a kid's idea, for dogs to savor (link)
11.20.09 - the ny times - by susan dominus

thanks to a bounty of boring snack-related news stories on thursday & personal laziness on friday, i decided to delay friday's edition of the nosh nook to today, where i'm bringing you a TOTALLY SPECIAL weekend edition of the nosh nook. seriously, at the end of last week, the big news in snacking was that, on the heels of kraft attempting a hostile takeover of cadbury, everybody & their mother (nestle, hershey, fererro) was thinking of buying the candy egg-making british company. YAWN. i'm so sick of hearing about people wanting to buy cadbury. other than that, there was another snack mix recall. BORING.

this weekend, things have remained pretty quiet on the snack news front, but i did come across a ny times article about christian liendo, a 16-year-old "bright-eyed science buff" from queens who's trying to make snacking more fun for dogs. he had to think up a product idea for a program/competition that he's enrolled in & after a few meh ideas & some childhood reminiscing, he eventually settled on "blizzard dog," an ice cream for dogs. he started out making the doggie ice cream with "carob powder (chocolate is dangerous for dogs), soy milk and lactose-free milk" & had friends' dogs try it out. since dogs aren't always all that bright, as far as flavors go, "corn and carrot were bigger hits than chocolate and vanilla."

in the end, he ended up losing to a "young woman who made vegan cookies," but he did take home $250 & an honorable mention for his idea. he hopes to eventually take his idea to the big time & wants to do so in a unique way--the ice cream would not be sold in pet stores. it'd only be sold in ice cream stores so "dog owners won’t feel bad when they stop for a cone and their dogs whimper in longing." i don't know, christian. that sounds like a pretty specific (& possibly health code-violating) target market--dog owners out buying ice cream while walking their dogs. you might want to think bigger than that if you want to one day make "blizzard dog" a household name. as it stands, your current business plan is for the birds.