The Guddog concept is now alive. But a concept is just that, a concept. How do you take it from a loosely formed thought, into a product.

My process started with what I wanted to achieve and I worked back from that. 

I want to help dogs reach epic health and help humans have access to a product and an understanding of how to achieve this. 

I think in order to achieve this, simplicity and relatability are key. It needs to be easy to understand, relate to and access.

As I've explored in earlier posts, I wasn’t sure what form my product was going to take. What I kept coming back to was a set of ingredients that I really wanted to include in the product. After months of trialling biscuit recipes and going back and forth about how to best include these ingredients, I realised that I had the product right from the beginning, it just wasn’t in a format that I recognised given what else is on the market. I was so stuck on creating a treat and using a protein source (meal worms were used), that it took me a while to realise that neither of those things were important for Guddog. 

We were going to create a Plant-Based supplement that could aid dogs of all ages! One thing that kept coming up in the research is the effect the pet food industry is having on the planet. When I last looked, pets consumed 20% of the world's meat and fish. You can look at this any way you want, the amount is staggering and it is having a continuously negative impact on the planet. The number of domesticated animals is increasing and the environment is struggling already, you do the math.  

On a deeply personal note, I ran a steak food truck for years - it made me sick being involved in so much death, even though it was ethically sourced death. Guddog needs to align with my own morals around food and the environment. This was non negotiable for me. So the decision to stick to plant based ingredients was a simple one and I hope one that in the long run becomes symbolic of the Guddog brand and our ethos on health and nutrition.

The decision to be plant-based was a game changer in the product journey and everything really started to move from here.