Meet the woman whose pets inspired her to launch a healthy dog food business

A Wirral woman has launched a healthy food business inspired by her five dogs.

Sarah Brunsdon, who lives in Wallasey, was fed up of searching for tasty treats for her dogs that weren’t full of additives and didn’t cost a packet.

She decided to start baking batches herself at home, and soon friends and neighbours were ordering them for their own furry pals.

The home bakes, including doggy doughnuts, muffins and birthday cakes, became so popular that 31-year-old Sarah decided to start Mossy’s Kitchen, named after her Collie Moss.

What began as an online company just over six months ago expanded to become a high street shop too just before Christmas, with Sarah using her own much-loved pups as chief tasters for all her recipes.

She explains: “I have five dogs, a Bichon and four Collies, and I started baking for them because I was sick of feeding them supermarket treats, having to hunt for things that didn’t have additives in them and spending so much money trying to buy good healthy treats.

“I thought I’d try and bake my own so at first I was making things like liver cake, which is healthy but fairly inexpensive, and then as I got more into it I ended up buying dog recipe books and just grew my knowledge.

“Being a dog person I think you become part of this doggy community, you go to places like dog training and on walks and you meet other dog people, so you learn all about what they like and what’s good for them.

“Once friends who had dogs found out, they were interested so I started making for them as well, and they were so popular I decided to set up the business online at the beginning of last summer and do local markets as well.”

Sarah says she’s not naturally creative, she doesn’t even really like to cook for herself and partner Shane, but she soon got to love creating doggy delights.

“It’s different baking for dogs than it is for people because they really just want the taste, they don’t care if something’s a bit wonky, which makes life a lot easier.

“The presentation isn’t such a big thing although I do top the muffins with peanut butter and a banana chip to add a bit of flair and because my dogs love them both. You’ve got to create with the owner in mind as well because obviously they’re the ones buying, but the dog is really at the heart of everything I’m doing.

“I test everything out on my five first and they’re always eating my stock. The only problem is unlike some dogs they’re not fussy eaters, they happily eat absolutely anything, but luckily most owners understand their own dogs’ tastes so they know what they like and what they don’t.”

Sarah’s best sellers are her raspberry and banana or blueberry and banana muffins.

“People especially like the blueberry because it’s a superfood so they realise that’s good for their dogs.

“I think owners are much more conscious about what their dogs eat now and they can be quite vigilant about what they feed them.

“Dogs can be like children for lots of people so they have that sense of wanting to give them the best of everything and there are plenty of helpful online tools around which makes it so much easier for people to be more mindful.”

Sarah opened the Mossy’s Kitchen shop in Wallasey six weeks ago and since then she’s been inundated with orders for hampers, celebration cakes and bakes.

They even celebrated their launch with a Santa Paws event where Shane dressed up in a dog suit with a Santa suit over the top to greet four-legged customers!

“We were able to build the brand online before we went to an actual shop which was a big help, so on the morning we opened the shop I arrived and there was a queue waiting outside.

“So many people who knew us from Facebook and Instagram, had followed us from when they’d met us at markets, and when I was just doing it from home, had turned up for our opening which was just really lovely.”