Something to bark about

A’SLoBBRiN Pet Bakery & Gifts owner Timothy Mapes can be found feeding nutritious samples to pets at the Scripps Ranch Farmer’s Market each Saturday. (photos by John Gregory)

Something to bark about

Timothy Mapes makes treats and snacks for canines that are favorites of both dogs and their owners.

Mapes, founder of A’SLoBBRiN Pet Bakery & Gifts, is an obvious animal lover. In fact, the name of his home-based business is named for the pets he has rescued and provided for over the last 20 years.
A is for Andy
S is for Sampson
L is for Lukus
B is for Bridget
B is for Buddy
R is for Ricky (a rabbit)
N is for Nikki

Mapes currently has four dogs at his home. He can be found each Saturday at his A’SLoBBRiN Pet Bakery & Gifts booth in the Scripps Ranch Farmer’s Market. While he has been in business for nearly nine years, he has been making these healthy canine treats for about 18 years for his own pet rescues.

“I didn’t venture out until so many people started asking me to make it for them,” he said.

“I had a special needs dog who couldn’t digest chemicals, so I needed to take all the preservatives out,” Mapes said. “Most of the treats (in stores) have a lot of preservatives.”

To say the items baked at A’SLoBBRiN Pet Bakery & Gifts are high in quality is an understatement. All the ingredients Mapes puts into his products are fit for humans, and there is no salt added. He gets his ingredients from a restaurant supplier and a warehouse that distribute food for humans. Everything is human-level and human-grade, he said.

Mapes takes it home and bakes them, producing healthy snacks for dogs using his recipes that he has spent years researching and developing.

Mine is in the baking process,” he explained. “When the cookies are baked, they are baked more on a lower temperature for a longer time to make them crispy. Unlike human cookies (that are soft and squishy), the dogs like them hard.”

For the larger dogs that like to bite and swallow their food quickly, he has created a harder product called apple buttons.

“I have quite a few people now purchasing them for their larger dogs,” Mapes said. “It makes them chew. It’s really a hard, hard cookie. If I can get six or seven chews out of it versus one and swallow, that is my goal. … The more they chew, the more they taste.”

A’SLoBBRiN Pet Bakery & Gifts sells chicken jerky and beef jerky. All the meats are cut by hand. Other favorites are dried cow trachea and pig ears.

Mapes used to dry the ingredients in his home oven, but he added a large dehrydrator. Last January he purchased a second dehydrator due to the demand for his products.

What are favorites among the canines and their owners?

“The chicken and apple, and the chicken and beef are the number one,” he said. “There’s no additives, no preservatives, so they seem to like it a lot better.”

A look at the doggie goodies in the A’SLoBBRiN Pet Bakery & Gifts booth will turn up a display case filled with what look like bakery goods for humans. While some customers have sampled these treats, they are definitely made for dogs, Mapes said. The muffins are made from his own cake recipe for canines. He can bake doggie birthday cakes in chicken, beef or turkey.

“I make my own base (for cakes),” he said. “I don’t purchase the base from any of the stores, so it has no preservatives, no salts, no onions in it whatsoever.”

Yes, some of the colorful treats look like desserts for people. But instead of sugary frosting, Mapes uses almond bark.

“It is a less sugary frosting,” he said. “They (the treats) are from my peanut butter recipe. The topping is the almond bark … it is not as sugary or harmful to them as butter creams.”

Find out more about A’SLoBBRiN Pet Bakery & Gifts at aslobbrin.com.

The Scripps Ranch Farmers Market is open each Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 10380 Spring Canyon Road, in the Innovations Academy parking lot. Visit srfm.org.