“We want to make Tualatin feel proud that they have a brand that they can look at and say, ‘I live in Tualatin, have you heard of BruDog?’” Cooper Brunner, one half of the dog food company, BruDog, told Tualatin Life.
Cooper and Kayley Brunner have become very familiar with feeding lots of mouths, as in addition to their two dogs, Gus and Greta, they have two cats, a chicken, a lizard, a rabbit and four toddlers.
“It’s a little farm,” Cooper Brunner joked about his house.
The Tualatin couple started their dog food company, emphasizing fresh food, in October of 2025, which, according to Cooper Brunner, started out as a way to keep their own dogs healthy.
“When we got him as a puppy, he had digestive issues,” Cooper Brunner said about the couple’s dachshund, Gus. “She took him to the vet, and they went to an elimination diet, and she started feeding him fresh food. Just simple: chicken, pumpkin, rice.”
Cooper Brunner said that he and his wife now call this diet “the standards” because of its unprocessed ingredients and its instantaneous effects on Gus.
“That started clearing up his stomach right out the gate, and we got that first taste of, ‘Wow! Fresh food might be a good alternative for lots of dogs,’” Cooper Brunner said.
After putting their dogs on a fresher diet and seeing a dramatic uptick in both pets’ health, the Brunners started getting questions from friends about their dog food recipes and, according to Cooper Brunner, began looking into creating their own business.
“Then we actually reached out to a board of vets that helped with a formal formula, which is completely balanced,” Cooper Brunner said. “Once we did all that work to have a commercial recipe, we just told ourselves, ‘Why not?’”
Since October, the Brunners have developed a chicken and a beef recipe, both featuring choice meat, rice, vegetables and vitamins and minerals. The recipes have been approved by the Association of American Feed Control Officials and, according to Cooper Brunner, BruDog is getting ready to release a new turkey recipe “soon.”
Both Brunners agreed that switching to healthy food inspired serious change in their dogs’ attitudes as well as their health, with Kayley Brunner saying that the process of formulating their own recipes taught them a lot about the importance of being critical when it comes to consumption.
“It’s like if you eat McDonald’s every day, you don’t necessarily feel it, but then things start failing,” Kayley Brunner said. “You didn’t know what you didn’t know, right? You would just see it (dog food) in a store and think, ‘it has to be healthy,’ and now we’re realizing that’s not necessarily the case.”
Cooper Brunner said the couple had received lots of positive feedback from their customers so far and said that although he hoped to one day establish locations in neighboring cities, the company’s ties to Tualatin were one of its strengths.
“I grew up here,” Cooper Brunner said. “We loved local companies that did a lot for our community and we take pride in companies that do a good job. We want to kind of fill in that role with dog food and, hopefully, be supported by our community.”
For more information about BruDog recipes and background, visit brudog.com.
Tualatin’s Dog Food History
It may surprise some to learn that Tualatin’s history with dog food production used to be pretty rough. Hervin’s Blue Mountain Dog Food Company, which in the 1950’s was located in downtown Tualatin, used to permeate the air with “noxious odors.”
In a historical article written by Loyce Martinazzi [tinyurl.com/5db2832d], she reported that at one time, “noxious odors from the plant caused ‘lots of nose holding.’”
