Unique Dog Treat Bakery Opening Downtown

Got a golden retriever? Give him glucosamine for healthy joints and Vitamin E and Zinc for sharp eyes. A charming poodle? B-complex and Vitamin C will help support his thyroid. A doberman pinscher? His perfect blend might contain l-carnitine and taurine for heart and circulatory health.

Earth Dog Bakery is a new business that makes dog treats that address the needs of specific breeds of pooches—and they are opening up a shop in Historic Norcross at the beginning of next year.

“As dog lovers, we were surprised to see no one creating breed-specific dog treats,” said Tim Suggs, who is opening the bakery with his brother Andrew. Their previous lives seem to dovetail nicely with this venture: Tim has an internet marketing background while Chef Andrew comes from restaurants and the culinary world.  

Their shopfront will be on Skin Alley, the side street parallel to South Peachtree that the city has pegged for renovation. Downtown Norcross seemed to fit the brother’s image for the new business. “We just love the feeling of downtown Norcross,” said Tim. “The charm of it.”

They have big ideas for the interior of the bakery, which they are building out themselves, with a planned opening in the beginning of January. “We’re going to get it ‘dog-ready,’” they said, so that events can be held with dogs and their owners too.

Because of the out-of-the-way location, Tim said his background be even more handy. They plan to do most of their business online, they said, targeting dog lovers through social media.

The brothers had a nutritionist jump in when they started looking at ailments of specific breeds and trying to figure out the unique ingredients that would help combat them. They did more research and fine-tuned their formula on their own, took their findings to a vet for a final blessing, they said.

And these treats aren’t just packed with specific nutrients for a dog, they are also created using natural, organic ingredients that sound familiar. Flavors like sweet potato, banana carob (and alternative to chocolate) and peanut butter apple come from stuff that might actually be found in the cabinet.

Tim said a friend got him into being more healthy, teaching him to flip packages over to look at the ingredient list—and the shorter the list, the better. He said the same theory should apply to his German shepard’s food.  (The list of ingredients for most of their treats is seven to eight items long, they said.)

They say they’ve informally tested out their treats on about 50 or 60 dogs with great results. While they don’t seem to favor one flavor of treat over the other, even the pickiest of dogs are gobbling up the treats.