Spandex & Wine

Healthy Treats, Happier Pets & Giving Back w/ GivePet

• Robin Hackney • Season 3 • Episode 25

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What if your dog’s favorite treat also fueled a shelter dog’s second chance? We sat down with Chris and Christy Dennis, the duo behind GivePet, to explore how one small bag can create big, local change. Their promise is simple and powerful: for every purchase, treats go straight to a rescue or shelter chosen by the store you buy from, helping with daily training, socialization, and stress relief when it matters most.

We dig into how GivePet crafts truly human-grade treats using rolled oats, honey, flax oil, mango puree, and applesauce, with many formulas cold pressed to preserve nutrients. They recently upgraded recipes to remove fillers and swap vegetable oil for coconut oil, keeping ingredient lists clean and purposeful. From product names and standout packaging to trusted retail partners, Chris and Christy have built a brand that pet parents recognize on shelves and feel good about supporting.

The conversation also looks ahead: expanding into toys, interactive enrichment, and potential supplements for hip and joint or skin and coat health. With distribution across all 50 states and now Canada, plus a new website on the way featuring subscriptions and smarter marketing, Give Pet is poised to grow its mission without losing its local roots. Along the way, we talk about personal wellness, family routines, and why longevity and mental health shape how they run the business and the products they make for our pets.

If you care about rescue adoption, clean pet nutrition, and supporting community shelters with every purchase, this story will land right in your heart. Grab the link to givepet.com, check the holiday promo, and treat your pup while helping a shelter dog train for their forever home. If this conversation resonates, follow the show, leave a five-star review, and share it with a friend who loves animals as much as you do.

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SPEAKER_01:

Hello and welcome to the Spandex and Wine Podcast. I'm your host, Robin Hackney, and I'm so happy that you're here. This podcast is a place for conversations about balancing a healthy lifestyle and being happy. More specifically, happy hour. Together we'll explore all things wellness and wine. I hope you learn a little, laugh a lot, and along the way, know you're not alone on this balance, wellness journey. Ready to jump in? Hey everyone, welcome back to the Spandex and Wine Podcast. It's me, Robin Hackney, the host of the show, and I'm so happy that you are here. Any of my animal lovers are going to love today's episode. I have the cutest little couple that comes to my workout classes, and I don't even know if I've ever seen them apart. They are just so much fun. I enjoy seeing them. And not only do they take care of each other, they take care of their health, and they give back to animals, making sure that they are eating quality treats, human grade. I mean, it's phenomenal what they are doing. They are the owners of Give Pet. And not only are they giving back to animals and making sure that they are healthy, but rescue animals. It is so amazing how they are giving back to the community. I absolutely loved speaking with them. I love seeing them in all of my classes. I know that you are going to enjoy this episode. So please help me welcome Chris and Christy Dennis. Well, hello, Chris and Christy Dennis. Welcome to the Spandex and Wine Podcast. Thank you. Hey Robin, thanks for having us. Absolutely. I'm so excited. Um, so it's funny because people ask me all the time, they'll say, okay, Spandex and Wine, what's it about? And I'm like, well, just like Spandex, I stretch the topics just a little bit. Um wellness. And I love that you guys are so consistent with your own health and wellness. And you also do that for pets too. That's a big thank you. So tell us a little bit more about what you do and how it all got started.

SPEAKER_02:

Sure. We have a dog and cat treat company called Give Pet. Um, we we sell in specialty retailers like pet specialty stores like Treats Unleashed or um REI or um Land of Paws. Yeah, Land of Paws, stores like that. So um, but our big deal is giving back to rescues and shelters with each purchase. So every bag that you buy or that someone purchases, we give uh 10 treats back to a rescuer shelter. So oh, that's so amazing. Thanks. And the the way it works is that thanks. Um, we rely on our retail partners to pick a local rescuer shelter. So if you buy a bag of treats in Dallas or Kansas City or Chicago, it's going back to like a rescue local to that store that they pick.

SPEAKER_01:

So oh, that makes total sense. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

When they actually purchase a hundred bags, we give them a case of bulk treats, a thousand treats to give back to a rescuer shelter of their choice.

SPEAKER_01:

So oh my gosh. Okay, so how did this come about?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, so my sister Jackie, she had a farm outside Dallas Fort Worth. Um, she always had 50 dogs, 50 cats on our farm, um, horses, and she rescued any dog or cat along the highway, basically. Um, and so she got me into the industry in 2000. I started selling premium pet foods. She said, um, look for a food company or a pet pharmaceutical company. So I started selling pet food. I did that for two companies for over 16 years, and then started Give Pet with Christy and I did um Cinco de Mayo of 2016. So it's almost 10 years.

SPEAKER_01:

So well, congratulations. That's so cool. Okay, you know what else I love about that? When I opened my own fitness studio, it was Cinco de Mayo.

SPEAKER_02:

Really? Oh wow. We need to meet up then.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Absolutely. We should share some ideas. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Sounds like we have happy hour plans for Cinco de Mayo.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yes, perfect. And the other thing I like is that the products that you have, the treats that you have, like I've told you guys this before. Like in a pinch, we could eat them. They are real whole ingredients, and that is incredible.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. It, you know, when we started this business, we knew that we wanted to do a business that gives back, but we also knew that we wanted to have good quality products that you could feel good about giving them to your dogs or your cats, or like you said, in a pinch, if you would want to eat one, you could. Um, everything's human-grade ingredients, all natural. We don't have any unnecessary fillers. We just um on our biscuits redid our labels so that uh we took out vegetable oil and added coconut oil because it's healthier. Um, so it nutrition is just as important to us as is giving back because uh we we wouldn't have our name on on a product that wasn't of good quality. We just we couldn't do it. Couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_01:

That's great.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, and I know what oh, I actually tell everyone that they go well with a good glass of wine, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Totally do a pairing, like we could get your different treats and we could pair them with wines. That would that would be fun. Oh, and your labeling is incredible. Your marketing team, is it the two of you? Do you have an outside company that you work with? But I love all of your marketing.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. Thanks. That was another thing is we knew enough to know that we couldn't do this on our own in terms of developing the packaging and the the graphics and the designs, um, because it would have looked like we did it in our garage. So we work with a uh Kansas City company who helped has helped us really from day one with um the branding and the packaging. And they continue every time we come out with a new product, we're like, how are they gonna top doghouse rock? How are they gonna talk top upward dog? And every time they seem to they seem to do it. So we've been lucky in that regard that we found them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. So how many states are you in?

SPEAKER_02:

We're in all 50 states. So yeah, and then in fact, uh this year uh we went to one international show last year, but this year we just started shipping our we partner with a distributor in Canada. So our treats are are are sold in Canada now as of like this past August. So and then we sell some in New Mexico and some in the Caribbean, and then uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh, and you have a son in Ireland right now, you should be selling it there too.

SPEAKER_00:

Like he's I know, yeah, definitely good point.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, he needs to get connections Oh gosh, okay. So do you guys just I mean, I know you said that it was your sister and she had all kinds of rescue animals, but I mean you have to share a love of animals too. So, how many animals do you have at your house?

SPEAKER_00:

At the moment, we have two dogs. We unf we used to have three, but in July of 2024, we lost one of our dogs at Della. She was a little um lab mix, and then in November, we lost our other dog, one of our other dogs, Fern, who was a coon, a treewalker coon hound. She was 16. So we lost two in the span of just July to November. So it was terrible. Um, so we lost Fern and she was our our treewalker coon hound. We lost her, and a week later, um, I happened to be scrolling and saw this little puppy who at the time was named Fendi. Um, and so I reached out to the rescue, and um, then the next day she was living with us. So we now have two. So we we named her Stevie, she's named after Stevie Nicks. Um, and then we have another dog, uh a foxhound that's kind of like a real like a tall beagle. His name is Freddie, he's named after Freddie Mercury. So right now we're at two dogs, and I feel like we're pretty content with that, don't you?

SPEAKER_02:

I would take I would take one every day, but she yeah, she's um the voice of reason sometimes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, that's how we ended up with Freddie. We were we had two dogs at the time, we were dropping off some treats to donate to a local shelter, and there's this dog walking, you know, the the the volunteers walk the dogs, and there was this dog, and he says, Wow, that's a good looking dog. And then just a couple days later, he was living with us as well. So yeah, you never know. You never know. Although I I did feel like three big dogs was too many. So now that we're down to two, I think we're okay for now, unless something lands on our doorstep. You never know.

SPEAKER_01:

I know how that is. Yeah, we both of our dogs are rescues from Lucky 13. And we talked about this of the day. Yes. And then our cat just came to us one Halloween. Like, and I'm the owner, like I could tell it probably had a chip. I took it to the vet and they said no. Um, so I I posted it and so we ended up with Gary.

SPEAKER_02:

He adopted you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yes, yes. Funny, they do that.

SPEAKER_02:

That's funny.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. What works? What's next? I mean, if you're in all 50 states, you're in Canada now, Mexico. Obviously, you're gonna be going international, um, in other countries too. But is there anything else that you guys are wanting to launch here in the future?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, uh, you know, that's a great question. We have four different types of treats now. So um it's almost they almost compete with each other at some point because you know, and then each type has like three or four flavors. So we're really going to start leaning in more towards some other products like maybe some toys and things like that, some gift bundles, and you know, so um yeah, toys and kind of we kind of go in the direction of what rescues and shelters is what's on their wish list, you know. They use a lot of toys, they use and treats are like one of the most requested items because they use them every day to socialize and train dogs, you know, and they want healthy ones, so um, but yeah, toys would be great, and then even interactive toys too. So yeah, maybe some supplements too. So nice, yeah, just kind of some general ones like for a hip and joint and skin and coat, things like that. Yeah, we've had a lot that's been one of our most requested additions, I guess.

SPEAKER_01:

So I feel like the ingredients that you have in there that naturally is happening, right?

SPEAKER_00:

True. Yeah, we have flax oil in some of our treats. I mean, we try we yeah, go ahead apple cider vinegar.

SPEAKER_02:

We use things that really no one uses in treats, like mango puree, applesauce. I mean, they're at they're literally human grade. They're half of them are cold pressed, so there's no heat involved. They're just pressed together kind of like a kine bar, you know. So they're rolled oats, honey, things like that.

SPEAKER_00:

So and in order to make a treat that way, you have to use human-grade ingredients. So you know that you're getting good stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So then what's the shelf life? Is it different than other like the little milk bone things you can get?

SPEAKER_02:

It's pretty similar, actually. I mean, they're they're naturally preserved, but we mostly 18 months to two years. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, and I know that you know, we chatted just a little bit about a subscription. Do you think that that's something down the line to do?

SPEAKER_02:

That's so funny. We're redoing our website right now. We haven't launched a new one yet, but when you mentioned that, I came home and told Christy because that was one of the things we had talked about. And uh when we first started, well, our website's 10 years old, so it doesn't even really have all of our products, you know, you know, represented the way we want them to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, for sure. So yeah, so we're excited. That's been a big project. Um getting a new website redesigned, getting it redesigned, and you know, it'll also, like you say, subscriptions. We'll be able to offer that. We'll be able to just it just expands what we can do from a marketing perspective as well. Um, targeted, you know, um, when somebody visits the site and then goes to Facebook and then they happen to see an ad there. So it's just gonna expand our reach. Um and it would be just be a great, great tool for us.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, because it makes sense that someone would get on a subscription because you know that way you don't have to run out and care every month. And if you had too many, then donate them, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. We have, and that's that's another reason why we have a lot of customers who order on our website who are ordering on a regular basis. So I would think they would be like, yes, sign me up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yeah, I bet you would. Uh-huh. That is so um, does some of this stem from you two wanting to be as healthy as you possibly can? Because you guys come to class on a consistent basis. Obviously, you take care of yourselves and nutrition-wise, um, and you're giving that back to pets. So I'm assuming that that's just a common thread. Is that the same with your kids too?

SPEAKER_00:

That's we While they're in college, but they I mean, they'll do we do a lot of smoothies and things like that. And and we've, you know, the I think they've seen us do it, and then we'll we've made them for them over the years. That my son, who's in who's a freshman in college, he even said, Can I get a smoothie maker to take to the dorm?

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, he's been he's even comments about what other people are eating, you know. Yeah, yeah. Some bad habits. Yeah, they do love watch, I guess.

SPEAKER_00:

It's so interesting because I feel like I mean, the uh, you know, Google or whatever, you can find out anything you want about nutrition and all of that, but there's so many things that people don't know. So we have really, really tried to educate ourselves. Chris lost his father. Um, his father passed away from a heart attack in his 50s. So we've made a real conscious effort to um, you know, not make that a recurring theme. You know, my grandfather passed away in his 50s from a heart attack. So I think we we have so much more knowledge now than they did then. Um, that we're trying to do everything he could. And even the biggest of all, one of his best friends in the world, 52, I guess, 53. 53 years old. Yeah, in amazing shape. Oh, amazing shape.

SPEAKER_02:

2% body fat, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

And it last person attacked and passed away in his sleep, uh, what, two years ago? Yeah. I left a young, left a young daughter and a wife. I mean, just terrible. So we're just trying to not have that be our future, you know, and do everything we possibly can, um, you know, to stay active and you know, and not just your body, but your mind too, because I feel like if I, you know, we were on vacation a month or so ago and we did a ton of walking, but not our usual routine of working out and things like that. And you just get back and you're like, I need to get to the gym, I need to sweat, I need to, you know, I just for me personally, it's it's as much as my mental health as it is physical health, too. When I when I'm not working out or just you know, sitting around being lazy for whatever reason, um, I just don't feel good, you know. So we want to be so like those people who are 85 years old strolling into the gym. That's we want to be those people.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I doubt that you will be you guys, and I love that you guys do this together, that you both have that same passion, um, whether it be for each other staying healthy, but also keeping your kids and pets healthy. That's amazing. And I don't not that I see you guys outside of the club, um, but you guys are always together. I think it's just so cute.

SPEAKER_02:

And now you always ask her if she's getting sick of me. So we work together, work out together.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we enjoy, we enjoy being together. So that's good. It's good to have times apart, but it's you know, we we do enjoy each other's company. So important.

SPEAKER_01:

Ah, that's adorable. Okay, so how can the listeners find you?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, we have local retailers are like um REI, Landopause, Treats Unleashed, a lot of pet specialty stores, and they're also available on our website, givepet.com. It's g-iv-e-p-e-t.com. We're actually running, we've never done this. So from Thanksgiving Day through Monday, we're with any purchase, which is basically$9.99 or above, uh, we're giving away an additional free bag. So so yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, I love that. And then how about social media? How can people find you there?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, at give pet for Facebook and Instagram, TikTok as well. Yeah.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, you're on TikTok too. All right. Okay, is there anything that I didn't ask or that we didn't cover that you wanted to mention?

SPEAKER_02:

Not really. Not that I can think of.

SPEAKER_00:

Just say, I remember back, I mean, he talked about starting this business. He he talked about it probably for, you know, 10 years before we actually did it. And um, he's much more on he has much more of an entrepreneurial spirit than I do. Um, so he was ready to dive right in. It took me a little longer to get on board, but um, it's for us, it's been the best thing we ever did. And I would just say to anybody who is considering it or you know, wants something to do, you know, try something as a side hustle, and then maybe it turns into a full-time hustle just to do it. There's never gonna be the right time. Um yeah, but I mean, we say every more, I mean, I wake up most mornings like, oh, thank goodness this is this is this is the business that I get to be in, you know, it's it's a joy every day. So just I just set tell people just do it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, never gonna be a right time, right? And I would and we tell people, I always tell people too, you know, a third, you can learn a third, and then hire the rest, hire a third, you know. So you're never gonna know everything, but you learn a lot, and it's fun learning new things, and you know, so yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh well, I just love this for you. I love you too. I am so happy that our paths have crossed.

SPEAKER_02:

It is so good to see you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Well, thanks so much for being here. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

We'll see you uh pretty soon, probably.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, they are just amazing. I hope you will go to givepet.com, take advantage of their special, make sure that your animals are eating quality treats, and in the process, you're going to be giving back to rescue animals as well. What a gift, you guys, especially this holiday season. And you can find them at givepet.com. You can find them on social media. I will put the links in the show notes. Um, know that you're supporting local and you're supporting animals. What an amazing combination. All right, you guys, if you have any questions, please reach out to me. Info at spandexandwine.com is where you can email me or you can use my text line, 913-392-2877. Thanks everyone. Thank you for listening. If you're enjoying this podcast, be sure to follow Spandex and Wine so you don't miss an episode. To do this, just go to the podcast and click subscribe or follow wherever you're listening. Look for the plus sign or follow button. This is one of the best things that you can do for the podcast. If you'd also be willing to give a five-star review, that would be amazing and much appreciated. Lastly, please share an episode with a friend or five to keep the love going. And join the Spandex and Wine community in our private Facebook group by searching Spandex Wine. Feel free to reach out to me at any time by emailing info at spandexandwine.com or text me at 913 392 2877. I appreciate you. Thank you.

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Robin Hackney

Host