Dog food coordinator Mitsuyuki Yuasa approaches dog health from a food perspective.

Facing each dog individually and deriving the appropriate food

Celeina (MC): First of all, I was wondering what exactly do dog food coordinators do?

Yuasa: I work with each dog one by one to find out what kind of food is right for him or her.

Celeina: So you look at each dog individually and make a diagnosis?

Yuasa: That’s right.

Takano (MC): Does the content of the dog food affect the health of the dog in any way?

Yuasa: It does. It also depends on whether the dog food is dry or wet, whether it contains a lot of meat or fish, and so on.

Celeina: That’s right. Because people also use different lotion for different people. It is strange to use lotion as an analogy (haha). But of course, what they eat is also important.

Yuasa: We all weigh a certain amount, don’t we? But dogs are very small, so food has a big influence on them.

Takano: I also have a dog at home.

Celeina：You have a MameShiba, right?

Takano: That’s right. He is, for lack of a better word, ferocious, so much so that my sister has nicknamed him Cerberus.Celeina, you also have a dog.

Celeina: I have a bichon frise.

Takano: I would like to ask you a lot of questions.

Celeina: May I ask you specifically?

Yuasa: Yes, go ahead.

Celeina: There’s one thing I’m really curious about. My bichon frise, Momo-chan, has a dark color around her eyes like tear stains. Is there a diet that can help clean up the area around her eyes?

Yuasa: Yes, there is. Dogs with white fur tend to have reddish tears, so I think it would be better to choose meat and fish proteins that are white rather than red to reduce the tendency. To be more specific, instead of choosing beef or lamb, choose chicken or pork. As for fish, tuna and bonito are red meat, so I think it would be better to have them choose cod or salmon.

Celeina: Thank you very much. I will take it in.

Takano: By the way, do you think the diet will change a Mameshiba that has too much energy?

Yuasa: I think massage is the most important thing.

Takano: Massage?　I’ll do it when I go back to my parents’ house.

Yuasa: There is a pattern of taking them for a long walk to tire them out and then putting them down, but rather than that, massages that touch their bodies and relax their muscles are being looked at more and more.

Takano: Thank you very much. Business call, sister, please give a massage to my dog.

Celeina: Please don’t use the airwaves to contact me for business (haha).

From being in charge of tropical fish to a dog food expert

Takano: I heard that Mr.Yuasa was originally in charge of tropical fish at a pet store.

Yuasa: I was in charge of tropical fish for a long time, and I was thinking of opening a store specializing in tropical fish in the future.

Celeina: What made you decide to go into the pet food business?

Yuasa: There was a customer who happened to ask me about pet food when I was free while the store was busy. The dog’s skin was in a state of dryness. But I didn’t know anything about it, so I tried to get the person in charge to take over. But since I had just gotten on board, I decided to study a little bit and started consulting with the client about her food. I studied a lot of things, recommended dog food and supplements, and had him try them for about six months. But it didn’t heal at all.

Takano: So it was.

Yuasa: That’s when I decided to make homemade food.This was about 10 years ago, but homemade meals were gradually becoming popular, so I asked the owner if you wanted to try it. The owner said he would try it, so we discussed it, and when I saw the dog for the first time in two months, the dog was so much cleaner.

Celeina: Wow!

Yuasa: I said to the owner, “It looks so beautiful!”, he squeezed both of my hands and cried and said, “Thank you”. I was going to do a tropical fish shop, but then I thought, “This is what I do”.

Takano: So your current job is the result of thinking more about the dogs than the store.

Selling dog food that is as close to homemade as possible

Celeina: Now you give lectures as a dog food coordinator and have stores in Daikanyama, Hyogo Prefecture, and Kagawa, right?

Yuasa: Yes, I do.

Celeina: So you recommend homemade dog food, but you also sell a variety of dog food? What kind of products do you sell?

Yuasa: We carry additive-free products that are as close as possible to homemade products and do not contain additives, preservatives, preservatives, or coloring agents. Perhaps you don’t know this, but what we eat is food, but what the dogs eat is treated as sundries.

Celeina: I see.

Yuasa: Because it is treated as general merchandise, it may contain strong additives or use coloring to make it look beautiful even for dogs’ color vision. As I mentioned earlier, we select products so that there are absolutely no additives in them, as they can be hard on their little bodies.

Celeina：I see. We have them bring a variety of products to the studio. This is the “18 Club” series, which is Yuasa-san’s original product, isn’t it?

Yuasa: Yes. I want you to take a look at the raw materials.

Takano: It’s very simple!　The only ingredient in the product called “Tosaka” is “comb”. There are no preservatives or anything like that.

Yuasa: I also brought something like this today. It’s a pufferfish porridge, and it’s perfect for the coming season.

Celeina: So you can give warm rice to your dog too?

Yuasa: And it’s made with blowfish from Shimonoseki.

Celeina: Wow!　We also have an online store, so listeners are encouraged to check it out. Now,one song will be played. What kind of song did Mr.Yuasa choose for us?

Yuasa: This song was the first CD I ever bought. It’s “Virtual Insanity” by Jamiroquai.

https://open.spotify.com/intl-ja/track/4UQDZlZhGUDoYMohwrY28v?si=85f68e97a024434c

A daily life of love not only for animals but also for plants

Celeina: Yesterday we talked about a plant called “Staghorn fern” and I heard that Mr.Yuasa is also into plants.

Yuasa: There is a plant called “agave,” which is used to make tequila, and there is an ornamental agave.

Takano: You brought it with you today, didn’t you?

Celeina: This is the agave that you usually adore at home.

Yuasa: That’s right. She says “Good morning” (haha).

Takano: It looks really cool. It looks a little spiky. Is this going to be a cactus?

Yuasa: This is a type of plant called a “agave”. It is becoming quite popular.

Takano: This flowerpot is cool too.

Yuasa: Actually, I made it myself.

Celeina: You made it yourself?

Yuasa: Yes, I did. I asked to make just the flowerpot at a pottery class.

Takano: For this agave?

Yuasa: That’s right. I went to a pottery class and made it just for this agave.

Takano: The design fits very well.

Celeina: It feels like a flowerpot made for this agave. Do the agaves come in various sizes?

Yuasa: They range from small to large. The shapes also vary.

Takano: How did you get hooked on agave?

Yuasa: It’s simply cool.

Takano: I see, because they look cool. How many do you have at home?

Yuasa: 100 or 200, I guess.

Celeina: That many!　You also have a dog, don’t you?

Yuasa: I’m taking up a new post leaving one’s family behind. Also, I have permission from my wife, so it’s fine.

Celeina: So you are able to live separately there. My Momo-chan has repeatedly attacked a houseplant I named Santos. I wonder what to do with houseplants and dogs.

Takano: So houseplants have names too (haha). But sometimes they eat them by mistake.

Yuasa: Not so good. I’d really recommend a houseplant that can be hung on the wall.

Takano: So you and Mr.Tom are plant friends?

Yuasa: Yes, we are. We are plant friends and drinking buddies.

Celeina: Did Mr.Tom get you hooked on agave plants?

Yuasa: I bought one as an interior decoration and thought it was cool. From there, I looked into what kinds there were, and I got deeper and deeper into it.

Celeina：Mr.Yuasa is a dedicated researcher, isn’t he?

Takano: Like with dog food, you are also a very inquisitive person, aren’t you?

Yuasa: I go into it too much.

Takano: Your persistence leads to your dog’s health, too. That was a very valuable talk. Thank you very much.

Yuasa: Thank you very much.

Celeina: Now, “FIST BUMP,” a circle of friends connected by goo touch!　So, we are asking you to introduce your friends to us. What kind of people will Mr.Yuasa introduce to us?

Yuasa: If I had to describe it in one word, he has a strong core and are very particular about what he does, but he doesn’t let it show on his faces.

Celeina: I see. Like a hidden hard worker. Can you tell us thier name?

Yuasa: This is Terukazu Murakami, owner of the creative Italian restaurant “1n58 (Inugoya Baru).

Takano: I’m curious. Tomorrow, I would like to dig deeper into the core of Mr.Murakami.

Celeina: “FIST BUMP”, today we welcome dog food coordinator Mitsuyuki Yuasa. Thank you very much.