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When thinking about delicious food, we can’t forget our four-legged friends and The Puppy Pretzel Company helps to provide nutritious and delicious homemade treats for dogs of all ages.
Beginning as a way to give their two Boston terriers treats during the pandemic, Joey and Alberta Ganem began crafting the perfect recipes for healthy treats long before they knew it would become a business. Now, like clockwork, every Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to noon, customers can expect to see Joey and Alberta at the Brazos Valley Farmers Market in Downtown Bryan selling their delicious products and— of course — samples to the best doggos around.
“When we were coming out of COVID, a friend of mine actually started a tamale business and he was down at the farmers market and called us one day and said we needed to be there,” Joey says. “We went down there and my wife fell in love with the atmosphere and wanted to get something so we could be out there selling every week. And I thought 'we're not farmers, we don't cook, we don't have cows or any of that stuff' and then then the light went off — we could do dog treats.”
Once they began looking into the business aspect, they realized that they would need to operate as a state licensed commercial feed facility and must follow all rules set forth by the office of the Texas State Chemist to ensure all products are safe for animal consumption, Joey says.
“There was a big stigma we had to overcome when we first started at the farmer’s market, people wanted to make sure that things were legitimate,” Joey says. “Having a state license helps us to ensure we are producing the highest quality treats and gives our customers confidence when they purchase them.”
The business began with the offering of jumbo puppy pretzels and soon realized they needed a new shape so they began cutting the dough into bite size pieces that could be used for training.
“Once we got our original recipe down, we knew we had to add something new,” Joey says. “So, we started to experiment with some pumpkin for our next treat and made it more crispy and crunchy, we call them our pumpkin crunchers.”
With their own personal taste testers, the Ganem’s make small batches weekly to ensure treats stay fresh. The treat process is quite intensive with batches of treats being made on Tuesdays before being dehydrated for 10 hours to ensure they will last for months and still be fresh when it's time for dogs to snack on them.
Soon, they hope to release their new pup cakes, which are still in the testing stage, but will be making their appearance way onto the menu soon, Joey says.
“We are going to go all out for these new pup cakes from the cakes themselves all the way to the packaging, we are hoping to have nice fancy boxes and frilly stuff that goes inside to add to the experience,” Joey says. “We hope in the future to expand to having birthday party packages, which these will be a great fit for.”
Though their business name has puppy in it, Joey says that the treats are suitable for dogs of all ages from young to old — and they have even discovered new ways for treats to be easier to eat for older dogs.
“We call it The Puppy Pretzel Company because you start out when they're puppies and when they are older, they will still be eating them,” Joey says. “The beauty of our product is that you can take a saucer, put a few drops of water in it and just throw that treat in there and let it rehydrate for the treats to become soft again so any dog can enjoy it at any age.”
The Puppy Pretzel Company operates as a state commercially licensed facility under the Texas State Chemist. Orders can be made online or every Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to noon at the Brazos Valley Farmers Market and on First Fridays in Downtown Bryan. For more information, visit puppypretzel.com or call (979) 204-3381.
