Archive for the ‘Behind-The-Scenes’ Category

Compliments to ohmidog! Click below for the full coverage:

http://www.ohmidog.com/2009/11/12/petsmart-extends-recall-of-hoof-treats/#more-14915

Click here to read the post from ohmidog!: http://www.ohmidog.com/2009/11/07/fda-issues-warning-on-tainted-treats/

K-9 Kraving takes great pride in manufacturing our own treats from all USA ingredients -  USA Certified, human grade, free range and steroid & antibitic free, in Baltimore, MD.

We’ve been very busy at K-9 Kraving, which explains why there has only been mild blog maintainence over the past several months instead of hearty posts. To make up for lost time, this post is dedicated to catching our readers and K-9 Kraving fans up on our current and not-so-current events.

Our summer weekends were dedicated to outside building maintenance and rehabing an existing room at Boesl Packing Company now dedicated to our K-9 Kraving treat packing room (yeah for me!).

Our treat business, just 1-year young in September, has blossomed. Made in the USA, healthy and all natural treats are apparently a rarety. As a result, we have received amazing retail support…my dedicated treat room came in the knick of time. Our latest and greatest new treats include:

• Free Range Bison Liver Canine Cookies
• Steroid & Antibiotic Free Duck Liver Canine Cookies
• Human Grade Sweet Potato Canine Cookies
• Seasonal Specials: Pumpkin/ Beef and Pumpkin/Duck Canine Cookies  

Also in the past year we have launched 2 new flavors of frozen raw diet dog food, Mackerel Complete and Duck Complete and 1/4 pound patties ; added Elk and Bison Neck and Marrow Bones to our variety of frozen bones, along with, Organic Turkey Necks and Duck Necks; and are in the process of updating all our 1 and 2 pound chub packaging to easy to identify flavor color coded wrappers/slicks. 

In August we partnered with a retail sales consultant for the Mid-Atlantic region. This is big considering our growth has been predominately through the working dog circuit, breeders, kennels and private dealers. Having a seasoned sales consultant has been instrumental in developing packaging, treats and  printed pieces more relevant to potential K-9 Kraving feeders in the pet community.

In November, we’ll be sharing our new 10-page company brochure. Not only is it packed with oodles of technical and educational K-9 Kraving and raw diet information, it is done so with style and soul. No stock photos to be found, all the canines featured are dogs of K-9 Kraving customers. This is our most dynamic support literature in our almost 10-years of existence. You may receive your own copy by emailing your request and mailing address to  info@k-9kraving.com.

We are well behind in our aspirations of an open house, allowing guests to experience “live” the making of K-9 Kraving and touring our facility. Instead we are setting our sights for this event for our 10-year anniversary. Stay tuned for our Open House penciled in for summer 2010. 

This month we spent 9-days in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky with the National Doberman Conference – our 1st national show. It was a lot of fun…and work. Great dogs, great folks and a great town. Could have done without the 8- turned 12-hour return home due to bad weather.

November 3-8 we’ll be in Davenport, Iowa for the German Shepherd National Championship. There we are co-sponsoring the event with our friends CPN. A 14-hour (minimum) road trip for an all outdoor event…IN NOVEMBER!  We hope to have the warmest booth by hanging 4 walls on our canopy armed with heaters inside. Just in case I’ll be doning Under Armor and one our new K-9 Kraving  embroidered skull ski hats.

Now I look forward to not packing treats, not stressing over a neglected blog, not answering emails morning, noon and night — and spending some much needed time cuddling with Miss Fanny Mae, who despite her natural lack of patience, has been incredibly forgiving of my focus on staying caught up versus giving her endless amounts of much appreciated belly rubs. Thanks to our readers as well for your patience while we caught up with ourselves at K-9 Kraving. Happy Fall…for at least what’s left of it.

Simply put, everything K-9 Kraving makes and everything we make it with is done in the United States with ingredients that were born, bred and raised in the USA.

Looking for healthy, all natural dog food and treats? You’ve found them!

Looking for pet food manufactured to the same specifications as human food? You have found that too!

Looking for a brand manufactured by its own mother company? You guessed it? You found us!

To learn more, visit our main site at www.k-9kraving.com .

K-9 Kraving. Made in Baltimore, MD. Available nationwide.

Recently we received the following comment on our blog:

These treats should come with a warning label…my boston terrier recently had to have emergency surgery to remove a entire cow trachea ringlet that had lodged in his esophagus!!!

After exchanging emails we learned that the Trachea Ringlets, that ultimately caused the death of the reader’s Boston Terrier, were not purchased through K-9 Kraving. EVEN SO —as a treat manufacturer, we feel a great sense of responsibility in the matter.

As of today, K-9 Kraving only offers Dried Trachea in whole, natural sizes and are warning others to the possible and negetaive side effects of cutting the trachea to smaller sizes prior to feeding it to their dog.

A follow up to a May 5th post, Fanny’s In the House.

In brief, Fanny, a chocolate lab/pit mix…slash…twice surrendered…slash…pure energy on speed…slash…a foster through a local shelter…slash…K-9 Kraving Treat Tester— became the love of my life and turned it upside down.  

Fanny and I started working together in March of this year. Since then, friends and acquaintances have repeatedly asked, “Are you adopting her?” Or “She’s been with you for a long time, did you decide to adopt her?”

Although the bond she and I have created through oodles of exercise, obedience lessons and a recent, albeit minor (but scary), medical crisis – I hadn’t yet made that commitment on paper. Amid a life transition, I felt unable to make that commitment yet.  My attachment for her was clear and gave away that I had no intention of letting her go.

As fate would have it, this week, my real commitment for her was put to the test. Turns out Fanny’s guardian shelter found itself in transition too,  and their canine inventory required assessing. In kind words I was asked to sign the papers to adopt Fanny or they would have to find someone who could….Wednesday I am signing the papers.

Over the years I have experienced and appreciated many dogs. But Fanny is “My First Dog” from the sense of full responsibility, training and truly learning from the canine-human relationship. (A humbling experience)

Earlier described as beautiful and bossy, whimsical and willful, darling and domineering, Fanny has taught and reminded me:

#1 Playing/working hard and long naps are essential to being a happy girl.
#2 Don’t apologize for who you are.
#3 Stay convicted to your true nature and follow your instincts (Not sure the squirrels agree, in Fanny’s case).
#4 Value and respect those who value and respect you.

Lastly…#5 Home is where your heart and (in my case) where Fanny is.

So here’s to many enchanting and chaotic, wonderful and scary, fulfilling, adventurous and rewarding years to come with Fanny. Sincere gratitude to the team at K-9 Kraving for having us as a daily package deal. And thank you Fanny for finding me, being patient with me while I learn patience, opening my mind, and giving me the courage to be me…with you!

From May 7-10, 2009, our K-9 Kraving team will be in Montgomery, NY at the  20th Anniversary USRC National Sieger Show. K-9 Kraving, and our friends Oma’s Pride, are key sponsors for the Rottweiler trials. 

If you are attending or will be in the area, it will be worth your while to stop by the K-9 Kraving booth -we will be offering phenomenal cash-n-carry as well as prepaid order deals on our frozen raw diet dog food, pipe bones and necks, in additional to, select healthy, all natural dried treats.  

We hope to see you there! 

PS – K-9 Kraving now accepts credit card payments at events.

Not just in mine, in K-9 Kraving’s too.

Beautiful and bossy, whimsical and will-full, darling and domineering, Fanny, a guessed mutt-mix of chocolate lab and pit bull, has me vacillating between deep admiration and feeling completely in over my head.       

         
About seven weeks ago, Fanny arrived at the Stop Killing Dogs rescue. I had been visiting the core team at the rescue to update them on Hector’s progress when they decided I would be a great foster match for a fresh, young and energetic 8 month pup…appropriately nicknamed “Wonder Woman”. It’s hard to say now if it was her inquisitive eyes, her gorgeous coat or her in-your-face free-spirit for which she makes no apology that had me at hello. Whatever it was, our courtship began a day later with a weekend sleep over.

The sleep over would help us evaluate Fanny’s in-house behavior and other [not so] fine points. After two days, our dog Ace wasn’t nearly as impressed with her – posturing, pouting and toy battles took place between them. Fanny inflicted on us abundant mouthing, high jumping and yipping. Not a great experience. Come Sunday afternoon, Ace was ready to see Fanny go back to the shelter, as was John, my housemate. My convictions, however, stood unwavering.

The shelter is only an eight minute walk from my house which made daily park dates for exercising, leash lessons and socializing with Fanny very convenient. These daily honeymoon-like outings went on for three weeks. Then John, Ace & I had a long weekend in North Carolina during which Fanny and I had to put our relationship on hold. Witnessing how deeply I missed Fanny while we were away, John succumbed to having Fanny as an in-house foster.

Delighted with the opportunity, I contacted the shelter when we returned to Baltimore letting them know that after making a few arrangements, Fanny was coming home with me. As fate would have it, a day later, a family interested in adopting Fanny, contacted the rescue.

Although my heart was breaking at the idea of someone else filling that spot in Fanny’s life, the rural forever home they could offer her seemed to clearly outweigh the urban fostering that I could provide. So, we scheduled the meet and greet with the prospective family and their dog.

Everyone played with, and cooed over, Fanny during the meet and greet. The long list of  behaviors and recommendations for Fanny’s development were discussed. The next day, papers were signed and Fanny moved on.

It sounds silly really. Fanny was and still is not my dog. Even so, I missed her presence in my life – she made me crazy, but was also the brightest part of my day and brought new purpose to my life. In my heart, I felt our work together wasn’t done…always the hopeless romantic.

Seems the universe agreed. Six days later, with no notice, Fanny was returned to the shelter due to irreconcilable differences with the adoptive family and their other dog. I was back on task! Within a few short days – having made the necessary arrangements of  obedience classes with Mutt Magic and getting the thumbs up from my boss at K-9 Kraving to bring Fanny to work in my office – I was ready for full-time Fanny, so I thought$%^&*(

The first 24 hours, my optimism wilted a bit. For those of you who aren’t from Baltimore, while Fanny had been briefly adopted, the off-leash fines were raised to $1000.00. So, not only was Fanny over enthusiastic about being in a home again, but we were also unable to freely or conveniently subject her to the much needed aerobic exercise to drain her of her ever-building energy…my nerves, mind and body were quickly exhausting.

The professionals say Fanny is going through the equivalent of the “terrible twos” …I liken her behavior to a mouthing jackal on crack. To combat either opinion – long, energetic walks, daily obedience sessions and lots of chewy things have become the bane of our existence. I feel blessed to work at K-9 Kraving – a place where bully sticks, cartilage chews and beef bones are aplenty and where Fanny has a positive role…our in-house test market for chewing last-ability. Also on the bright side, with having to walk Fanny so much, maybe this soon-to-be ‘40 something’ will have less of a fanny of her own, in another month or two.

Although Fanny still gets my every nerve, and my arms (I swear) have been stretched a foot longer on each side, my commitment to her stands. I still love her spirit, her remarkable coat and her intensity…

…MOST ESPECIALLY  when she’s sleeping.

 

Fund Raising is in the bag at Boesl Packing Company. Boesl, manufacturer of K-9 Kraving USDA Certified frozen raw diet dog food and healthy, all-natural treats, introduces ‘custom logo dog treat bags’ – an easy, affordable and canine-appropriate way for rescue organizations to put their stamp on fund raising events and campaigns to help homeless pets.

See our ‘Fund Raising Treats’ Page

for details.