The 'Tail' Of Our Pup Republic Hands Free Bungee Dog Lead
Enrichment is essential when it comes to your dog's wellbeing and overall health & happiness. Enrichment improves the natural behaviours of our dogs while providing different (and fun) experiences that also encourage their senses. Not only this, but it is also paw-esome for their mental and physical stimulation to keep them amused and avoid boredom - and we all know where boredom can lead...never fun for us humans to explore the ways in which they have kept themselves amused #weveallbeenthere.
As dog mum sisters with three dogs between us who inspired our entire business and the products we design & sell, we have been there, done that and got the t-shirt when it comes to exploring ways to keep our dogs content. It's a subject we are truly passionate about, and we hope is reflected in the products we sell to you, our wonderful community of dog mums and dads.
This is when we em-barked on our Pup Republic venture to help improve the time dog owners have with their dogs and encourage as much enrichment as possible whether they are on a dog walk, a jog, or dropping off the kids at school or working on the go!
So, here is the tail of our first paw-duct...
Our Very First Paw-duct: Hands-Free Bungee Dog Lead
With the passion to improve time together with our pups, came the idea of our very first product; our Pup Republic hands-free bungee dog lead.
Seeing dog owners trying to run with their dogs, and noticing their shoulders all tensed up as they clutched the lead made us think there had to be a better way. We also saw how in this age of life via mobile, we need extra hands for most activities.
That's when we saw one or two hands-free leads online and decided this was the way to go! From that point on, we worked gradually with our chosen supplier to tweak and paw-fect the details ready to launch our very own design.
When we began our quest to source 'seriously good stuff for dogs', we used some clever tools online to see where there might be a gap in the market. We came across all sorts of crazy ideas, but the one that really struck us was a kind of hands-free lead, on a belt.
We liked them and looked around for a great manufacturer that we could form a real relationship. That's when we discovered Eric - or maybe he found us! We took the basic design, used it with our pups, asked friends to test it out, asked Eric to make a few tweaks and there it was! Our very own Pup Republic hands-free bungee dog lead.
Later on, we made even more little improvements in response to feedback from our customers to paw-fect the design. Our customer feedback means a lot to us as we always want to improve our products howl-ever possible.
Designed For Jogging, Dog Walking & Multi-Tasking
Personally, we're not runners! Two of our three pup CEOs, Petal and Milo, are always keen sniffers during their dog walks which kind of interrupts a jog, but we love it when dog runners stop and ask us where we got our leads from.
They can see us running our business on the go while allowing some freedom for our pups! This helps especially in restricted areas like beaches in the summer, and to help keep them safe on walks near roads.
When I, Nicky, broke my ankle I was still able to hobble around with the pups and handle the crutches using the hands-free dog lead thanks to the use of the belt - it has been a fantastic aid in my recovery so we have found another angle for our bungee dog lead!
Why The Purple and Aqua?
We wanted to choose colours that nobody else was selling, and choose colours that we felt would look good on any dog, whether they are a boy or girl.
Originally the lead also came in hot pink but we wanted to find 'workout' colours so customers could coordinate their lead with their running gear if indeed they wanted to do the dog-jog! You can even match the bungee lead with our other Pup Republic accessories such as our training treat bag, multi-way dog lead or Pup Perfect dog harness.
It wasn't until later that we dropped the hot pink as it just wasn't popular. The purple and aqua looked great together, so you can team a purple lead with an aqua harness, for instance.
Our pup CEOs love their dog leads! They get so excited when they see them coming down from the peg by the front door so their necessary woof of approval was apparent.
Woofs Of Approval
The early reviews were good following the launch of our bungee dog leads; thank goodness! It takes a lot of time, money and a leap of faith to launch a product, let alone it being our first and not knowing how customers & dog-loving community would react.
People seemed to (and still seem to) love their Pup Republic dog leads. We do have a lifetime 'yappiness' guarantee on our products as well as them being made to last, but sometimes people do treat themselves to a new one or as a gift for fellow dog owners. Repeat business is a great thing for us as it not only helps us to maintain our business, but it also helps us to expand with new products.
The Journey So Far
Each time we put in a new order with Eric, we consider if there is another little tweak we should add to make the lead even better and based on our customer feedback. So far, we have sold upwards of 6,000 of them altogether!
We can't thank our incredible community of customers, followers and even you, our readers, for all your sup-pawt, and we look forward to bringing you new Pup Republic products in the future.
Explore and fetch our Pup Republic collection and enrich the time you have with your pups - you never know what adventures one of our accessories could take you!
Nicky, Caroline & The Pups @ Pup Republic