Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Bailey.
Hi Ryan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My path to starting Canine Keeps wasn’t necessarily a straight line. I’ve spent much of my career in the corporate world, working across operations, product management, and strategy in both the CPG and tech industries. I learned a lot during that time, but I always had the desire to eventually build something of my own, ideally something connected to a problem I genuinely cared about.
That problem became much clearer through my relationship with dogs. I grew up with a German Shepherd named Sarge, and like so many dog owners, I experienced firsthand how quickly the years with them seem to go. As I got older, I became increasingly interested in my own health and wellness. Exercise, diet, proactive bloodwork, supplementation, etc. And it got me thinking more about canine health, nutrition, and what we can do proactively to give our dogs longer, healthier lives as well.
That curiosity eventually became the foundation for Canine Keeps. We saw a pet supplement industry filled with products that didn’t live up to our standards, and often required dog owners to buy several different chews, powders, and oils to support different areas of their dog’s health. At the same time, every dog is different: their age, breed, size, lifestyle, and health priorities all matter. We felt there was an opportunity to make daily supplementation simpler and more personalized.
So we created Canine Keeps around the idea of one personalized daily formula for each dog. Dog parents take a quiz about their dog, and we recommend a formula designed to provide a broad foundation for whole-body wellness combined with targeted support for their individual needs. We’ve been very intentional about the ingredients we use, the experts we work with, and creating something we would feel confident giving to our own dogs every day.
Along the way, we also realized we wanted Canine Keeps to be about more than selling a product. Dog wellness is shaped by many factors beyond the bowl, such as exercise, enrichment, socialization, and preventive care. That led us to create Play for Keeps, our Austin-based community initiative focused on bringing dog owners together through events, education, local partnerships, and conversations around canine wellness.
We’re still very much in the early chapters of the story, which is part of what makes it exciting. Building a brand from the ground up has required us to learn constantly, from product development and manufacturing to marketing, community building, and simply listening to dog owners. But the mission has remained pretty simple throughout: help people be more proactive about their dog’s health so they can hopefully enjoy more healthy years together.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, but I think that’s probably true of most boot-strapped businesses built from the ground up.
One of the biggest challenges has been learning just how many pieces have to come together to build a consumer brand. Developing the product itself was only the beginning. We’ve had to learn manufacturing, sourcing, packaging, logistics, website development, customer experience, marketing, events, and everything in between. When you’re a small team, there isn’t really a department to hand something off to, you have to figure it out yourself. There is also a lot of shiny objects out there and “growth hacking” trends that can be tempting. Figuring out what works for Canine Keeps and leaning into those instead of chasing the latest fad required us to develop a certain level of discipline.
Product development was also a much longer and more complicated process than we initially expected. We were very particular about the ingredients we wanted to use, the quality standards we wanted to maintain, and making sure the formulas were something we genuinely believed in. That meant a lot of iteration, conversations with experts and manufacturers, and difficult decisions about where to invest and where to simplify.
Another challenge has been figuring out how to communicate what makes Canine Keeps different. The dog supplement space is crowded, and consumers are presented with an overwhelming number of products and claims. We didn’t want to simply be another jar on the shelf, so a big part of the journey has been learning how to explain personalization, whole-body wellness, and ingredient quality in a way that is simple and meaningful to dog owners.
And then there is the reality of growth. You can spend months building something you believe is great and then launch it into the world and realize that awareness doesn’t happen overnight. We’ve had to experiment with events, social media, email, partnerships, and advertising to understand what actually resonates. Some ideas have worked, others haven’t, and we’ve had to get comfortable treating almost everything as a learning opportunity.
The biggest lesson has probably been patience. As a founder, you always want things to move faster, but building trust, especially when it comes to something people give their dogs every day, takes time. We’re still learning constantly, and I think being willing to adapt without losing sight of why we started has been one of the most important parts of the journey.
As you know, we’re big fans of Canine Keeps. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Canine Keeps is a personalized daily supplement brand for dogs built around a simple idea: helping dog owners support their dog’s health proactively, in a way that is easy to understand and easy to stick with.
The supplement space can be overwhelming. Dog owners are often told they need one product for joints, another for digestion, another for allergies, another for calming, and so on. And when you go looking for the right supplement for your dog, you are met with endless options that are basically the same as one another, making it difficult to choose the right option for your pup. We wanted to simplify that experience by creating one personalized daily formula based on each dog’s age, size, breed, lifestyle, and primary health needs.
Our formulas are designed to support whole-body wellness while providing more targeted support where an individual dog may need it most. We select from over 50 natural ingredients that support areas such as joint health, digestion, allergies and immunity, skin, calming, and healthy aging. Every formula also includes a broad foundation of ingredients intended to support overall health, since wellness is shaped by many different pathways.
What really sets us apart is the combination of personalization, ingredient quality, and simplicity. We use carefully selected human-grade ingredients like organic superfoods and grass-fed bovine organs, and we have every batch third party tested. We’ve also worked closely with canine nutrition experts and veterinary partners throughout the process.
We’re also very intentional about the customer experience. Rather than asking someone to sort through a long list of products and figure out what their dog needs on their own, we guide them through a short quiz and recommend one complete formula that best fits their dog.
One thing I’m especially proud of is that we’ve tried to build Canine Keeps as more than just a supplement company. Through Play for Keeps, our Austin-based community initiative, we host events, share education around canine nutrition and wellness, partner with local organizations, and create opportunities for dog owners to connect with one another. We want the brand to feel like a resource and a community, not simply a product someone buys online.
Ultimately, we want people to know that Canine Keeps is about helping dogs live healthier lives and helping their people feel more confident about the choices they’re making for them. We’re still a young brand, but we’ve been very deliberate about building something that combines quality, personalization, education, and community in a way that feels genuinely useful to dog owners.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I think luck plays a role in almost every business, even if we don’t always recognize it in the moment. I’ve certainly been fortunate to have experiences, relationships, and opportunities throughout my career that ultimately gave me the confidence and skill set to try building something of my own.
With Canine Keeps, some of our best opportunities have come from simply putting ourselves out there. A conversation at an event can turn into a partnership, an introduction can lead to someone who helps solve a problem we’ve been working through, or feedback from one dog owner can completely change how we think about part of the business. You can’t necessarily plan for those moments, but you can put yourself in positions where they’re more likely to happen.
I’ve also come to believe that what looks like luck from the outside is often the result of a lot of persistence behind the scenes. You might have one conversation that opens a door, but there were probably dozens before it that went nowhere. We’ve tried to keep showing up, meeting people, testing ideas, listening to customers, and giving ourselves as many chances as possible for something good to happen.
So I’m definitely grateful for the good luck we’ve had, but I try not to rely on it. The goal is to keep doing the work, stay open to unexpected opportunities, and be ready to take advantage of them when they come along.
Pricing:
- We offer up to 32% off your first subscription order, along with free shipping
Contact Info:
- Website: https://caninekeeps.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caninekeeps/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caninekeeps
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/canine-keeps/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@caninekeeps
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@caninekeeps
