# Exciting news!!



## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

I am super excited to announce that me and my husband are opening a small business called The Luxury Wolf!
The Luxury Wolf will be selling custom packed gift baskets and boxes for dogs and their owners. With an emphasis on eco-friendly, healthy products from smaller companies we will be custom packing baskets for dogs in cute, gift-ready packaging. We have seen an increasing trend in people who would like to send "Welcome Home" gifts to their friends who have recently gotten dogs, or holiday and birthday gifts to dogs. Our baskets would also be great for dog parents to buy for themselves to try out new products or stock up on a variety of things before their new puppy or rescue comes home! Seeing that people might be interested in a product like that, combined with my blog getting a lot more readers and with that people e-mailing me asking what they should buy their dogs- we figured this was a solid idea.

I have been so anxious to tell all of you about our new venture- but wanted to get our business license and website set before we announced it. I can tell you- I thought we were prepared to start a retail business after years of me running my company- HOWEVER- retail is a whole different beast. It has taken months of filing and figuring it out and dealing with my web designer and all that but finally we are ready to launch! Our hope is to start as online only and then expand to have a booth at events and maybe farmers markets and maybe one day brick and mortar. At this point we will be launching with a few products on a small website I designed myself. As we launch that I am working with a web designer to set up a bigger site and hopefully we will expand our product line slowly.

My biggest idea with The Luxury Wolf is that everything is customizable to your dog and their needs. We see ourselves as more of personal shoppers than traditional retail. Each box will be custom packed based on what our customer tells us about their dog- including allergies and other sensitivities- so our baskets can be given to ANY dog- even ones who are on restricted diets.

I am working with some bigger wholesalers and also some smaller companies to bring a selection of the best products out there. It is a little scary as wholesale orders roll in and my office turns from a drafting area to a pet store! We know this is a new and unique idea so here's to hoping it takes off! EEP! This is just incredibly exciting, even though we are still a very small business. When we finally start selling product (in about 2 weeks) we are going to have 25 baskets available, depending on how fast those sell we are going to move from there.

Our website is still under construction but you can check it out at The Luxury Wolf
You can check out our products there- although as I said they are not yet for sale. Also I am still working on the price point and that is not totally set. We are still in the "very small barely a business" stage so as we add or remove products and see what people want our pricing may change. We want to provide good value in our baskets but also they have quality products, many from smaller companies, so we are not going to be very cheap ever.

What do you guys think?


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## Chiluv04 (Dec 19, 2013)

Congrats to you Annie! This is an amazing idea. The perfect career move for someone as passionate about dogs as you are. I am sure you will do just great. Good luck!


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## michele (Jan 12, 2009)

Wishing you luck in your new adventure,looks great


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## Jessicashield (Feb 13, 2015)

Amazing idea! Good luck x


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## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

Woohoo Congrats!


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## xxcass (Jan 7, 2013)

Amazing will you be shipping to Canada as well?


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

Thanks for the well wishes everyone! We are very excited!



xxcass said:


> Amazing will you be shipping to Canada as well?


Right now, no. I hope to ship to Canada soon though! We have been trying to start things slow and shipping meat products (so most dog treats) to Canada is more paperwork and research than we are currently equipped to deal with. It is near the top of my list as soon as we start to grow.



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## MMS (Aug 2, 2012)

Looks fantastic! Congrats on your new venture!


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## Zorana1125 (Oct 24, 2010)

Congratulations on your new business venture! Wishing you all the best, I takes a lot of ambition to open your own business!! Can't wait to check it out once it goes live!


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## pigeonsheep (Nov 8, 2008)

woop woop!!!! congrats!!! i hope all goes smoothly during this time! i know it's very scary at first and sometimes it does take time in the beginning to see any results but as time goes by and more people start coming through ordering it will be worth all that hard work and headache! <3


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## coco_little_bear (May 30, 2012)

That's amazing, congratulations and good luck with everything! It's a great idea and The Luxury Wolf is a brilliant name.


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## Ellie Huahua (Feb 10, 2015)

Congratulations!!! This is an epic idea, I love it ... and I love hearing about things like this, even more so if there's dogs involved! I really enjoyed reading this- it made me smile! I'm very happy for you, honestly Well Done! (I agree that The Luxury Wolf is a brilliant name  ) x x x x x x x


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

Thanks for all the support everyone! I am also glad you think The Luxury Wolf is a great name- I love it but we really took a lot of time to think of it. Might have been the hardest part up till now!! 

I am sorting some of the stuff from my bigger wholesalers (we are using a combo of smaller artists and also some of the bigger guys)- and my office REALLY does look like a pet store now- haha!


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## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

I bet your pups are dying to go to go in your office LOL


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## BasketMichele (Sep 9, 2014)

Congrats and best wishes!! This seems to be an area you have a lot of passion for and knowledge in so what a great way to incorporate that into a successful business.


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

The dogs were not too interested until I got a box the other day full of a 100% liver treat from Etta Says. Copley was all over the fedex box when it came in the door. He has been sniffing under the door into my office for days now.

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## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

Ha Ha Ha that's awesome


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## Kraken (Mar 3, 2015)

Congratulations, this is an awesome idea!!


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## pigeonsheep (Nov 8, 2008)

are those dogs doin yoga?? LOL


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

pigeonsheep said:


> are those dogs doin yoga?? LOL


Yeah! I thought they were really adorable, there are like 4 different poses.

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## pigeonsheep (Nov 8, 2008)

doginthedesert said:


> Yeah! I thought they were really adorable, there are like 4 different poses.
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


lol that is awesome!!! <3 never seen those kinda plushes before!


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

I am super excited to say that as of an hour ago we are open for business! This week we are selling Easter Baskets (we are in the basket business and it is almost spring so I just had to do it). They have a variety of products we love and are supposed to be a fun, not super expensive way to launch the website! Here are some pictures of the first boxes- although if you order one it can be totally customized for any allergies. My husband thought it was a little morbid to put rabbit jerky in an Easter basket, but I think it is hilarious and fun, so I'm sticking to it!

This is the small dog one-









And our large dog-









Here is the link if you are interested in ordering one!


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## Ellie Huahua (Feb 10, 2015)

Excellent!!!  x x x


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## jan896 (Dec 9, 2009)

WOO-hoo...

On my way to order


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

Yay! I am so excited people are liking The Luxury Wolf. Our first two baskets shipped on Friday! 
Also I replied to your PM Jan!


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## jan896 (Dec 9, 2009)

yep... thanks for the reply.... with my Google Chrome I was not seeing the Cart pink bag.... so I tried IE and found it.......woo-hoo


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## pigeonsheep (Nov 8, 2008)

oooooh your website looks much better now!!! <3 so happy for you!


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

Thanks Pige! The website stuff has not been easy- but I think we have something that looks pretty decent now. I'm excited to roll out new products soon too! That will help spruce things up a bit too- once they get photographed.


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

We are finally selling "Welcome Home" baskets too!!! Here is one for the first 3 that have gone out. It is going to a charity auction for an organization that provides owner support to low income people- concentrating on bully breeds but they also help lost of other breeds and many, many chihuahuas.









Also our Welcome Home Baskets now also feature- drumroll please- Lainey's Pawtique & Bakery items (unless the pup has allergies to their ingredients of course- as every basket is custom packed to account for that). She sent us the cutest cookies, we are so excited to have them in the baskets!


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## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

Love it! So Awesome! Also Lainey will work with Allergy issues


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

Yes, Lainey is great and will work with anything! Unfortunately the way we work is I have a lot of different things on hand, and we ship from our stock. So we wouldn't be able to wait for a shipment from her then pack a basket because we are getting large wholesale shipments at regular intervals. Her treats don't have a lot of allergens or anything, I just put that warning because I have had people buy baskets already that have listed about 20 allergies. Those people got rabbit jerky and the fish carnivore crunch!


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## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

Cool Deal! Lainey wants to try to make a treat for my Huly and I just laugh and say um I think that is a challenge you don't want to try. HULY IS ALLERGIC TO EVERYTHING!!!!


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

If anyone could make a treat for Huly, I bet she can! Judy does magic in the kitchen I think!


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

First I wanted to share we are having a sale this weekend- the code Weekend15 will get you 15% off anything at The Luxury Wolf until Monday at midnight PST.

ALSO I had a question for you guys. I know a lot of you are Etsy buyers like me and I just found out that Etsy allows you to sell gift baskets. Do you think people would be likely to buy gift baskets on Etsy? It seems strange to me but maybe there is a market there.

Finally we just listed a new basket- the Celebration basket. 
Here is a picture!








I wanted a smaller, more affordable basket that had a lot of fun and colorful stiff in it. It comes with dog cake mix, two toys, a fun tag that you customize yourself with a pen and boiling water, and some treats from Laineys!
Just so you know the Twigo pet tag in this basket is a little large for chi's, but it is really light so it is wearable. Kerri has had hers on her collar for a few days and it works great, but it is bigger. I love the idea of a tag you can make quickly for when you are traveling, have a pet sitter, or any other reason you quickly want to put an ID on a dog. It is not an everyday wear tag for a very small dog though. Also the Bow Tie ones are super cute for boy dogs, and those are actually the perfect size for small dogs because they are an appropriately sized bow tie! I'll post a picture of some of the designs we have.
Bow ties on bottom


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## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

Love it! I would try on Etsy. Ask Judy about it as she uses Etsy all the time!


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