Hold your hounds 🤚!

Before scrolling, we just want to let you know that we put a lot of bark and soul into our newsletter.

We appreciate your time and eyeballs for reading this weekly.

Our only ask of you in return is to forward ↪️ this email to one other dog lover you know!

THIS WEEK'S TOPICS:

• 🐶 A farm full of Goldens making $27K/mo

• 🌿 Hemp is coming for your dog food

• 📷 The social dog marketing agency

🐶 A FARM FULL OF GOLDENS MAKING $27K/MO

In the green mountain landscape of Jeffersonville, Vermont, sits a business so golden, so fluffy, and just might be our favorite venture to date!

Golden Dog Farm, run by Becca and Doug Worple, offers an experience that's pure gold – literally.

For $75, visitors can spend an hour with a dozen golden retrievers at their picturesque farm.

The idea sprouted in September when the Worples decided to turn their love for this squad of Air Buds into a business.

Practically overnight, their Golden Retriever Experience became a viral sensation, with travel TikTokers and Instagram influencers barking up their tree.

Their own TikTok account alone fetched up to 2 million views, proving that when it comes to internet fame, dogs are indeed man's best friend.

@goldendogfarm

Nothing beats Vermont Fall Foliage and golden retrievers 🍁💛 #goldendogfarmvt #goldens #vermont #fall

Becca, a professional photographer, captures these moments as guests play and cuddle with the dogs.

The experience is not just about petting dogs; it's an immersion into an energetic field of lush amber colored coats, wet noses, and nonstop laughter.

Doug humorously calls a group of goldens a "happy," a term that perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere at the farm.

How’s the business doing?

Well, as we stated before, they charge $75/person ($50/kiddo) for about an hour of bliss.

And after some digging, it appears that they have one-time slot (2pm EST) available on any given day.

Within that window it seems that they have a total capacity for 24 people.

Considering they completely sold out in December, we’ll take a conservative estimate that they ran the golden experience for 15 days of the month…

• $75 × 24 = $1,800 per sold out day

• $1,800 × 15 working days = $27,000/mo

• If we want to take it a step further (and we always do)…$27,000 x 12 months = $324,000/yr

Now, that’s considering everything is sold out for 15 days per month for the year.

However we’re sure that there’s ebb and flow to both availability and actual bookings. Either way they’ve struck gold with this one!

The Worples' journey to this point is a tale of serendipity and love for nature.

Originally from Cincinnati, they sold their house to travel during the pandemic, eventually falling in love with Vermont.

Their farm isn't just about dogs; it's a hive of activity with bee-keeping and tapping 4,500 trees for maple syrup.

Their guests are as diverse as the reasons they visit.

From dog lovers who can't own pets to those seeking comfort after losing a furry friend, the farm offers a therapeutic escape.

Beatriz Rosario, a visitor who drove six hours just for this experience, found it to be the perfect remedy for her health problems.

Archit Aryasri, another visitor, summed it up as the "perfect Happy Hour," a sentiment echoed by many who find solace in the company of these golden charmers.

🌿 HEMP IS COMING FOR YOUR DOG FOOD

Ever heard of the US Farm Bill?

Some of you smarties out there might have, but this was new for us.

Apparently, about every five years, congress passes a package of legislation to update how our country manages our food and farm systems.

This massive bill covers a wide range of topics that impacts how food is grown and what food is grown.

Things like crop insurance for farmers, food access for low-income families, AND what qualifies as animal feed.

That five year period is coming up, which means negotiations have started on what will change in the next one.

What caught our eye was that the hemp industry is making a push to permit hemp grain for animal feed.

The industry brought together 33 different non-profits to advocate for 7 new objectives for the farm bill (one of which being adding hemp grain to animal feed).

This is the first time industry leaders have joined together on a legislative agenda, so it must be important to them.

For us, the important part is "animal feed", which according to the FDA, includes pet food!

As it stands right now, hemp is legal in human food (as long as the THC is below a certain amount), but not in animal feed.

Hemp had also been separated from marijuana in the last farm bill, making it a recognized agricultural crop.

The reason behind the push is that hemp production for human food (often oils) creates a TON of byproduct that farmers are looking to use.

Ok, let's get back on track to what this means for dog owners.

In the short term nothing, BUT, in the medium term we may see more food containing hemp and it will be important to research any benefits or negative affects before deciding to try it out.

You might be wondering why you already see CBD and hemp treats, oils, etc for dogs currently?

Well, those are unapproved by the FDA, but there isn't anything that stops companies from marketing them, as it's not technically illegal.

We don't have an opinion one way or the other about benefits / risks as we are still new to all this.

So we give our standard warning to do your own research, consult your vet, and keep on being an awesome dog parent!

All this talk of legislation and government organizations makes us feel like we are back in high school 🥱.

📷 THE SOCIAL DOG MARKETING AGENCY

We love learning about niche businesses built around the dog industry, so when we came across DogConnectors, a marketing agency just for dog brands in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) space, we thought we'd share.

We've actually covered agencies in previous issues that work a lot with dog brands, but this is the first one we've come across that is specifically for dog businesses and no one else.

As a quick recap, a marketing agency is a business hired by another business to help them get the word out about their product / service and hopefully drive more sales.

It's a pretty common relationship in the business world, as a lot of companies spend most of their time creating and delivering their products, but not as much in making people aware of them.

What's unique about the DTC space, is just like in the name, businesses market and sell directly to consumers instead of going through resellers (like Amazon, Chewy, etc).

Typically through an e-commerce store and social media.

In fact you can see that is one of DogConnector's main pitches:

Doing a little digging, it looks like DogConnectors was started by two Florida State grads, Hunter Sharp and Austin Boni, and has somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15 employees or contractors.

A few of the services they provide for DTC dog brands:

• 💰 Paid Ads - this is using Google, Facebook, and other advertisers to acquire more customers.

• 📧 Email - helping brands convert prospective customers, driving sales through offers, and other email based strategies.

• 🛍️ Shopify custom website - creating a full e-commerce website to sell your products through.

• 🔌 Influencer plug and play - contact info and ideas / best practices for using influencers to promote products to their followers.

• 🌟 Pet creative - logos, flyers, etc to help promote your brand.

They claim to have helped generate $11.3 million across 38 clients (we can't speak for any results as we haven't spoken with them directly), and list a few brands they've worked with:

So if you or someone you know runs an e-commerce store in the dog space, it's good to know there are agencies out there dedicated to our niche.

DOGGYDEX™

Winner 🏆: BITCOIN

Proudly introducing the DoggyDex™, an index comprised of 10 publicly traded companies whose primary focus is the dog/pet industry.

List of tickers used can be found at the very bottom of the newsletter.

The yellow line-plot in the chart represents these companies above (DoggyDex™) and their combined performance against both the S&P 500 and Bitcoin on a weekly basis.

Pawformance is measured by % gains & losses.

• 😵 Dog eats $4k in cash: A Goldendoodle named Cecil, swiped $4K in cash off of his owner’s countertop and devoured it.

• 👏 South Korea bans dog meat trade: South Korea has finally passed a law banning the slaughter and sale of dogs for meat. LONG overdue.

• 📸 A dog and his owls: The most adorable photoshoot you will see all week, which consists of a pup and his owl besties.

DOGGY B-DAY

• $CHWY - Chewy: E-commerce platform for pet supplies

• $IDXX - Idexx Labs: Vet point of care instruments and vet software

• $FRPT - Fresh Pet: Pet food company

• $PETQ - PetIQ: Pet health products and medicines

• $PETS - PetMeds: Online pet pharmacy

• $ZTS - Zoetis: World's largest producer of meds and vaccines for pets and livestock

• $TRUP - Trupanion: Pet insurance company

• $WOOF - Petco Health & Wellness co.: Pet health & wellness company

• $BARK - BarkBox: Subscription service providing dog products, services, and experiences

• $PET - Wag! Group Co.: Tech platform that allows pet owners to connect with industry professionals for services such as, walking, training, etc.