One local business is spreading the joy of a sweet treat to our four-legged friends. Dogs-N-Donuts, 7743 E. Broadway Boulevard, offers a wide variety of pet-friendly desserts for every occasion.
Dogs-N-Donuts is the brainchild of Christa Parsons. She was inspired to start the business thanks to her own passion for wellness. She owned a gym with her husband, as well as sold healthy sweets at local farmers markets.
The shift to creating healthy treats for pets came after the couple adopted a rescue dog from Pima Animal Care Center (PACC).
“We named him Pete and he’s a little poodle mix,” Parsons said. “I just absolutely fell in love with this little guy.”
She began in her own kitchen by tweaking human recipes into dog-friendly ones. As Parsons soon discovered, doggy donuts had “a little ring to it.”
“I started making the doggy donuts and sharing them with my friends, family and gym clients,” she said.
Starting her own dog bakery came soon after. She’d seen it done with success before up in Sedona.
“I was amazed by how everything in the little shop looked like it was edible for people,” she said. “I really remember it being such a cool concept.”
With a degree in hotel and restaurant management, Parsons knew the risk of failure that prevails in the food industry. Yet, with confidence that she’d found a niche Tucsonans would love, she took the leap, and the rest, as they say, is history.
As for Pete, he became the face of Dogs-N-Donuts. A cartoon version of him can be seen in the business logo.
“It’s Pete’s bakery, he’s the official taste tester,” Parsons said.
She confirmed that he loves his job.
Despite the name, offerings at Dogs-N-Donuts run the gamut.
“We have a standard cookie base of peanut butter and oats,” Parsons said of the donuts.
They are then dipped in a yogurt glaze and topped with natural sprinkles or dehydrated fruits and veggies. Flavors include beet, carrot, sweet potato, apple-cinnamon, strawberry-banana, and blueberry.
“Those are crunchy, we also make some soft stuff for the dogs that don’t have a lot of teeth anymore,” Parsons said.
Another offering is dog-friendly birthday cakes.
“I did not know how popular doggy birthdays were going to be, so we really expanded our cake selection,” she said.
Cakes can be decorated with custom messages, as well as screen printed with images of the customer’s choosing. Those need to be requested 24 hours in advance.
“We have a biscuit buffet where we have six different flavors of biscuits,” Parsons said. “People can come in and scoop their own.”
Three rotating flavors of doggy gelato can be served up in a cup, cone, or sandwich form (known as a “bark-wich”). Those are peanut butter, maple bacon, and “bark-day” cake.
“Especially this time of year, we go through a lot,” Parsons said.
There are also “pup-sicles” to help four-legged friends cool down in the summer heat.
“Whatever we can pun into dog theme we do,” she said.
There are also twists on whoopie pies, muffins and cupcakes.
“It’s just always very creative and very fun at the same time,” Parsons said.
Those are just the edible offerings. Dogs-N-Donuts also serves as a marketplace for many pet accessory and apparel vendors. Offerings include toys, collars, and even sports jerseys. There’s also a selection of tees, hoodies and hats for people.
“We carry quite a bit of local things too, which was another big part of it is to reach out to our community and try to get as many local vendors as we can in our store,” Parsons said.
One of their newest vendors is Senor Romero Piñatas, who now makes custom pinatas for dogs.
“They can play around with it, crack it open, and eat the treats inside,” she said.
It’s a popular choice for birthday celebrations.
There’s also Peanut’s Clawset, which specializes in pet clothing.
“In total, we have at least 10 vendors that are local within our store, which I’m really proud of because we’re a true startup,” Parsons said.
In addition to being an incubator of local businesses, Dogs-N-Donuts also supports the community through its charity work. That includes building party favors and gift baskets for events put on by local rescues and donating portions of their sales during fundraising events
“We actually host adoption events at our store also,” she added.
For anyone (and their furry friend) who’s new to the concept of a dog bakery, Parsons said to stop by and let your dog give it a try.
“We always give free samplings and stuff like that,” she said. “People can grab a treat or two off the buffet and make sure their dog likes it.”
However, something to be prepared for is “ultimate cuteness.” Parsons explained that she strives to make the shop as adorable as possible. And she wants to spread the love. Dogs-N-Donuts is looking to franchise the business in the near future to reach customers in other areas of the city. However, the timeline for that has yet to be determined.
Until then, Parsons is happy to continue what she’s doing. “(The) ultimate goal is just to make the dogs happy,” she said. “If your dog is happy, the person is going to be happy.”
