We had a customer that likes our wheat and corn free biscuits, but was bummed out that she couldn’t get any fun dipped treats for her allergic doggy. I invented the Nom-Nom Sandwich and after some successful taste tests, it’s now available on our online store and retail shop! We’ve also slashed more prices in our Clearance Section. There’s some awesome deals in there!

Despite the record high temperatures in our area, we’ve officially switched from hectic red and green holiday mode into the serene white and blues of Winter. We’ll be closed on Sundays from now until Spring. We’ll still be open 10am-7pm Monday through Saturday. As always, our online store is open 24 hours per day!

Pssst: we still have some great deals on holiday themed toys in our Clearance Section!

We feed them and pick up their poop while they get to sleep and play all day. So what good are they if we can't laugh at them now and again?

That’s right folks, we’ve added a lot of items to the online store including a Clearance Section! Pretty much 50% off holiday toys, collars, and…oh yes… santa hats. There’s also some holiday treats for cheap too. Go shopping!

First off, we want to say a huge THANK YOU to those of you that have been the first to use our online store. Even though there have been absolutely no problems, it takes a lot of trust on someone’s part to order from an online retailer that just opened up. We recognize and appreciate that (which is why most orders went out with “Thank You” stocking stuffers!). Being able to see the whole process working as we designed it and hearing back from happy customers is a huge thrill. All of your support has kept us motivated to continue refining our online experience. That said, the site has been updated tonight with a lot of small improvements and the biggest new feature… Photo Sharing!

For any photos you have uploaded and ordered treats for, you can go into your account and click the “share” link below the photo thumbnail image. Enter any valid email address and click the Share button. An email will be sent to that address letting them know about the photo you’ve shared and what they can do with it. They will not have to pay any fee to use the photo and you can delete the photo or un-share it anytime you’d like. It’s a great way to gift a photo to someone and get them started ordering treats of their own.

Got any other feature requests or comments? We’re listening.

Well it has almost killed me, but I finally got the online store to a point where we felt comfortable going live with it. When Tracy and I began formulating this crazy plan, the online experience was at the core of everything we wanted to do. So I’ve been under tremendous pressure to make it as good as I can as quickly as possible. Even though it’s a relief to get it out there, there’s still plenty of features and products to be added. But the good news is I’m in pretty tight with the business owner, programmer, and designer. On that same thought, I think we’ve got a really neat thing going here that would be really difficult to reproduce and keep costs as low as we have. I’m just really proud of us!

I really want to thank our friends that did some early testing of the site and gave us feedback. Because I can make the most techo-gee-whiz site around, but if it doesn’t make your treat buying experience easy and fun… well, what’s the point?

Give it a whirl. I bet you know at least one person that would love it if you got them some healthy and fun pet treats. Maybe it’s you! Unfortunately, just like how we missed Black Friday with the retail store, we’ve all but missed the window for pre-Xmas holiday orders (if you priority ship by December 19th, it will probably make it).

Before we get into the photos, I want to to make a quick note of how proud I am of this store. The construction process has taken way longer than we wanted. But the overall experience has been a joy. My creative, technical, and DIY tendencies have been fully stimulated without restriction. There are very few things in the store that we didn’t make or modify ourselves. The only work we hired out was the counter tops by Creative Marble. What you see in these pictures are the pure effort and ideas from Tracy and myself with the support of our awesome friends and family. With the acceptance speech out of the way, on with the show…

I was excited we had finally gotten to the point of being able to open. But I had to get up pretty early to finish designing and printing some signs (told ya- we do it all!). The light coming into the store in the mornings is beautiful and I started snapping photos…

Look at that light! Hey. I bet the bakery case would look really sweet right now…

Oh yes. That gorgeous warm sunlight feels great on my back. Let’s get a little closer…

Something smells like delicious carob and yogurt. But I’m on the front side of the case… How could that be… OH MY GOSH! THE TREATS ARE MELTING! DO SOMETHING!

Um… yeah. Oops. I turned off the heat and opened the back door of the store. I held off on taking pictures for a little while after that! This last series is taken from the front door of the store, a sweeping pan from right to left, and then a little walk around closer from left to right. Enjoy

Fresh baked, all natural dog treats ready to go! That's a Beefy Hearts and People Pops in the picture.

Almost there, folks! We’ve been working our tails off getting the shelves stocked, store decorated, and all the goodies baked. It looks like all of our baking equipment won’t be here in time for the opening. So we’ve decided to bake everything at our sister store, Bone Appetit, for all the initial batches. Our counter tops are being polished as we speak and will hopefully be installed today or Monday. We’re also waiting on a few crucial display fixtures to arrive. Those few things are going to keep us from opening on December 1st. It does feel good to have something that finally resembles a store!

A sneak peek!

Barring unforseen circumstances, we’re expecting a “soft opening” mid to late next week. That just means we aren’t yet ready to do a full on Grand Opening just yet. We will definitely be open in December, so save your pet gift purchases until then!

A doggie heaven awaits beyond that brown paper...

Even though we won’t be 100% and we’ll still be figuring some things out, we’d love it if you’d stop by and say hello. I’ll be the tall guy pecking at the cash register with its user’s manual in my hand.

Want to be the first to know when we’re opening? You can get email updates automatically sent to you. Just sign up at the bottom of any of the pages at bakersdog.com.

The Baker's Dog Toilet! Click for a larger version. Go on. I know you want to.

WE HAVE WATER! HUZZAH! If you’ve been following our updates, you’ll know we’ve been trying to get running water in the store for several months now. A plumber showed up this week and literally had everything working within 20 minutes. It seems like such a small thing. But without water, it has been difficult to do the construction and cleaning that needed to be done. Not to mention actually making dog treats and, uh, answering nature’s calls.

It seems a lot of things have clicked into place this week. I installed cabinets and counter tops in the baking area. We finally figured out our front counter layout and I got the cabinets for that as well. We finished out the bathroom as much as we plan to for the time being (Need bathroom vent fan installation pointers? Just ask!). The Fire Inspector stopped by since we applied for our business license. We’re not quite ready for him just yet but I asked for his initial thoughts and it sounds like that’s going to be simple to deal with.

Perhaps my proudest moment this week was when I got tired of pricing out $300 office partition walls. I decided to make my own for about $100. It is the exact dimensions I wanted and blends in quite nicely if I do say so myself. My workstation and the big printer sit behind it so the public doesn’t have to see my messy desk and wires. Can you see them?

View from the front. Almost there!

View from the baking area. I haven't finished the side wall of the partition yet.

Save a couple of displays and maybe a table or two, I think all of our large fixture and furniture purchases are done. Now it’s all about the finish work and details. Tracy is literally sitting inside the bakery case cleaning it as I write this. Thanks to her, I have no doubt that our dog bakery will be more meticulously cleaned and maintained than most people bakeries!

Hey, did you know you can get emailed any time we update the site? Just sign up at the bottom of any of the pages at bakersdog.com . Once we’re up and running, you’ll be the first to know about any special offers or events!

I think he's rolling his eyes about us still not having water service at the store yet!

Well folks, I definitely feel like we’re over the hump on progress. This week we bought and installed freezers and a couple of counters. We’re still waiting on our mixer and dough press to be shipped from Michigan. Once those are here, we’ll get the electrician to wire it all up and we’ll be ready to cook! In the meantime, we need to make the final decisions on how our front counter and bulk treat area needs to be built. I also have some “nerd work” to do in tuning the photo labels’ layout and getting that darn online store up and running!

View from the front retail area

Fancy pants ovens and freezers

View from the back door

Besides that, the only other big thing left to do is all of the little things left to do. I’m not sure we’ll be fully operational by “Black Friday“, but we’ll definitely be open for this holiday shopping season!

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic. Click for a larger, even more blurry version.

A little more progress with the bakery this week. We have most of the retail shelving built, the bakery case is getting a fresh coat of paint, and our shiny new double stack oven was delivered! (Nope, still no water/toilet… sigh). But I’ve been up late the past few nights working on getting our photo label pipeline up and running. You, see, the Mr. Stanley Pinkerton has invited us to his house tonight and his owner sent this photo as a part of the invitation:

There's no arguing Mr. Pinkerton's photogenic qualities.

I saw this as a great oppotunity to get going on how our automagic label system is going to actually work out. The resulting bags you see above still aren’t quite the final design, but it’s darn close. The neat thing is they were generated from a database that stuck the photo, dog’s information, and flavor information on to the label template design. So when you upload your photo through our store website (coming soon!), you pay a single, one time fee and it will be saved forever. When you order treats with that photo on it, it will get stuck in this fancy pants database thingy I’m talking about and the label will get generated when we process your order. That’s why we are able to offer photo treat labels with super fast turnaround and no extra charge. Pretty snazzy huh?