shoutoutla - meet jennifer glasgow

we had the good fortune of connecting with jennifer glasgow and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?

Two years – that’s the potential lifespan difference between a healthy dog and a chubby one.

Yes, you heard it right – 2 years!

Thanks to the insights from the Purina Life Span Study, we now understand the pivotal role that maintaining an ideal body condition plays in ensuring the health and longevity of our furry companions.

Does this have you contemplating your pup’s weight? It absolutely should! Enter Chubby Dog Nation – our user-friendly app and Companion workbook, crafted by none other than yours truly – a female founder and a seasoned 30-year vet tech. We’ve made it a breeze for you to identify, track, and ensure your pup maintains an optimal weight to live their longest, happiest, healthiest lives – all working in collaboration with your trusted veterinarian.

What sets our program apart? It’s not just our innovative approach; it’s also the backing of some of the brightest minds in veterinary care. Renowned veterinarians, including Dr. Rebecca L. Remillard – the authority who literally wrote the book on canine nutrition – support our program.

The Chubby Dog Nation program keeps the dog owner and the vet working in collaboration as the vet sets the diet recommendations, the dog owner downloads the app and follows that advice through daily push notifications and reminders, checking off each task when completed. The veterinarian is then sent a summary report at the end of the month ahead of scheduled weigh-ins to monitor progress, make any plan modifications necessary, and keep everyone accountable and on the same page.

In addition, along with being a proud sponsor, I was honored to be invited to join the Board of NOMV (Not One More Vet), a free resource to address the mental health crisis in the veterinary profession by offering facilitated support groups to all veterinary medicine professionals and individual (one-on-one) sessions for veterinarians. Check out their website at NOMV.org, they are truly doing amazing things.

And, we’re not done yet! This month, we launched Fat Cat Society ~ weight-loss support for your full-figured feline!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?

Being a vet tech for the last 30 years, I noticed that when the chubby dogs came in for an appointment, the vet would give excellent advice but then we wouldn’t see that dog for another year until their next exam – at which point not only had they NOT lost weight but in most cases were even heavier. I knew there had to be a better way to keep the dog owner and the vet working together and on the same page for the sake of these beloved chubby pups.

The biggest challenge so far is that this program is a new way of tackling the pet obesity problem so we are constantly trying to find new ways to break these old habits, disrupting the way things have been done for so many years. The best part is seeing all the success stories and knowing that we helped that sweet dog feel better and have extra years of adventures!

Endorsed by an esteemed board of veterinarian advisors, it has taken the pet-weight loss category by storm through partnerships with influencers, pet food suppliers, pet insurance providers, and dog lovers worldwide.

Most recently, I was featured in the national print magazine Inventor’s Digest and was a first-place grant recipient of the Drew Wynne Foundation Female Founders Awards.

I was recently elected as a Board Member of the non-profit organization NOMV (Not One More Vet), which offers free resources to those impacted by the harsh realities of pet care. Most days at a vet clinic are great, but the sad days take such an emotional toll – NOMV is there to help on those dark days and to open communication and dialog.

I’m really proud and excited about our shelter program! When a dog comes in that needs to either lose or in most cases, gain weight the shelter medical director sets the diet for the foster parent to follow. The foster parent uses the Chubby Dog Nation program to keep the vet in the loop to monitor and/or make any plan modifications. We offer our program free of charge to all shelters in hopes of helping these pups get healthy and find their forever homes.

There are so many lessons I’ve learned (and am still learning!) along the way:
1. Surround yourself with a team of doers, the ones you trust to help make things happen.
2. Not everyone will understand what you are trying to do, and that’s ok!
3. Celebrate the little victories along the way – we did a little dance when we hit our first 100 downloads.
4. Never lose focus on your “why” – for me it’s the sweet dogs we help XOXO

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

Shout out to Melissa Barker and her team at Women Entrepreneurs Inc (WE Inc)! Through the process of launching both Chubby Dog Nation™ and Fat Cat Society™, they have become trusted advisors, mentors, sounding boards, collaborators, and friends. I had a vision of what I wanted my company to be, but the WE Inc. team truly brought it to life and did so with the skilled expertise of master crafts(wo)men.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

Well we are in the Charleston, SC area but if you are ever this way we would start with a sunrise beach walk, then breakfast at Millers All Day downtown. We would spend the morning shopping and strolling the historic streets of Charleston, stopping by the Hotel Bennett tea room for a lite snack (we are still full from breakfast!). In the afternoon we would take a harbor cruise to see the beautiful city from the water and then head to Hall’s Chophouse on King St. for dinner. After dinner, we would take a rickshaw to one of the downtown ghost tours and end the day sipping cocktails and listening to live music at one of the sidewalk cafes.