Polka Dog Products | polkadogblog

Thanks for a Great 2012!

By: pdadmin

31-12-2012

Contests, Polka Dog Products, Polka Dog Seasons, Target Stores

As many of you have noticed, Polka Dog Bakery took to blogging to in 2012, as a way to share what is going on behind the scenes and up front at Polka Dog Bakery. It’s been a lot of fun sharing the year with all of our customers and supporters and we hope that you have enjoyed these little snippets of Polka Dog life as they happen.

We would also like to take this time to thank each and every one of you and your favorite furballs for a great year. Many of you we see in our two stores, Ploka Dog Bakery South End and Polka Dog Bakery Jamaica Plain and many others we see as you visit our Facebook page and comment on our stories and share your own stories and we really appreciate that opportunity to be a part of your and your pet’s lives when it comes to what they are chewing on throughout the year.

We’d like to close of this final blog post of the year on the final day of the year with a quick review of the Top 5 Polka Dog Blog Posts of 2012 as rated by your page views:

So, check out these posts from this past year and we look forward to sharing more in 2013!

A Thanksgiving Dog Treat – Sweet Potato!

By: pdadmin

07-11-2012

Polka Dog Products

Deep in the dirt there lies a sweet spud, knobby and gnarled, waiting patiently to be uprooted and made into all kinds of delectable things: pies, mashes, hashes, cookies, bread, even… Polka Dog Bakery sweet potato dog treats! Not only is the sweet potato a great source of fiber and therefore a terrific digestive aid, when it’s dehydrated, it becomes a tough and chewy treat perfect for any pooch’s pearly whites. This root veggie isn’t so sweet after all, and is also helpful in fighting both doggie and human diabetes.

Unlike their pale potato counterparts, sweet potatoes’ flesh starts a bright orange color, which provides a significant amount of beta carotene and potassium. These make great treats for dogs that may be allergic to certain things as well as pups with kidney or digestive concerns.

We source our sweet paw-taters from local restaurant supplier Costa. These human grade tubers get a good scrub before being painstakingly hand cut into thick, hearty pieces. A few tater-y tot chunks mixed with slabs of sweet potato goodness make great snacks for all sized dogs. We dehydrate the slices for hours until they are perfectly balanced between crunchy and chewy. Since this potato’s peel is nutrient rich and provides nearly a day’s worth of vitamins A and C, we decided to leave it on. If your dog is into veggies, and you find yourself tossing them carrots and green beans at dinner, these sweet potato treats provide an excellent supplement to their regimen.

A great pairing with our stuffed Thanksgiving bones… more to come soon… gobble gobble

It’s Nearly Halloween at Polka Dog Bakery!

By: pdadmin

18-10-2012

Polka Dog Products

All Hallow’s Eve is upon us here at Polka Dog Bakery – Jack O’ Lanterns abound and the air is crisp and cool. Bright orange, yellow, and red leaves litter the street and every so often, you might hear a witch’s cackle or a ghost’s groan. Whether you’re on the lookout for the Great Pumpkin or warding off vampires with a garland of garlic, it’s sure to be a spine-chilling season.

Ghosts From The Dawg Blog

Who or what will your dog be this Halloween? A caped crusader? Perhaps a ferocious (or cowardly) lion? Elvis? Whoever you choose to be, rest assured we have your little ghouls and goblins in mind. Our bakery cases in Polka Dog Bakery South End and Polka Dog Bakery Jamaica Plain are filled with spectral and spooky treats sure to make any dog do tricks. Gingerbread bats, ghosts, and pumpkins get a frighteningly delicious dip in yogurt perfect for those would-be werewolves and vampirous pups out there.

Make no bones about it, we here at Polka Dog bakery these treats with only the finest ingredients – no wheat, corn or soy – so you can rest in peace giving these scary snacks to your little devils.

Leaving Las Vegas – The SuperZoo 2012 Review

By: pdadmin

04-10-2012

Pet Products Trade Shows, Polka Dog Products

Next stop Wonderland…..Yes, we’re back in Beantown folks and believe it or not, the Polka Dog Bakery train survived sin city with a smile. Not only did we survive, we brought the house down this year at SuperZoo 2012.

Polka Dog Bakery SuperZoo booth 2012 Las Vegas

The Polka Dog Bakery Booth at SuperZoo 2012 Las Vegas!

Just in case you missed it, we burst through the gates on the holly jolly 2012 Holiday season with Polka Dog’s brand new special Twist Me interactive holiday dog treat cans in Gingersnap and Pumpkin Pie flavors. We also brought forth from the deep some super cool, super healthy dehydrated cod skins dog treats in a sleek tube that was the belle of the ball.

And that’s just the new stuff. We showcased our entire dehydrated line and talked up the benefits of our Wonder Nugget dog training treats. Not only that, we also had the chance to speak to a lot of people about the benefits of buying and selling in bulk. Yes, there are hiccups along the way: finding scales, dealing with departments of weights and measures, space, space, space, but for a customer coming into a shop wanting to try a little of this and a little of that, it’s an absolute grand slam. Variety, evidently, is not only the spice of life, but also the spice of retail.

Not to mention we all get to get rid of all that excess packaging. Hooray for shrinking the pawprint!

Rob and his gift chair at Four Kegs Las Vegas

Aside from the business stuff, we met tons of fantastic new people, got to share the story of Polka Dog with loads of new customers and friends, and between the late night Thai food in the suspect strip mall, the ceremonial trips to the Four Kegs where our very special friend MB had an even more special gift for a little person not quite one year old, and the roller coaster at NYNY, Vegas 2012 was, as Carrot Top’s advert proclaims….worth the trip.

With no time to sit back though, we’re cranking through orders and gearing up for the next stop on the tradeshow circuit, the H.H. Backer Christmas Trade Show in Chicago in 10 days.

We’ll see you all there we hope. Come by and say hello. We’ve got some new stuff to show you.

Round up The Chuck Wagon it’s Chicken Jerky Dog Treat Time!

By: pdadmin

14-09-2012

Polka Dog Products

Round up the chuck wagons, start clanging the chow triangle and head on over to Polka Dog Bakery. It’s feeding time and we’re talking chicken today. Good old-fashioned USA yardbird, sourced from our friends down at Mayflower Poultry and dehydrated in house by our crack staff of chicken chefs extraordinaire.

We’ve been turning out these delectable little dried strips of meaty goodness for a quite a while now, but if you’re new to the world of Polka Dog Chicken Jerky, we wanted to take a minute and share a bit about our process and about what makes our cluck-cluck different from the veritable sea of other chicken dog products gracing pet shop shelves from Bangor to Burbank.

First, we start with all American USA birds. That’s no small thing, given the ubiquitousness of Made-In-China chicken products that are just about everywhere you can stand to look. With recall after recall hitting the Made-in-China contingency, we at Polka Dog decided long ago that if we were going to sell a chicken jerky to our awesome and most incredible customers, we wanted it to be born and bred right here in the good old USA, and we wanted to make it ourselves. We didn’t want to throw up our hands and take a chance outsourcing our production to just any old big steel factory pumping out chicken jerky and who knows what else by the ton. We wanted to have complete control over every part of the treat making process: from the sourcing of our raw ingredients to the preparation to the packaging. So, we take it slow. We buy our birds fresh, as we need them, and make each batch of Chicken Jerky by hand, dehydrating it over the course of a day at very low heat to make sure all the goodness stays right where it belongs.

We think the extra time and effort is totally worth it. You can feel absolutely confident about the chicken jerky treat you’re giving your dog. And your dog will think you’re the greatest hunter in the world.

Cod Skins a Twisty Tasty Dog Treat!

By: pdadmin

13-07-2012

Polka Dog Products

This Just In: Polka Dog Bakery Dehydrated Cod Skins are – Irresistible, Locally Caught, Loved by Cats and Dogs Alike, Packed full of Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Great Alternative Treat for Dogs with Allergies to Chicken Beef or Lamb Proteins.

I love these Polka Dog Bakery Cod Skins!

Our customers are always asking how we come up with our products, why that flavor? or where did the name come from ? and it’s been no exception with our Cod Skins Dog Treats. They may look a bit funny, all long and twisty but they have been a big hit, so here is the story:

A few years back we were thinking about what new products we could add and since we are from Boston, a famous fishing region, it had to be something seafood flavored. We thought maybe lobster flavored but then we also thought a lobster might make a better chew toy, also a future option! In the end we settled on the iconic Cod.

We began by sourcing the Cod skins from local fishermen, who used to just throw them away when processing the fish and we started dehydrating them at the Polka Dog Factory and hand twisting them into unique shapes. Yes, we hand twist them, a true labor of love!

Next we had to try them out, besides Sody, would other dogs like them? One of the really cool things about having a couple of retail stores and wholesaling our own product is that we can test our treats on our own customers first. What we found is that both dogs and cats really dig the skins. Also, while some people say dogs will eat anything, years of experience have proven there are plenty of finicky dogs out there but not so with these cod skins. Once again Sody’s refined palette lead the way in testing and was confirmed by dogs everywhere.

With official market testing done, we can now confirm that the Polka Dog Bakery Cod Skins are here to stay and are available in our stores, online at Polkadog.com and through many of our great retailers across the country.

Enjoy!

Get the Gulpy Water Source at Polka Dog Bakery

By: pdadmin

07-06-2012

Polka Dog Dog Bowls, Polka Dog Products

As the thermometer starts rising here in Polka Dog Bakery’s hometown and the relative humidity pops itself into the zone simply called oppressive, we find ourselves dreaming of cool waterfalls and ice-cold frescas.

Let’s face it: It can be hard enough to keep ourselves chilled even with central air and those little fans with misting capacity everyone seems to be carrying around, but what to do when you’re out and about, doing what you have to do, walking your best friend with the built-in coat and lack of sweat glands in the blazing heat?

Yes, cannoballing into the frog pond in tandem is ONE option, but we’d rather you opted for the less messy, much more authority-friendly cool, H2O on-the-go dog bowl solution: the Gulpy!

The Gulpy provides the perfect answer to the persistent problem of how to hydrate your pup when the sun beats down. Now available in a spectrum of summery colors, the Gulpy is a bowl with a water bottle conveniently attached so you never run out and you never waste a drop of that high quality H20. Simply fill it with cold water (even add ice cubes) and screw the bottle back into the base before you leave the house.

And, though you may not use the added feature for fear of people calling you fanny pack Fred, the Gulpy also has a belt clip so you can plant it right next to the crackberry on your waist. Technology and water: the staffs of life.

Pick one up today at our Polka Dog Bakery South End or Polka Dog Bakery Jamaica Plain locations and you’ll have a cool way to cool off your dog wherever you may go – Castle Island, Crane Beach, or your neighbor’s backyard!

April showers bring…? May Flowers!!!

By: pdadmin

22-05-2012

Polka Dog Products, Polka Dog Seasons

That’s right boys and girls. Though the month of May is more than half in the bag we wanted to take a quick break from the all the recent non-stop action around the halls of the Polka Dog Bakery to give you, our loyal Polka Dog blog followers a chance to stop and smell the flowers. Though in this case, it’s flours!!! Lots and lots and lots of flours.

And for this little hiatus from the madness, we’re encouraging you not only to take a tiny whiff in passing but settle on in, open up wide and gobble down a dozen or two.

The last few days the world has exploded in color, and to help usher in the season of high pollen counts and endlessly runny noses, we at Polka Dog Bakery have loaded our ovens and bakery cases with lovely yogurt-covered flower dog treats of our very own.

Crisp, all-natural gingerbread cookie dough is baked to a hearty crunch in our South Boston kitchen and then decorated by hand with fruit and vegetable powders to give our scrumptious yogurt frosting those beautiful flower-like colors.

And you won’t find anything fake or iridescently odd about our flour flower dog treats. We’re all healthy, all the time. Ingredients like spinach powder and beet powder, unsweetened carob, turmeric. The list is short and distinguished and fit enough for human or canine. That’s the way we do things around here. Simple, honest, good.

And if you’re in the mood for variety, and who isn’t around this time of year, the yogurt-covered Flowers are just one of the many yogurt-covered all natural dog treat offerings you’ll see around our Polka Dog Bakery shops as the summer solstice draws nigh.

We’ve got whales, boats…anything you need to make that trip to the beach all the more exciting for your dog, though we’re pretty sure you won’t need much help in that realm.

Get out and enjoy the sunshine. She’s been away a long time.

It’s Spring at Polka Dog Bakery! (polkadog.com)
The Polkadogblog has Risen! (polkadog.com)
Polka Dog Bakery Retail Stores (polkadog.com)
Target Hits Bullseye & Features Two South End Boutiques In Stores (bostinno.com)

Polka Dog Bakery Dog Bowls

By: pdadmin

15-05-2012

Polka Dog Dog Bowls, Polka Dog Products

As the weather heats up and the sun starts shining, we wanted to talk today a little bit about one specific Polka Dog product that is going to change the way your dog stays cool this summer and the year round. No, it’s not a personal-sized dog fan that straps to your dog’s collar and blows dry-ice cooled mist around her nose, though that’s not a bad idea.

It’s the Polka Dog Packabowl and it’s the end result of a long quest to find a solid dog hydration and feed solution that was hip enough for today’s uber-urban kitchens and handy enough to take on the road.

Basically, what happened with the creation of the Packabowl went something like this.

We were tired of the loud stainless steel cymbal bowls clattering across the tile shop floor. Ceramic was too fragile, and too heavy for hitting the road. Cloth, too flimsy. Dog’s aren’t dainty. They need structure, substance. We needed to create a bowl that could go places but also be useful once it arrived. Enter the lovely material called TPR. That’s Thermoplastic rubber to you. With qualities like plastic but malleability like rubber, this wonderful little molecule provided the perfect solution to building a travel ready dog bowl for the masses.

So we hit the drawing board and from the beginning adhered to the two basic tenets of Polka Dog product design.

1. The bowl had to work. Pretty simple right, but you’d be surprised to see how many products are out there for humans and canines alike that don’t DO anything.

2. The bowl had to look cool. What would form be without function, function without form? And what would some sweet sherbert-colored, futuristic-looking suitably durable packable travel dog bowls be without dogs and people to enjoy them.

We needed the bowl to be user-friendly (anti-microbial, tough, dishwasher safe)…all the good stuff, and we wanted it to look like it belonged wherever it was.

The result is the glorious kick-butt dog bowl to end all dog bowls, the Polka Dog Packabowl. A bright, colorful food and water alternative that meets the demands of function and design in one fell swoop.

It’s Spring at Polka Dog Bakery! (polkadog.com)
Polka Dog Bakery Retail Stores (polkadog.com)
5…4…3…2…1 Launch!! (polkadog.com)
Ready, aim, TARGET!!! (polkadog.com)

Thanks for a Great 2012!

A Thanksgiving Dog Treat – Sweet Potato!

It’s Nearly Halloween at Polka Dog Bakery!

Leaving Las Vegas – The SuperZoo 2012 Review

Round up The Chuck Wagon it’s Chicken Jerky Dog Treat Time!

Cod Skins a Twisty Tasty Dog Treat!

Get the Gulpy Water Source at Polka Dog Bakery

April showers bring…? May Flowers!!!

Polka Dog Bakery Dog Bowls

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