Episode 297 – Salt City Barbecue

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Jeremy is still recovering from covid. It seems to have completely put him down, with 5 days in bed, and still trying to recover, we have him join us remotely for this show and Julia is off on another fun trip. Bre tells us about the death of her biological father, and recounts the funeral and amazing new found family she has.

The bulk of the show is devoted to our guest though, Rusty Monson, the owner of Salt City Barbecue. He is also cohost on The Pitmasters Podcast. We get to talk a ton about his business, but before that we hear more about his life. Being our age, we all wax poetic about the awesome 80s and 90s in the Salt Lake area. I’m real happy because we get to nerd out on Magic The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons with Rusty.

In talking with Rusty we find out how much he really does love his cooking and his state. He wants Utah to become a place people can find truly amazing barbeque even if that isn’t really the case right now. What he won’t say about the other locals, the hosts of the show don’t back off from. While Utah has an amazing food scene, barbeque is one area we don’t have a large selection of, and are certainly not known for. Rusty wants to change all of that.

Rusty started doing competition barbeque, before deciding to open his own catering business and food truck. Now the truck can be found wandering the Salt Lake Valley and delivering amazing nachos to everyone. Long term the dream is to open up a great brick and mortar restaurant and teach everyone who wants to know how to make good barbeque.

We will ALWAYS love your “likes” BUT don’t forget to click that little SHARE button (or retweet) *sharing IS indeed caring* You can find us and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Itunes, IHeartRadio, Google Play, and TuneIN. Leave us a review and Follow us on the Twitter @tnupodcast, Instagram @Tnupodcast, or on Facebook The New Utah Podcast

Episode 296 – A Raft of Otters

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Utah Adventure Week – Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

This week Julia announces that she’s added an event calendar to her website for The Pleiadian Altar.  Take a few minutes and find out where she’ll be hocking her wares!  Black Rabbit Studios sends us our promised gifts.  We’re going to spread the love by putting some on our travelling suitcase and sharing the wealth between the four of us.

This week we are starting a new monthly spotlight.  After some on-episode discussion, it will be called the Utah Weekly Adventure.  We start off our tourn at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

You know where it is, just on the west side of I15 at 120the South. Do you know why you know?  Because instead of allowing U2 to scrap their stage from their 360 Tour, they are now using it as part of the Aquarium’s educational area.

Mental Floss

The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium was started in 1997 by Brent Anderson, a marine biologist and Utah native.  He started with a mobile educational marine exhibit in 199 and opened the 10,000 square foot location at the Gateway Mall in 2004.  This enabled Anderson to raise funds and to garner interest in the endeavor.  They had over 300,000 visitors in the first two years and quickly outgrew their space.  In June of 2006, the moved to their space in Sandy, which was over 43,000 square feet and soon had over 460,000 visitors each year.  Finally in 2010, they purchased 17 acres of land and raised $27 million to build the Aquarium in its permeant home, Draper.  Currently the Aquarium is 136,000 square feet and was opened in March of 2014 and saw over one million visitors in the first year.

There are five areas to visit at the Aquarium so I’m going to give a little overview of the order we saw each of them:

  1. Journey to South America.  Our first impression was of the climate control.  It was humid and warm inside to mimic weather for the animals and plants living inside.  We saw the electric eel, a sloth, porcupine, toucan, poisonous frogs, and empty butterfly exhibit.  It was really cool to see the indigenous plants that were included with identification signs.  Julia confessed that she used to be afraid of the river monster fish and was terrified that she might fall into the tank.
Loveland Living Planet Aquarium
  • Penguin Research Station.  When we arrived, they were feeding the penguins and talking about how they take care of them.  Each penguin is labeled so they can monitor their food intake and the lights and temperature in the enclosure are controlled to imitate their natural environment (Sub-Antarctic islands).  The lights go up and down according to what would be happening in the wild.  Many of the penguins at the Aquarium were actually born there and you can read a little bit about each of them. 
Utah Family Magazine
  • Expedition: Asia. There are two clouded leopards in this exhibit; however, we were only able to see one for a short time.  What a treat that was though!  There were a lot of giant and colorful fish!
Loveland Living Planet Aquarium
  • Discover Utah.  We have determined that Utah has boring fish, but you can see the brine shrimp in this exhibit.  This is also where we saw the otters come out to have a little food stimulated learning and an active beehive.  Utah is a beautiful place and watching the otters play was one of the highlights of our day.
Bragging Mommy
  • Ocean Explorer:  This exhibit has a place where you can touch sea urchins, star fish, sea cucumbers, and anemones. They also have a stingray pond where you can reach out and pet them!  This is where we saw the seahorses and dragons, the giant octopus, giant clam, and the giant lobster, along with bioluminescent fish. There is a really cool shark tank with a tunnel you can walk through so you are surrounded by the beautiful creatures.  Just outside the tunnel is a show area where you can see the same tank from the side.
Utah.com

You can buy a membership, eat there and when it opens again, they have a 4D theater.  They offer shark yoga, nature storytime and youth camps.  You can rent the Aquarium for private events like weddings, proposals, and family parties.  Both indoor and outdoor spaces are available and there are times when you can rent out the entire Aquarium.  Additionally, the Aquarium is in the process of adding on hands on learning as well as science labs.  (Chris may have a recording of this information)

We loved this episode and our first adventure.  Join us next month as we continue to explore Utah for ourselves!

We will ALWAYS love your “likes” BUT don’t forget to click that little SHARE button (or retweet) *sharing IS indeed caring* You can find us and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Itunes, IHeartRadio, Google Play, and TuneIN. Leave us a review and Follow us on the Twitter @tnupodcast, Instagram @Tnupodcast, or on Facebook The New Utah Podcast

Episode 295 – Floppy Fries

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Hello all you fabulous listeners!!!

We are recording on Skype this week because Julia is negative for COVID but then positive twice but then negative again.  She’s feeling better but home recovering and avoiding giving it to us since we’ll never be sure if she has/had COVID!

The Utah State Legislature began on the 18th.  We talk about how important it is to know what is happening up on the hill and to contact your legislator if you something is important to you.  Please go to www.le.utah.gov  for bill tracking, to find out who your representatives are and to listen to committee discussions.

We know you’ve been waiting for it, so here it is, the first part of our City Weekly Best Of review!  In this weeks episode, we go over the Food & Drink and the Restaurants categories.  We are shocked that The Pie didn’t win for Best Pizza or even Best Pizza in Ogden but excited that Fresh Donuts & Deli is on the board for Best Donuts.  Our wonderful friends at Ruby Snap beat Crumbl for Best Cookies and of course, Pretty Bird, FTW under Best Chicken Sandwich.  Chef Adalberto pulls out a couple secondary positions under Best Bakery and Best Dessert for Fillings and Emulsions but we know he should be #1!  Guras Spice House is overlooked for Best Indian Restaurant again but now that Jeremy has been to La Caille, we know it’s a real place to go and eat.  Surprisingly, between the podcast crew, we’ve been to all the winners in Best French Restaurant.  Chris is thrilled with Sunday’s Best, Best Restaurant Brunch win but we’re not going to Takashi until their dining room opens, no matter how many categories they win.

cityhomeCOLLECTIVE
Food’s Ultimate Resource, Spoonthumbs

Don’t worry, we didn’t miss pulling a Tarot Card this week and it tells us to listen to our little voices . . .

We will ALWAYS love your “likes” BUT don’t forget to click that little SHARE button (or retweet) *sharing IS indeed caring* You can find us and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Itunes, IHeartRadio, Google Play, and TuneIN. Leave us a review and Follow us on the Twitter @tnupodcast, Instagram @Tnupodcast, or on Facebook The New Utah Podcast

Episode 294 – The Dugway Dude

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Episode 294 – The Dugway Dude

Happy joyous day to you all. This is Jeremy reporting on this weeks exciting episode of The New Utah Podcast (also known as Hotdog-Water.com). Here in Salt Lake County the mask mandate is back into effect. Chris has a few words to say about that. Julia got her covid booster and is out of commission, but the show must go on. We talk about last weekends monster jam, and the sale of the Real Salt Lake team.

Photo: Ford Field

This weeks guest is Brandon Montrone, local Utah artist, photographer, and rock hound. Brandon was born in Utah and grew up in West Valley City. He attended Hunter High School and was into both art and skateboarding as an impressionable youth. Turns out Brandon, Chris, and I all have a lot in common, and could trace a plethora of friends, experiences, and late 1900’s hang outs to each other.

Brandon spent over 10 years in the video game development world, but it was the early days of photoshop that pushed him in a new direction. Seeing what could be done with photographs in photoshop was a new and exciting world. Brandon quickly realized that if he wanted to pursue his new passion, he would need to take his own photographs. Brandon bought a camera and went out into the vast nothingness of Dugway and his love of photography was born. Specializing in landscapes and nature Brandon has also been known to photograph portraits and the odd wedding, bar-mitzvah, and children’s birthday parties (for the right price)

Photo: Brandon Montrone

Brandon is also a talented artist. He was drawing, doodling, and playing with light and color as far back as he can remember. Brandon specializes abstract paintings known as a ‘dutch pour’, he puts acrylic paint on canvas and lights it on fire to get breathtaking results.

Original artwork by: Brandon Montrone

Brandon’s other passion in life if the Dugway Geodes, found in the Utah Desserts of Dugway. Known as the ‘Dugway Dude’, Brandon found his first Geode about 5 years ago. The amazing thing about the geodes in the Utah dessert is that they have patterns and minerals that cannot be found anywhere else on earth. Brandon has found a handful of these geodes that geologist have never seen before, and Brandon’s goal is to find a brand-new geode this year with minerals never seen by science. Ranging in size from an egg to a basketball Brandon has unearthed some truly amazing geodes. He is known in the rockhound community as the go-to guy for all thing geodes.

Geode Discovered by Brandon Montrone.

Our discussion with Brandon was a lot of fun and really could have gone on for another hour or more. To look into all thing Brandon check out his website Miirimage.com and listen to the episode then tell us what you think.

We will ALWAYS love your “likes” BUT don’t forget to click that little SHARE button (or retweet) *sharing IS indeed caring* You can find us and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Itunes, IHeartRadio, Google Play, and TuneIN. Leave us a review and Follow us on the Twitter @tnupodcast, Instagram @Tnupodcast, or on Facebook The New Utah Podcast

Episode 293 – Dead Trees

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Utah turned 126 for this episode. So Happy Actual Birthday Utah! Jeremy tell us he’s going to go to Monster Jam to see the trucks, and Chris complains about indoor monster truck shows.

The real meat of the show though, is our discussion with Cody Chamberlain, a local Utah artist inspired by all of the vast beauty and often emptiness of the state. You can find all of his work on his website.

We find out quickly he was born on September 11, and have a long discussion on how that impacted him as a person. We talk about where he was when everything happened, and how he found out hours after most of the world. It’s an interesting take you will want to hear.

We get to dive into his love of art, and how after deciding to get his GED, he went to college to pursue a degree in Fine Arts at Utah Valley University We talk a lot a good deal about his experiences in college actually prepared him to be a full time artist and make a living selling his art work.

We also dive into the focuses of his art. Very much influenced by the landscape of Utah, his art features a take on dead trees, and mortality, and life. Utah summers are featured predominately in his very large scale custom pieces. He’s spent a lot of time in the great nothingness of the Utah desert finding inspiration for his work.

And when I talk about the grandeur of his art, I would be remiss to show you some images. His stuff is as big as a full grown man in many cases. He doesn’t hold back in the scale of his work.

Procession Panel CodyRexChamberlain.art
Boulder Mountain Ponderosa: codyrexchamberlain.art

We will ALWAYS love your “likes” BUT don’t forget to click that little SHARE button (or retweet) *sharing IS indeed caring* You can find us and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Itunes, IHeartRadio, Google Play, and TuneIN. Leave us a review and Follow us on the Twitter @tnupodcast, Instagram @Tnupodcast, or on Facebook The New Utah Podcast

Episode 292 – Utah Copper

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This is TNUP’s last episode of 2021.  We’re so excited for 2022.  For 2022 instead of just researching the amazing places in Utah, we’ll be visiting some of them.  We’ll record a bit, take some pictures, and then come back to the show to tell you about our adventure.

We open the show this week by talking about football bowl cancellations due to COVID concerns. As of our recording, the Hawai’i Bowl, Military Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Fenway Bowl, and the Arizona Bowl.  As of this writing, the Rose Bowl will be played. Go Utes!  Along with that a small shout-out to Tom Barberi, who passed away on Christmas Eve.  He was a staple in the Utah media and will be missed.

Bre and Chris talk about their successful delivery of Sub for Santa gifts and a successful mouse trapping.  So far there are no signs of a second mouse.  Fingers crossed we don’t end up with a mouse infestation similar to Jeremy’s rats!

Salt Lake City Tours – Copper Mine of Utah Tour

This week we talk about the Kennecott Utah Copper Mine or the Bingham Canyon Mine, the largest man-made excavation and deepest open pit mine in the world.  Currently the mine is owned by Rio Tinto Group (a British-Australian multinational corporation).  In the episode, we talk about the ore discovery in 1848 by Sanford and Thomas Bingham (whom the canyon and mine were originally named after) and the many iterations of owners the mine has had since its opening in 1863.  While the mine brought much work and prosperity to Utah, it’s become a blight to the west bench that managed to literally bury entire cities.

Aerial view of the mine by John Couture

The mine does not just produce approximately 300,000 short tons of copper annually but also, 400,000 troy ounces of gold, 4,000,000 troy ounces of silver and about 10,000 short tons of molybdenum.  While I think everyone has heard of copper, silver, and gold, none of us had heard of molybdenum, a metal that is ductile and highly resistant to corrosion.  It also has one of the highest melting points of all pure elements.  We also found out the molybdenum is a micronutrient that is essential for life but can be poisonous when you are overexposed.  (Don’t say we never taught you anything)

We also talk about the huge equipment needed to undertake this type of mining.  One shovelful from a bucket holds more than 100 tons of material and it takes about three scoops to fill the 320-ton haul trucks used in the mine.  The electrical shovels are six-stories high, and the average haul truck is 24 feet high with six tires more than 12 ½ feet tall.  Each of the tires lasts about nine months and when the truck is fully loaded, it weighs more than 1,100,000 pounds.

YouTube, MK Parihar
Constructionequipmentguide.com

In addition to burying entire towns, we talk about Daybreak being built on top of old tailing ponds.  In 1990, homes that that been built on former flood plains were discovered to be contaminated with high levels of lead and arsenic.  In its history, smelters caused sulfur dioxide gas emissions that significantly damaged neighboring crops and have had at least 25 chemical spills since 1989.

When Rio Tinto purchased the mine in 1989, they modernized the mine, mill, and the smelter.  They also replace the railroad with conveyor belts and pipelines for transporting both ore and waste.  We discuss the landslides and that the pit can be seen with the naked eye from outer space!!!

NASA – view of the mine from space

The Bigham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine is on the list of National Historic Landmarks.  We talked about the visitors’ center being open on the episode, but it is still closed due to COVID restrictions.  You can take a virtual tour on their website.

Chris puts us all on the spot about our favorite episode of year but I’m the only one caught unaware and unprepared, as is the yoozh.  He also tells us about his company’s impromptu Christmas party where is boss is like Oprah, “You get a prize! And you get a prize! And you get a prize!!!”

We hope you have a great new year, and we’ll see ya on the flip side!

We will ALWAYS love your “likes” BUT don’t forget to click that little SHARE button (or retweet) *sharing IS indeed caring* You can find us and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Itunes, IHeartRadio, Google Play, and TuneIN. Leave us a review and Follow us on the Twitter @tnupodcast, Instagram @Tnupodcast, or on Facebook The New Utah Podcast

Episode 291 – HotDog-Water.com

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Hello friends, happy holidays, merry Christmas, happy Chanukah, happy Kwanzaa, happy solstice, whatever you celebrate have a good one! We are down to the wire and the holiday shopping is getting to Chris just a bit. The show begins with a good ol’ fashion bitch session about crazy shoppers and their not so good parking, driving, and shopping habits. Chris and his workplace are involved in a cool sub for Santa program this year. Bre tells the amusing story of her very religious co-worker winning the ultimate booze basket at work. Julia and her business was featured in Voyage Magazine (congratulations Julia)

Meet Juila Gates of The Pleiadian Altar

This week we have the privilege of sitting down with the president of the Tooele County Arts Guld, Katrina Flores

Photo: Teele Transcript Bulletin

Katrina was born in the majestic town of Magna Utah, but at a young age moved with her family to Stansbury Park, Utah (a subdivision just outside of old town Tooele). Katrina grew up surrounded by art, she loved to draw, doodle, and paint. Seeing her potential Katrinas mother signed her up for art lessons and the magic grew from there. Katrina and her husband Hudson have a deep-rooted love of all things art, and a few years ago they started Black Rabbit Studios

“Black Rabbit Studios is Hudson and Katrina’s home-based art studio where art lovers can go to learn, practice, and improve their skills in the arts.” 

Fast forward to 2019 Katrina began attending the Tooele Arts Guild and was very quickly seen for her talents. By the end of the year, she was nominated as president of the guild.

Katrina was thrilled to begin implementing new ideas, new classes, and events, BUT the Covid-19 pandemic slammed the breaks on everything for the newly appointed president. Throughout the covid lockdown Katrina stayed positive and implemented virtual classes, meeting, and art lectures for the guild. During this time the guild discussed what they could do when the world started going back to normal and decided the best way to celebrate would be to hold Tooele County’s first Renaissance Themed arts festival.

The fair was held the first weekend of October and it was an amazing success. The event included shopping, thousands of unique items, and art. Local food trucks, live entertainment, bagpipers, bird shows, and fire performers to name a few things. 

Due to the success of the October event the Guild has just announced the dates for next year’s Guild Faire (September 30th & October 1st, 2022) Friday, 3pm – 9pm & Saturday 11 am – 6pm.

This was a great interview, and we really hope you take the time to listen to it and help support Katrina and her efforts with the Tooele County Arts Guild. All are welcome to attend the meetings and events. Tell Katrina you heard about her on the New Utah Podcast, and she might even make you the honorary guild secretary.

We will ALWAYS love your “likes” BUT don’t forget to click that little SHARE button (or retweet) *sharing IS indeed caring* You can find us and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Itunes, IHeartRadio, Google Play, and TuneIN. Leave us a review and Follow us on the Twitter @tnupodcast, Instagram @Tnupodcast, or on Facebook The New Utah Podcast

Episode 290 – Utah Ugandan

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This episode we find out Chris and Bre likely have a mouse in the house. We also get a full recap on the annual ugly sweater competition and the white elephant gifts that ensued. This may become an annual recap, who knows. Lastly before our amazing guest, Julia tells us about getting suckered into a time share on her vacation. It took about 2 seconds before Chris called what it was, and the team listens and gives advice on time share purchases.

The meat of the episode though, is our discussion with Jermain Magandazi, a Ugandan immigrant to Utah, and the owner of Bombini’s Own a local Utah business, specializing in candles, lip balm, perfume and other locally sourced care products.

We get to dive deep into his story in our discussion. Growing up in Uganda with his Aunt, and then moving to the UK, and finally making it to America. At age 11, he essentially met his parents for the first time in his life. They had spent all that time setting up a proper life for their children here in America.

Of course we get to have a long conversations about the different things he thought of and experienced moving from place to place with such big culture differences. We hear about the first thing he ate in America, and you will be surprised by the reaction.

He came to Utah for college, attending the University of Utah. He talks about how he started the business, on a whim, because he was tired of always having to replace lip balms he lost. So he learned how to make them, testing on his friends. Eventually someone told him to sell them and next thing you know he has an Etsy shop, an Amazon store and now a Brick and Mortar location at 7700 Maple Street in Midvale, Utah.

We will ALWAYS love your “likes” BUT don’t forget to click that little SHARE button (or retweet) *sharing IS indeed caring* You can find us and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Itunes, IHeartRadio, Google Play, and TuneIN. Leave us a review and Follow us on the Twitter @tnupodcast, Instagram @Tnupodcast, or on Facebook The New Utah Podcast

Episode 289 – Vegetarians Building Steakhouses

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Hello, esteemed followers, this is Jeremy making history and magic with this week’s episode summary. To start out the show Chris (who is now 40) hurt his back doing absolutely nothing! Don’t get old kids, it’s not what is cracked up to be. Bre has puppy fever, and came so very, very close to adding another fur baby to the family. Julia is skipping out on us again to be in Florida and Jeremy summarizes the Battle creek Christmas Boutique. Shop local peeps, keep that money in the community.

This week’s guest is our lovely and talented friend Tanner Lenart. She is know as the Liquor Lawyer and you may remember her from episode 96 (almost four years ago). We catch up with all the changes that have come to the world of Utah liquor in that time. Including (but not limited to) the two biggest changes: As of December 30, 2018, Utah became the first state to lower the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit from 0.08 to 0.05 for drivers over the age of 21. And in November of 2019 retail beer went from 3.2% alcohol by volume (ABV) to 5% ABV. The new bill replaced the 86-year-old law stating that 3.2% beer was the alcohol limit for brewing.

We talked about the Utah Wine festival in Cedar City “Wine Fest 2021”. Tanner was asked to be a Judge and she said it was one of the most exciting events she has ever been a part of.

We discussed the change in law that now permits you to bring up to 9 liters of alcohol into the state when you travel. Probably one of the coolest thing we talked about with the Rocky Mountaineer Train Luxury trip from Moab to Denver. They have a hospitality license so they can sever alcohol on the train.

“Rocky Mountaineer makes comfort a priority for each guest that steps on the train. Perhaps the most important factor in this comfort is seating. Passengers are pre-assigned plush seats for the duration of their journey. Each seat offers ample legroom and reclines for mid-route snoozes. The experience of riding aboard the train is further enhanced by the attentive hosts who offer unlimited complimentary drinks – both alcoholic and non-alcoholic – and gourmet snacks. Additionally, the host’s immersive storytelling highlights the regional history and provides information about the passing flora and fauna and alerts to watch for points of interest as they approach. Travelers can choose from two elite classes of comfort on the train. “

Photo: Rockymountaineer.com
Photo: Rockymountaineer.com

We also talk about the growing number of distilleries, breweries, and wineries in Utah. Because of Utahs odd laws and sometimes-difficult legal hoops we all agree that it has created a very cool local micro brew scene. Many of the spirits made here in Utah are winning national awards, and we are proud to be part of the local community.

We will ALWAYS love your “likes” BUT don’t forget to click that little SHARE button (or retweet) *sharing IS indeed caring* You can find us and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Itunes, IHeartRadio, Google Play, and TuneIN. Leave us a review and Follow us on the Twitter @tnupodcast, Instagram @Tnupodcast, or on Facebook The New Utah Podcast

Episode 288 – Dog Training

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In this episode, Chris is a fan of the FAUCI Act, though still not a fan of Chris Stewart. The Gates Thanksgiving dinner was very prayerful if a little less than tasty. However, they made the most of the long weekend by doing a little rock hounding. They discovered Wonder Stone Quarry and found rocks that are only in Utah and Nevada. Chris and Bre spent a quiet, low-stress weekend eating Turkey and decorating for Christmas.

We were so excited to finally sit down with Robyn Carlson from Kudos 2 Canines. You’ve heard us talk about Robyn and Kudos on many earlier episodes. Robyn was born in Salt Lake City but had a restless, single mom who moved them around a lot. First doe the Fairview area, onto Corpus Christi, Texas, back to Utah, then to Montana and back to Utah.

Robyn Carlson, Kudos 2 Canines

Robyn has always been drawn to and had dogs. In high school she started volunteering with Furburbia and No More Homeless Pets. After high school, she moved to North Carolina to nanny. While in NC she also worked at the SPCA. Robyn’s boyfriend (now husband) was here in Utah so when she came back to him, she started back at Furburbia and worked as a liaison with the Humane Society. She found a love for the rescue side of pets but also found it can be exhausting. Robyn then moved into the vet world and all the way up to head surg tech with the Humane Society.

While pregnant with her first child and she ran into a trainer friend at PetSmart. They were hiring and Robyn found her love in pet education. She had never been a trainer before but worked her way up to Area Trainer for Utah PetSmart’s and did that for about seven years. Robyn loved what she did but not where she was doing it.

In 2012 she made new year’s resolution to start her own business and she opened the early version of Kudos 2 Canines in February of 2013. Her inspiration for the change, her now 14-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog, Tucker. Robyn often refers to Tucker as her partner and he is the logo and the official mascot for K2C. Tucker gave her the confidence to dot the job. He has worked as a therapy and service dog and have won many awards together.

Tucker, Kudos 2 Canines

Robyn’s business started as a travelling group training. She rented rooms in rec centers, a CrossFit gym and even held classes in driveways. She was then able to open her first training center in South Salt Lake. A location they outgrew almost before they moved in. The were there for two years before moving to their current location, which they have now outgrown. Robyn and K2C just closed on a new place, near to the first location, and they will own this building.

Compared to other doggie day camps, K2C is not a free for all. Robyn and her staff of trainers lead a structured day where dogs get to play but also get to learn. In addition, K2C takes breeds that other training facilities may not. They also take puppies after their second round of shots and pups don’t need to be spayed or neutered to attend. During COVID, folks decided to get dogs and those dogs needed training. K2C started to get away from their core values: education. So about six months ago, she and her staff decided to limit their class sizes to 20-30 dogs a day, to require education in order to attend day camps and pups can get more one-on-one training. K2C also does ‘out and about’ classes where the dogs go on field trips and group classes go out into the real world to help dogs get along in public.

You are your pets best advocate and K2C can help you both learn how to work best together. Also, if you are fostering dogs, Kudos offers discounts on classes and day camp. Robyn built her business on word of mouth and recognition because she truly believes in the work she and her staff do. They have won awards and are growing by leaps and bounds. Starting in January their new location is 55 E Miller Avenue in South Salt Lake. The new facility will enable Robyn to continue expanding on her dream. They will have space for a pool and plan to be a one stop shop for training, grooming and specialties, along.

Please listen to the episode to learn more about Robyn’s favorite dogs, her plans for Kudos 2 Canines future and how to take care of your doggo. Visit them at www.kudos2canines.com for more information about training and classes. They also have a massive Facebook presence with many groups set up for special projects they do. We love this organization, and they give back to the community so go and support them.

Chris forgot to ask Robyn our signature question but at the beginning of the interview she talks about Utah’s landscape. She mentions mountains to the north and red rocks to the south. This is a tried-and-true answer that never gets old because it’s true, Utah landscape is AMAZING!

Unfortunately, this episode ends on a sad note. Many of you may already know this if you follow Jessica on social media (yes, former host, Jessica), but her father passed away Thanksgiving weekend. Jessica’s father spent the last week of his life in the hospital, so she has organized a GoFundMe for her stepmother in order to help with expenses. If you can, please go donate to the fund.  You can follow the link or find it by searching for Dan Richardson End of Life ICU Expenses.

We will ALWAYS love your “likes” BUT don’t forget to click that little SHARE button (or retweet) *sharing IS indeed caring* You can find us and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Itunes, IHeartRadio, Google Play, and TuneIN. Leave us a review and Follow us on the Twitter @tnupodcast, Instagram @Tnupodcast, or on Facebook The New Utah Podcast