Dog is Good and Dog.Heart.Soul

I spent Memorial Day weekend at the Heart of Illinois dog show cluster, where two Bull Terrier clubs were supporting the Illinois Valley Kennel Club of Peoria and Corn Belt Kennel Club shows. Some cute t-shirts caught my eye and I talked to the booth owner about her business, Dog.Heart.Soul

Dog Is Good Authorized

Cheryl Newman first saw Dog is Good products at a local pet supply store where she bought one of their car magnets. Later, she visited the Dog is Good Facebook page and started following the company. She loved, the funny, dog-centric messages on their products and the company’s giving philosophy. Cheryl decided to watch a Dog is Good Facebook Live event that explained how to become one of their authorized retailers.

Cheryl was newly widowed at the time and looking for a change, so she decided to become a Dog is Good retailer under her personal brand name of Dog.Heart.Soul She had been pursuing this as a side business for 18 months when I spoke to her. She recently decided to retire from her full-time job to focus on Dog.Heart.Soul full time.

Social Media Strategy

Dog.Heart.Soul currently has a Facebook page and Instagram account and will launch a website soon. Cheryl attends a lot of events throughout the Midwest. She finds that Dog is Good merchandise has wide appeal and fits in many venues. These include dog events, pet expos, horse events, craft shows, and a variety of other types of public events. She also creates pop-up shops for special company events. Dog.Heart.Soul recently set up a pop-up store at Purina Farms for an employee event.

Finding Events

Cheryl has several strategies for finding events to attend, including dog show superintendent websites, tips from other vendors, and event chairs who reach out to her. She mentioned she belongs to several regional vendor marketplace pages on Facebook where event committees and vendors swap information.

Dog is Good does not assign territories to its retailers, but it does have a system that allows them to coordinate event appearances and avoid duplication. Retailers who attend an event in one year have priority for the same event the following year.

Cheryl concentrates on events in the Midwest and camps on-site in her travel trailer at most of them.

Giving Back

Dog is Good has a corporate commitment to philanthropy, mostly in the animal welfare space. They company created the Patriot Line of products to support the Cammies and Canines program which uses dogs to help homeless veterans transition back to a productive life.

Cheryl likes to follow Dog is Good’s corporate example and give back a portion to proceeds to causes she believes in. She has a section of her store devoted to the Patriot line of Dog is Good products to lend more support to this cause.

Check it Out!

To see where Dog.Heart.Soul will be next, or order Dog is Good items from them directly, visit their Facebook Page.

Cleo  Parker

Cleo has been working with dogs and showing Bull Terriers at AKC events since she was a teenager. She is an AKC Breeder of Merit and was approved as an AKC licensed conformation dog show judge in 2018. Professionally, she has held marketing insights and analytics roles in a variety of industries, including automotive, advertising, and pet specialty retail.