My name is Beth Stafford. I am a licensed, accredited, practicing veterinarian in the central Ohio area. I am also a trained veterinary acupuncturist and practice alternative medicine.

Q: How did you find out about YOMP and what made you want to be a part of the YOMP team?

Beth: I was introduced to one of YOMP’s founders by a friend of mine whose husband grew up with him. They wanted a veterinarian's perspective, and wondered if I would be willing to reach out. We had several chats, then I met the founding team to learn more. I was impressed! It is such a safe product for pets and I was particularly interested to be a part of it.

Q: What makes YOMP toys so safe?

Beth: YOMP’s products, outside of the rope tug toy for obvious reasons, are made entirely from food-grade silicone. They have some great, fun designs, which to the naked eye will look like a lot of other popular dog toy brands, but on a material and functional level it is a different story.

Q: How is that?

Beth: I have seen a lot of damage to canine gastrointestinal tracts and mouths from things that dogs chew on over the years. Some of these things they shouldn't be chewing on at all, like raw bones and antlers, or things that they find outside like rocks, and some of the damage I've seen has been from poorly designed toys. I once saw a shredded toy that was roundish in shape adhere to the inside of a dog's stomach and it had to be surgically removed months later. The thing about the YOMP toys is that when they break down, and dogs will eventually break down anything they chew on repeatedly, the silicone is far less damaging to their bodies. It is going to be less physically abrasive to the gums and teeth, and less mechanically abrasive to the mucosal lining of their gastrointestinal tract from their oral cavity all the way to the exit.

Q: What do you call things that get stuck inside dogs and need to be removed because they aren't passing?

Beth: Those are called 'foreign bodies' when they are diagnosed; mostly by the animal's clinical signs and other lab tests, and verified by x-rays and/or ultrasounds of the abdomen. Sometimes they pass with support, and sometimes we have to remove them surgically.

Q: So a YOMP toy, could it be a ‘foreign body’?

Beth: Oh yes absolutely! Take a big enough piece of anything and ask it to pass through a diameter of a certain maximum width, and if it’s much bigger it’s simply not going to pass. Very rough things that do not compress, like peach pits and corn cobs, are notorious, and are the worst offenders. YOMP products are chemically more slippery and mechanically less abrasive.

Q: What kind of dogs should chew YOMP toys?

Beth: YOMP toys were initially launched for puppies, as well as mild to medium chewing dogs. I have a hard chewing dog and his YOMP toys last him weeks to maybe a month. He has a small mass in his mouth on the gum line that I found because he was chewing something other than a YOMP toy and the mass started to bleed. He is scheduled to have it removed, but in the meantime it is less irritated by his YOMP toys. In any case, it is never recommended that you leave your dog unsupervised with a toy until you have observed how they chew it and how readily they might destroy it.

Q: Why is that?

Beth: As I said before, anything can become a foreign body if it’s broken up into the right size pieces and swallowed. If your dog is immediately shredding any non-food item into bite-size pieces they are going to swallow them. Then you have a higher risk of a foreign body, and we don't want that.

Q: What makes you most excited about YOMP?

Beth: This product was designed by dog lovers for dog lovers. It doesn't off-gas, it is superiorly safe, and I am excited for dogs to experience YOMP’s awesome texture! Animal safety and health is my job, and I am thrilled to be part of the YOMP team!