A few weeks ago, I wrote about pet food origin stories: Those inspiring, often heartwarming tales of how pet food companies get started and, in the process, keep our industry growing, dynamic and, perhaps most importantly, focused on pets and the benefits they bring. After describing a couple of examples, I asked people to share their companies’ origin stories. Two people generously responded. (So far — the call is still open! Send yours to [email protected].)
Here are their accounts.
Dog treats arising from redemption
John Griveas, co-owner and vice president of marketing and sales for Fetch! Dog Treats, said his company’s story is one of “love, redemption and the power of second chances — not just for people, but for pets too.” That’s because, though Jackie Lovern, his partner and the company’s founder, first started baking dog treats in her kitchen in 2012 for her Miniature Schnauzer, Sgt. Pepperoni, “Fetch! as a brand wasn’t born until 2014, when Jackie rescued me,” he wrote.
He described himself as being at “rock bottom” at the time, “homeless, struggling with addition, feeling like I’d hit the end of the road. Jackie gave me more than a place to stay; she gave me hope,” Griveas explained. “She believed in me, handed me her recipes, and together we turned her passion into something bigger.” That passion, he said, was driven by her desire for Sgt. Pepperoni (great name, by the way) to have treats that were healthy and homemade, “made with love.”
Inspired by the second chance Lovern gave him, Fetch!’s mission is to pay it forward: “We employ and train Congolese refugees, giving them opportunities to build confidence, skills and stability,” Griveas wrote. “Everything we make is handcrafted with love by Jackie and our team.”
Sadly, in June 2024, Sgt. Pepperoni died at the age of 13, but “his legacy lives on in every treat we bake and in the heart of Fetch! Dog Treats,” reads the company’s website.
Filling a void for canine athletes
Pet food and treat brands often develop out of the founders’ determination to fill a void in the market, often one personal to them. That’s the case for Dave Dourson, who created Kinetic Dog Food around 2008 with John Howard to develop formulations for hunting dogs. Both were avid hunters, and both had been working for a large pet food corporation that they believed didn’t have anything appropriate for their canine athletes.
Discussing canine nutrition and the pet food industry on the Working Dog Radio podcast in 2019, Dourson said most pet food companies and brands are geared toward companion animal dogs, not performance or working dogs. Of 86 million dogs in the U.S. at the time, only about 500,000 fell into that athlete category.
Still, in describing the company’s start, Dourson said his and Howard’s goal when they started Kinetic was just to make enough money to keep them in “shotgun shells and beer. If we could do that, we thought that would be a success.” Judging by information shared in the podcast interview and on Kinetic’s website, the company has far exceeded that goal.
Kinetic now partners with breeders, trainers and handlers of many types of canine athletes, and its foods are fed to police, search-and-rescue, military and many other working dogs throughout the U.S. For example, many Cincinnati police officers with police dogs feed them Kinetic products.
Dourson, Kinetic’s chief operating officer, said the company’s main line is comprised of four dry formulations, each with a different “octane” level. Each formulation has the same basic nutritional profile and ingredient list, he explained; what changes is the protein:fat ratio, depending on the activity level of the dogs eating the foods.
The company now also offers a line of supplements for performance dogs, plus Hurricane Bites treats to honor K9 Heroes. The treats were inspired by K9 Hurricane who, in 2014, “neutralized an intruder on the White House lawn, earning him the USSS Award for Merit, the DHS Award for Valor and the Animal Medical Center’s Top Dog title,” according to Kinetic’s website. “He made history as the first U.S. dog to receive the PDSA Order of Merit and the Animals in War and Peace Distinguished Service Medal, landing him in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2023.”
