(PRESS RELEASE) OnDeck, an online small-business lender, has announced that dog nutrition company Do Only Good Certified (D.O.G.) of Westlake Village, CA, is the company’s Small Business of the Month for September 2019. The family-owned business produces super-premium dog food manufactured in the United States for sale to independent distributors and their retailers.
D.O.G. founder and CEO Rick Pack became interested in the pet food industry after a long and distinguished career in advertising. A devoted dog owner, Pack was always seeking out the healthiest food for his dogs. When he began researching exactly what was in the various meals his dogs were eating, he was deeply disappointed with its nutritional content.
“The dog food industry is comprised of many brands that make claims about their quality, but were not coming close to providing the nutrition that dogs require,” says Pack. “I saw a real need to increase the healthiness of dog food by using responsibly sourced ingredients and nutrition science to go beyond what the industry termed ‘quality’. From the beginning, our goal has been to create super premium products which help ensure a long, happy, and healthy life for pets.”
In 2016, Pack met Randy Johnson, one of the foremost pet nutritionists in the industry. Bonding over their shared passion to create healthier food options for dogs, the duo created Do Only Good certified pet nutrition recipes founded on a philosophy of single-sourced meat and fish proteins that include ingredients certified for organic use.
After years of research and testing their recipes, D.O.G. Certified officially launched in January 2019. All the company’s products are formulated by Johnson and feature a variety of single meat and fish proteins including beef, chicken, duck, lamb, turkey and white fish.
Veterinarians are increasingly recommending rotational diets for dogs and that’s the perfect use for our products,” says Johnson. “Our D.O.G. Certified formulas were specifically created as a rotational feeding system which ensures variety in a dog’s diet while helping prevent the risk of digestive issues and allergic reactions.”
Following its launch earlier this year, Pack and Johnson have focused on a targeted product roll out strategy. The company’s Kibble, Canned and Pumpkin products are now available to independent distributors in the Pacific Northwest, Upper Midwest and New England regions of the United States. Pack and Johnson say their goal is to make D.O.G Certified a national brand.
To help realize that goal of taking D.O.G. Certified national, Pack recently secured financing from OnDeck to purchase additional product and ensure consistent cash flow.
“We are proud to support D.O.G. Certified as it expands on its mission of creating healthy nutrition options for dogs,” says Andrea Gellert, chief Revenue Officer, OnDeck. “Rick and Dr. Johnson are great examples of entreprenuers who look at how things are currently done and decide it can be done better. We congratulate them on being named OnDeck’s Small Business of the Month for September, 2019!”
To date, OnDeck has provided more than $1.7 billion in online financing to small businesses in the state of California.
dogcertified.com, ondeck.com/smallbusinessspotlight