Natural Pet Food
BAKERY GOES TO THE DOGS
From rich desserts to gourmet crackers, baker now wins rave reviews from four-footed canine consumers.

MARGOT KENLY has been in the food business since 1980. Academically trained to be an educator, Kenly found her passion for food while she was serving as a middle school principal in California. A move to Seattle — a city “where in 1980 premium quality, European-styled desserts could not be found” — left the sweet-toothed woman with a real hankering for a decadent dessert.

“No one was making fresh desserts for restaurants in Seattle at the time. Everything was literally frozen or makeshift,” Kenly says. “When I started going into the back kitchens with samples from our new company, people would hug me and say ‘I’m glad you’re here,’” she remembers with a laugh. The Famous Pacific Desserts Company, known for its Chocolate Decadence, was sold in 1994.

Kenly’s next venture was crackers. In 1995, two of her corporate gift pack customers complained that there were no good gourmet crackers on the market — and so The Original Mariner Biscuit Company was born. Perhaps when one notices the progression from desserts to crackers, her most recent venture into the dog biscuit business will not be a surprise.

Benefiting from her industry experience and contacts, in 1998 Kenly’s new company, Blue Dog Bakery, introduced all-natural, low-fat dog biscuits made without animal by-products to the furry, four-footed Fidos of the world.

FULFILLING THE NEED FOR PREMIUM DOG BISCUITS

“Honestly, it started out as kind of an experiment. I saw a need in the market for a premium dog biscuit, and now the biscuits have become almost a cult product,” Kenly says. “I took the biscuits and a drawing of what the box front might look like to a pet food buyer in Seattle and asked if they would be interested. A few days later, they called back with orders for a product that didn’t even have a box yet,” she reminisces.

When Kenly was developing her recipe, she contacted the staff at Washington State University’s School of Veterinary Medicine to ensure proper nutrition would be provided in the all-natural treats. “We played around with the recipe,” Kenly says, “but I knew there was no reason for the product to contain any animal by-products.” Disturbed by a local news expose about what goes into rendering plants and then into pet foods, she realized animal by-products were not an option for the recipe.

“I wanted the food to be healthy. There are so many overweight dogs that I wanted it to be low-fat too. A healthy dog is a happy dog,” the self-proclaimed animal lover quips. According to the American Pet Products Manufacturer Association’s national survey of veterinarians, 12 percent of dogs and 17 percent of large breed dogs are overweight.

Similar to the explosion of interest in natural products for people, Blue Dog Bakery’s biscuits contain no preservatives or artificial flavors or colors. The recipe consists of unbleached wheat flour, whole wheat flour, black strap molasses, soy oil, rolled oats, nonfat milk, salt, eggs, natural caramel color, natural peanut butter flavor and brewers yeast. Since the inception of Blue Dog Bakery, Kenly says the company is finding that people are much more aware of what they are feeding their pets than they were a few years ago.

So is the product’s bark bigger than its bite? “Our beagle, Shadow, does the testing for us. She’s such a sweetie — we rescued her from the Humane Society. She loves the biscuits,” Kenly says. Although it’s important for the biscuit to be liked by dogs, a sustainable product will be liked by canines and humans alike.

Originally in Seattle, Blue Dog Bakery recently moved its baking plant to the Midwest. “Our new Midwest baking facility enables us to keep our costs down and pass the savings on to our customers,” she says. “Keeping our costs down is essential to us. We’re available across the country and sold on par with large, nationally branded biscuits.”

The company’s sales representatives live in the area where they work — and cover all segments of the pet industry including specialty pet distributors and specialty natural food chains and grocery stores, like Trader Joe’s. The biscuits can also be ordered by individuals through Bear Creek Fine Foods. The product also gets a lot of attention at the American Pet Products Manufacturing Association, Inc. Distributors Show, an annual event that showcases pet products. Yet Kenly says one of the biggest marketing advantages the product has is that people talk — and news of the product is spread trough word of mouth. “We have over 8,000 people who have contacted us via e-mail or by phone telling us how much they love the biscuits,” she notes. “They often request the biscuits from their local pet, grocery or natural food stores as well.”

Blue Dog Bakery biscuits can be fetched at mainstream grocery stores, health food stores and specialty pet shops. For more information, log on to www.bluedogbakery.com. – A.S.

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