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| Previous Articles: Five Star Dog Biscuits |
Doggone Healthy
Bakery By Scott S. Smith You're at work, pretending to read a business article, but your mind is really on the important issue of the week: what birthday present to give the dog who has everything. Then you suddenly see the American Express ad touting it's financial services for small businesses like Three Dog Bakery, the Kansas City, Missouri, based creator of health food bakeries for dogs. You call 1-800-4TREATS, but learn that not one of their licensed outlets (40 by the end of this year, from Madison Avenue in New York City to Collierville, Tennessee) is near you. No problem: they can ship one of their whole wheat, no sugar, low fat, low sodium carob cakes (chocolate is toxic for pooches), which you're told are delicious enough for people to woof down, right to your doorstep. You also order one of their recipe books, so you can try your own hand at haute dog cuisine. But as soon as you hang up, you realize a cake is not a present, so you log onto www.threedog.com to browse the DOGalog and start adding to the Gift Basset (by now, you've been initiated into Three Dog punnytalk). You order a packet of Grrreeting Cards ("when you care to send the hairy best"), knowing you'll be needing them for other occasions, now that expectations are going to be raised. You buy a box of bagel-like Beagles, some Ciao Wow Cheese Pizzas, and the vegetable beef Slab O' rrrrRRRibs (how can you resist at "20% aarrff"?). Noticing that you're now drooling, you decide that's enough (and make a mental note that you'll ask someone to give you the Dogs Rule! Mousepad for your own birthday). Dan Dye, 41, and Mark Beckloff, 36, were appalled by the 50 "creepy ingredients" in commercial dog treats, designed to provide long shelf-life. After Mark's mother put a recipe for a healthy dog biscuit along with a bone-shaped cookie cutter in his stocking for Christmas in 1989, a light went on in the duo's heads. Consulting with veterinarians, they decided to launch a company providing products for others who were eager for better quality canine munchies. But there were just a couple of minor obstacles to entering the $25-billion a year pet industry. "We didn't know anything about baking or business and didn't have any savings," explains Dye. Nevertheless, "we were passionately committed to making a difference, so we cashed out $8,000 from our 401(k)s," Beckloff says. Beckloff, an accountant, and Dye, an ad copywriter, began cooking up wholesome cookies for wholesale distribution part-time in 1990. Beckloff started working at this full-time the following year and was joined by Dye when they opened their first retail store in 1991. With dogged determination, they survived everything from a bank foreclosure threat on Beckloff's home to neighbors complaining about the garlic smell emanating from the bakery. A December 1995 appearance on Oprah Winfrey's TV show resulted in thousands of phone calls from around the country. The next month, PETsMART decided to stock their treats in all its stores (Three Dog later recruited one of the chain's executives to be its CEO). Dye and Beckloff soon found themselves on a rocket-ride of publicity, celebrated as the Ben and Jerry of dog biscuits. For a time they even had a baking program on the Food Network, more recently appeared on the Ainsley Harriot Show, and next year expect to launch their own syndicated TV series. Gracie, a deaf Dane who was one of three founding dogs at Three Dog and headed up product testing, was discovered in a rescue mission. When she recently passed on to 'Hound Heaven,' Dye and Beckloff decided to form Gracie's Foundation in her memory. The foundation benefits not-for-profit companion animal groups (currently receiving no tax support) with a focus on rescuing canines from abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Three Dog underwrites the overhead, but welcomes donations (1627 Main St. Suite 700, Kansas City MO 64108). This fall, Amazing Gracie, Dye and Beckloff's third book of righteous recipes and tails from the company, will be put out by Workman Publishing. |
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