Start Your Own Dog Bakery Business
& Bake Your Way to the Top!

Starting your own dog bakery business can seem like a daunting task. But good news, it doesn't have to be! As a fellow dog lover, and small business owner, I want to help you succeed. That's why I bought the book Bake a Dog a Bone - Turning Your Passion for Pets Into Profits

The pet industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it's growing everyday. You're right to want to get into the action by starting your own dog bakery business. I hope that by me buying and reading the book first, it will allow you to have enough insight to decide if this book is a good fit for you.

I must admit, I am a bit of a cynic. When it comes to pet business books, sometimes all you can find is something written in the 80's or 90's. Well, this book started off by impressing me because it is up to date with the current economic crisis. It is in it's fourth edition which started in 2002, and was updated in 2005, 2008 & 2009.

The authors, too, are quite impressive. Chris is the Director of Petco Relations for Rolf C. Hagen, Inc. and Doug is currently the president of eBizWize, LLC a respected publisher of pet industry information and consultancy helping multi-billion dollar clients. And, these are just a few of their pet related credentials!

The book gets down to the nitty gritty right from the start. The authors let you know that “It doesn't matter what sort of expertise you bring to a new venture – whether you are a numbers, people, or systems person. To be truly effective petrepreneur, you must become your business's first and foremost expert at selling your treats." They go into great detail about how and why selling is so important to your budding dog bakery business.

This book has something I have yet to see in any other dog bakery business book. It talks in depth about the FDA's Regulation of Pet Food. They break it down into 6 Components of a Pet Treat Label, so there is no confusion as to what you must include on your labels.

I also appreciated how they took the time to address the matter of food safety. When you're baking for your dog at home, this may not be a factor that you consider. But, when you are baking homemade dog treats to sell, cleanliness is of the utmost importance for the health of you and your future four legged clients.

I get so many questions regarding how to keep dog treats fresh longer. Well, they must get those questions too, because they've answered them. Actually they take over 3 pages to answer that in depth question!

Not only does this book help you get started with all of their step by step instructions, they've also thought about the future. The book talks about keeping track of inventory, how to handle deliveries, and how to upgrade to a commercial kitchen.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is under the subtitle: Take Yourself and Your Business Seriously. They say “A pet treat business can be a lot of fun – and many potential petrepreneurs don't realize what it really takes to make a business out of it. Our biggest frustration is seeing smart, passionate, pet people get into this business thinking it is easy and cute and creative, and all of their friends are going to buy from them, and they don't take it as seriously as they might another business. That is a certain mindset for failure.”

To top it all off, there are 27 pages of extras in the book. I loved the Niche Marketing Worksheet, the Start-up Budget Worksheet, and the Business Plan Outline which has many questions to help the new petrepreneur decide, once and for all, if this is the right business for them.

Of course, the book is by no means perfect. There are plenty of typos, but I didn't find that they distracted too much from the overall quality. They're also a little confused. They added raisins to the list of ingredients to include in your dog treat pantry and ingredients to avoid. Of course, as you probably know, raisins are not safe to feed a dog, so for now, we'll just say this was another typo.

Overall this book on how to start a dog bakery was the most extensive I've seen. They even include an eBook of 150 recipes to get you started, an eBook of 33 All-Natural Remedies For Common Pet Health Issues, and Profit Estimator Spreadsheet that will help you track your budget, start-up expenses, and profitability. By now, it's needless to say, I'm impressed. If I wasn't having so much fun writing this website, I just might start a dog bakery business myself!