An athlete himself, Tyler Breault knows how important it is for peak performance to eat the right foods.

He asked himself why not have the same standards for Fido. That lead him to create a new business called Dog’s Seat at the Table, a fresh-frozen organic cooked dog food that he’s been cooking up for the past year and now is hitting the market.

“I take a scientific approach to what kind of food that I fed my dog to promote a healthy gene expression and a healthy gut,” Breault said. “Then I toyed with that and I sifted through what I could buy in the stores and get online. I came up with a variety of products I need to make the dog food. Fish oil and seaweed-derived calcium are two foods that are super good for a dog.”

Nala, his purebred golden retriever, was the 50-pound taste tester.

Breault, 35, is new to the business world. He’s only been selling the dog food commercially for a couple of months to friends, the indoor farmer’s market Locavore and Local Acres Market.

There’s lots to learn about starting up a small business, said Breault.

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s recent data show that each year 5 million new businesses are created and roughly 20% of them fail in the first year. The failure rate increases significantly over time, with half failing before their fifth year of operation, said James Darcey, SCORE-Central Oregon chapter chairman. SCORE is a program under the Small Business Administration and uses volunteers to mentor start-up businesses.

Food as medicine

In his home kitchen, Breault tested recipe after recipe finally settling on a recipe using 28 ingredients with 18 starting out as whole foods. Nala didn’t complain as she’s used to Breault’s approach to food as fuel.

“I would make a week’s worth of food in my kitchen, and it would take all day to cook,” Breault said. “I’m strict on snacks and I take (her) running every day. Nala eats a super healthy diet. She’s lean.

“There’s a health care crisis happening now for dogs who are becoming overweight and riddled with chronic diseases.”

Once he perfected the recipes and found reliable and affordable sources for his ingredients, he moved his cooking over to the state health certified Prep Kitchen in Bend, which rents out space to anyone needing a certified kitchen.

Using three pressure cookers, he can make 75 pounds of dog food in eight hours.

Boosting business

As a newcomer to business in a town of entrepreneurs, Breault is taking advantage of all the help he can get. He plans to pass out samples to dog owners at Locavore. He’s self-funded so far and can fulfill orders off his website. And come the spring, he’ll hit his target demographic at the NorthWest Crossing farmer’s market.

“That’s where I will find my target market,” Breault said. “The people there are already conscious of the food they eat because they’re shopping for fresh there. I wanted to convey with the name of my business my love of food using quality ingredients.”