WAGGY ZONE DROOLICIOUS FROZEN YOGHURTS FOR DOGGIES

Ms. Darshan Kaur Khalsa, Founder of Waggy Zone Dog Ice Creams in conversation with Ms. Priyanka Tanwar, Editor of Creature Companion Magazine on her education, entrepreneurial journey, product offerings, innovations, research and expansion plans. Excerpts . . .

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What was the key motivation behind starting Waggy Zone?

It was my furball, Tyra - a German Shepherd. I was absolutely scared of dogs and then LOVE happened. My fiance had adopted Tyra when she was 45 days old; and Tyra and I fell in love with each other. As she is my first dog, I got very excited and I would attend all the pet events happening in the city. At the events, I realised that dogs would get only chicken rice and vanilla ice cream. I thought it was unfair to the dogs to get only vanilla ice cream, as I come from a family with an ice cream manufacturing business. Slowly, I realised that dogs cannot have milk and sugar and so my journey of developing Waggy Zone for my furball and then for the whole pet community began.

How far did your experience of growing up in a family with an ice cream manufacturing business help in shaping up your entrepreneurial venture?

Well! There wasn’t anything in the frozen dessert segment in the pet industry. So, coming from a background of ice cream manufacturers was a blessing. Ice cream is a temperature sensitive item and needs a lot of care while handling. I had to not only work around logistics for the frozen yogurts but also explain and educate about frozen products to every pet store that wanted to sell our offerings. We also had to explain about our products to a lot of pet parents, as it was a relatively new concept in the pet industry. Even after studying about dogs and canine nutrition, it was a challenge to fit what’s good for dogs with the traditional definition of ice creams or frozen treats.

Tell us about the different flavours of doggy ice creams that Waggy Zone offers. How did you go about shortlisting these flavours?