Go to the Dogs

Parker's Barkery started late in the summer of 2013 in Salton City, CA. We didn't experience a great deal of success and we based that on several factors but the biggest reason was our town was just too small. With only four thousand year round residents we decided to go to where the dogs are. We found a beautiful home just 60 miles north in a city near Palm Springs, CA. And are there dogs here? OH YEAH! We live in Desert Hot Springs, CA which is known for it's mineral spas. The water here is the best tasting and is great for cooking and baking. There are around 30,000 residents here and close to 50,000 dogs. I know - dog bakery heaven.

So now that we are completed moved in, the holidays have past, it is time to ramp up Parker's Bakery in her new home.

We have already started with 2 new recipes, one is a breath freshener called Kiss Me Biscuits. These are not baked extra hard, they are more of a hard cookie and they smell so good. Our Kiss Me Biscuits have a little parsley in them to help with bad breath and to aid digestion.

And, just in time for Valentine's Day, we have Peanut Butter & Milk Bone Hearts. You can order them plain or decorated.

Be sure to visit our webpage at www.handmadecatalog.com/parkersbarkery to order some great treats for your dog. We are now shipping to the continental U.S. and offer free delivery to Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs, CA.

Keep those tails a waggin'

Pam and Parker Wylie

Packaging Dog Treats For Sale

Packaging homemade dog treats for resale to the public presents a boat load of unanticipated challenges. For those with plenty of working capitol (money) the challenges are probably lessened but still very important decisions must be made before you head to market.

In my quest to start Parker's Barkery I visiting many homemade dog treat businesses, both online and in Palm Springs, CA. As of this posting there are 8 brick and mortar Dog Treat Bakeries operating on a daily basis. As in Palm Springs and online, I found the most beautiful packaging imaginable. Printed paper bags with clear windows and fancy resealable tops seem to be the most popular. Let's take a look at what I learned about these and other fancy packages for homemade or gourmet dog treats.

Bakery Bags by PaperMart make great
dog treat packages however they are expensive.

Window Bakery Bags: 

This is exactly what I was looking for! They are the right size and show off the contents quite well. Then I priced them out, they are 40 cents each plus the shipping (because they are heavy) adds another 40 cents, so my cost (before any custom printing) is 80 cents. I found the same to be true for molded plastic containers and bakery boxes. Since my target market is far from Palm Springs and is in a very rural area with just a few people, I found this option too expensive for my start-up dog treat business.


Lower Cost Alternatives to Bakery Bags:

sarahhearts.com

My next step was to investigate all lower cost packaging options. I reviewed a lot of blogs and other sites before hitting on some great tips from Bake Sale vendors. These folks really know how to make the most of cheap packaging. I learned a lot about how to create attractive packages using things like paper plates, raffia, ribbons, tissue papers, chinese food containers (I can get these in town saving the shipping cost), poly baggies and homemade labels and tags (a must-have for repeat business).


Packaging for Free Samples of Dog Treats

Part of my marketing plan for my home baked dog treat business is to have a booth at our local swap meet. This is a small gather of vendors, not a large, organized swap meet like in the city. We have approximately 4,000 residents and many winter visitors are here from October to March. I believe the best way to introduce my new company at these swap meets are to give away free samples. I know our treats are good and healthy and if the dogs enjoy them, the owners just might come back and make a purchase. Also people love to talk about free things and that is priceless advertisement.

So my Free Dog Treat Samples had to be packaged in the absolute least expensive thing I could find. Here is what we have created, so far......

Example of our Free Sample Bags. Want to try some? Click on the picture. 

This simple yet effective packaging comes in at a cost of only 9 cents per unit. This is a Hefty-brand Sandwich Baggie. They are hard to find but I did find them on Amazon. I paid $12.50 for 300 making each back just under 5 cents. Using my home printer, I print both sides of the paper, cut, string with yarn and loosely tie the bags. The paper, yarn and printer supplies average about 3-4 cents per unit making the total package less than a dime!

There is nothing wrong with this package, it is food grade poly and is perfect for storing our homemade dog treats for sale. I use the gallon size as well for half pound or full pound orders.

I would love to hear your ideas, comments and suggestions.

Til next time,

Pam Wylie - Parker's Barkery

PS: Coming soon - All About Homemade Milk Bones and Milk based Dog Biscuits

Dog Treat Frosting Ideas - Egg Washes

I have seen some beautiful gourmet dog treats out there and doubt I will ever be able to re-create them and they always leave me wondering if the real recipient (the dog) has any appreciation for the designs? Not that it matters, our pets rely on our decisions for their well being and that is that.

I am not an artist, I even have trouble drawing stick-men but I do have the desire to create pretty dog treats.

So where to start? I know that we should give our dogs sugar, so what do the "bakeries" do? Turns out most of the retail and home based dog treat bakeries use a pre-mix made from yogurt. It comes in white, you add some water and coloring to create the consistency you want to work with and pipe it on or use brushes to paint the dog treats. This frosting dries hard and stays on the biscuit. It is almost impossible to make this Fido Frosting at home as it uses yogurt powder and I have no idea where a regular shopper would buy that. Anyway, if it is good enough for the retail shops, it works for me.

I did find dozens of other frosting or icing for dog treat recipes that you can create at home and will go through these one at a time. I hope to get some useful comments on my search for the best dog treat frosting.

Homemade Dog Treats with Colored Egg Wash

Today we tried an Egg Yolk Wash for color. The recipe stated to separate one egg, whisk the yolk with 1 teaspoon of water and add a drop or two of coloring. Brush the mixture over the dog treats before baking.

This is how they turned out:

I am not overjoyed with this technique at all. They are very shiny, almost too shiny. The color is okay, it was supposed to be a light orange but there are tiny bubbles in the coating that is unattractive. The wash also seemed to plug the vent holes (I poke them with a fork to relieve the steam during baking) and some of the dog bones looked puffy. It also added about 5 minutes to the total bake time.

Overall - thumbs down. Maybe there is a trick to this - if you have one, please let me know.

Tomorrow's post - Dog Treat Packaging Tips

Homemade Dog Treat Recipe - Parker's Favorite Bone

Medium Size Homemade Dog Biscuits

There are so many dog treat recipes on the web, I thought it would be easy to find plenty reliable recipes that my dog would enjoy. Well, easy it is not.

So to the test kitchen we go. Thankfully the ingredients for dog treats are not too expensive because many a batch had to be tossed. I learned that just because someone posts a recipe on the web doesn't mean it will be any good.

After trying 10 different recipes I found this basic dog biscuit recipe to the be best. It is easy to work with, you can refrigerate the dough and bake later. This recipe quickly became my favorite. The dog treats will store for a couple of weeks in a loosely covered jar on the shelf. They can be frozen for up 2 months. And they are definitely Parker's favorite. I would happily give credit to the real creator but I cannot find them.

Parker's History:
Parker was a rescue that had been close to starving to death. She had a terrible problem gulping her food (eating her whole dinner in 15 seconds) and would eat anything and everything she could find. We used all the "aggressive eater" techniques we could find and slowly she stopped acting "starved" all the time. She started to actually breath during her meal after about 5 months. A few months later we noticed she would leave a few bites in her bowl, pause, take a drink of water and then finish.  It's been a year now and Parker is fairly relaxed about eating though she is not yet a "self feeder" and she stills goes completely crazy for treats. However, since she's been eating our homemade treats, she passes on all the store-bought goodies until she is sure the homemade ones are all gone.

Homemade Dog Biscuits Recipe (baked hard & crunchy)Prep Time :10 minutes  (Print It)
Bake Time: 35-40 minutes

Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 Tbs Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup + 2 Tbs AP White Flour
1/2 cup Peanut Butter or other Nut Butter
1 cup Water
2 Tbs Vegetable Oil

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flours together in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine the peanut butter, the vegetable oil and the water. I use a whisk but a fork or spoon will work. Slowly add the flours, about 1/2 cup at a time until you get a nice dough. The last of the flour will probably have to be worked in by hand because it is a rather stiff dough. Knead the dough for a few minutes until a nice, firm ball of dough is formed. For an easier roll-out, let the dough rest for about 10 minutes so the glutens can relax before rolling it out. You can also wrap the dough at this stage and refrigerate up to 36 hours before baking.

Roll the dough out to about 1/4 - 3/8 inch thick. I think it is easier to roll out if it is between 2 sheets of wax  or parchment paper. Cut out the treats and re-roll the scraps into more treats. Keep the treats at least 1 inch apart on the cookie sheet for even cooking. Score or poke the treats with a fork to release steam during baking and prevent puffy and mis-shapen dog treats.

Bake on an ungreased or parchment line cookie sheet for 25 minutes and rotate the pan. Back for 10 more minutes and check for doneness. The treats should be hard before removing them from the oven. Keep baking at 5 minute intervals until they are hard to the touch. Cool several hours or over night before storing them in the jar.

Makes approximately 30 medium-sized bones.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and if it sounds good but too much work just click here to order some from us.
We are more than happy to bake them fresh for you.

This isn't our only recipe, stay tuned for more.....

Welcome to Parker's Barkery - Where Homemade Dog Treats are Baked Fresh Daily

Welcome to our new blog, Parker's Bakery.

Usually a company adds a blog but since today is our first real day of business, I thought that our starting blog on day one is the only way to go. It is 2013 afterall.

I have started Parker's Barkery for several reasons and hope to share the experience daily with all of my readers. Here are my reasons for starting a home-based dog treat business:

1. My dog loves home baked dog bones and will do tricks like crazy for them. They are the best "trainers" I have ever tried. They work on old dogs too. My thinking is they simply taste better that store-bought. I try a bite of each batch and although I think they could use salt and sugar, they are very edible, kinda like a rice-cake. And since I know what is in them, I don't have to worry about product recalls and such. So I started making Parker's treats and then friends tried them and suggested I start to sell them online and at the farmers markets. And I agree.

2. I am looking for additional income and love to work in the kitchen.

3. As owner of HandmadeCatalog.com I decided to jump into the front lines, so to speak, and experience what our members go through trying to sell handmade goods online. I am hoping to find new techniques using new technology to bring online shoppers to our catalog and building sales for all of our members.

 4. It's fun - remember as says Confucius, "choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life"

Okay, let's see if we can do this..... First let me introduce you to my inspiration - Parker