Your pets can enjoy tasty local seafood now too!
The cuteness comes in waves at new Pacific Pet Treats in New Monterey.
We’re talking Santa Cruz Skate Shop branded bandanas and happy birthday dog bones made with peanut butter, applesauce and carob, chew toys up-cycled from ocean plastics and “snuffle mats” that hide treats, stuffed cat burrito squeakies and tennis ball cannons.
Should you survive the onslaught of adorable, your furry best friends will love you for it.
Because even with all the cool toys and fashion-forward outfits, the headlining items here are the local delicacies like cod skins, halibut chews and salmon chips.
If that sounds abnormal for a pet food store, it is.
Pacific Pet Treats started with a sequence of inspirations that unfolded organically—on, around and very much connected to Monterey Bay and its fishermen.
First came a passion for fishing and maximizing product. PPT co-owner Lance Koehler, who runs the place with his wife Christina, is an avid recreational fisherman.
He’s also longtime chef and general manager at Louie Linguini’s, a popular Cannery Row restaurant underrated by those who write it off (unfairly) as a tourist trap.
When he’d clean his catch at home, he’d recall a familiar feeling from his professional kitchen: The less thrown out, the better. “I hate food waste!” is one of his favorite refrains.
So he took the scraps from his haul and popped them in the dehydrator.
Lance Koehler - PPT co-owner
Another key factor: an obsession with their three dogs. The Koehlers live to love on their pups. They started sharing the fish snacks with them and were blown away by the reaction.
Samba, a German shepherd rescue mix, represents the most finicky of the pack. Normally she needs her fancy wet food rotated regularly or she boycotts her bowl. But when her humans added the dehydrated Monterey Bay salmon collar chunks or crispy cod skin, she’d actually do a mini b-boy dance before eating, spinning around three times, then plunging in.
Her border collie brother Doug is also selective about what he eats. He went bonkers for the fish treats too. And like Samba, his coat improved noticeably—as did his general disposition. When we met Doug at the new store the other day, his coat was radiant and super soft.
“And we haven’t bathed him in months,” Christina said. “Or brushed him,” Lance added.
When family and friends got samples of the treats, the reactions continued to be raves. An aunt now uses them in her puppy training classes.
“Who wants to have a million ingredients in their dog food—or any food?” Lance asks. “When we saw their reactions, and the improvement in attitude, we knew we had something we wanted to share.”
Mid-COVID, they decided to go all in—“to really scale this, pun intended,” Lance likes to say. They started researching Department of Agriculture and California Department of Public Health approvals and attending pet product trade shows in pursuit of the coolest and most sustainable items.
Though her day job is as a therapist (with Samba serving as a willing assistant), Christina began upping her design and packaging skills in earnest.
The next challenge was to find more sustainable fish.
Lance knew who could help, and placed a call to the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust. From the network of fishermen he encountered working at Louie Linguini’s, he knew MBFT would be a great conduit to connect with good sources. They recommended Real Good Fish.
The partnership clicked immediately, according to RGF founder and CEO Alan Lovewell.
“We're both committed to providing sustainable seafood whether it's for people or pets,” he says. “Interestingly enough fish skins are something that animals love and we have a lot of it!”
When the Fisheries Trust met with the Koehlers at their storefront on Wave Street in New Monterey, it was the three-month anniversary of their opening.
In those 12 weeks, they’ve compiled a hilarious—and powerful-proof-of-concept—cache of stories starring dogs who can’t resist their fish.
Two big German shepherds took such a hard right turn into the store when they smelled the treats they snapped a leash and sent their jogger mom flying.
She promptly picked up some snacks and a new leash.
Another dog came in, had a sample dropped before it, rolled on it, ate it, and then bolted to where the long rolled sticks are kept and helped itself to one. “Once he had the scent he was on it,” Lance says.
Lance applies the lessons he mastered as a chef in creating tasty but balanced bites like the custom salmon “burgers” with coconut flour, egg, red apple, celery and curly parsley and calamari cookies made with blueberry, egg and whole wheat flour.
From the parsley (which fights bad breath) to the celery (nice for digestion), every ingredient has a purpose.
“No preservatives, no additives, no added sugars or salts, no filler, nothing that doesn’t need to be in there,” Lance says. ”Everything in our cookies is going to be functional.”
Again, less waste and more flavor.
“There's a lot of lost value and nutrition in food waste, seafood included,” Lovewell says. “Unfortunately, at best, it goes into fertilizer or crab bait.
“How awesome is it that by working together this is feeding our community’s four-legged best friends?!”
More at https://pacificpettreats.com.