I grew up in Oklahoma, which most people don't realize is one of the biggest supplement manufacturing hubs in the country. My dad was in the industry, and from a young age I was right there alongside him, learning how things were made, what went into a product, and more importantly, what didn't need to be there but was anyway.
That education never left me.
When I got older and had the chance to channel that knowledge into something I actually loved, I jumped at it. I started working with a dog supplement brand, and it didn't take long for me to realize I'd found my people. Breeders, kennels, dog show competitors, everyday owners who just wanted the best for their animals. This community is passionate in a way that's hard to explain if you haven't been around it. I poured everything into building that brand, growing it into a seven-figure business before eventually stepping away. But I had a feeling I would be back one day.
Life had other plans for a while. I moved to New York, started a family, built a different career. But I never stopped thinking about what I'd had. The work, the community, the sense of purpose that came from making something people trusted for their dogs.
Then Sofia started slowing down.
My Dog Needed Better Supplements. The Market Didn't Have Them.
Sofia is our bully, and watching her get older hit different than I expected. Her joints were bothering her. Her energy wasn't what it used to be. I wanted to give her real daily support, something with clean, natural ingredients that would actually make a difference for her arthritis and overall health.
So I did what any former industry guy would do: I started researching every dog supplement brand I could find.
But I couldn't find anything that was the best option for Sofia.
What Are Fillers in Dog Supplements and Why Do Companies Use Them?
Here's what most people don't know about how big pet supplement companies operate. A lot of the decisions that end up on your dog's ingredient label aren't made by anyone thinking about your dog. They are made by people thinking about margins and inventory.
Fillers like maltodextrin, rice bran, and soy hulls get added to bulk up a product and bring the cost per unit way down. These ingredients carry little to no nutritional value for dogs. They exist to make a 10-ingredient product look and feel like a full scoop without the cost of sourcing real food ingredients at scale.
Artificial flavors and synthetic palatability enhancers get added because they're cheap, consistent, and they'll make a dog eat almost anything regardless of what else is in the bag. Instead of using real whole food ingredients that dogs are naturally drawn to, companies mask low-quality inputs with flavoring that has no business being in a supplement.
Preservatives like BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin are where it gets more serious. These synthetic preservatives exist almost entirely to extend shelf life so a company can produce massive runs, sit on inventory for months, and not take a loss when product moves slowly. The nutritional trade-off gets made so the finance team can sleep at night. None of those decisions are made for your dog. They are made for the balance sheet.
What to Look for on a Dog Supplement Label
If you are trying to evaluate whether a natural dog supplement is actually clean, here's what to check:
The ingredient list should read like a food label, not a chemistry textbook. If you can't identify what something is or why it's there, that's a red flag. Look for whole food sources like bone broth protein, organ meats, or coconut-derived ingredients rather than "natural flavor" or "digest" which are catch-all terms that rarely mean what they sound like.
Watch for proprietary blends. When a company hides ingredient amounts behind a blend name, it usually means the effective ingredients are underdosed and the cheap fillers are carrying the weight. Transparent labels list every ingredient and every amount, no exceptions.
Check the preservatives. Short shelf life is actually a sign of a cleaner product. If a supplement can sit on a shelf for three years, ask yourself what's keeping it there.
So I Made One Myself
I knew all of this from the inside. And I wasn't going to feed any of it to Sofia.
So I made something myself. At that point it felt easier than trying to sort through which brands were being straight with me and which ones weren't. I knew the natural ingredients that worked. I knew how to source them. I knew what didn't belong in a clean dog supplement. So I built it from scratch: whole foods, nothing hidden, nothing added to cut costs or keep product sitting on a shelf longer than it should.
Sofia was the first customer. She still is.
Boost Canine exists because of her, and because of everything my dad taught me in those Oklahoma feed rooms growing up. Every ingredient in our products earns its place. No fillers, no blends designed to obscure what's actually inside, no shortcuts. Just real food, made the way it should have been all along.
If you are the kind of person who reads labels and asks hard questions... we made this for you too.