What an exciting month it’s been! Not only have we seen 34 new members join our Facebook page and a 40% increase in posts from last month, but also a 51% increase in comments and reactions from your fellow page members to your posts. Added to this, the release of our brand new dog-friendly stickers which are now proudly displayed on dog-friendly businesses’ doors and windows all over the place. Today, for instance, we received a request from the owner of 2 cafés in Portsmouth who wants to join in on the campaign and show passers-by how welcoming they are towards our four-legged friends – huge thanks to Rob Nichol from Home Coffee for this!
I was also excited to receive a surprise parcel through the post – a pack of ready-to-bake doggy treats, made of 100% organic and very high quality ingredients. These treats were the creation of Leigh Anderson in response to his dog Chester’s fussy ways. Turns out Chester turned his nose up at cheaper options and favoured better quality, more expensive, organic bites. Who can blame him?
Leigh wrote an item on this DogBlog last month explaining how he went from baking treats for his own dog to packaging ready-to-bake parcels and delivering them to people who can’t (or won’t) make them from scratch themselves. This week I got to trial one of these treats – Apple & Peanut Butter – and the results were great! The process was incredibly simple and just as the instructions described. Oscar and Ollie look forward to trialling loads more food, treats, clothes, toys and accessories. Have a look at the video below and order your own using the link www.good-doggy.co.uk with a 20% discount available for an extra week from the publication of this blog. Just type in the code “LMDI20” – expiry 07th May 2019.
END OF YEAR SALE!!!!
We’re now firmly into the new fiscal year and so all of last year’s merchandise simply MUST GO! We are therefore offering special deals on most items – 50% off Dog Water Bottles (700ml), 50% off Gym/Travel Water Bottles (500ml), 50% off LMDI Tote Bags and additionally 20% off Good Doggy Treats for another week from the release of this blog.
Click on the link below, order your items and benefit from a couple of surprise additions:
CAMERON & SUJATHA KINCAID
Founders of “Chemeyes”
Chemeyes is a small family-run business with a focus on the health and wellbeing of cats & dogs. It was founded by accident, or rather because of our German Shepherd, Dizzy, who had a number of accidents. Most of them in the middle of the kitchen floor! We thought she had a bit of an upset tummy, but after a couple of weeks, various antibiotics and near-fatal weight loss which left her looking like a skeleton she was diagnosed with pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). Fortunately, EPI is really easy to manage and after we started adding pancreatic enzymes to her food she quickly gained her weight back and started to look like a healthy Shepherd. All was good… until the enzymes she needed went out of production. This really was a time to panic, as without the enzymes she would again be unable to digest her food and would literally start to starve to death, regardless of how much she ate. Due to our jobs in pharmaceuticals, we had a number of contacts in the industry and were able to source some enzymes for Dizzy while she was still in good health. Through a Facebook EPI forum, we realised that other people were also in the same position so we investigated how we could provide them with a high-quality alternative while also giving some attractive cost savings. The cost of the product was an important consideration. The enzymes are needed for the rest of the dog’s life so making the treatment more affordable meant looking after a dog with EPI was less daunting from a financial perspective. The rest – from our first listing on eBay, figuring out how to launch a website and trying (failing…) to understand HMRC small business requirements is history!
Pancreatic enzymes are still at the core of our business and we help shelters, rescue homes, and charities, now being the primary supplier to the PDSA as well as the only approved dog enzyme supplier to Australia.
We have diversified a little but still keep the focus of trying to offer high-quality products that will save our customers money over the long term. We now offer vitamin B12, a common requirement for dogs with EPI. Potassium supplements, joint supplements, probiotics, organic liquid plant extracts, palmitoylethanolamide and a range of accessories. Most of our new products have been introduced by suggestions from our customers who have been struggling with either the cost or availability of products that they needed.
In addition to evaluating ways to best serve our customers, we are also conscious of how we can limit our impact on the environment. We have already stopped sending paper receipts and delivery notes with our orders unless specifically requested which has saved a considerable amount of paper waste. We are also in the process of transitioning our product packs away from plastic in favour of biodegradable, recycled paper packs which, we estimate, will save nearly 1,000 kg of waste plastic each year.
We also try to give back to our customers and are currently offering a £100 Amazon voucher if you can identify the animal in our competition at www.chemeyes.co.uk/competition (T & C apply).
Dog-friendly stickers – know a dog-friendly business near you that would definitely display one of our stickers on their door or window? Request one here: info@letmydogin.co.uk ?
For more ideas and recommendations, try:
Bars & Pubs – http://letmydogin.com/bars-pubs/
Cafés – http://letmydogin.com/cafes/
Restaurants – http://letmydogin.com/restaurants/
Shops – http://letmydogin.com/shops/
And if you have suggestions, reviews and feedback, please drop us a line: info@letmydogin.co.uk or 07932509737
Photos and videos of your dogs, as well as business reviews, are always welcome on our Facebook and Instagram accounts
Finally, if you’d like to write a piece for our monthly blog, all it needs to be is dog-related and dog-friendly.
Top contributors in the last month:
1 – Teresa Keohane
2 – Naomi Dunleavy
3 – Claire Somerville
4 – Anitta Autumn
5 – Karen Bresloff
In the last month alone, we had a total of 966 posts, comments and reactions. Keep ’em coming!!!!
