Although new, Dirtbag Dog Toys already has a story – how we got started – where the idea came from.

I’ll admit that Dewbie was my initial inspiration for this enterprise.  Dewbie is my German/Aussie Shepherd mix.  He was adopted this past year (2009) in February.  Initially a lot of people though he was a Valentine’s day gift for my girlfriend.  Let me just mention that buying a puppy for a significant other as a gift (a surprise gift) could seriously test the strength of your relationship.  Luckily Dewbie was no gift – and actually it was more Libby’s idea then mine to get a dog.  Long story short, he was and still is a lot of work, and without both of us being totally committed to raising a puppy, he and we may not have lasted!

Lately he looks like a full-grown dog.  He weighs about 90lbs – certainly a full-grown dog in stature.  But his puppy tendencies still exist; playful, lots of energy, stubborn, these are just some of his qualities.  On the playful front, Dewbie is still very much a puppy.

The idea for Dirtbag Dog Toys came along one day when I was attempting to take Dewbs for a walk.  I was using an old piece of climbing rope as a leash.  Dewbie has never been very good on leash, prefering to be free to run ahead, and then back, and then ahead, and then back – you get the idea.  He was trying to chew on this rope leash and pull on it and generally make this walk difficult for me.  I decided to embrace his attitude and take him off the rope which I then began using as a toy.  Dewbs loves tugging on it.  Later that day, with some spare time on my hands I tied this rope into a monkey’s fist with a loop so that it might work better as an actual dog toy.  Bingo.

Dewbie loved this new toy and still does.  I was inspired.  If Dewbie enjoyed this retired climbing rope toy, maybe other dogs would too.  With some other spare rope I had, I made more toys.  Bringing these toys down to the Valmont dog park in Boulder, I hoped that some other dogs would be intrigued by my creation.  They were.

With the aid of a rock climbing forum/database known as mountainproject (in our links section) I found some kind folks to donate their used climbing ropes.  With these ropes I worked on more toy designs as well as a leash design.  It was about here that I came up with the name Dirtbag Dog Toys.  This fit my project well since I was making “something out of nothing”.  Taking retied climbing ropes that may have been on their way to the dump, and creating something useful out of them – dog toys.  In addition to coming up with a name, I came up with a goal – to raise money to donate to local animal shelters through the sales of these toys and leashes.

I’m still coming up with new ideas daily, new thoughts about how I want to do things.  For now I’m still in the very beginning stages of putting my idea into actions.  Stay tuned to find out what comes next!

Dewbie and I enjoying some snow