DOUGHNUTS AND HOT CHOCOLATE DRINKS FOR YOUR CANINE COMPANION? YOU’RE DOGGONE RIGHT

If you have ever fantasised about hosting a party for the family dog and all of his or her canine buddies from around the neighbourhood, with cupcakes and ice cream on the menu, now you can.

It sounds like something from the most whimsical of children’s books, but this fanciful scenario has become an entrepreneurial reality for Hamilton woman Alyssa Bradly​ and her mother Gretchen Binns.​

The pair run a bakery service out of their home in Flagstaff called Fairybread & Marshmallow which specialises in catering for kids’ birthday parties, well-prepared “grazing boxes” for snacking throughout the working day, and catering for corporate functions and other events.

These consumable treats are not made with dogs in mind. But one day the thought occurred to Binns: What if they were?

“My mum has crazy ideas all the time,” reveals Bradly. “She was taking our dogs for a walk one day when she came up with the idea of having grazing boxes for dogs. Well, why not?”

And what at first appeared to be a quirky side venture is now taking off, with displays and stalls such as one held at a community fair at Fraser High School on Sunday inspiring lots of positive feedback – and not just from the dogs.

“It’s like a whole new world we have discovered. Lots of people think of treats like doughnuts and cupcakes as being just for humans. But of course they don’t have to be.”

The treats they make under the label The Barkuterie Box feature secret ingredients such as peanut butter and carrots – winning attributes for the most discerning canine connoisseurs or puppy palates.

The family’s pair of schnauzers, Reggie and Pippy, are the very willing taste testers for each new innovation.

“Some dogs are probably a little fussier. But dogs are just like people, really. Everyone is different.

“A lot of people who come up and see what we are selling don’t realise at first that this selection is especially made for dogs. They say ‘I wish I had a dog, so I could throw them a doughnut party’, or something like that.”

But wait – isn’t chocolate and sugar an inherently unhealthy food choice for our four-legged friends? Of course, says Bradly. That’s why their doggie baking selection and drinks does not contain any great amount of sugar or natural chocolate.

“There is icing on the doughnuts, but it is icing without any sugar in it. It is a paste that mixes cornstarch with natural yoghurt. To give the icing different colourings we mix in raspberry starch or spirulina powder, things like that.”

The ice creams and hot chocolate drinks for dogs are sourced from a South Island company called Scoop Dog. The chocolate is made from carob powder and goats’ milk, which is not harmful to dogs.

The ice cream comes in dog-specific flavours such as bacon, banana and carob chocolate.

“Everything we bake is made with human grade, natural ingredients – so if the humans want to eat the dog treats themselves, they can.”

Whether the dogs have any objection to their humans wolfing down their specially-made treats, however, could be another story.