Nonprofit Makes Dog Treats For Fundraiser
Dog treats are the primary fundraiser for a Pineville nonprofit that matches service dogs with disabled individuals.
Danea Key and her husband Joel started the Saber Life Foundation last spring. They pay 51% of the cost of a service dog, with the matched individual paying the other 49%. The couple started the foundation after their daughter, Gracie, was matched with a service dog.
They have matched three people with service dogs since the organization’s founding. Service dogs can be quite expensive, costing about $3,000 to $5,000 for the dog and about $25,000 to $30,000 for the training.
The foundation has received a few grants and has applied for more, but it does not want to rely solely on grants for funding, and so it has its own dog treats, Danea said.
The foundation sells the treats online, at events and through social media. The packaging has its information on the back so that people can get in touch and obtain more. All the treats are made in the couple’s home.
In the beginning, the Keys had 22 recipes, which they whittled down to 18. From there they started selling the treats and determined their bestsellers, and now they have seven recipes, one of which is new this year. Each recipe has a
nutritional element, she said.
The flavors include peanut butter pumpkin, which is good for digestion because of the peanut butter; pet-friendly chocolate, because all pets love chocolate but they cannot have regular chocolate; duck peanut butter, which is made from dehydrated duck and is also good for digestion; sunflower bacon, which is good for the dog’s coat because of the bacon grease and sunflower oil, and also the chicken broth is good for digestion; cinnamon roll, which includes coconut oil that is also good for the coat; nutter butters, which are a peanut butter cookie treat; and the new flavor, chick o’nut twists, which is chicken jerky and toasted coconut in a twist.
“Every single one of these we make, they smell so good and we have tasted every single one,” Danea said. “If I won’t eat it, I’m not going to feed it to my dogs.”
“Before we started our nonprofit, we were selling the treats at a local farmers market to pay for the training for our daughter’s dog,” Joel said. “Danea did a lot of research on recipes and we did our own twists to them and came up with our recipes.”
He said making the treats is “pretty much a full-time job.” This year they do not plan on attending the local farmers markets but rather setting up at larger events. Danea said they feel they have a greater outreach by attending larger, multi-day events. Among the events they will attend will be Neosho Fall Fest, Vintage Market Days in Bentonville, Ark., and three events hosted by Live Love Events NWA called Spring Into Summer Market, It’s Fall Y’all and The Winter Market.
“We have had so many people hunting us down that have thrown away the package that has the reorder information on it,” Danea said. “We call them our dog-treat stalkers.”
She said they come up to the booth and say “I’m so glad I found you.”
“It happens every event,” she said.
Sometimes they have deer or elk antlers for sale that they cut into seven- or eight-inch pieces. Dogs love to chew on them, and they are better than a rawhide bone, which can tear up the dog’s gums, Danea said.
The Key family has three dogs at home, Felicity, Ollie and Shadow, plus Amos, the service dog.