No More Eating on the Run: Slow the Chow Down with the Brake-fast® Bowl
By Jane Singleton

“We’re sticking with our day jobs,” Jennifer and Michael Kitchen told reporter Maryann Mott last September, when she asked the couple about the success of their brand new, patented Brake-fast® dog bowl. Now, only five months later, Jennifer modestly admits she has given up her day job!

“I now live and breathe the dog bowl business,” Jennifer said. “I love it. I like being in charge of my own destiny. And it was amazing to us to discover just how many people out there need and appreciate our bowl. It’s so gratifying to get emails telling us how much our bowls have helped their pets. Taking a dog’s eating time from 10 seconds to two minutes, for example, makes a tremendous difference in the dog’s digestive process.”








The Kitchens actually developed the bowl nine years ago out of concern for Onyx, their Doberman Pincher. “We used to stand by and watch Onyx eat; prepared to initiate the Heimlich maneuver during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Onyx ate so fast,” Jennifer said.

So Michael and Jennifer set out to creatively solve the problem. After only an hour of researching the patenting process online, it seems to be a daunting task. Jennifer said it is daunting, in a way, but that’s where husband Mike’s expertise played such an important role. Michael read books about the marketability of ideas and used PatentPro® software to move them through the patenting process. Jennifer said this information gave them an initial start, and then it was a process of trial-and-error.

In the meantime, Jennifer’s combined talents of being mechanically inclined and a woodworker, inspired her to experiment with a single impediment—a wooden dowel—attached vertically to the inside-bottom of Onyx’s food bowl. That didn’t slow Onyx down sufficiently, so Jennifer added a second dowel, then a third. Finally Onyx’s rate of consumption changed from gulp to chew.

At the time they found a solution for Onyx, the Kitchens were also raising two children and had no time to devote to the patenting, production, and marketing of the bowl. But last year, they moved forward with their creation, with the first Brake-fast® bowl hitting store shelves in May 2006. Initially, the product cost about $35,000 to produce and in the first two months on the market, generated $8,000 in sales.

Jennifer and Michael wanted their bowls to be made by a USA manufacturer, but soon discovered that it was very cost-prohibitive, so they had to go global. They reached an agreement with a US manufacturer who produces the bowls overseas and ships them to their home office where Jennifer and her two college-aged children, Dawn and Christopher, help run the business.

“Thank goodness we have a truck,” Jennifer said, “because we receive shipments of five-thousand bowls at a time. And, thank goodness, our son can handle the heavy work—he’s nineteen years old, six-foot-five-inches tall, and weighs 290 pounds. Our daughter does the data entry and most of the paperwork. Both children are well suited to their jobs and they free me to do individual packaging for our customers.”

The Kitchens are now in the process of manufacturing small and large bowls. The medium bowl currently on the market is the five-cup size, which probably serves the greatest number of dogs — Shelties through Labrador Retrievers. The larger size is about 27 percent larger than the medium and will accommodate Great Danes, Irish Wolfhounds, and Newfoundlands. The small bowl suits Chihuahuas, Pugs, Pekinese, Boston Terriers, and Dachshunds, and by popular request, is also suitable for cats.

Both Michael and Jennifer are life-long dog lovers. Jennifer, raised as a farm girl, would take every book out of the library that had to do with dogs. She apprenticed with a dog trainer for many years, beginning at the age of fourteen during the summer months, and has worked as a dog groomer. “I’ve always been a doggy person, all different breeds. My parents didn’t complain when I would come home carrying a new dog. They would let me keep it.” Michael also grew up in the constant company of canines, and has been a Doberman man since college. But before the Dobermans, he owned Cairn Terrier-Dachshund mixes.








Labrador Retrievers were the most prominent breed in Jennifer’s dog training classes. “They are wonderful dogs—so willing and so active.” The Kitchens lost their own yellow Lab-Shepherd mix to cancer about two years ago. A couple years ago, Jennifer had been looking for a Lab puppy, when a police dispatcher friend told her one had been turned in to Virginia Beach Animal Control. After a mix-up that placed the pup in another home, Duke eventually came home to live with Jennifer. “He was just a doll-baby,” Jennifer said.

Now the Kitchens have two Dobermans, Onyx and Willow, and a Dachshund named Putty, aka Silly Putty. “I think dogs teach valuable lessons about the things that are necessary for life. No matter whether you are sick or not, your dogs need to be fed and cared for. That was a great life-lesson my parents passed on to me and my children,” Jennifer said.

During the time of this interview, the Kitchens were preparing to participate in the American Pet Products Manufacturing Association show in Orlando, Florida. Onyx, Willow, and Putty (the family cuddle-bunny) stay at home in Virginia Beach, while Mom and Dad network with customers at the trade shows.

During the first year in production, the Brake-fast® bowl won the Editor’s Choice Dog Product Award both by Dog Fancy magazine and by Pet Products News. “It was quite a surprise. We found out at the HH Backer Christmas show in Chicago that we had been selected,” Jennifer said. This award-winning health-conscious Dog Bowl is available through the All Labs Online Store.