKER_00]: The interesting thing about the wellness product is it's 100% reimbursement model as well up to the coverage amount.

[SPEAKER_00]: So for example, our, I think, top tier wellness product covers like $350 a year in flea and tick meds. [SPEAKER_00]: You get that $350 back. [SPEAKER_00]: There's no copay, no deductible. [SPEAKER_00]: It's first dollar coverage. [SPEAKER_00]: The day your policy goes into effect. [SPEAKER_00]: So you can actually schedule the vet visit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go and what's great about the product too is you get all that stuff that I just listed. [SPEAKER_00]: and you pay for the product, but what you get back is much greater than what you pay in. [SPEAKER_00]: So one vet visit with four treatments for flea and tick, teeth cleaning, annual exam, and a blood work.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to automatically get everything that you've already paid in, bat, and then you still have a whole list of stuff that you can still use throughout the year. [SPEAKER_01]: That's incredible, really, really cool. [SPEAKER_01]: I really appreciate you coming on. [SPEAKER_01]: If anybody has any information, do you want to just plug where they can find all things fetch pet insurance?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: You go to fetchpet.com. [SPEAKER_00]: Everything on our website there, we've got a ton of great resources for pet parents to learn about the different products that we have. [SPEAKER_00]: So our core insurance product, but then also our great member perks that we have that are exclusive for our members, those are things like I mentioned [SPEAKER_00]: embedded in the app as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, if you go to fetch pet.com, you can find out more there. [SPEAKER_01]: Awesome. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you everybody for listening and watching. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for coming on. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: It's been really insightful and I hope people take advantage of this because I know I wish I did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: But thanks again for coming on. [SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate everybody listening and watching. [SPEAKER_01]: Bye everybody. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.

E405- I Was Too Late With My Dog… Every Dog Owner Needs to Know This

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