Confessions of an Aspiring Dog Owner

I recently jumped on board the Twitter train and I have to say it is proving to be very exciting – I am officially addicted. I set up a personal account and an account for the AspiringDogOwner and it’s been really fun learning about how others are using Twitter for personal and professional communications. 

 

One of the unexpected but delightful benefits of signing up the AspiringDogOwner on twitter has been that I’m finding all kinds of dog lovers, dog products and dog info through my Twitter followers and those I’m following.  In fact, yesterday’s post on Yoga for Dogs and my earlier post on the Sarah Palin dog wig were both inspired by Twitter discoveries. I expect the trend to continue, so you’ve been warned!

 

Today’s Twitter discovery of the day comes from one of my new followers, WoffWellness. I was curious about what WoofWellness was all about, so I checked out their twitter profile, which led me to a WoofWellness blog post, which eventually led me to their website www.woofwellness.com. I learned that WoofWellness offers, get this, PEANUT BUTTER FLAVORED vitamin water for dogs! Have you ever heard of this? 

 

According to the WoofWellness site, this special water for dogs contains vitamins, minerals and nutrients designed for endurance, strength and an enhanced mental state of mind (whatever that may mean for your doggie). And did I mention it’s PEANUT BUTTER FLAVORED? Apparently it’s some sort of Gatorade for dogs.

 

I suppose I should have seen this coming, what with our previous discussions about the extent to which humans are increasingly treating their pets like humans. There are a lot of bottled water drinkers on there (though that may be on the decline per this article), and I’m sure a lot of them are dog owners, so by extension there are probably a lot of potential dog vitamin water customers out there. The timing of the product launch is a little dicey with the state of the economy – the product officially launches in March 2009 – so it will be interesting to see how the product is received. But lets face it, there’s probably a bigger market than there probably should be. There, I said it.

 

As far as product information for WoofWellness, I was a little disappointed. They have so many marketing communication methods (Twitter, blog, website, who knows… they’re probably on Facebook, MySpace and more) but not a lot of actual information out about the product. It would be nice to see a detailed list of ingredients for the product, information about the mystery veterinarian that approved the formulation, some additional information about safe use of the product and more detailed product benefits. I just don’t feel very educated, or moreover, sold, after visiting the site so I think they’ll need to kick that up in order to move the project forward. 

 

Hearing about WoofWellness made me wonder if there were other dog water companies out there. Of course there are. A quick google search for “bottled water for dogs” uncovered several other options including the K9 Water Company, which offers “the world’s first flavored, vitamin fortified bottled water specifically formulated to provide your dog with essential vitamins that contribute to overall good health and provide the hydration your dog needs.”

 

The K9 Water Company offers such mouth-watering flavors as Gutter Water, Toilet Water, Puddle Water and Hose Water. Oh my. In contrast to WoofWellness, K9 Water is available for sale today on their website. Curious about the cost? I was, too. Prepare yourself…a 4 pack of 16.9 ounce bottles sells for $7.49 plus shipping! Wow. You get a volume discount if you go up to a 24 pack, but it’s still $1.50 per bottle. The K9 Water Company site has more information available on their site – the FAQ is decent. But again, still not enough to sway me over toward a purchase I’m afraid.

 
OK, time for another survey. Share your thoughts here!

   

 

Tags: bottled water for dogs