Local online dog treat retailer grows to physical store

MONTVILLE - When her new storefront at 1031 Rte. 32 in Uncasville opens, Michelle Bilby looks forward to seeing her furry customers in person.

“We’re excited to see all the dogs,” she said.

Bilby will be opening the physical location of the K9 Cookie Confectionery LLC as soon as this weekend, if all the paperwork clears. While the store sells a variety of pet supplies, it is first and foremost about healthy dog treats.

Bilby started the business online two years ago, after 12 years working at a veterinary clinic.

“Going to Wal-Mart or even Petco, there’s not a lot of healthy treat options that are low-fat, so I decided to just come up with my own recipes,” Bilby said.

In particular, Bilby, who has owned overweight dogs, said giving a dog something like a Milk Bone is like a Milky Way bar in terms of the fat content. In K9 Cookie Confectionery’s treats, Bilby said there are no preservatives, no added fat, salt or sugar. Some of her ingredients include pumpkin, applesauce, and whole wheat flour.  

Bilby said things got off to a good start, as she already knew plenty of people from the veterinary clinic who’d tell their friends about her treats. Most of K9 Cookie Confectionery’s business is local, but Bilby has gotten orders from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Florida. The online business, which she’s worked alongside a normal fulltime job, grew so much that she needed to get a physical store.

“I pretty much outgrew my house, so there was stuff pretty much everywhere for baking,” Bilby said. “I had my own office downstairs, but after a while you get so many different ingredients and boxes and all that stuff, and I basically outgrew it.”

Bilby said with the storefront being on a main road, she hopes her treats will get plenty of attention.

“Most people like their dogs more than their kids some days,” said Alissa Schroeder, Bilby's sister and K9 Cookie Confectionery's new store manager. “Some people don’t have kids and their dogs are their kids.”

New London resident Lauren Davis, who works by the K9 Cookie Confectionery's new location, is excited to see something nearby, considering she just celebrated a birthday for her one-year-old dog, and didn’t want to get a treat from Amazon for her pooch.

“It’d be really cool for all the dogs around here, give them a little something extra,” Davis said.

The new store will be open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Wednesday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will be closed on Sundays. Find more information on the website, at https://www.k9cookieconfectionery.com/