You could spend hours, days, weeks researching the best food and toys for your pet. OR you could simply walk into Red Dog Black Cat.
Sean and Sheri Laidley own the popular pet product store in High River, which is named after their very own pets – the “Red Dog” is their Golden Retriever, and the “Black Cat” is their rescue.
“One of the most rewarding things for me is when someone asks me how I feed my animals, because they’re right here in the store – they can see how healthy they are,” says Sean.
“Whether it’s a golf club or a coffeemaker, if I’m looking for information on a product, I want to be talking to someone who’s actually using it. That’s important to me. And that’s what we offer – we can tell you which brand or formula we’ve chosen for our own animals, and why.”
Sean has been in the specialty pet product industry for 30 years. He says it’s changed significantly, particularly with regards to pet food formulations. However, it’s difficult for most people to know whether a company has truly changed and improved, or if they’re merely masquerading behind pretty packaging.
“In this economy, we need to give people access to products that maybe aren’t as well-known, don’t have slick marketing, but are doing some really great quality control, and are cost effective.”
He says there’s very little oversight on how most pet foods are manufactured, and the average consumer – even the average store employee – often won’t know where their dog and cat food comes from. But to the Laidleys, that research, and that personal experience with the products they sell, is everything.
“It’s not about margins. It’s about whether it’s good for my animals. And I really like what we’ve been feeding them. We’ve seen really good health results from it.”
And the pet food they’ve been giving their animals? It’s entirely Canadian.
“It’s interesting – when retailers began identifying Canadian-made products on the shelves, I started looking around our store and realized we were already doing it,” says Sean. “We’ve been doing it for a long time.”
He says that Canada has some of the best manufactured pet foods in the world, largely because Canada has the raw ingredients.
“We have some really good quality pet foods that don’t break the bank, that have high caloric content, that have really good manufacturing processes, and are half the cost of some of the others – and they’re made right here.”
Part of what makes high-quality Canadian pet foods so economical, Sean says, is their high meat content versus the high carb content in other brands. With high meat content, you only have to feed half as much to your pet, which directly impacts their body mass.
“Body mass is a huge thing for pets, no different than for human beings,” says Sean. “Some foods have pretty high carb content, which doesn’t always lead to healthy body types. I mean, my dogs would love to eat a whole bag of dog food every day – that’s canine behavior. And sometimes we put our human emotions first – we see our dog or cat look up at us with those sad eyes – and we cave in, feed them more. And we do that rather than understanding the heart diseases that crop up from it, the hip and joint problems, and how it impacts their longevity.”
So if you care about your pet’s health, consult with the pet nutrition experts Red Dog Black Cat Pet Products. You’ll find them on Veteran’s Way in High River, next to Forge & Facet. And online at reddogpetproducts.ca.
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