“Sometimes, it will be just Sammy out there, and sometimes there’ll be two or three other dogs out there,” said Carriker, who keeps a jar of treats on hand for Sammy and friends. “Some I know whose dogs they are, and some I don’t have a clue. They just show up.”

The highest number of dogs Carriker has found sitting at her front door waiting on goodies — five.

“I think she has told them what’s going on,” Carriker said of Sammy.

Carriker and her daughter, Megan, started Megan’s Mutt Munchies, a dog-treats bakery, in 2000. The co-owners recently bought equipment, including an antique dough roller, and recipes from Bark Bark Bakery in Canton, Ga.

Wendy Carriker said all the treats are made from natural, wholesome ingredients, with no artificial colors, flavors or additives in them.

The treats come in a variety of flavors including Original Mutt Munchies, Peanut Butter Pieces, Woof Woof Wonders, Pumpkin Puffs, Cheese Wa-Wa’s and Pawsitivily Peanut Butter.

The Original Mutt Munchies are made with rye flour, wheat flour, vegetable oil, cornmeal and water. The Pawsitivily Peanut Butter treats are made from wheat flour, eggs, peanut butter and chicken broth.

Chicken broth is the special ingredient.

“Anything peanut butter most dogs seem to really love, but I think the chicken broth really adds to it,” Wendy Carriker said.

All flavors come in a 10-ounce bag and prices range from $5 to $7. Each package of treats comes with a gift — a waste bag to help with doggie clean-ups. Personalized treats are available.

The Carrikers are doing business in an industry in which sales show no sign of faltering.

According to the American Pet Products Association, $58 billion was spent on pets in the United States in 2014, compared with $55.7 billion in 2013. The association, known as APPA, has estimated 2015 sales at $60.6 billion.

In 2014, food accounted for $22.3 billion of overall pet industry sales and is estimated at $23 billion for 2015. The 2015-16 APPA National Pet Owners Survey found 65 percent of U.S. households own a pet. That’s 79.7 million homes.

Early entrepreneur

The idea for Megan’s Mutt Munchies came from Megan Carriker when she was 9½ years old.

She recalled reading an American Girl magazine article about how a lot of girls her age were starting their own businesses. A blurb gave ideas on how to do the same, and one of the ideas was dog bones.

“It’s so funny, looking back on it now, but that was the inspiration,” Megan Carriker said. “I was really excited to see other people around my age doing these things.”

She and her mother looked up recipes on the Internet and started making dog treats.

Wendy Carriker said her daughter’s first several batches of dog treats didn’t keep well.

“So she sat down with my father who was a baker and worked through the recipes so that they would not go bad without using preservatives, because we really did not want preservatives,” she said.

The mother and daughter team got a space at the Main Oak Emporium at the corner of Main and Oak streets in Mount Airy thanks to its owners, Burke and Carolyn Robertson.

Megan Carriker would use the money she made to make donations or pay her way to tennis camp. She continued to bake the dog treats all through high school, but by the time she went to college, her mother had become the primary baker.

All of the dog treats have to be analyzed and registered with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Now, at 26, Megan Carriker lives in Apex and works full time as a business manager for Cultures for Health, an e-commerce company in Morrisville.

She handles the marketing, company website and the research for Megan’s Mutt Munchies, while her mother does the baking.

Megan Carriker said she loves animals.

She said she was also inspired to become an entrepreneur at an early age because her mother is also the owner of Wendy Jane Creations, another home business.

Wendy Jane Creations, which has a website at www.wendyjanecreations.com, offers seasonal flags, English smocking and machine embroidery.

Wendy Carriker started producing handmade crafts in 1978.

Growing on dog treats

Products offered by Megan’s Mutt Munchies are still sold at Main Oak Emporium as well as at The Dapper Hound on North Main Street in Mount Airy, and online at www.megans muttmunchies.com.

The Dapper Hound has been carrying the dog treats since late 2015.

“We love them, and our customers love them,” said owner Shelby Boles. “We sell them by the bag and we sell them by the scoop.”

Boles also had the Carrikers make dog bones with the The Dapper Hound name on them.

“She has them registered with the Argiculture Department so we know that they are safe,” Boles said.

She said customers often comment about the smell of the dog treats and how their dogs love them.

Boles’ best-seller is the Pawsitivily Peanut Butter.

Wendy Carriker works out of designated bakery space in her home.

“So far it’s been a lot of fun,” she said. “It hasn’t been too hectic.”

She said the two are still learning tricks of the trade.

They bought the equipment and recipes from Bark Bark Bakery to provide dog owners with more options for homemade dog treats.

Last year, Megan’s Mutt Munchies had orders at Christmas throughout the country, but the bulk of its orders are typically in the Southeast. The plan is to get their products in more area stores in Kernersville and Winston-Salem.

Wendy Carriker said they operate a local business that makes dog treats in small batches.

“We don’t want to be in chain stores,” she said. “We’d like to stay with local businesses as well.”