It Happens Here: South End's PolkaDog Bakery makes fish sticks for pups
BOSTON - A dog bakery in the South End has expanded its menu, using something fishy in their newest treats.
Deb Suchman has always had a love of animals.
"I grew up around dogs and cats and a parrot. We had a parrot too, and a hamster and a guinea pig." she told WBZ-TV.
But after adopting their dog Pearl, Suchman and her business partner, Rob, stumbled upon something.
"Making treats for her and taking care of her, those kinds of responses and for a dog that had lived a tough life, she had such great energy. Rob, I think, first had the idea, 'what about a dog bakery!' This was in 2002 and things were very different then," said Suchman.
They opened the first PolkaDog Bakery in the South End but when business boomed, they added to their dog treat game by moving the kitchen to the pier and making cod skins, a major product.
"We buy the cod skins, they come in totes," Suchman showed WBZ TV. "Then they get rolled and put on trays and then we slowly dehydrate them until they are really crunchy."
After the cod skins are dried out and packaged, the finished product is ready. Suchman said dogs love them.
"It's just fish, that's it, right, and it has a good smell," said Suchman. "They love them and they are really crunchy. They are kind of like a potato chip."
Deb and her PolkaDog Bakery team now have eight stores in Boston and a couple outside the country.
"People really care about their pets and when you make their pets happy, it makes them happy too and being a part of that is really special," said Suchman.
For more information on PolkaDog, visit their website.
