Cool treats hot tip for canine cafe set
Pooches barking mad for poops and scoops
FORGET kissing babies on the campaign trail – these days, pollies would be best advised to pucker up to pooches.
With Australia one of the highest per capita pet owning communities in the world, animals are becoming an economic powerhouse as savvy business operators cash in on our unending love for our four-legged besties. In fact, Australian households already spend more on average on pets than on childcare.
Currumbin mum Stacee Sanderson is the latest local to join the fray with Doggylicious, a new line of frozen dogs treats sending her customers barking mad.
“We make all the frozen dog treats ourselves and we have three different flavours – pumpkin and bone marrow, liver and sweet potatoes and chicken broth/chicken paste and carrot puree frozen yoghurt,” she said.
Each treat is garnished with a “dribble of honey”.
Ms Sanderson said she spent 12 months developing her products and researching the marketplace before opening a weekend pop-up cafe at the Palm Beach Pirate Park three weeks ago.
“I wanted to start a business for my daughter Bronte, who is 17, to teach her people skills and all about how to run a business,” she said.
“Because the cafe is in the park, we don’t do any peanut butter flavours – I was concerned a dog would lick a child with peanut allergies, so we don’t serve peanut flavours at the park.”
Ms Sanderson said the response had been “amazing”.
“We’ve been doing a roaring trade. The first weekend we sold out – 100 treats. They’re $5 each for 100g.”
She said her research had backed up what the experts say – there’s money in pets.
“I live along the dog track and I sat there counting the dogs going past – there was a dog a minute.”
Demographer Bernard Salt said the humanising of pets was a growing feature of society – and that the boom in pets is a looming political reality that may even become an IR issue.
“For now, people might laugh and just think it’s the gays or the very rich that treat their animals like children, but by the 2020s it will hit the middle market in a high way.
“Once, pets were working animals that, for example, kept pests down. Now I think you’d find the majority of vets are engaged in managing companion animals as opposed to working animals.”
Ms Sanderson said while some dogs gobbled their frozen treats whole, others took their sweet time.
“My biggest concern of the whole venture was that there would be fights but the dogs are all so well behaved – better than the kids.”