Southlake Bakery Going to the Dogs

Dessert always seems better when it's a pastry. One North Texas woman believes pets should be able to indulge in baked goods too.

“Are you kidding? I get to play with dogs, spoil them rotten, send them home for their parents to pickup after them. It’s perfect,” said owner Christy Howard, who is part baker, part best friend, who knows how to please the furry ones in your family.

“So, right now I am frosting a peanut wheat free cake. This is one of our celebration cakes and actually this is our most popular one. This is the small peanut and when we’re done. It will look like a bone and to the dogs it will taste like a fun peanut treat for them,” said Howard.

Howard got hooked by buying the products.

“I was actually a customer of Three Dogs Bakery's in California. Fell in love with Three Dog Bakery, their concept, their products, had a dog lived out there. When I moved to Texas we didn’t have a Three Dog, so for about 8 to 9 years I had everything shipped to me. Overnighted birthday cakes,  my dogs never went without Three Dog treat. When they started doing multi-unit franchising my husband and I bought the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” said Howard.

All food made at Three Dog Bakery is completely natural.

“Everything we use is human quality, but it is made and formulated just for the dogs. If you were to taste it to our palate it’s going to be a little bit bland. So, when we taste it’s like ‘Ew, it’s a little dry, a little bland, but we’re not going to get sick and actually my daughter loves our stuff. It’s very healthy. I would rather her eat one of our cakes than a cake from, you know the sugar crunchy frosting,” said Howard.

All ingredients used are from the US.

“We can trace everything back down to the fields our peanuts are grown in. What field any of our wheat products, the field the wheat is grown,” said Howard.

The bakery uses molds in the shape of dog biscuits or circles instead of cake pans. The dog bone is the company’s trademark logo.

Customers have also been known to enjoy what they feed their pets.

“We have our classic cream cookies and we have a couple of customers who buy a box for their dog and a box for their husband and I am told the husband gets more upset if they are out of cookies than the dogs. I love it. I love that we have a product that they can, if they choose to, enjoy something with their dogs,” said Howard.

The bakery crafts treats that look just as delicious as what you would buy from an upscale bakery.

“This is a little bit of doggy heaven on a day to day basis. Everything in here is actually what we call our dry case. Everything in here does not need to be refrigerated. It’s all-hard baked. Most of the stuff in here is crunchy and good for their teeth and again all natural,” said Howard.

The bakery hires two chefs in both its Southlake and Plano locations who specialize crafting what goes in the cases.

“My personal favorite, it’s hard, but I really like the Scottie Biscotti just like biscotti that you would find at your local coffee shop and it is twice baked. We bake it, cut it and bake it again. There’s cinnamon, applesauce, nuts and honey and then we do either a carob with vanilla design or the vanilla with the carob design. This is just like, this is so cool I can’t believe this is for dogs, it looks like something we would eat,” said Howard.

Then there’s the other case.

“This is our cold case all of these items are made from scratch here. It’s not fair. It’s really not fair when you look at something and it looks like it tastes like this mouth watering chocolate,” said Howard.

You have to wonder, do the dogs realize what they’re getting?

“I think some of them do. I have customers tell us all the time they go home and the dogs know the box and if they know the box is in the refrigerator they are relentless at the refrigerator door. ‘Open, open, open’,” said Howard.

There are favorites for pets and their owners.

“Our carrot cake is so popular, but there’s real carrots in there and with the honey and the apple sauce. And our blueberry muffins, our blueberry muffins are phenomenal. And we’ve had customers tell us they’ll get one of the blueberry muffins and pop it in their microwave and heat it up, add a little butter and they get to have the same treat their dogs do. And you know it wasn’t our intention to do people food, but since it is all human quality, I love it,” said Howard.

Howard spent most her life as an event planner. Would it surprise you that doing this was a long time coming?

“The first time I walked into a Three Dog Bakery it had always been my dream is to own one,” said Howard.

Howard said she’s blessed that over time customers have become friends and family. With that comes experiencing the highs and the lows.
 
“I think probably our hardest days are when we know that we’re about to lose one of our four legged friends or they are coming in for our last treat before it’s time to help them, We’re here to get treats and make it special, and at that point the dog gets whatever they want, you know, and that’s a bad day.”

Like the time when her friends lost their two dogs in a fire.

“I can chalk that up to probably one of the four worst days of my life. And to be there and to get the call that it was happening and we, my husband and I dropped, naturally, we dropped everything, we were there. I called my staff,  they dropped everything that night. We all showed up ... to experience that kind of loss with our friend and customer. I never want to have to do that again,” said Howard.

Howard knows she will. It what comes with being close and connected to people who share the same kinship for the animals who seem to always be around when you need them.

Three Dog Bakery (Southlake)
1251 E Southlake Blvd # 323
Southlake, TX
(817) 310-3364
www.threedogdfw.com

Three Dog Bakery (Plano)
5960 W Parker Rd #228
Plano, TX
(972) 473-2275
www.threedogdfw.com