From Chewed Leashes to a Thriving Business: How One Rescue Dog Inspired Bolder K9
Hey there, friends! In this episode of the Exploring Washington State podcast, your host Scott Cowan dives into a fun and heartwarming conversation with Jake Eberhart, the innovative mind behind Bolder K9 Jake shares his journey of moving to Washington, adopting a rescue pup, and turning a chewed-up leash into a thriving business that gives back to animal rescues and shelters.
What’s Inside This Episode?
- The Bolder K9 Story: Jake talks about how a destroyed leash inspired him and his wife to start crafting durable, custom leashes and collars.
- Moving to Washington: Discover how Jake and his wife found their way from New York to the Pacific Northwest, complete with cross-country adventures and unexpected pit stops.
- Rescue Stories: Learn about Theobold, the German Shepherd who sparked Bolder K9’s mission, and the incredible work Jake does with True North GSD Rescue.
- Customization and Craftsmanship: From 33 leash colors to innovative FrogClips, Jake explains how Bolder K9 stands out by blending creativity, durability, and functionality.
- Hiking with Dogs: Jake shares his favorite dog-friendly hiking spots in Washington, including hidden gems like Anderson and Watson Lakes.
- Nonprofit Partnerships: Hear about Bolder K9’s work with organizations like Forgotten Dogs for Forgotten Vets, connecting rescue dogs with veterans in need.
Why You Should Listen
This episode is packed with inspiration for dog lovers, entrepreneurs, and anyone curious about Washington’s outdoor adventures. Jake’s passion for helping animals and creating quality products shines through every story he shares. Plus, you’ll hear some great tips on local hikes and even where to find amazing gluten-free pastries in Kenmore!
Where to Find Bolder K9
Mentioned in This Episode
- True North GSD Rescue: Supporting German Shepherd rescues.
- Forgotten Dogs for Forgotten Vets: Pairing rescue dogs with veterans in need.
- Diva Espresso in Kenmore: Jake’s go-to spot for gluten-free pastries and coffee.
- Favorite Hikes: Anderson and Watson Lakes, Kulchuck Lake, and Barclay Lake.
Episode Transcript
Hello, friends, and welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the host of the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington State. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re gonna like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest. I am I am sitting down today, well, remotely. I am sitting down with Jake Eberhardt of Bolder K9.
Scott Cowan [00:00:31]:
That’s Boulder and that was Bosley. Bolder K9. And, Jake, Bosley is saying hello because this is a dog episode. He wants to, he wants to chime in. So this is what I do about what you guys are doing. So you you guys moved out here from New York, but you got a rescue dog. Mhmm. And and well or maybe a shark because I see the word shark on the website.
Jake Eberhart [00:00:56]:
Pretty much both.
Scott Cowan [00:00:57]:
And I see that he, chewed to a an expensive leash. Correct. And that motivated you guys to start making leashes in in dog collars and things like that. And so first off, welcome.
Jake Eberhart [00:01:15]:
Thank you.
Scott Cowan [00:01:16]:
We’re gonna be talking about dogs, dog collars, leashes, all things dogs today. Most people when they have something happen in their life, like the dog chewed through something, we don’t go out and start making them ourselves. So what was the motivate I mean, that’s that’s I’m gonna applaud you for that. Yeah. So kudos to you. Did you ever think when you were in college you’d be doing this?
Jake Eberhart [00:01:39]:
No. I went to college for economics. I was really hoping to do something a little bit more professional at the end of the day. Okay. You know, I had a couple of marketing jobs after college, which kinda get me started in, you know, all of the things I would need to do in order to run a business Mhmm. From the advertising advertising and marketing side, but, no, I did not expect to be making leashes and collars every single day. Probably going to be for the next 10 years. I did not anticipate that.
Scott Cowan [00:02:08]:
That so so folks, Bosley’s gonna be a pain in this episode. We’re just gonna let it run. So you went to college with gotten in with for econ. I I kinda can relate to that. I was, I was a finance major, but didn’t do anything with it either in the grand scheme of things. Volleyball, don’t get me wrong, and I’m sure you you learned a lot of great lessons in the econ programs. So what brought you out to Washington State?
Jake Eberhart [00:02:37]:
So once I finished up college, we did a little trip with our family out to Italy for a couple of weeks as a graduation gift. And in that time, my now wife, her parents offered us free rent if we wanted to move out here. So that was a pretty easy decision. So within a couple of days after we got back from that trip, I I swear, maybe 2 or 3 days, we decided to rent a car and drive across the country.
And at the time, our only animal that we had was this little hamster, like, little tiny white and beige hamster. And so we took pictures of him across the country as we went different places. We have pictures in front of him in front of, Mount Rushmore, by the badlands, the canyons. We have pictures of him everywhere across the board.
Jake Eberhart [00:03:23]:
And that’s kinda how we got out here. And then we just lived with our parents for a bit until we got our own place.
Scott Cowan [00:03:28]:
So did your wife grow up in the Seattle west side of
Jake Eberhart [00:03:31]:
She did.
Scott Cowan [00:03:32]:
Okay. So she Yeah. Okay. So why and so you met in college?
Jake Eberhart [00:03:36]:
Yeah. So we actually went to Italy for our 1st year abroad. Mhmm. So we were freshmen in Florence, and that’s where we met.
Scott Cowan [00:03:43]:
Okay.
Jake Eberhart [00:03:43]:
And then she went back, and we both went to NYU together Okay. For the full 4 years. And just kinda went
Scott Cowan [00:03:49]:
And what did she major in?
Jake Eberhart [00:03:52]:
She was political science with a minor in psychology.
Scott Cowan [00:03:55]:
See this. I can see the dog business coming from that.
Jake Eberhart [00:03:59]:
Yeah. Big time. At least at least a really big care for animals, and people. Right? Because naturally, once you start caring for people, you’re like, wait a second. Dogs are more fun.
Scott Cowan [00:04:11]:
Have you met my dog? But he is more fun. So alright. So when did you get so how long were you okay. So you you lived with your your wife’s parents for a while and, you know, we all know how that goes. I mean, no offense to them. No offense to you. It’s just, you know, blending. They’re lovely.
Scott Cowan [00:04:31]:
Blending blending generations is a bit of a challenge, especially just out of college. So you guys got your own place. What how fast did you get a dog?
Jake Eberhart [00:04:43]:
It was pretty quick. So we moved into our first apartment. We actually ended up hanging on to our family chihuahua at the time. Her family had 2 German shepherds, and that’s where I really got started in working with German because I’ve worked in rescue and nonprofits since, a silly high school requirement when I was 15. That really just got me kicked off.
And so when we were out here, we went to our own apartment, and we were actually hanging on to our family resident Chihuahua. And then after that, we decided, hey. Let’s go buy a house so we can have our own big dog.
Jake Eberhart [00:05:16]:
So once we bought a house, it was pretty much immediate. We we got our first rescue dog, Theo, who is the inspiration for our business.
Scott Cowan [00:05:24]:
And how old was Theo when you got him?
Jake Eberhart [00:05:26]:
He was 13 weeks.
Scott Cowan [00:05:29]:
Oh, really young. 12 weeks.
Jake Eberhart [00:05:31]:
Over 2 weeks. Yeah. So he was very very young. Okay. It was actually a really crazy story. There was a woman selling a puppy on Craigslist for $50 over in Kennewick German Shepherd for $50. That German Shepherd is not going to land in a house that it deserves. So we went and picked it up, but we drove all the way to Kennewick, all the way there.
Jake Eberhart [00:05:59]:
And then we got a text from the lady saying, hey. I’m, you know, another 30 minutes out. And then we drove another 30 minutes, said another 30 minutes out, drove another so we’re about 5 hours one way into a drive. And we were starting to get fed up because we were, at this point, waiting in a parking lot of a Walmart for almost an hour. And I set a timer on my phone for 5 minutes, and lo and behold, she showed up, and we met Theo for the first time.
Scott Cowan [00:06:25]:
To go
Jake Eberhart [00:06:26]:
all the way back with him.
Scott Cowan [00:06:27]:
And how did he handle that car ride?
Jake Eberhart [00:06:29]:
Oh, wonderful. He’s, one of those dogs that can live and breathe and and sleep in the car and eat in the car. It’s his one of his favorite places in the entire world. He just likes going
Scott Cowan [00:06:39]:
places. Yeah. It’s it’s great when they’re when they’re, when we we got Easy. Yeah. We got Bosley, and we had to pick him up in Idaho. And, it’s it’s about a 4 and a half hour drive for us. You know? And, he he slept the whole ride home, which is what he does every time he’s in the car now. He just sleeps.
Scott Cowan [00:06:58]:
I mean, he he doesn’t do this barking thing like he’s doing.
Jake Eberhart [00:07:04]:
We should have had the podcast in
Scott Cowan [00:07:05]:
the park. Yeah. He’s gonna be relentless because he wants outside so bad, and and he’s gonna just go bark loudly at the neighbor, and we’re just not gonna allow it. So, alright. So how old was Theo when he when he chewed through this leash?
Jake Eberhart [00:07:19]:
This is probably around him being 6 months old. And I I told the story a lot of times, but I’ll say it with all of my my passion, now. And so my wife had ordered a new bioethane leash off of Amazon. And at the time, you know, a couple of years ago, bioethane leashes were very expensive because not a lot of people were making them.
It was kind of a really rare sought after material that everyone loved. It’s kinda most simple. So they charged about 80 or $90 for a simple leash. So it it was it was expensive, and then he chewed through it.
Jake Eberhart [00:07:54]:
And then she got the same leash again a second time. Now the $90 and as, you know, dual income full time career parents with just a puppy, we’re like, let’s just get another one. Let’s just keep cycling through. Chew through it. And then we borrowed her mom’s leash, which was like her, her she’s had this leash for I can’t even tell you how long. A long, long time. It was probably one of the first BioThin leashes that was ever created. She’s had it for 10 years since then.
Jake Eberhart [00:08:22]:
So way even before it was rare for us. And he chewed to that one too. And I felt pretty bad about that. That was really what happened, and I and I said, I’m gonna fix this. I don’t know how. I’m going to fix your leash that you’ve had for the last decade. And I did. And I did some really simple research on Amazon, figured out what materials I needed to order in order to fix the existing leash.
Jake Eberhart [00:08:44]:
And I realized it was really easy. I was like, okay, cool. I can actually do this. So then I decided, let’s find the material and see if I can make my own because why not? Instead of buying a new one, why not create our own? Because at the time we were renovating our house, we were really in this DIY mindset where, you know, I was installing toilets and sinks.
Making a leash doesn’t seem that difficult. And so I just I started and that was the first leash I ever fixed was actually her mom’s very expensive, very nice leash after we had ruined 2 of our own. And then I actually ended up making our own leash the first time, which surprisingly, he did not chew through.
Scott Cowan [00:09:21]:
Okay. We’re gonna stop right here because I have a question. Yeah. What is BioThane? Because you reference it a lot and
Jake Eberhart [00:09:28]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:09:28]:
I’m I’ve not heard of it before. So if I haven’t heard it before, I’m just gonna guess somebody in the audience is going, what’s BioThane? So what is BioThane and why is it desirable for leashes and collars?
Jake Eberhart [00:09:40]:
Yeah. So it’s essentially, one of the newer pet product materials that’s at the market. You’ve probably seen those, like, regular nylon leashes at the pet store, just the regular fabric ones. So that’s actually on the inside, and there’s a PVC coating on the outside.
So it’s actually plastic, technically, but it feels like a broken in leather. And from my understanding, the original use for it was actually for horse tech, because they wanted something that was waterproof and they wanted something that was really strong and that could last for a long
Scott Cowan [00:10:10]:
time as
Jake Eberhart [00:10:10]:
well as keep that color and not crack like leather wood out in the elements. So that essentially is biothane. It’s PVC wrapped nylon that’s super strong, it’s, odor resistance like I have leaches that I only take on hikes Mhmm. And I rinse them in rivers. And now, 3 years later, they don’t even smell. And they still look nice and brightly colored. So that’s essentially what it is. And and it’s short very short form.
Scott Cowan [00:10:34]:
Alright. So you fixed your mother in law’s leash. You both went to NYU. Now I wanna talk about a very specific conversation I’m sure you had. And I’m paraphrasing. Hey, honey. I think we should open a business. Let’s make dog leashes.
Scott Cowan [00:10:54]:
What was the what was that moment where the 2 of you kinda the light bulb moment, you know, went on and you’re like, we should do this.
Jake Eberhart [00:11:05]:
The light bulb moment was really when I decided to go full time in this business. So at the beginning, we were rescuing, quite a few dogs. We were volunteering, fostering
Scott Cowan [00:11:16]:
k.
Jake Eberhart [00:11:16]:
Out every single weekend working with other fosters, working with other volunteers, working with volunteers, working with dogs. And at the same time, I started making these leashes, and we said, okay. Cool. Why don’t we actually make these leashes for our our volunteers? Mhmm. And that was, I believe, my wife’s idea. I don’t even think it was my idea to begin with. It was her idea. She goes, why don’t you make some leashes for our volunteers just to say thank you?
Scott Cowan [00:11:38]:
Right? Free? Right. Just just doing it.
Jake Eberhart [00:11:41]:
Free. Just doing it. We appreciate you kind of thing. And it was so well received. We ended up transitioning that to all the dogs that were adopted would go home with their own leash and people could choose the color. And at the time, we had, like, 4 colors, and that became its own independent thing. So now we’ve got all of our volunteers with our leashes and all of our, adopters of the leashes. And at that time, the business wasn’t even created.
Jake Eberhart [00:12:06]:
We were stamping it with the True North GSD rescue logo of the rescue that we supported. So we didn’t even have a business name at that point. We were just making these leashes and and providing them to adopters and volunteers. And then a friend told a friend, a family member told a family member, and we started getting requests left and right to make leashes.
And at that point, we decided, okay. Well, we’re gonna need to start a business because we want this to become independent of the rescue, but also keep our, values and morals to donating to rescue true, and allow those to continue on even though we’re becoming our own independent business.
At the time, my wife, Catherine, had started an Instagram account for our dogs called the the Boulder brothers because our Theo is short for Theo Bold, And we started his Instagram, and then we got another rescue dog, so they became the Bolder brothers. And so naturally, Bolder K9 just kinda came out of that.
Jake Eberhart [00:13:05]:
That was just like a clear I I came up with so many silly business business names. I mean, I there’s gotta be a list somewhere of the 20 or 30 that I was thinking between. And that one, as we were just one night hanging out with the dogs, posting a reel on Instagram for them, just came to us. It made sense.
Scott Cowan [00:13:21]:
Is it on a side note? Isn’t it amazing how popular dog dog can be on Instagram? It’s it’s amazing to me. It’s amazing to me how dogs
Jake Eberhart [00:13:33]:
Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:13:33]:
They’re I mean, there’s a couple of Bernese mountain dogs that have, you know, 500,000 followers of that they’re yeah. Yeah. And I don’t I don’t my my daughter manages the Instagram for us, and, you know, she doesn’t allow me on there because it’s like, okay. Okay. Okay, Boomer. Stay away. Go go look at Facebook. And even on Facebook, there’s a bunch of Bernese Mountain dogs.
Scott Cowan [00:13:53]:
And it’s just interesting to me how dogs in particular have these massive I’ve interviewed a couple of, in you know, social media influencers with the Bernese Mountain Dogs, you know, before for the show. It’s like, they’re just Yeah. Anyway. And and yeah.
Jake Eberhart [00:14:14]:
You know, coming from the marketing world, I was managing social media all the time. I I in college, I I posted on my Instagram for my friends. Then when I started working in social media, I didn’t wanna do it anymore. I was like, I’m done. I can’t. I don’t wanna do it anymore. And so because I was doing it for work and I was getting paid for it and it just didn’t feel like at the end of the day,
I wanted to go on my own social media and post a photo. So I was kind of against it at first and then, you know, my wife started taking all these really funny videos and they genuinely were hysterical.
Jake Eberhart [00:14:45]:
And I wanted to share them. All of a sudden that kind of love for, you know, my dogs online and sharing that those memories and those experiences with other people became something that I wanted to do. And we were both having a great time with it. And we had a couple of reels go viral when we first started, because we had a puppy.
We had multiple puppies coming in through fosters. We had other fosters, older fosters, younger fosters. We had so many dogs that we could highlight. And it also benefited the rescue to have these foster dogs and dogs that are available to adopt be parts of viral reels because it brought in not only donations to the rescue, but also eyes for adopters that get to see these really quirky parts of their personality that a simple blurb on a website about them just wouldn’t really show.
Jake Eberhart [00:15:33]:
And that’s really why we we kinda went with that social media to begin with for our dogs. It’s just kinda like they’re silly, they’re goofy, they’re honestly most of the time pretty dumb. But we love them all the same. And we wanted to kinda highlight that and our foster dogs were the same way. So it was weird because I really didn’t wanna do it at first, and then I ended up getting convinced to go back onto it.
Scott Cowan [00:15:57]:
Let’s talk about well, let’s talk about the the the the rescue for a second. And why don’t you spend a couple of minutes here sharing more about that specific rescue or any other rescues that you guys are, you know, helping out these days? We’ve
Jake Eberhart [00:16:16]:
yeah. I can definitely do that. There is quite a bit to talk about there, as I’m sure a lot of people listening to this podcast, you know, in Washington. Washington has a pretty weird state of rescue right now. But I’ll kinda talk about where I came from. So I had mentioned earlier that I had a silly high school prerequisite that got me into rescue.
And I was in New York City going up to the Petco on 86th Street every Saturday morning to help set up crates for cats and dogs that are being adopted there. Now I’d head out, and I would come back at 6 o’clock, and it helped break them down.
Jake Eberhart [00:16:50]:
And then eventually, that transition to staying for the whole event. Then fast forward a couple of years, my wife is working with another local German Shepherd Rescue, and I started kind of dipping my hands into that rescue too, doing some of their social media stuff very, very sparingly, as we both had, you know, growing careers. We were trying to find time for that kind of thing. It was nice to get back into it. And, eventually, one of the volunteers of that rescue ended up starting their own, which was true of GSD Rescue.
And about a year later, we decided, you know what? Let’s just go full on with this new volunteer and join this new rescue and kinda be at the ground floor instead of something that’s already been developed and grown. Let’s see if we can make a difference, and maybe our voices will be heard a little bit more as volunteers and fosters. So we started with True North GSD Rescue about a year after they started.
Jake Eberhart [00:17:42]:
So they were founded in February or March of 2018, and we joined sometime January of 2019 Okay. Right before COVID. Perfect. And as we started working with them more, we started realizing that the way that they were being led was the most honest and genuine way their rescue could be run that I’d ever seen them. Again, I worked nonprofits for a very long time, and I never really felt like I had a voice. I just kinda felt like I was an additional hand
Scott Cowan [00:18:11]:
Mhmm.
Jake Eberhart [00:18:11]:
Helping turn the cogs. And I really like that. I really like that my voice could be heard because at the end of the day, we’re the ones with these dogs 247. Mhmm. They’re at our home. Mhmm. They’re in our lives. They’re integrated with our routines and our structure.
Jake Eberhart [00:18:25]:
And really, we do know every part of them. We know their ins and outs. We know their quirks. And in other rescues, I didn’t really feel like our opinion was being, held higher. So when they were getting out adoptions, at times, we would be ignored a little bit. And I didn’t really love that, and they really set well with me. So this new rescue, they really cared about what we thought, and we actually had a really big influence. So we joined, really went boots on the ground.
Jake Eberhart [00:18:54]:
We’re fostering 247 for about 3 years through COVID. So we had at minimum 1 foster dog in our house at all times. From 2019 to about 2022, we had a foster dog in our house at all times. We ended up, I think, going through about 20 or 30 of them during that time, and we had our own dogs too, and we had our own full time jobs as well.
And I was getting started on the leashes. So now in this rescue, my wife is still a really big part of it. I still volunteer, obviously, but since I donate so much, I’ve kind of stepped away a little bit as far as, like, the operations are concerned, and I’m helping temperament test dogs, because every dog that comes into the rescue goes through some level of behavioral assessment, and I’m one of the people that helps conduct that. We’re advocating for volunteers, making sure people are supported.
Jake Eberhart [00:19:48]:
They have the gear, the food, any kind of vet bills or medical expenses that’s all taken care of. Kind of like a rescued liaison. We partner with some other local rescues as well when maybe we don’t have room for a dog or maybe they don’t have room for a dog, and we try to network and find room for a place, especially with dogs and shelters that are wonderful. We wanna try and get those dogs out as fast as possible. But now we’re really just doing at minimum 10 hours a week volunteering.
I and with a full time foster, we’re on the phone, we’re texting people, we’re in group chats, we’re helping with social media, marketing, photography, videography, the list goes on. But we are just really highly rooted in this rescue, and I would never change that. And that was part of the decision why I became full time in Boulder Canine was so that I could actually be one of those people that if dog needed help, I can just close down my shop and go, and leave, and go help that dog.
Jake Eberhart [00:20:48]:
I could never do that with a full time job. I can’t just dip out of a meeting and go help save a dog or pull dog from a shelter. I could never do that. And now I own my own business. So if I want to leave and go help, I can. And I don’t think anybody’s gonna be mad at me for doing that.
Scott Cowan [00:21:04]:
Well, you might beat yourself up that next day. Alright. You started okay. So you started repairing.
Jake Eberhart [00:21:15]:
Yes.
Scott Cowan [00:21:16]:
And then you started making them for the for the rescue volunteers. Mhmm. And then you started making them as something goes home with every dog.
Jake Eberhart [00:21:27]:
Yeah. We kinda called it like a creative fundraising technique because, you know, when you talk about we’re going back to econ first, I can hear. When people are donating money and they don’t get anything return except for self gratification, they’re a lot less likely to donate. And I know that sounds a little bit, that’s that’s just the reality
Scott Cowan [00:21:49]:
of That’s just human nature.
Jake Eberhart [00:21:50]:
It is human. It is human nature.
Scott Cowan [00:21:53]:
You know, it’s like, you know, think about this, you know, you know, why does why does the University of Washington have a wealth donor’s name on a building? I mean, they want because it was a not not probably, hopefully, the only reason, but they reason that that that individual or that family decided to be very generous with with the resources. And it’s that happens. I mean, people want recognition. And, yes, I can give you a nice certificate thanking you for, you know, your 1,000 hours of volunteering this year.
Jake Eberhart [00:22:29]:
Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:22:32]:
But, if you handed me, you know, if I handed you a leash, no matter what the monetary cost of it was, it was something tangible that you you might it’s just human nature. I don’t think it’s a good or a bad thing. I just think it’s the way people humans are wired.
Jake Eberhart [00:22:46]:
Bingo. And right before COVID, we at the rescue, things are really picking up before COVID. And I don’t really mean in a good way. We were getting lots more surrenders.
Scott Cowan [00:22:58]:
Mhmm.
Jake Eberhart [00:22:58]:
Lots of people that could no longer care for their dogs. So we had an influx of dogs. I mean, at one point, we had 3 fosters in our house because it was really hard to find foster parents. So we had 3 foster dogs in our house and we were rotating. We had 4 rotates throughout their house throughout the day while working full time jobs.
Scott Cowan [00:23:16]:
Wow.
Jake Eberhart [00:23:17]:
And so as we started this business, the creative fundraising technique actually worked really well because we could sell the leash, quote, unquote, sell. Mhmm. And we would basically be able to contribute all of the money that was generated from that sale and go right back to the rescue. Mhmm. And so at the beginning, I wasn’t covering my costs and I was just going a 100% of every single sale was going right to the rescue.
That eventually changed and I eventually decided to go with, okay, we’re gonna switch that over profits because I still need to be able to run the business. I still need to be able to do all those things. And during COVID, all of a sudden, everyone would do.
Jake Eberhart [00:23:55]:
And so there was another influx of different types of costs and expenses that everyone was bringing on. We had more vet bills because we had to make sure that all dogs were checked out, or if they needed spay or neuter before they were leaving the rescue, we had to make sure of that. We had to make sure they were up to help. We had to pay for transport costs.
There was just so much more to pay for in a different way that leashes and selling leashes and selling tugs when we first started doing that was a huge contributing factor for us not having to go out and fundraise 247. Mhmm. And the rescue is still always I mean, every rescue everywhere in the world needs more funding. It’s just the truth.
Jake Eberhart [00:24:34]:
There’s there’s no amount that I could give that I’ll completely compensate everything that they do. But in those times where things started getting crazy, being able to focus more on the dogs and the people rather than having to go out and actually look for funding was a huge, huge benefit. And they actually were able to adopt out a lot more dogs during COVID, than we’ve seen in the previous years because of that fact.
Scott Cowan [00:25:01]:
Okay. Yeah. What was so when you when you decided to start selling, what was your first product?
Jake Eberhart [00:25:15]:
Actually, funny you say that. Who is this one? And I still make it. This is still a design we have today. So this is called our Atlas Leash. I don’t funny that I have one right next
Scott Cowan [00:25:26]:
to me. So the Atlas Leash. K?
Jake Eberhart [00:25:28]:
It’s the Atlas Leash was our first ever leash because when we did the repair, that was just simple. We folded the material over and put it together. But when we were gonna start selling things, I said to myself, it’s gotta be cooler. It’s gotta be more intriguing.
I asked you more about it. And at the time, all I ever saw was single color leashes. And I was like, why can’t we put 2 colors or 3 colors on a leash? And that’s kinda how this design was created is to be able to do 2 colors on a leash instead. So we started selling this one at the beginning for the donations for the rescue, and it looked a little bit different, definitely.
Jake Eberhart [00:26:08]:
We’ve come a long way when it comes down to the different types of hardware we’re using now, the different types of techniques that we’re using, how we’re actually finishing the product. But this is still our first ever design that we created. And to date, it’s still our best selling standard leash. I mean, this is just the one that we started with, and it’s the one that’s ranged from I’m
Scott Cowan [00:26:28]:
on your website, and I’m looking at the Atlas leash. Now I know this is an audio show, so people, you know, gotta put up with me here. And the the photo of it is it it’s the the leash itself is blue. The handle is is a a leather brown. But there’s this clip on the end. Yeah. This black clip. Is that the frog clip? Okay.
Scott Cowan [00:26:53]:
It is the frog clip.
Jake Eberhart [00:26:55]:
Yeah. It looks like the
Scott Cowan [00:26:56]:
head of a set of pliers, if you will. You know? It looks like and I’m looking at it. I’m like, what on earth? So I warned you, this is where we go off the rails. You know, Scott finds something and we start talking, but, yeah, what what the heck is a front clip, and why why are you using it on a leash? One of one of the
Jake Eberhart [00:27:14]:
things that I think differentiates us is we really try to go out of the box when it comes to dog leashes. I I like things that are really minimalist, and I like things that are functional. My I’m sure our customers have heard me say this before, but my goal is that whatever I make and whatever I send you, I want you to be able to pick it up with no instructions and know how to use it in 30 seconds or less. And that’s always been my mantra behind everything that I make in design. Okay.
And so as we go out of the box, we have to think of, a, what’s the visual appeal of it? B, what’s the functional appeal to it? And and c, what’s you know, what are people actually going to use this for? And so the FrogClip, we originally brought it in because I thought it looked cool. Fair and square, I was like, this is a super cool looking clip. As we started to do more research and as we started to bring out more products, we should realize it’s a it’s actually a safer clip than a standard bolt snap because it has 2 gates instead of I know that no one can see this, but you can see here this only has
Scott Cowan [00:28:17]:
the one gate Right.
Jake Eberhart [00:28:18]:
As a standard leash. So in order to open that, you have to peel back both levers, which makes it a safer option. And then as time progressed, we were making a lot more gear for people in mobility issues, especially people with dexterity issues in their hands.
And they we actually found it’s significantly easier for somebody with dexterity issues to use that front clip because of the motion it is to actually open it. Instead of having to use your thumb to pull back a lever, you can just use your 2 little fingers, and it’s a super easy, nice clean open. And actually to close it, you don’t even need to close it. You can just push it straight on while it’s open, and it’ll automatically close. So we actually ended up we started with it looking cool, and then we actually found out there were all these other different use cases that just kinda came up.
Jake Eberhart [00:29:08]:
So we really heavily invested in that quite a bit. Everyone loves it. I love it. It’s my wife’s or sorry. It’s my wife’s parents’ favorite clip. My wife is still solid brass. She’s just a very typical traditional likes. They’re nice clean look.
Jake Eberhart [00:29:24]:
I actually like our carabiners the best because I like things that are on their salad and they’re really not meant to come off. Not that everything isn’t meant to, but carabiners are just the most secure option. But for example, people with dexterity issues, with mobility issues, a twist gate carabiner, you’re gonna fumble around with. And especially if you don’t have full use of your hands, it’s gonna be almost impossible to use a product that I send you
Scott Cowan [00:29:50]:
on a
Jake Eberhart [00:29:51]:
regular basis. Like, you can’t physically do it. So that’s kind of the story behind the frog clip. I really love them.
Scott Cowan [00:29:57]:
They’re really good. So you’re offering I mean, you’ve got multiple multiple offerings there. I’m looking these you’ve got a wide range of potential colors to use too.
Jake Eberhart [00:30:11]:
Yeah. Last time I checked, and this was a couple months ago, you know, we were having a glass of wine as we were winding now for the day. And I said, you know what? Let’s figure out how many possible combinations across all our products that we can make. It was we we got to about 5,000,000 before we stopped. I mean, there are quite literally over across all of the different leashes and collars and everything we offer, there’s over 5,000,000 combo possible combinations of everything you can make from the different clip sizes to the lengths and the colors and everything has
Scott Cowan [00:30:47]:
Mhmm.
Jake Eberhart [00:30:47]:
So much variety. And that was actually one of the reasons why we went this specific direction because we, many times, had faced a lot of difficulty not being able to meet demand because we had so much demand and we didn’t we physically didn’t have enough hands to make everything. We thought about, well, we can probably go to premade stuff and just sell based on standard inventory, like, 99% of the other industry stuff does.
And we decided not to, and I just decided to step up and get better at it. I started practicing. I started I’d seriously doing exercises, drilling Chicago screws together and sewing, and it just got better. I just got faster, and it allowed us to actually meet that demand on a regular basis. I mean, now our processing time is still about 3 weeks.
Jake Eberhart [00:31:36]:
So people are waiting anywhere between, you know, about a 1 week for a basic simple tug order to 3 weeks for a a complex, you know, braided, multicolor, super long, hands free leash. But at the end of the day, they’re getting the, probably, in my opinion, the highest quality Balvin product that’s on the market right now. And we do all of our own designing. So these are all unique to us.
We really have never taken any designs from anyone else. We’ve obviously drawn inspiration from different places, like any good craftsman will. But all this stuff is unique, and then people can make it uniquely to them. And then they know that it’s been I I’ve sat on my workbench, and I’ve specifically cut their pieces to what they’ve asked for.
Scott Cowan [00:32:20]:
Mhmm. And
Jake Eberhart [00:32:21]:
we’re able to do that for 100 of orders every single month. And I just I love that that fact, and that’s why we’re always adding in new colors and expanding on that 5,000,000 all the time.
Scott Cowan [00:32:33]:
So on once again, I’m still on the Atlas. You have a you have a graphic, and I just counted. And I could be wrong because math can be can be challenging. Basic math can still be hard for me, but I see 33 different colors.
Jake Eberhart [00:32:48]:
Yeah. So 33 sounds about right.
Scott Cowan [00:32:51]:
Okay.
Jake Eberhart [00:32:51]:
They’re we’re always trying to get our hands on new stuff too. Biocame What is Got it.
Scott Cowan [00:32:56]:
What’s the most popular color?
Jake Eberhart [00:32:58]:
Black. Always black. Black forever. I order 3 rolls of black to every one roll of color. It’s been like that since I started.
Scott Cowan [00:33:08]:
That’s why We’re not gonna allow you to say black a second time. What’s the next most popular color?
Jake Eberhart [00:33:13]:
Probably our sage green. Our sage green is probably our next next, popular color. We have a lot of sage green and forest green combinations. I mean, we are a Washington based business after all. Oh, yeah. Right? I I’m not surprised that the greens are our second, your most most popular color. We do see a lot of sage. We have so many bright colors, and one of the one of the best parts about biothane, and I’ll also talk about one of the challenging parts about it.
Jake Eberhart [00:33:40]:
Best parts is that that color is gonna last for a very long time.
Scott Cowan [00:33:44]:
Mhmm.
Jake Eberhart [00:33:44]:
I mean, we have leashes. I still have the first leash that we ever made, and it’s a bright orange leash. There’s no beating around the bush. You can’t tell you can’t say, oh, it’s faded because you’ll be able to tell. If you shine it up with little bit OxiClean, it’s like spanking brand new. It is bright orange just like the day that I made it. But the challenge with BioThane is that there’s only so many set colors because they are a US manufactured item.
Scott Cowan [00:34:10]:
Okay.
Jake Eberhart [00:34:11]:
So they have a set number of colors that they create, and we’re not able to, for example, customize our own color. There are businesses that do that, and they go overseas in order to get those manufactured to specific, like, let’s say, Pantone colors.
Scott Cowan [00:34:25]:
Mhmm.
Jake Eberhart [00:34:25]:
But since we’re only sourcing the real, genuine, authentic biophane, we’re a little bit restricted. But as you can see, there are so many colors to choose from. And they’re always sound they’re always releasing more, and there have been colors that have been discontinued that sometimes we try and get our hands on too for, like, limited edition things. A lot of colors, and they’re constantly changing
Scott Cowan [00:34:46]:
over You’ve got I mean, there’s a lot. And then you’ve got oh, I should get one of these. The Okay. These tug toys.
Jake Eberhart [00:35:00]:
Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:35:04]:
What’s the ball made out of, typically?
Jake Eberhart [00:35:09]:
So the ball we’ve we’ve
Scott Cowan [00:35:13]:
gone
Jake Eberhart [00:35:13]:
with a couple different options. And one of the reasons why we really didn’t make our own is because we found we could always get it manufactured, and, unfortunately, that would have to go overseas, right, in order to get something manufactured like that because there’s not a lot of US makers that do make them. There are some, but a lot of times, they’re already making them for brands like Chuck It, like Kong.
The balls are typically made out of, just a basic rubber. Those are just straight up rubber balls. We also have EVA foam balls as well. They’re just, EVA foam is essentially like a high durability foam. It’s really dense, but it floats.
Jake Eberhart [00:35:49]:
But we decided to stick with essentially name brand balls because we found a lot of people’s dogs had preferences about the balls that they like. So when you have a dog, and it seriously goes as deep as my dog will only play with a medium sized orange chukka ball. It will not touch anything else, and I’ve tried it. And that’s it. And it I it’s ridiculous. Oh, I know. But I started to realize that wait a second. My dogs also have these preferences.
Jake Eberhart [00:36:17]:
I just never really noticed. And so we started playing some games, especially with our with our dog, Theo, who’s really particular about his balls, and found that he only likes a very specific type. He likes the, for example, loves the Chuck It, the glow ball because it’s so squishy. He can completely collapse it, and that makes him happier. It makes him run harder. It makes him train harder.
All those things reign true. So we decided, let’s just keep with the balls that are already on the market and use those because people’s dogs oftentimes already have an affiliation or preference towards those balls.
Jake Eberhart [00:36:53]:
So as they’re transitioning from playing fetch to playing tug, and they wanna use that for training or they wanna use that for engagement or or for whatever use, It’s a much more natural transition for the dog because they already know the texture. They know the taste. They know the scent. And yeah. So we’ve got those 2 kinds of, like, different material bowls, rubber and foam.
Scott Cowan [00:37:17]:
I don’t know what Bosley’s preference is. That’s really interesting. His Bosley Bosley has this thing we call stick, and it’s a collagen stick.
Jake Eberhart [00:37:28]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know those.
Scott Cowan [00:37:29]:
Okay. So, you know, so I’m sure your dogs can destroy anything they want to. Right? I mean, if they want to destroy Bosley wants to destroy something, he’s going to destroy it. The indestructive We’ve
Jake Eberhart [00:37:39]:
got 2 German shepherds and a husky. If they decide something’s dying today Right. It’s dead.
Scott Cowan [00:37:43]:
You know, and I remember my wife went. She got this guaranteed indestructible toy. We’ll give you your money back if your dog just can 20 minutes later, it’s destroyed. He just destroyed it.
Jake Eberhart [00:37:56]:
That doesn’t exist. Yeah. Trust me. Doesn’t exist. Poor marketing. Indestructible anything. Does not exist.
Scott Cowan [00:38:03]:
So somebody I know gave me one of these collagen sticks, and it’s about, you know, 12 inches long and it’s, you know Mhmm. He carries it. It’s like his blanket. Those things last But you have a hard time. Last for months every night. When it’s time for bed, we go go get your stick, and he goes and get it, and he comes to the bedroom. In the morning, he takes it outside. Where he puts it, we’re never sure.
Scott Cowan [00:38:27]:
But, you know, he it’s just that’s his toy. Everything else is kind of we have moments where this is important to him, and then there’s other moments where he can’t be bothered with it. But he loves tugging. And I’m just looking at this going, okay. I’m gonna need new shoulders because he’ll just, you know, destroy my destroy my shoulders by doing this. But that’s very cool that you’re doing that.
Jake Eberhart [00:38:55]:
Yeah. I mean, last night, I mean, we’ve got a husky. It was 11:30 last night. And seriously, it was 11:30 last night, and he sometimes decides that he hasn’t had enough stimulation for the day, and he’ll take one of my tugs because he knows about a soft spot on the toys that I make. And he brings it over to me, pushes into me. He is we’re gonna play tug right now.
So I’m sitting there trying to watch TV just with one arm kinda getting yanked forward constantly, and he’s just sitting there just nailing on this tug. And listen.
Jake Eberhart [00:39:26]:
I all dogs have a preference. He has a preference towards other toys, other tugs, but he knows in order to get me, he’s gotta go from my soft spot.
Scott Cowan [00:39:35]:
That’s so funny. Toys that I’ve been here
Jake Eberhart [00:39:37]:
every single time. And it and it and it gets me. It gets me because I love that our dogs love our toys just as much as I do. But seriously, our older dog our our younger shepherd or older than Archer, our younger shepherd, he is he will only play with our tugs. Doesn’t doesn’t matter what shape it is. Doesn’t matter what size it is. Only our tugs. I do not know why, but he has a complete preference, a complete bias to only things that I make out of the shop.
Jake Eberhart [00:40:08]:
Do you have any idea how happy that makes me? I could not have asked for a better dog at that point. That’s all he’ll ever do.
Scott Cowan [00:40:14]:
You make you make collars? You’re making collars.
Jake Eberhart [00:40:17]:
You’re making collars.
Scott Cowan [00:40:17]:
You’re making collars. You’re making collars. You’re making collars. You’re making collars. You’re making collars. You’re making collars.
Jake Eberhart [00:40:18]:
You’re making is I’m gonna
Scott Cowan [00:40:18]:
read across. It says all products. Okay. Fine. We’ll skip that. You got leashes. You got varieties of leashes.
Jake Eberhart [00:40:24]:
Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:40:24]:
You got toys. You got some toys. You got collars. You carry stickers. Okay. Mhmm. But on the main page on the on your home page, if I go back, you know, I’d like to talk about this really quick, and it won’t go back. Why what’s going on here? Oh, there we go.
Scott Cowan [00:40:39]:
It looks like where did I see this at? Coming soon. Getting ready for the Boulder Canine Harness.
Jake Eberhart [00:40:49]:
Yeah. That is I forgot about that on this podcast. That is happening. We ended up this is a really interesting story. We have used other brands’ harnesses for a long time. Very, very long time. You know, we have a husky. We go hiking all the time.
Jake Eberhart [00:41:08]:
I personally prefer my dogs on a harness when I’m hiking because I think it’s more comfortable, especially for a prolonged period of time. You having them on a collar or a martingale or whatever. I just I feel like it’s more comfortable for them to be on a harness. And plus, as I get tired, it’s kinda nice to have a little bit of extra pull as I’m getting towards the end of a hike.
But I always found that they tour really easy. I mean, he would go off into the bushes somewhere, and I’m a big advocate for leashes and hiking. I always have a long line and a short lead with me at all time. So I usually keep him on a long line when I see a dog coming, recall him, pop him on the short lead.
Jake Eberhart [00:41:44]:
Sure. But he does like to go off, of course, and take his own detours. He’s a husky. And the hardest has kept ripping. I mean, over and over again. It just kept ripping over and over. I found that it was starting to chafe under his arms. There’s just a lot of different things that I I realized weren’t great about these expensive harnesses that we were buying from pet stores.
Jake Eberhart [00:42:06]:
And I said, okay. Well, what if we kind of manufactured our own? So I reached out to I’m I’m not gonna mention which company it is, but we reached out to one of the manufacturers of one of the better known harnesses in the world, to see if they’d be willing to make a sample for us. And they did, And they sent it to us, and I was blown away. I was like, I did not know harnesses could be this nice and this durable and this light and all these great things. And so we went through different couple iterations. We finally decided on a a finalized design. So these harnesses are designed by me. I did all the designing.
Jake Eberhart [00:42:47]:
There’s it’s a 100% us, and they’re actually supposed to arrive in the next week or so. And I’m pretty excited about it. They are, what we consider to be a hybrid harness is what I’m calling it. So you see lots of, like, hiking dog harnesses, and then you see lots of, like, tactical style harnesses.
And I’ve always wanted the benefits of a tactical harness without it looking like a tactical harness because, again, I I like things that are that jive with everybody in the community, not just individuals that want their dog to look like a tactical dog. So we brought in all of the same usability of a tactical harness. So we’ve got the the MOLLE, rails. We’ve got Velcro.
Jake Eberhart [00:43:31]:
We’ve got heavy duty buckles. And then we ended up going with a really high quality what’s called 500 d Cordura fabric. And 500 d Cordura fabric, repels water. So as water hits it, it’s backed with a polypropylene. So the water actually won’t even get into the fabric. So when we get to the dog’s fur, keeping them dry, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Drier dog typically is a better dog. And it’s incredibly abrasion resistant.
Jake Eberhart [00:44:00]:
So if it gets hit with sticks, and we’ve tested this because I’ve taken it hiking and I’ve done let them out there, Harness looks good as new. I mean, I can’t even see the visible scratches on there. They’re not even there. So we did higher quality materials, stronger stuff, and then we decided let’s go with some really fun colors that are not camouflage. They’re not coyote brown. They’re not Mhmm. You know, they’re not like anything too crazy. So they’re really appealing.
Jake Eberhart [00:44:24]:
So as, you know, our own dogs, we’re pet dog owners. We have working breeds, but they are our pets. I don’t want to be a person that’s out there and people look at my dog and go, that dog is scary. Right? Or that dog looks like it needs business because Asher is a 95 pound German Shepherd. He’s a big, big dog, and he already has that going against him that he’s a huge dog. I mean, he’s like a butterfly. Okay? He wouldn’t hurt anything. He’s scared of the wind.
Jake Eberhart [00:44:54]:
Okay? And I don’t want people to have any other reason to look at my dogs and go, I wanna stay away from them. So I like things that are inviting. I like brightly colored gear. I like things that portray communicationally. So we have these I have a bunch on my desk. We’ve got these leash wraps. Right? They just go. They’re simple in training.
Jake Eberhart [00:45:12]:
Ask to pet, things that are like that that are inviting and communicative, and colorful and vibrant. And it kind of, in a way, diffuses and, brings down, I wanna say, the scary level of our dogs. And I like those nicely colored things, but I want all of the benefits of all those really awesome tactical harnesses that are honestly kinda cheaply made.
So we started making our own harnesses, and I got the first or got the 3rd iteration of the harness. I’m so stoked. You have no idea. I I’m gonna be using these every single day all day long. They’re gonna be my
Scott Cowan [00:45:47]:
So what size dog are those gonna be for? Because
Jake Eberhart [00:45:53]:
So we got a couple sizes. So we’re ranging from small to large. We’re just starting with this because this is again, this is a huge investment process. This is honestly our biggest investment to date as a business. It was a really big decision. So we looked at our customer base. We looked at who our existing audience was and what kind of dogs that they had, and that’s kinda where we started. So we have primarily mediums and larges.
Jake Eberhart [00:46:19]:
So our large is actually kind of a large extra large I mean, Asher’s a 95 pound shepherd, and it fits him with room for adjustment, and that’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted people with very large breed dogs, XL Bullies, Shepherds, Malinois, even poodles can get massive, and sometimes they’re in Saint Bernard’s. They’re difficult to find things that fit.
I wanted a harness that would be adjustable so that if you have, like, let’s say, a pity who has a really big chest and a really narrow waist, that that harness is still gonna adjust up to them and properly fit snug and anatomically accurate. So they’re not chafing, and it’s not uncomfortable for them. So they can wear it all day long and not be bothered by it. So we’ve got a couple of different sizes. I would say at this current moment, like, I have a so my family dog back in New York is a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel.
Jake Eberhart [00:47:11]:
His name is Willow. She’s, one of the New York City bar dogs. She’s out there in a Giants jersey with my parents all the time.
Scott Cowan [00:47:20]:
Wait. Hasn’t somebody called to, like, for animal abuse wearing a Giants jersey?
Jake Eberhart [00:47:27]:
I know in Washington State podcast, I’m probably gonna get flamed for that. But it will fit her, and that’s probably gonna be the smallest size, and she’s about a 15 pound dog. We do want to offer smaller. But just for this first run, we’re starting with
Scott Cowan [00:47:42]:
Right. The majority of our competitors. That that makes sense. You gotta test it. Yeah. You gotta you gotta test it. So here’s a question I love to ask business owners. Business owners don’t always like asking this question.
Scott Cowan [00:47:52]:
So play along. Play along. What great idea did you have that flopped?
Jake Eberhart [00:48:02]:
Oh, I mean, I got it right. I
Scott Cowan [00:48:04]:
Well, I yes. But here’s the thing. I don’t need it to be me. I mean it because typically what it’s people do when we think this is gonna be cool, and we we we we run with it, and then it just doesn’t hit. It just for whatever reason, bad bad marketing, bad product, it’s Tuesday, but we learn something differently than when we we meet everything without any resistance. So did you have any ideas, like, this leash or this this Tuggie that just didn’t work?
Jake Eberhart [00:48:38]:
So I wanna put this in as a as a as a precursor. Every single product that I have to date has had a iteration before it that has flopped. Every single one. That’s why we have product testers, and I do I do have kind of a set group, like, a Mhmm. A control set, and then whenever we have new products, I also select the same amount typically of random.
So there’s some level of just anyone who’s available to test the product is gonna be able to tell me what they think. And I like the control group because those are trusted individuals that I know are going to tell me, this is stupid. This doesn’t work.
Jake Eberhart [00:49:16]:
Here are the problems of this. And so the one that comes to mind is there’s a a material called biothane rope. It’s essentially paracord wrapped in PVC. So same kind of material ideology, but instead it’s a rope. And we tried to make a tension based tug toy with the rope, like a paracord knot with a foam handle.
So it was completely tension based and the and the ideology behind it was it was going to be a more comfortable tug for people to use instead of I I do think that our stuff is very comfortable, but as we talk about people with dexterity and mobility issues, having thick foam on there could actually be really nice, especially as you have any injuries to your hands, things like that. And so we made I practice making them. I probably made about 15 or 20, and I was like, these are awesome.
Jake Eberhart [00:50:10]:
I’ve been using them. Our dogs are not destroying them. They’re not coming apart. So I sent about 10 testers out. Every single one of those testers. It didn’t work. They came apart. The dogs ended up biting the rope and with only a bite or 2, the rope was coming apart.
Jake Eberhart [00:50:27]:
And we had huge social media draw to make them because visually, they’re beautiful. They’re really nice looking tug. They look really unique Okay. But they flopped. I couldn’t in good conscious put this out on our on our store because while we could make them, and while for us, they worked okay, for others in in a in a huge group of controlled testers, it sucked.
And we I think we still have one. I think we still do somewhere. I think we still have one because why not? But that was an idea that I invested a lot more time than in, like, 2 minutes.
Jake Eberhart [00:51:03]:
Because I had to learn how to make different knots with paracord to figure out which would be the best one to use or buy I must have sank at least 10 hours into just figuring out what I was going to do Then it flopped. And people on social media asked me for months afterwards when it was coming out. No. See.
Scott Cowan [00:51:21]:
See. See. But we learn stuff. I mean, that’s the thing. We we learn stuff. So Oh, yeah. As we as we begin to wind this one down, I got a couple of questions I wanna ask you. One question’s gonna be a little different than what I normally ask, but you’ve mentioned and it but it’s on theme.
Scott Cowan [00:51:36]:
You mentioned a couple of times you like to go hiking with the dogs. So where are some hikes that do you guys like to go? What are some good dog I don’t wanna say friendly, but, like, good hikes for the dogs that you guys like to go on
Jake Eberhart [00:51:51]:
to? So oh, yeah. So if you have a dog, I would just stay away from Rainier or Olympic because they do not allow dogs in national parks. National forests are fine, but national parks do not allow dogs. So if you’re ever planning a hike, you might get I mean, if you’re going really early in the morning, no one will probably say anything. We we tend to bear with range of strangers. Will tell you to leave. Yeah. Exactly.
Jake Eberhart [00:52:15]:
Cannot advise that. I’ve never done it. It’s just what I’ve heard. There are a couple of hikes that are close by that I really like doing especially for people that come out to visit us. Barclay Lake is one of them. Barclay Lake is a nice short hike. You can do it in about 2 hours, 2 and a half hours. It’s really dog friendly.
Jake Eberhart [00:52:33]:
It’s not a huge uphill hike. So even if you have a dog that’s not in amazing shape, it’s a great hike to do. For my husky, that is just born and bred to be wild, things like Kolchak Lake. Kolchak Lake is a everyone knows Kolchak Lake. It’s a beautiful, beautiful hike. That’s a wonderful one. I’d say my 3rd off the beaten trail hike that a lot of people don’t do enough of. It’s called Anderson and Watson Lakes.
Jake Eberhart [00:53:04]:
Anderson and Watson Lakes is an absolutely stunning hike that has not nearly the reviews that it should on any of the sites. It’s a bit of a pain to get to. It’s a really it’s a double lake hike, and you can actually camp up there overnight. There’s a couple of different like, well, there’s still a backcountry permit, but they have sites with fire rings.
Because it is under the elevation, you can still have fires within the fire rings. It is a wonderful hike, especially for dogs. You have just those really and maybe I’m, giving away a secret of the hikers out here in Washington to to go there. But we’re talking turquoise clear water at the final lake.
Jake Eberhart [00:53:45]:
You can go for a swim. Your dog can go for a swim. It’s one of those lakes that typically doesn’t have algae blooms, so it’s usually safe to swim in as a person, let alone a dog. Gorgeous. That’s that’s really like if you have a dog that really enjoys hiking, that’s the one I’d go to. It’s a bit of a drive. I think it’s 2 hours ish from the Seattle area.
Scott Cowan [00:54:04]:
Mhmm.
Jake Eberhart [00:54:04]:
But it’s worth it. It’s one of those hikes that if you can get up there in the summer, it’ll blow you away.
Scott Cowan [00:54:08]:
Alright. I prepped you for 2 of these, remember? So question number 1, it’s all about coffee for me. I
Jake Eberhart [00:54:15]:
you did. Where’s where’s some great coffee around you? Yeah. So we’ve done a couple of events here in the Kenmore area because we live in Kenmore. And we’ve done a couple of events at the the hangar in Kenmore, which is, like, the community building. And inside the hangar, there’s a place called Diva Espresso. And I particularly like them because I am severely allergic to gluten, and they always have gluten free pastries.
Scott Cowan [00:54:43]:
Mhmm.
Jake Eberhart [00:54:43]:
And I love that. Coffee is home run, and the gluten free pastries just seal the deal for me. So now sometimes what I’ll do is I’ll we’ll go out to especially on, like, a rainy day.
Scott Cowan [00:54:54]:
Mhmm.
Jake Eberhart [00:54:55]:
The hangar has, like, this overhang so you can still sit outside. We’ll go outside. The dogs will hang out with my wife outside. I’ll pop in, grab us some pastries and coffee, and we’ll just sit. It’s great socialization practice for our dogs. You know, we have 3 very, very social dogs, but you can never get enough socialization. And just sitting there, just watching the world go by with a rainy day and a cup of coffee, that’s probably my favorite place.
Scott Cowan [00:55:17]:
Alright. Follow-up to that. Yeah. What’s the coffee beverage choice for you and for your wife followed by what’s the pastry choice?
Jake Eberhart [00:55:26]:
Okay. Coffee for me, I’m pretty I’m a purist. I just like espresso. I like black black drip coffee will be my go to.
Scott Cowan [00:55:35]:
If it’s
Jake Eberhart [00:55:36]:
not there, espresso over ice every single time.
Scott Cowan [00:55:39]:
Okay.
Jake Eberhart [00:55:39]:
For whatever reason,
Scott Cowan [00:55:40]:
it’s
Jake Eberhart [00:55:40]:
just my thing. My wife, big cappuccino person.
Scott Cowan [00:55:44]:
Okay. That’s
Jake Eberhart [00:55:44]:
you know, we we went to Italy Right. For god’s sake. But we lived in Italy
Scott Cowan [00:55:48]:
Right.
Jake Eberhart [00:55:48]:
For a year. We’ve been there 5 times separately. Mhmm. Cappuccino, that sort of thing. For pastries, she’s not much of a pastry person. She pretty much just kinda nibbles on whatever I get Okay. As you can imagine as a husband and wife Right. Relationship typically goes.
Jake Eberhart [00:56:03]:
I’m a big fan of, like, raspberry scones. Raspberry scones, I like them. Again, traditional, kinda dry, kinda hard.
Scott Cowan [00:56:11]:
Mhmm.
Jake Eberhart [00:56:12]:
Just like that, that’s the nail in the coffin for me. I will die eating Okay. A raspberry scone. Solid. That’s
Scott Cowan [00:56:18]:
my thing. I’m I’m with you. I’m kind of the coffee crust as well. Yep. Drips my go to, but espresso’s, you know, amazing as well. But alright. Alright. Now
Jake Eberhart [00:56:29]:
I have black coffee right now.
Scott Cowan [00:56:31]:
As as do I. As do I. Now Kenmore. Yeah. Lunchtime.
Jake Eberhart [00:56:40]:
Mhmm.
Scott Cowan [00:56:40]:
Now you just said you’re gluten free or no. Yeah. You’re gluten free because you need to be. Where’s the group
Jake Eberhart [00:56:47]:
Unfortunately, I grew up I grew up in New York. Yeah. So I was not gluten free for my golden years. So I I experienced pizza just the way I was supposed to be experienced Until one day, I was like, it’s time. I gotta go off gluten. Okay. It’s killing me. So I got to still live gluten containing, especially through our Italian times.
Jake Eberhart [00:57:05]:
I got all that good stuff in. So I got years years of gluten enamel.
Scott Cowan [00:57:09]:
You’re right. I would say I, no, you can’t. My wife likes to eat gluten free, but and anyway, where’s a great place for lunch around Kenmore?
Jake Eberhart [00:57:22]:
So I actually like, over in Bothell. So Kenmore and Bothell Absolutely. Together. Kenmore is still kind of building out, so there’s not too much for lunch around here quite yet. We actually hop over to the vine in Bothell. It’s like a a tap room.
They’ve got burgers, and they make an absolutely killer burger, with a gluten free bun, and they have beer cheese that is made with gluten free beer cheese, and it is a knockout burger despite it being unbelievable. Unbelievable.
Jake Eberhart [00:57:54]:
And you can get it containing gluten and all that kind of stuff. Like, you can get the full everything on it a 100%. But especially for people like me having a place that I can go get a greasy, delicious, cheesy burger and a gluten free beer
Scott Cowan [00:58:09]:
You’re good.
Jake Eberhart [00:58:10]:
That’s a great lunch. That’s a great I that’s like a perfect, perfect Saturday lunch
Scott Cowan [00:58:16]:
right
Jake Eberhart [00:58:16]:
on the spot.
Scott Cowan [00:58:17]:
Excellent. And look. There’s my wife makes some amazing gluten free stuff here at the house. You know, it’s not that I’m Yeah. I just don’t know that I could live without pizza. And but it is I can live without bagels. No. It’s not a bagel.
Scott Cowan [00:58:36]:
I’m I’m willing to give up certain things, but pizza’s that one kinda just oh, man. And, yes, you can get it with a gluten free crust in some places. It’s
Jake Eberhart [00:58:48]:
It’s not the same. And I’m gonna also I’m gonna give you another one, cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls go gluten free. They are
Scott Cowan [00:58:55]:
Yeah.
Jake Eberhart [00:58:55]:
A rarity to find something that’s even remotely tolerable. There’s a couple of places down in Oregon that have them. So when I whenever I’m in Oregon,
Scott Cowan [00:59:04]:
I drive down. That may be helpful to you. Have you ever been to Concrete, Washington?
Jake Eberhart [00:59:08]:
Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:59:11]:
That that dune free bakery there. I stumbled into that because I was driving across the North Cascades and I wanted a cup of coffee. And so I pulled into concrete, which this was his bakery, and I’m like, walk in and, like, okay. Everything in here is gluten free. And so I started talking, you know, everything in there is gluten free. Have you have you been there?
Jake Eberhart [00:59:33]:
Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:59:34]:
Okay. I
Jake Eberhart [00:59:35]:
I have not. I have many people that have, and I believe that I’ve actually eaten their stuff because they sell
Scott Cowan [00:59:42]:
it to the rumble. Super impressed. I I I was like, I brought some stuff home to my wife who that was, you know, got got, you know, good good husband points for that. Totally, it’s not that big of a drive for you. I mean, it’s a drive. But if you’re gonna take the dogs out for a hike or go go somewhere, you might just pop up there as, you know, as a as a reward for you.
Jake Eberhart [01:00:07]:
We have a there’s a bakery in actually in Vancouver Canada. Called in Vancouver, Canada. Lemonade. Called Lemonade. They’re they’re gluten free bakery that is I I seriously believe this is the best gluten free stuff, period. I don’t think I’ve ever had better.
So we’ll sometimes take a Saturday and drive up to Vancouver into Canada, pick up about a month’s worth of gluten free items, and we always order ahead because it’s quite literally over $1,000 sometimes. And we have all of our gluten free friends, so we make a trip for them.
Jake Eberhart [01:00:41]:
We come back and we distribute gluten free items to all these people, like loaves and loaves of sourdough, So much sourdough. Like, more than you ever know what to do with. And we’ll sometimes do that. We’ll sometimes go all the way to Vancouver That’s to
Scott Cowan [01:00:56]:
the gluten
Jake Eberhart [01:00:58]:
free stuff. Alright. K.
Scott Cowan [01:00:59]:
We got 2 things. Yeah. What didn’t we talk about? What’s going on with you guys that you wanna share that we didn’t get to? We’re gonna put where people can find you in the show notes. That’ll be, you know, be all there. But why don’t you give a shout out to where you can be found, where where you want people to look for you? But what didn’t we maybe stumble into during our converse
Jake Eberhart [01:01:20]:
So I’ll start with, where you can find us. We’re on Instagram, Facebook. We kinda started our YouTube channel recently, and we’re gonna be doing, hopefully, the next month or so. We’ve got a couple of videos lined up that are gonna be YouTube specific.
We really love YouTube. We like making longer form videos, and we’ve been doing a lot more short form lately. So we’re kinda transitioning to doing that. Just talking more, just getting more, FaceTime in front of the camera.
Jake Eberhart [01:01:47]:
We’re people. We are, a family. We have dogs. We are
Scott Cowan [01:01:52]:
Right.
Jake Eberhart [01:01:52]:
Just people that happen to make dog gear. Right? And so we wanna get a little more face time in front of cameras and and introduce ourselves a little bit more. So that’s what we’ve got going on, coming up and where you could find us. I mean, obviously, boulderknot.com. We’re also on Etsy. If people like to order through Etsy, also there too.
The one piece that I do wanna mention that we didn’t talk about is we recently started working with a new nonprofit called Forgotten Dogs For Forgotten Vets. I don’t know if I mentioned the zoos before, but they’re pretty much just starting.
Jake Eberhart [01:02:27]:
And what they do is they find service dogs that are in rescues or shelters. They have a a professional dog trainer and a professional service dog trainer who goes out and kind of helps procure dogs, and they match them with an honorably discharged veteran. And they’re specifically looking for lower income veterans, people that would never be able to afford a service dog if they could pay for 1 or that are on a wait list for 5 years in order to get a service dog.
So they actually just placed their 1st veteran dog pairing this past weekend. We were actually down in in Roy, Washington at a a coffee shop called Worthy Coffee Co, and they actually did a whole little celebration there for the 1st official veteran service dog match, and that is a rescue dog. It is an XL bully. His name is honorable. Adorable dog.
Jake Eberhart [01:03:14]:
Just a huge, huge puddle of cuddles. And we recently started working with them, and it’s been really fun to kinda be on the ground floor. We we’re not donating money like we do with GSD Rescue. We are sponsoring their program. So every person that goes through the program, they will get free gear from us.
So they’ll basically get a starting package of, like, a leash collar tug, all those kinds of things, and that’ll be donated to the nonprofit so that the veteran can have veterans are pretty timid, like, picky about their gear. They like really high quality stuff just across the board.
So when they come into the organization and they’re met with all these warm welcoming arms and they get some of the nicest dog gear they’ve ever held, it just becomes this really nice holistic experience.
Jake Eberhart [01:04:01]:
And it was really it it it paid itself in dividends this weekend just kinda seeing all those people grouping together and and helping somebody in need. I don’t know. I just kinda like it. I we we’ve been working rescue for a really long time, and I also acknowledge that there are other dogs besides rescue dogs that need help.
There are Mhmm. In this case, service dogs, and they just so happen to be rescue dogs.
The relationship between people and dogs is also something that I’ve always wanted to explore nonprofit wise. So Okay.
Jake Eberhart [01:04:30]:
When the opportunity presented itself, we we just kinda jumped on the ship. And we’ve been absolutely loving those people. But, no, I think that we really covered everything that I wanted to cover. I mean, we we made some good headway here. That hour flew by.
Scott Cowan [01:04:44]:
Yeah. Alright. So this is this is it, man. This is that question I warned you about. Now we we gotta retell you the rules. You have to answer it You have to give your reason why. Do you agree to the terms? You ready?
Jake Eberhart [01:04:56]:
I agree to those terms.
Scott Cowan [01:04:57]:
Alright. Cake or pie and why?
Jake Eberhart [01:05:02]:
Pie. Alright. That’s a fast answer. Why? I I am notorious for having a sweet tooth. I have my 10 PM munchies every night. Don’t know why. I I pretty much have ice cream or brownies or cookies or something. Mhmm.
Jake Eberhart [01:05:20]:
Just a little bit. I don’t need a lot. Mhmm. But Just something. We have such long days. We’re up at 7
Scott Cowan [01:05:25]:
Mhmm.
Jake Eberhart [01:05:26]:
With loud barking dogs, and it doesn’t really end until 10 o’clock at night. So when 10 o’clock rolls around, I just want just a little piece of something k. Just to just make the day better. So I’m really into sweets.
I I’m a I’ve been a huge sweet tooth, and I and I say pie because, cake is a little bit challenging to do gluten free. And to make it really nice and, like, perfect, I really have to bake it myself k. To get that kind of cake that I like. But with pie, I don’t feel like I necessarily have to.
Jake Eberhart [01:05:59]:
We we can go to a bakery. We can get a frozen pie Mhmm. That’s gluten free, and it’s delicious, and it’s killer. Particularly, I am a big fan of pies with graham cracker crust. Anything with a graham cracker crust, that’s it for me.
Scott Cowan [01:06:16]:
Fillings. Yeah.
Jake Eberhart [01:06:17]:
Fillings. That’s my reasoning.
Scott Cowan [01:06:18]:
What’s the one pie?
Jake Eberhart [01:06:21]:
Peach pie. Peach. Peach peach filling. Yeah. K. Doesn’t get any better than that. Honestly, I really like it when it’s made with fresh peaches. You know, we can still get frozen peaches and it’s still delicious.
Jake Eberhart [01:06:31]:
Yeah. Peach pie. I know I’m from Washington. I’ve got or I live in Washington, from New York, both huge apple states. I should pick apple, but peach is my go to.
Scott Cowan [01:06:40]:
Peaches? I I I love peach pie as well. I mean, I’m probably gonna say apple’s probably my, you know, the one if if that’s all I can have. But peach pie is right there. Because and it the problem for me with peach pie is every now and then, you get one and it’s kinda runny and it I I I like it to be a little bit more, not dry, but just less less ooze and and more more
Okay. More more peach. Alright. That’s all. By the way, there are no right or wrong answers.
Scott Cowan [01:07:13]:
Well, actually, there is pumpkin. Anything pumpkin is a wrong answer as far as I’m concerned. But you didn’t say pumpkin, so, you know, that’s
Jake Eberhart [01:07:19]:
You can have pumpkin for 1 month of the year and that’s it.
Scott Cowan [01:07:22]:
You can’t. Pumpkin should be Yes. I I am no. I I I just don’t like it.
Jake Eberhart [01:07:29]:
You know, I will say we had a Friendsgiving this past weekend, and I’m gonna mention my friend Alex by name because and she’ll hate me for it. But she made a pumpkin chiffon mousse pie. It was just really light and airy pumpkin pie. It was
Scott Cowan [01:07:44]:
If you say so.
Jake Eberhart [01:07:44]:
Knockout, and
Scott Cowan [01:07:45]:
she made it all free. Muffin sounds, but if you say so.
Jake Eberhart [01:07:49]:
Knockout. It was a knockout pumpkin pie. I mean, one of the best I’ve ever ever had. Alex, you’re wonderful, and you baked like a champion. Okay. I want more. Yeah. That’s my pie decision.
Scott Cowan [01:08:00]:
Jake, thanks for sitting down with me today and putting up with Bosley at the beginning. He’s given up, and he’s asleep over in the in the dining. I can see him kind of over the screen, and he’s he’s he’s out now. He’s just, you know, finally gave up, which is you know, it’s good.
But thanks for sitting down with me. I wish you guys continued growth and success. I think what you’re doing and how you’re helping animals and and people, both. But but the animals in need, we need more people looking after animals that can’t look after themselves, if you will.
Scott Cowan [01:08:32]:
Right? It’s and it it breaks my heart to see, you know, animals. I used to get these almost daily social media blast from the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society, and I had to stop. Yeah. And I had to stop because they were so good at making me feel bad.
I don’t mean that. I just it broke my heart. It just broke my heart every day. It’s like, like, you know, I, if I if I could, I’d have a lot of animals, and I probably regret it every morning.
Scott Cowan [01:09:04]:
But, you know, the the point is I I I really want organizations that do a good job of helping rehome animals to good homes and people that can provide good homes find good animals. And so I like the fact that you’re helping.
Jake Eberhart [01:09:20]:
Yeah. This this will be the last kind of note that I I mentioned. We wanted to be more than a business that just throws money to animals. We wanted to actually be on the ground with our hands, getting them dirty, rolling up our sleeves, actually going to shelters, actually putting our hands on dogs and getting them into places physically. Right?
Because you can have as much trust in where you donate your money as you can, but you’ll never actually know until you’re actually on the ground with Right. How those funds are being used. And I will say that fostering is is no easy task. It is the most rewarding and the most heartbreaking job that a volunteer can have, and it’s not for the faint of heart.
Jake Eberhart [01:10:02]:
It really isn’t. I wouldn’t change it ever. It’s my favorite thing to do in the world. I love, love, love seeing dogs come into a stable and and fun home like ours and watching their personalities just just blow up and blossom into something amazing.
It’s challenging, but incredibly rewarding, and we really like our customers to to know that they’re investing not only in a company that gives back, but a company that’s actually out there doing things. And if you’re ever curious for anyone listening, we actually have a whole, donations page on our website. You can actually see exactly how we help. We actually it’s called beyond the donation.
Jake Eberhart [01:10:43]:
I took some time and went through all the crazy things that we do on a regular basis, and we just kinda itemized it. So if anyone’s ever curious about how we actually do things, with our rescue and and other rescues out here or some ideas on how you can get involved in your local communities, like, we put a whole bunch of resources up on there, to just try and showcase what we do and how
Scott Cowan [01:11:04]:
That’s that’s one.
Jake Eberhart [01:11:05]:
Other people.
Scott Cowan [01:11:06]:
So, again, thanks for taking the time to sit down with me, man. I appreciate it.
Jake Eberhart [01:11:10]:
Thank you. Thank you.
The Exploring Washington State Podcast is your go-to source for discovering the diverse wonders of the Evergreen State. Whether you’re seeking inspiration for your next adventure, looking to savor local cuisine, or eager to learn about the businesses and artists that call Washington home, this podcast has something for everyone. Join us as we showcase the splendor of Washington State, reminding you that “there is always more to explore!”
