Peak Power Dog Treats

Mistakes we used to make when buying treats for our dogs

Here's our story for Peak Power Dog Treats and how they came into existence.

We used to give our dogs a lot of grain-based treats.

But dogs need meat proteins as the major food source, not plant-proteins or carbohydrates.

And, grains have become hybridized and genetically modified (GMO), making the gluten in them pretty bad for dogs (and humans).

Plus, they are loaded with synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, because as GMO crops, they were designed to resist pesticides, so a lot of them can be applied to crops.

We turned our focus to predominantly meat-based treats.

But, more than 94% of the meat in the U.S. is confined to feedlots and fed corn, hormones and antibiotics, which has proven to be bad for our dogs' health as well as ours.

Plus, we feel it is inhumane and unhealthy to keep them confined to feedlots.

And, as we have learned, to maintain the health of our grasslands, which pull carbon out of the atmosphere, we need more large animals roaming on them. We do not want to be farming it for corn that in turn gets fed to the animals, but instead, turning it back into rangeland and letting the animals roam.

We looked at organic meats.

But, we discovered that organic meat is often barely one-step healthier than standard feedlot beef because the only difference is the animals cannot be fed hormones or antibiotics, but they can still be confined to feedlots, which still produces meat that is not healthy.

Canada and New Zealand…to the rescue!

So, we considered dog treats from Canada and New Zealand, believing the marketing and hype about how clean and pure it is in those places.

Problem was, we discovered that shipping food to another country means the need for stabilizers, preservatives and antioxidants to maintain shelf-stability, all of which can be pretty nasty stuff for our dogs.

Consider the transportation process for food coming from New Zealand:

1. It is put on non-climate controlled trucks to the port;
2. It is loaded into shipping containers that are not climate controlled, then spends months crossing the ocean in hot and humid conditions;
3. It is unloaded at a port in the U.S. and may sit in the sun in its shipping container for days before being transported in trucks that are not climate controlled to a warehouse that is also not climate controlled;
4. Then it is transported on trucks again that are not climate controlled before arriving in your local retailer or your online retailer’s warehouse.

That takes a lot of stabilizers, preservatives and antioxidants.

Plus how much greater is the carbon footprint to get the food halfway around the world?

Treats are not as shelf-stable as we think.

Then we discovered that pet food is not as stable as we are led to believe, and can develop rancidity and micro-amounts of mold rather quickly. Dogs can be very sensitive to rancidity and mold.

So we tried purchasing products that we could use within 3 months of manufacture, but manufacturers do not typically report the manufacture date, only the sell by date, so we are not able to know for certain how fresh the food really is.

So, we gave up…

You probably get the picture…despite our best efforts and our research, we found it impossible to purchase truly healthy commercial dog treats. Instead, we discovered that the way the dog treat and dog food industry has evolved since WWII is one that maximizes convenience and cost-savings, but minimizes healthy products.

So we set out to develop our own process for making dog treats that focuses on a healthy product first.

Our first product version came out in 2013, which we used for our own purposes and for Sue to use in her training.

Sue's clients started asking about them because their dogs liked them a lot more than what Sue's clients were using, so we started selling them in 2014.

But it took us a few more years of developing our proprietary formulation and secret recipe, shelf-testing it with a registered laboratory and performance testing…actually using the product day in and day out to see how it worked for us.

What we have now is the perfect dog treat products that we really love!

What makes our Peak Power Dog Treats different?

FIRST, our products are 100% sourced and made in the USA.

As explained in more detail below, we know where all the ingredients are sourced.

SECOND, we have a balanced product in the right proportions that mirrors the dog ancestral diet originally developed by Steve Brown, a renowned dog nutrition and dog raw food expert. It contains grass fed/free range muscle meats and grass fed/free range organ meats.

With this balanced formulation, we can feed our dogs as many treats as we want and not worry about their diet becoming imbalanced because they are loading up on treats (which is easy to do, especially when training).

And a little bit goes a long way.  Our treats are highly nutritious and flavorful, so use a small amount.  In fact, we use specific jerky tools that makes them easy to break up into very very small pieces. This is unlike many other treats that come in their own size and are very difficult to make smaller.  They might be cheaper than our treats, but end up costing you more because you are limited in how small you can make them.

THIRD, NOTHING ELSE ADDED…no growth hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, sugar, salt, grains, preservatives, stabilizers, antioxidants, artificial colors, artificial flavors, fillers, chemicals, and no GMO (genetically modified organism).

Because our product is so clean, it is especially attractive for dogs with allergies.

FOURTH, we source directly from 100% grass fed/free range only ranches and that follow standards set by the American Grassfed Association for range land management, and follow standards set by the Global Animal Partnership for outstanding animal welfare. It is important to us to use and sell a product that is sourced from ranches whose animals are humanely raised.

A 2016 law relaxed the standards for labeling grass fed beef, allowing manufacturers to say meat is grass fed when it is not.  It may be partially grass fed, but 30-days or more of finishing on grain in feedlots will completely reverse any benefits of grass fed meat.  As a result, if you really want to verify that your beef is grass fed, you have to buy from ones that either have the American Grassfed Association designation, or visit them and conduct your own inspection (the designation can be expensive to obtain).

We know…pretty ridiculous (big company lobbying dollars at work to give us more unhealthy food…and politicians more than happy to take those lobbying dollars in exchange for favorable legislation).

FIFTH, we built our own USDA licensed kitchen on our family-owned farm to produce our dog treats, rather than outsource to a large production facility, which is how most companies do it.

This gives us direct control of our operations to ensure product quality and ensures that no other ingredients accidentally get mixed in, which can happen at large production facilities that produce for many dog food brands.

SIXTH, our product is handmade in small batches – and each batch is about 13 pounds each.

This lets us keep a good eye on product quality and consistency. We produce only what we need to quickly sell it, rather than renting a co-manufacturer facility to produce a huge lot and then having it sit around for 6 months or longer to sell.  The longer any food product sits around, the more it degrades.

SEVENTH, we use packaging that is recyclable and/or biodegradable.

Peak Power Dog Treats are not just human grade ingredients, because a lot of companies can say that, but OUR PRODUCT IS ONE WE WOULD BE WILLING TO EAT OURSELVES!

Seriously…if you are not willing to eat the food you give your dog, why would you give it to your dog?

Recycling

Our bulk jars are in 32-ounce glass jars, which are great to reuse or recycle.  We are happy to take back your used jars, as we can reuse them for our production.  Just drop them off to us during classes, private training sessions or if you board your dog with us.

We have additional information about how to use our food products on our Dog Food FAQ's page.

Just For Fun!

Romeo is officially on his rise to stardom!  We created a video ad for our Peak Power Dog Treats and he has the starring role.  No cheesy TV commercial here.