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The Laughing Dog bakery was founded at its current site in Dunchurch by Mr Henry J Roberts in 1936. Mr Roberts could not find a good dog biscuit in the UK and, using his family’s heritage in the baking industry, he decided to set up his own dog food bakery. He called it ‘Laughing Dog’ because he had often noticed that his own dog would smile or laugh when content.
In the 1950s the company started to attend the Championship Dog Shows. By this time the Laughing Dog bakery was producing 4 tonnes a week of dog biscuits using coke fired ovens. The bakery was further improved in the 1960s when a conveyor oven was added, and the baking day extended to 14 hours. By 1961, the wage bill had reached £131 a week for 13 employees!
In the 1970s the company changed direction, and made a concentrated effort to enter the pet trade. Several 35cwt vans were purchased for direct delivery to pet shops. Demand for Laughing Dog products was so good that the bakery was again expanded. A second conveyor oven was added taking the total oven length to 165 feet and the bakery was now capable of producing 105 tonnes a week. Henry Robert’s son John joined the business and continued to make further improvements to the plant. When his father died in 1980, John became Managing Director.
In 1994 Fenlife bought the Laughing Dog bakery and successfully ran it until September 2004 when it again changed hands and was acquired by Nigel Baker’s company. Under new ownership for only the third time in the company’s illustrious history, work began to modernise Laughing Dog’s image, whilst maintaining the quality for which it had become so well known. The packaging was updated, and new products added. Most notably the introduction of Europe’s first baked complete food Total Nutrition in late 2005. With complete feeding becoming increasingly popular in the modern market place, Mr Baker wanted to reach out and offer the customers a natural complete food in line with the company’s image of excellence and quality.
Today the Laughing Dog bakery continues to bake in the same way the Robert’s family had designed. A method that is as unique as it is interesting! The bakery has been modified and altered so many times down the years that it is described as ‘virtually impossible’ to recreate. The task of mixing and baking the products is highly skilled, and the knowledge of how to operate the line is passed down from one mixer to the next. Currently there are probably less than 10 people in the world capable of running the Laughing Dog bakery!
So next time you open your bag of Laughing Dog food, spare a moment for the time and effort that has been put into making it. Rest assured that it has been carefully hand crafted using nearly a century’s worth of knowledge and experience.
Pictured top : Mr Robert’s Staffordshire Bull Terrier upon who the original Laughing Dog concept and logo was based.
Pictured bottom : An old hessian sack, probably from the early 1970s. As you can see things have changed a bit over the years! | 
