Have you ever read the nutrition label on your dog’s treats? Alex Willen did, and despite having a Stanford education, he could barely pronounce half the ingredients.
Carboxymethylcellulose. Pyridoxine hydrochloride. Sodium Metabisulfite. How could anyone be expected to know if these are things they should be feeding their dogs?
The ingredients he was familiar with weren’t any better - everywhere he looked, there was added salt, sugar and artificial colors. Don’t the people making this stuff know that dogs don’t care what color their treats are?
It just didn’t seem like dog treat companies were thinking about what’s good for dogs when they were formulating their treats.
That’s why Alex decided to do something different. Not just to make dog treats with high-quality ingredients, but to make the highest-quality dog treat mix out there. That way not only would dogs get the treats they deserve, but their owners would also get the satisfaction and joy of making their dogs treats right in their own kitchens.
That’s what Cooper’s Treats is all about - high quality, homemade treats with a whole lot of love.
So Alex started with the one ingredient that’s always best - meat.
He blended some freeze-dried beef up into a powder, mixed it with water and put it in the freezer. After a few hours, he gave it the only test that mattered - he offered it to Cooper. A few crunches later, it was gone, and Cooper was begging for another.
From there, he refined the recipe, testing out other meats and whole ingredients. In the end, he decided that the best way to go was to keep things simple, so dog parents would be familiar with every single ingredient on the label.
Ultimately, his first product was our Beef and Cheddar Pupsicle Mix, and it had just four ingredients - freeze-dried beef, whole wheat flour, whole egg protein and cheddar cheese powder. As he started selling Pupsicle Mix, the feedback was amazing - dog parents all over the US had been looking for products with whole ingredients and struggling to find them. Parents of little humans and dogs loved that even their kids could make treats for their pups.
As he started selling Pupsicle Mix, the feedback was amazing - dog parents all over the US had been looking for products with whole ingredients and struggling to find them. Parents of little humans and dogs loved that even their kids could make treats for their pups.
So Alex left his career behind and made it his mission to bring high-quality treats to very good dogs everywhere. As he added more products - Baked Biscuit Mix and Grain Free Pupsicle Mix - he stuck to the core principle that the only ingredients to go in Cooper’s Treats would be ones that every dog parent was familiar with.
We hope you’ll join Alex, Cooper and Maple (an adorable new pup who joined them during the pandemic) in giving dogs the treats they deserve.
Thousands of dogs across the US have tried Pupsicles, and their parents have shared many kind words. Even more importantly, they've sent us pictures of their pups enjoying them!