Lights💡 Camera 🎥 Action 🐩

Issue #34

November 28th, 2023

Quick Hits:

🐶 Only a little needy

📸 Royal Canin North America unveils UNIQUE INSTINCT Exhibition at The AKC® Museum of the Dog

🇻🇳 Vietnam will host an international trade fair for the pet industry in March

🦎 32 great pets that are not cats or dogs

🎄 This Christmas ad for cat treats will put a smile on your face

• BRF - the Brazilian food company abandoned its plans to sell its pet food operations.

• Massive - Entobel just opened the biggest facility of its kind in Vietnam.

• Pawtenders - A new trend is pupping up in Jamaica.

According to a new study by the Polski Instytut Ekonomiczny, in 2022 Poland was the world’s 5th largest exporter of dog & cat food - with a 7.6% share.

This year, Stache, a Sealyham Terrier, won best in show at the National Dog Show. Beating a German shepherd, a Great Dane, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, a Shih Tzu, and an Azawakh, a hound originating from West Africa. Second place went to a Dalmatian named Pumpkin.

If you don’t live in the US you may not understand what the hoopla is all about. However, The National Dog Show is wildly popular, it airs at noon on Thanksgiving Day, immediately following the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

It is one of three major dog shows in the U.S., including the AKC National Championship and the Westminster Dog Show. However, since it has been televised on Thanksgiving Day since 2002, its popularity has been through the woof. Originally, NBC had lost the rights to the Thanksgiving football games and was looking for something to fill the slot. They found that the dog show would be the perfect event to televise after the parade, and apparently, they were right.

An estimated 20 million animal lovers watched this year's National Dog Show, according to Purina, which presented the show.

Quick history: The National Dog Show started in 1879 as the "First Annual New York Bench Show of Dogs." It was held in New York City and had 1,201 dogs from 57 breeds. In 1933, the Kennel Club of Philadelphia took over and it has been held there ever since. When NBC Sports started airing the show in 2002 it was renamed The National Dog Show. Each year, over 2,000 dogs participate, but only seven make it to the "Best in Show" competition. These dogs represent different groups and showcase the best qualities of their breeds.

• Terrier Group

• Toy Group

• Working Group

• Sporting Group

• Hound Group

• Nonsporting Group

• Herding Group

While getting actual proved to be quite difficult, we do know that The National Dog Show generates revenue through various channels including:

• Sponsorships from pet-related companies

• Advertising during the broadcast

• Ticket sales

• Licensing & merchandise sales

The National Dog Show gives out $20,000 in prize money, however, the winners don't necessarily get $20,000. It's not clear how much each winner actually gets. The Best in Show dog winner takes away $1,000, while the First in Group winners get $500.

Previous winners:

The interesting part of all of this is that not only do owners make little to no prize money, but they spend a lot of their own money to compete in this and other similar competitions. One of the largest costs associated is the price of traveling to out-of-town shows. Between transportation and hotel fees, travel expenses can add up quickly, especially for owners who frequently take to the road.

Many of the people that you see running along with their dogs during the show are not actually the owners but the handlers. A handler is a coach, trainer, manager, or supervisor. The more shows they win, the greater the likelihood they will develop a reputation that can be parlayed into a professional dog-handling business.

There is a Professional Handler's Association if one plans to make a profession of showing dogs. They have an apprentice program, which requires you to be employed by a PHA member and attend seminars as part of the four-year apprenticeship.

Three ways dog owners can parlay their new fame into monetary reward are:

• Brand/corporate Sponsorships - Dogs with a popular name, media presence, and regular attention are great candidates for sponsorship.

• Consulting & training - Some handlers are not owners, but they get paid to provide their services to show dog owners, and if they produce winners, they can achieve six-figure annual earnings. Training can pay well, especially when a trainer consistently produces winners.

• Breeding - Stud fees and puppy sales typically go into the thousands of dollars for winning dogs. After winning a major show, the dog and owners are likely to receive offers.

For the movie buffs amongst us, many say that part of NBC’s impetus to air the show was inspired by the hit pop culture phenomenon movie Best In Show. The movie holds a special place in the hearts of dog show enthusiasts, and American culture.

The profound love for this event is not only evident in the growing popularity it has garnered but also in the passionate individuals who dedicate themselves to the world of canine competition. As the show continues to flourish, it stands as a testament to the enduring bond between humans and their canine companions.

• Dog Market - Tampa dog moms have organized 100 vendors for a Xmas market next month

• They came back - Icelandic pet owners who were evacuated due to a volcano, are reunited with their pets.

• Mystery pathogen - The yet-to-be-identified respiratory illness is leaving veterinarians baffled.

• 2 years - An adorable and rambunctious dog has left an animal shelter after 2 years but still needs a forever home!

• No likey - Your cat may not share a love for the same scents that you do.

• A bizarre story - Some stray dogs in Houston have gotten a taste for…cars.

• OG Babies - Chrissy Teigen loves her cute Basset Hound.

PAWS right there!!! Don’t forget to subscribe 👇👇

Board meetings

One of the potential new requirements coming from your new investors might be to start holding recurring Board meetings. These might be monthly or perhaps less frequent. Either way, Board meetings are an extremely important way of communicating with your investors. Let’s talk about some considerations here:

 Quality of materials and prep - Board materials are like a first impression. They are not easily forgotten. If you start working on these a day before they are due, we suspect they won’t be up to par. Build enough of a buffer and spread the work around your team to minimize last-minute craziness. Allow for time to put everything together and to create a uniform narrative both logically and visually. Most importantly, make sure you review the materials and come prepared to the meeting with the key bits you want to cover with your investors. This is uninterrupted time for everyone to focus on your business. 

Materials in advance - Make sure you circulate the Board materials with enough time for your investors/partners to review and come prepared. This will make the meeting more fruitful. Sometimes, there is a tendency to share the materials fairly late, particularly if there is a negative message or something unexpected. We would advise you to avoid that. Your investors are experienced and will see through this. At best, they will ask more questions and have a ton of follow-ups. At worst, this will start chipping at the trust you have built with them to date.

Take notes and send a summary - During the Board meeting, you will cover plenty of topics and action items. It’s important to keep track here(as much as you can) and send a summary shortly after the Board meeting. This will guarantee nothing (or at least key items) is missed. You could record formal Board minutes if you want to but we care less about terminology and more about substance and practicalities. Furthermore, we would suggest you add a section to the beginning of every Board deck where you recap key action items from the last meeting and their status.

One parting thought - the Board is there to support you as you build the business. Make sure you come to these meetings with goals in mind and cover the right level of granularity. Board meetings can sometimes become too detailed, and numbers-focussed. That’s only a part of running the business and it may be helpful to hold a separate trading meeting to cover key issues while keeping the Board focussed on more strategic items.

• Herbie Wilde - Ella Daines-Smith, a former film production manager, launched a pet food brand that is a nutritionally complete plant-based superfood for dogs.

• Xmas treats - Blue Buffalo debuted its new holiday dog treats.

• Stolen - 500 pounds of dog food was stolen from an animal shelter.

• Bühler - The company recently unveiled its new food innovation hub in Uzwil.

• Is cinnamon safe for dogs? - Yes, and kinda no.

You reached the end, you deserve a treat 🍖

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Finally, How do fleas travel from place to place?

By itch-hiking!

See you next week!

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