Creating the right mix for dogs, owners
Entrepreneur finds even finicky pooches enjoy his home-cooked meals
linda denicola
The Hub
JEFF HUNTLEY Kerry Mulholland and Jeff Pedone flank Duffy, the dog that led them to start their own dog food company.
Many people fancy themselves entrepreneurs and dream of making it big in their own business. Frequently, the problem is coming up with the right product or service. Some, however, make the leap from thinking about it to doing it.
Little Silver resident Jeff Pedone is one of those.
Last year he, along with his fiancée, Kerry Mulholland, Rumson, established a business called Good Dog Foods Inc. He sells healthy, human-grade dog food packed with nutrients specifically for dogs. He uses USDA-inspected meat, farm-fresh vegetables and whole grains which he cooks in his own home.
The meals are minimally processed, vacuum packed, frozen and delivered free within a certain area.
Before starting his business, Pedone, 37, taught sixth-grade English at the Forrestdale School in Rumson. Although he liked teaching and did it for six years, he was sniffing about for a business that would excite him.
"I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I was waiting for the right idea to germinate," he explained.
When his fiancée said she wanted to get a puppy, they researched various breeds and decided to adopt a golden retriever puppy, which they named Duffy.
"He’s our company mascot," Pedone said. "I take Duffy with me on deliveries."
The couple noticed that Duffy was very picky about eating, even though they were feeding him premium dog food.
"We did a lot of research on raising a puppy and found that golden retrievers were supposed to have voracious appetites. We talked to our vet, but he didn’t know why Duffy wasn’t always eating," Pedone said.
Mulholland purchased a book about understanding dogs called Smarter Than You Think by Paul Loeb.
"One section was about feeding your dog a homemade diet. We tried it and got remarkable results. Duff ate every time we fed him," Pedone said.
Pedone decided to do more investigating. He read books on pet foods and the pet food industry. "I researched in earnest," he said. "I talked to vets and breeders. What came about was not only an idea for a company, but an eye-opening experience about what dogs should eat."
He looked into the nutrient profile that the American Association of Feed Control Officials and the National Research Council set up and came up with his own formulations for dog food, exceeding the requirements in the profiles, he said.
Then he gave samples to dog owners he knew. "They were having great results with the food. So I researched how to package and label the product," Pedone said.
The vacuum packages are sold frozen. All the consumer has to do is defrost, serve or heat slightly, and measure out an amount of nutrient powder to sprinkle on the food.
The nutrient powder has yeast, kelp, lecithin, calcium and phosphorus, as well as plant based enzymes that replace what gets lost in cooking, Pedone said.
Pedone is the president of the company and Mulholland is the vice president and creative director. "I left my job last June to pursue the business full time. We incorporated in July 1999," he noted.
According to Pedone, his customers whose dogs have had gastrointestinal problems do well on his product.
"If you feed a dog proper nutrition, there will be a marked improvement in any number of problems associated with dogs," Pedone said. "Before the commercial pet food industry, dogs thrived. There weren’t as many problems as there are today."
Pedone said the cost per week for his company’s product depends upon the weight of the dog. The four different mixes range from $3.39 to $3.79 a package. One package would feed a 70-pound dog for one day.
"Word is spreading that I’m the dog food guy," he said, adding "I believe in the product wholeheartedly. It’s helping dogs."
Pedone said he has always been a dog lover and had a collie when he was growing up in Long Branch.
He’s happy that he has chosen this new direction in his life. "I was doing both at the same time (teaching and building his business). Wearing every hat in the company is quite a task," Pedone said. "The business grew so much that I had to make a choice. It was the correct choice to make."
A Monmouth College graduate with a degree in education and English, he worked in many different businesses while still in high school and in college, among them customer service and sales.
Besides his at-home site, he has two other locations where people can get the food: Dog-Ease Day Care on 193 E. Newman Springs Road, which is opening the day after Thanksgiving and in Freehold Township at Dr. Edmund Weinberg’s Animal Hospital at Poets Square, 44 Thoreau Drive.
Pedone can be reached at (732) 842-4555. His Web site is www.gooddogfoods.com.