A small group of business owners in Columbiana, Ohio are planning to launch their new pet product on a national market. Nicole Ice, Josh Dunn, and Justina Channel have collaborated to develop a dog trail mix, which they unveiled recently to their city at Birdfish, a local brewing company.
The organic trail mix is specially made for dogs, and is made primarily with spent grain and meat from the local Lamppost Farms. The product development derives from an interesting combination of skills and networking.
Ice owns Pet Hydrant, a local pet supply shop specializing in all natural pet food and products. Dunn is a co-owner of Birdfish, the other co-owners being cousins Greg Snyder and Jared Channel. Jarred’s cousin, Justina, made homemade barley bones, which she offered up to Pet Hydrant to sell.
Putting all these heads together, the idea to create and sell trail mix developed, and the trio ran with it.
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Even though it has only been a few weeks since everything took off, the group was scheduled to present their product at a show in Washington, D.C. People must be curious about this product, as it really does not exist on the shelves of most pet supply shops.
Justina created the recipes for the Brewhound Products trail mix, and they are currently offered in four flavor varieties – beef and banana, chicken and apple, turkey and pumpkin seed and duck and coconut. The ingredients list is remarkably simple; each mix consists only of meat (locally produced at Lamppost Farms), honey, peanut butter, spent grain, and the applicable pumpkin or coconut flavors.
This is a first-time attempt for any of the business owners to launch a product nationally, but given their experience, it should be a successful venture. Ice has been in the pet products sales and marketing industry for 10 years.
Currently, the bags of trail mix can be purchased at Birdfish. A 5-ounce bag sells for $9.99. Once the product hits the national market, it could be available at retail stores and online.
I love the idea of this product, and I am excited to be able to purchase it. I am an avid hiker and backpacker, and have definitely wanted more than what is available in terms of food for my dog while on the trails.
When I have looked for doggy trail mix online in the past, what I usually get is a lot of “DIY” recipes for it. Personally, I don’t have time to be making trail mix for myself or my dog. We are constantly on the go, looking for the next adventure.
This product will make it super convenient for us to do what we normally do on nice weather days – take a spontaneous hike or camping trip. I know in the past, the spontaneity has been taken right out of the experience by having to round up the correct dog food or snacks for the occasion. And I always feel like I’m shorting my dog, because I get a nice mix of snacks and meals, while he just has to get the same old kibble he always gets.
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In addition, this seems like it will be lightweight, which is essential for backpacking (and the weight of the dog food has been an obstacle to me while backpacking in the past). The best part about this new trail mix is that it’s all natural. I don’t feed my dog anything with ingredients I can’t pronounce, so the fact that this is made with a handful of healthy and organic components is very appealing.
I can’t wait to see this doggy trail mix from Brewhound Products available online and on shelves. If the product is successful, I think it will spawn an entire line of copycats (but I won’t mind!). The camping industry has already started taking the adventurous dog life seriously by offering things like backpacking gear for dogs. I’m excited to see that someone in the pet food industry is following suite.
