My point of difference
At The Dog Chef I make different types of dog treats from anyone else I’ve come across. According to Wikipedia, “point of difference refers to the factors of products or services that establish differentiation. Differentiation is the way in which the goods or services of a company differ from its competitors.”
The Dog Chef’s point of difference is glaringly obvious. I only use 100% natural ingredients that have positive health benefits for dogs. I don’t create dog treats to look beautiful. I create them to be functional and healthy!
Dogs are born with something known in human terms as colour vision deficiency. They’re not colour blind, they just have a more limited colour palette than we do. So beautifully decorated dog treats with fancy icing and multi-coloured sprinkles are designed to appeal to human consumers, not to the end user. Your dog.
To your dog, if something smells scrumptious and tastes delicious, it’s stunningly beautiful. If it smells awful and tastes even worse, it’s as ugly as sin. Get the way it works?
My creative process
So when I come to creating a dog treat baking mix, I work from the inside out. I start off with an ingredient.
I look for an ingredient known to have a positive effect on the health of dogs. Spirulina for example. It’s a nutrient-rich superfood once used by the Aztecs. It’s an excellent source of vitamins, minerals and chlorophyll. It can help support the immune system, help fight cancer and is excellent for any dog suffering from arthritis or allergies. (So it’s particularly beneficial for senior dogs).
Okay. But not every dog likes the taste of spirulina. Having tried it myself, it is, shall we say, something of an acquired taste! So I ask myself, what can I combine with spirulina that will make it more appealing to the canine palate?
I’ve never heard of a dog who didn’t enjoy peanut butter. Peanut butter also offers health benefits of its own so I combine the spirulina with peanut butter.
Liver Cake Training Treat Baking Mix
Bake your own healthy & 100% natural, wheat-free, gluten-free homemade dog treats!
Right, I’ve created a recipe which contains a known human and canine superfood and combined it with another tasty and beneficial ingredient that will bind all the ingredients together. Now I need to add something to give the treat structure. I need a flour, but what type of flour?
I’m not hugely in favour of giving dogs wheat flour. It works for some dogs but can cause an allergic reaction in others. So I look to add a type of flour that is both nutritionally better for dogs and that will give the mix structure. I use a wide variety of different flours at The Dog Chef, but in this case I opt for almond flour. Yes, it’s more expensive than wheat flour, but it is also a lot more healthy so I go with that.
Different types of dog treats
And that, essentially is how I go about creating a recipe. I don’t set out to make something that looks visually appealing to the human eye. Guided by my in-house canine nutritionist, I set out to create something that will be both healthy and enjoyable for your dog.
That is my point of difference. I make different types of dog treats!
And by the way, I’m most certainly not knocking fancy dog treats. Far from it. Providing every ingredient is dog-safe, every type of dog treat has its place. I’m all in favour of dog parents rewarding their dog in any way that makes them happy. It’s purely that I specialize in functional dog treats and these, by their nature, tend to have their beauty on the inside.
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