• by Karl Greenberg , Kevin Ransom , April 9, 2007

Three Dog Bakery, which bills itself as America's leading bakery for dogs, is re-energizing its brand with a new million-dollar capital investment and several new products that roll out next week.

The bakery, which specializes in all-natural, oven-baked food and treats for dogs, seems to have timed it right. Last week, the recall of pet foods had widened, with dog biscuits made by an Alabama company and sold by Wal-Mart under the Ol' Roy brand included. And Menu Foods expanded its original pet food recall to include a broader range of dates and varieties.

Three Dog Bakery had its new, healthier products in the pipeline long before the recalls began, says spokesperson Jeff Fromm. "Based on consumer research and palatability, and the no-added-gluten aspect, we felt this was a good time to come out with these new products."

The company will also stage some promotional activities, including a Cinco de Mayo celebration--which Brent Earles, the company's "chief marketing dog," says will be "the world's biggest dog party." Chefs will be on hand in the bakeries to create special cakes for dogs.

The new products, investment and marketing efforts are designed to re-invigorate Three Dog Bakery's leadership position in the all-natural dog-food category.

Some of the whimsically named new products include Spearmint Bagels, a breath bagel for larger dogs; Itty Bitty Bones, a spearmint breath bone for small dogs; Entree for Dogs, a no-gluten-added wet meal and a reformulated All-Natural, no-gluten-added Dry Kibble Dog Food. The company reformulated this product, adding new ingredients such as garlic, sage, blueberries and cranberries to make it tastier.

A critical part of the company's efforts is an expansion of the bakery operations, from a network of 47 to 130 by 2010 throughout North America, Japan and Western Europe.

Other companies, too, are riding a bittersweet PR wave.

Wal-Mart is offering promotional codes to consumers directing them to the Web site of veterinarian Sean Delaney, who is also a consultant on pet foods and founder of DVM Consulting.

Delaney says he has been deluged with queries, and traffic to his Web site, balanceit.com, has spiked. Balance IT is a patent-pending dietary pet supplement developed by Delaney. It offers consumers pet-food recipes that make dry food palatable to dogs and cats accustomed to wet food.

"The original hope was that we could identify something they could add to food that is tasty but isn't toxic," says Delaney. "As an example, onions and garlic are not good for pets in large quantities though they may relish the taste. In December, we launched a site for pet lovers--really an automated program that takes information about pets and fashions custom recipes, of which we have about 400, with different viewpoints, different ethnic or seasonal flavor."

Another company, Loews Hotels, which has 18 hotels in the U.S. and Canada, is offering to the public its pet food recipes.

Part of its "Loews Loves Pets" program, which was launched in 2000 as, essentially, room service for pets, it includes recipes for "Bow Wow Tenderloin of Beef" and "Chow Hound Chicken" for dogs and "Whisker Licking Liver" and "Kitty's Salmon Supreme" for cats.

The hotel is also offering--presumably for globe-trotting cats and dogs--a jet-lag meal, called Grrreat Vegetable Feast.