Bark City Doggy Daycare

For the last couple weeks, I have written about two products Honey Bees produce: Honey and Royal Jelly . This week, I will write about:  Bee pollen is the plant pollens collected by worker bees that is combined with plant nectar and bee saliva. It is then packed into pellets in the hive and used as a food source for male drone bees. Historically, it has been touted as a complete food source. It is composed of about 40% protein , free amino acids, a multitude of vitamins, minerals, folic acid, enzymes, co-enzymes, antioxidants, Quercetin , carotenoids and rutin . Once ingested, it is rapidly and easily absorbed into the body. Within just two hours of ingestion, it can be found in the blood, cerebral spinal fluid and urine. Throughout history, Bee Pollen has been used for a multitude of medical problems as well as to correct an unbalanced diet. It should be noted, that not much research has been done on the actual validity of the health claims other than case studies by in...

Before I start in on the benefits of Royal Jelly, I would first like to make a BIG announcement!!! After 2 years of planning and changing things, Bark City is pleased to announce that we will be EXPANDING!!!!! 2015 will be a very big year for us as we will be doubling our square footage!! We will be staying open during the whole process and it won't interfere with the dogs having fun. With the expansion we will also be adding NEW SERVICES!! I am SO excited about what is to come. It has been a dream of mine to have a facility like this and to have the dream come true is such a blessing. I would like to Thank all of you for helping this dream become a reality. I would also like to Thank my wonderful employees (past and present) for working so hard to make sure all the dogs are taken care of I really couldn't have done it without them. And now onto Royal Jelly: Royal jelly (RJ) is a milky white substance produced by worker bees in a colony and is used in the nutr...

Bees are one of nature's little miracles. Everything from their little stings to the honey they produce have been praised for their human health benefits. Currently, experts are finding that honey may also help your dog's health. Over these next few weeks, I will talk about a few of the products honeybees create and how they can be used to enhance your dog's health. This week, I am going to talk about the most obvious product- honey. In this post, when I talk about honey, I am referring to raw honey. Raw honey is not heated, pasteurized or processed which can destroy the nutrients.... and nature has packed A LOT of nutrients into this syrup... Isn't that amazing? Honey contains glucose and fructose which are simple sugars (monosaccharides) and are more easily absorbed than disaccharides and polysaccharides which are found in table sugar and starchy vegetables. Honey also contains live enzymes, such as amylase. Amylase facilitates proper digestion of ca...

Last November, I was introduced to essential oils and started doing research on using essential oils for  pets . Unfortunately, there is so little research on the subject and so much misinformation, it can get quite overwhelming. One of my favorite websites for learning how to safely use essential oils on humans is Learning About EO's . I have learned so much, but feel as if I have only scratched the tip of the iceberg. As a result of this newly found knowledge, I have also developed a new pet peeve-- people posting natural essential oil recipes for pets on Pinterest without really taking into regard the power of these oils.... and they can be SUPER POWERFUL. There are a lot of oils out there that are NOT safe for pets and can be quite deadly. Therefore, I have compiled a list of oils that I have read can be toxic to pets. I always encourage you to do your own research as well, because I am obviously not a licensed aromatherapist nor am I a chemist or a holistic Veterina...

 For the last few weeks, I have been highlighting different dog treats that can be found in our candy store.The next company (and last for a while!) is Polkadog Bakery . Polkadog is a small canine bakery in South Boston. All of their treats are handmade from scratch every morning. Their ingredients are locally source from neighborhood suppliers. Large dog treat manufacturers often have raw materials shipped to them from all over the country or world. This causes a decline in quality and increases the risk of food contamination. Because Polkdog gets all of their ingredients "right around the corner" they have optimum control over what goes into their treats and what stays out. In fact, they control every aspect of their bakery from resources, to mixing and baking the ingredients to even hand-packing the finished products and shipping! Their treats are superb and dogs absolutely love them!

The candy store treat company I am going to highlight this week is Bosco and Roxy's . We first learned about them at a dog convention in Las Vegas this past summer. They are based out of London, Ontario Canada and founded by fellow dog boarding facility owners, Michelle and Jamie Crook. Michelle and Jamie wanted to give the dogs special treats while they were boarding, so they started baking from scratch. Word slowly spread about their treat's awesomeness and soon people were asking if they could take them home. The treats have quickly spread across North America, yet they still retain that homemade touch. This image was found on their Facebook page. Click here to "like" them. All of their cookies are hand cut, baked and decorated. Their ingredients are human-grade and they carry wheat-free options for those sensitive stomached pups. We also like that they have many different themed cookies to choose from, so we can pick our treats according to what...

We launched our Dog Candy Store in December. It took us quite a while to decide what treats to carry. After all, we only want the best treats available to our clients! I would like to take these next few weeks to highlight the companies we decided to use. Today, is Bubba Rose Biscuit Company . Bubba Rose was started in 2006 by Jessica and Eric Talley. They started making dog treats for their two rescue dogs, Bubba and Rose. From there, it kind of took off! Now they have been featured on NBC's Today Show, People Magazine, NY Times Style Magazine, Modern Dog...and MANY more... trust me, the list is really long. I didn't feel like typing them all out. They also have a cook book you can buy. (See picture to immediate right.) What I like about Bubba Rose is that every treat is wheat, corn, soy, gluten free AND baked in small batches in their bakery in NJ. All the meats are locally sourced, free-range, grass fed and hormone and antibiotic free. They not only care about dogs,...