Claudia’s Canine Cuisine

Like a puppy growing into its skin, Debbie Bohlken and Claudia Parks replaced reckless energy with trained focus and grew their pet project into a successful business.

The friends’ idea to start a gourmet dog treats business came from Bohlken’s experience at the other canine company she owns with her husband, Fairview Kennels in Little Rock.

Bohlken, an avid dog lover, just couldn’t tolerate the treats the dogs were being fed at the kennel.

“They smelled horrible and had ingredients I couldn’t pronounce,” she said.

So Bohlken, then a vice president for Systematics, and Parks, who was in real estate, began making their own treats. Soon friends became interested. And it wasn’t long before Bohlken and Parks realized they could make a business out of it.

In coming up with a business plan, they found that the pet market was growing and had consistently weathered economic downturns. So in 1997, they started Claudia’s Canine Cuisine, making treats on the weekends in Parks’ basement.

The next year they got their first big order: selling in the Harry & David catalog, a success for which they weren’t quite prepared.

“We had boxes in the bathroom; we had boxes everywhere,” said Bohlken, who confessed that they didn’t know how to palletize their goods for the semi picking up the order.

Much has changed since that first order. Bohlken and Parks both quit their day jobs within two years of starting the business. The company has outgrown its space three times and is currently building a 16,000-SF facility, with room to double in size, in Maumelle.

And instead of filling one semi, last Christmas the company filled 15 with the help of nearly 60 employees.

The trucks are full of dog treats made of natural ingredients; the treats are created with the help of a veterinarian and a pet nutritionist and are so good, Bohlken said, she eats them herself.