Oct 25, 2008 - 04:30 PM

By Melissa Mancini

WHITBY -- One local woman's business plan came to her while she was doing something she does every day: walk her dogs.

Jo Ann Baguioro-Thompson was walking her beagles in the posh California neighbourhood where she used to live when she noticed other peoples' dogs were flocking to her. They wanted the homemade snacks she made for her pets.

That day Ms. Baguioro-Thompson realized the treats would be popular with more pooches than just her own beloved pets. That walk occurred in a place called Tiburon, so when the product line was born Ms. Baguioro-Thompson named it after the town.

Creating Tiburon Treats is now the entrepreneur's full-time job. Her experience in the business world working previously in corporate finance helped her "tremendously" when starting her own company, she said.

She tested her theory about how popular the product would be when she lived in Toronto. She would buy ingredients in mass quantities, bake for two days and sell off everything she made. The first time she tried the bake-athon she sold $1,000 worth of her wares in one day, she said. She has since moved to Whitby and the company's baking facility is located in Ajax.

The company offers 12 flavours, the four most popular being Canadian Cheese Dreams, Buster's Ranch Style Beef Cuts, Kiana's Peanut Butter Shortbread and Shorty's Sniff&Bite Triangles. The latter three flavours are named after the dogs that inspired the treats.

She attributes the long lives her pets have enjoyed to the careful attention she's paid to their diets. Kiana, one of the beagles Ms. Baguioro-Thompson was walking when she realized other pets were attracted to the scent of her treats, lived to be 14, well into old age for dogs.

The company will also make custom treats for special occasions -- Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's, Thanksgiving, Easter, Halloween -- whatever holidays owners want to include their furry friends in, Ms. Baguioro-Thompson said.

The treats are made with all-natural, locally produced ingredients. There is no sugar, salt, additives or by-products, she said. The puppy cookies go for $10 per pound.

For Ms. Baguioro-Thompson, the business started as a passion for her pets and that's what it still is. She makes everything her dogs eat and nothing is store-bought, she said.

For more information on Tiburon Treats, call 1-866-743-7226 or visit www.tiburontreats.com.

And Ms. Baguioro-Thompson wants to offer an incentive for dog owners in the community to have their pets try the treats for free. The company will be offering a free bag of Tiburon Treats to the first 100 e-mail entries received at info@tiburontreats.com.