Thinking of Selling Dog Treats in Your Baking Business? Read This First
- Rebecca Cook
- Apr 7
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
At some point, most bakers have probably had the same thought:
“Ooh… I could do dog birthday cakes and matching treats.”
Cute idea.
Lovely extra income stream.
Very Instagrammable.
Except… once I actually looked into it, I realised dog treats are not the sweet little low-effort side hustle people think they are.
In fact, in some ways, they can be more complicated than feeding humans, which feels deeply unfair when my own dogs are absolutely delighted to discover the regularly discarded school lunch in a hedge on our morning walk.
Sandwiches.
Mini tomatoes.
Red pepper slices.
They go mad for it — although they are noticeably more enthusiastic on cheese or ham sandwich days.
And yet apparently there are less stringent rules around making a Victoria sponge to feed to humans, who are, in theory, a bit more civilised in their eating habits.
Why dog treats sound like the perfect baking side hustle
On paper, it makes total sense.
If you already bake from home, already have customers, and already know your way around ingredients, packaging and food hygiene, then adding a few dog treats or even dog birthday cakes can seem like a smart little bolt-on.
People love their dogs.
Dogs have birthdays now.
People will absolutely buy them snacks.
So I completely understand why so many bakers look at it and think:
“Well that seems easy enough.”
The problem is… commercially, it often isn’t.
The myth: “It’s just for dogs, so the rules must be simpler”
This is where people get caught out.
If you’re making dog treats or pet food to sell commercially in the UK, you are not just making “cute dog bakery bits.” You are stepping into the world of pet feed, which has its own legal and regulatory requirements.
That can mean things like:
registering as a feed business
having the right hygiene and traceability systems in place
following specific labelling requirements
and depending on what you use, potentially needing additional approvals
So while it might look like a fun “while I’m baking anyway…” extra, it is not always something you can just casually add to your normal cake business.
The bit that surprised me most
The real kicker?
If your dog treats contain products of animal origin — things like meat, fish, eggs, milk, butter or honey — the rules get stricter again.
That is where it can move beyond simple registration and into needing approval linked to animal by-products rules, depending on what you’re making and how you’re making it.
And yes, this can still apply even if:
the ingredients are fit for human consumption
they were bought from a supermarket
and you are making them on a small scale or in a domestic kitchen
Which is the exact point where a lot of people go:
“Sorry… what?”
Honestly, same.
“But I already bake human food — surely that helps?”
It helps in the sense that you probably already understand hygiene, cleaning, allergens, traceability and food business basics.
But it does not automatically mean dog treats are just a seamless little extension of your existing setup.
There is guidance around producing food and pet food from the same premises, but it’s very much a proper systems, separation and documentation situation — not a “just pop the dog biscuits in after the brownies” situation.
If you were doing both, you’d need to think carefully about things like:
separation of processes
contamination controls
cleaning
storage
packaging
traceability
and whether your ingredients push you into additional approval territory
In some cases, batch separation may be acceptable — but only where the risks are properly managed and documented.
A real example that stuck with me
I know of someone in the salmon industry who looked into using human-grade salmon offcuts to make air-dried dog treats.
Which sounds sensible, right?
Less waste.
Extra revenue.
Nice idea.
Except it still wasn’t a simple case of:
“Well it’s good enough for humans, so surely it’s fine for dogs.”
Because once it becomes a pet product, it falls into a different regulatory framework and can trigger much more stringent requirements around production, compliance and testing.
Added to that, every pet food product you want to sell has to be sent away for testing at a cost of £70 per test.
That was the point where I really thought:
Ah. This is not a cute add-on. This is basically its own business.
So… are dog treats a good side hustle for bakers?
Potentially, yes.
But I think the honest answer is:
It’s probably an either/or business model, not a cute little side line.
Could someone build a brilliant, compliant dog treat brand properly and legally in the UK? Absolutely.
Would I personally treat it as a “while I’m here I may as well do a few pupcakes too” extension of a normal cake business?
No.
Not unless I was prepared to build that side of the business properly from the ground up.
And that is really the point of this post.
Not to put anyone off.
Just to save people from assuming dog treats are an easy extra — only to discover they’ve wandered into a much more regulated world than expected.
Will you sell dog treats in your own Cake Shed?
We've taken the decision to not make our own dog treats for The Cake Shed.
However....
We will soon be stocking products from The Happy Hound Artisan Bakery - a specialist dog-treat business based on the sunny Isle of Wight run by mother and daughter duo, Jan and Hannah Brookes with golden retrievers, Bertie and Bonnie who are in charge of taste-testing.
It's the right decision for our business - allowing us to bring great cakes to our customers and allow them to treat their pups too. That feels much more sensible than trying to force two very different production worlds into one cute little side hustle.
This decision was partly motivated by wanting to spoil my own dogs with some Woofles and Doggy Donuts - and partly because I get disproportionately excited when I get to meet the fur babies that visit The Cake Shed.
And if this has you're a home baker worrying business baking is complicated enough…
If you like this kind of honest, practical, no-fluff chat about running a baking business in the UK, come and join The Baking Business Hub on Facebook.
No scaremongering.
No nonsense.
Just useful support, real talk and the sort of business advice that saves you from disappearing into a government guidance rabbit hole at 10:47pm.
If you enjoy a good “wait… seriously?” food business rabbit hole, you might also like:
And if you are a baker who is preparing for their first Environmental Health Inspection and wants to feel clearer and more confident about what you actually need in place for your food business, my mini course EHO Visit Ready is there to help.
Sources and useful guidance
This post is based on UK guidance including:
Food Standards Agency / co-location guidance for food and pet food production
Guidance on the manufacture of homemade dog treats
UK guidance on pet food labelling
You can also contact your own local authority or Trading Standards team for advice specific to your setup.
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