The birthday cake was supposed to be a celebration. When Aisha Byrd bought a special cake for her dog Benjamin’s first birthday, she had no intention of starting a business. She was simply being a devoted dog owner. The day after that party, Benjamin was in emergency care, diagnosed with pancreatitis. Tests confirmed he had a wheat allergy. Combing through the ingredient list on the packaging that had landed him there, Byrd arrived at a second realization: treats she could actually trust for him were going to be far harder to find than they should be.
She spent the next year developing recipes at home. By Benjamin’s second birthday, she had made him something from scratch, built from ingredients she could account for one by one. She kept refining after that, testing batches with Benjamin and with Reese, the other dog the business would eventually be named for. The work continued quietly for years before it became a business.
In January 2018, R&B Dog Bakery officially launched in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The name stands for Reese and Benjamin, both dogs now gone; Byrd says they lived to 14 and 16 respectively. The business debuted at a craft fair in Bedford, Texas, selling four treat flavors and one cupcake variety. From there, Byrd tested products at farmers markets and local dog events throughout the DFW area, gathering feedback that shaped the range as it grew. By August 2021, the business had a brick-and-mortar retail location in Arlington. In February 2026, she closed that location and reopened in a larger space at Geyer Commons in Mansfield, a suburb south of Fort Worth, where R&B Dog Bakery now operates as both a working production kitchen and a gathering space for local pet families.
What the Bakery Makes
Custom celebration cakes are the product that first established R&B’s foothold, and they remain at the center of what the bakery does. Pet parents can order in three dog-safe flavors, peanut butter, apple, and carrot, with frostings that include Greek yogurt, cream cheese, and peanut butter variations, none containing added sugar or salt. Natural food colorings allow for custom themes, which has made the cakes a fixture at dog birthday parties, adoption anniversaries, and what the pet industry now calls “gotcha days.”
Alongside the cakes, Byrd developed a baked treat range formulated around specific ingredient combinations: salmon with sweet potato and blueberry, pumpkin with cranberry, peanut butter with oat. According to Pet Food Processing, which profiled the company in July 2026, the baked treat line runs to around 20 SKUs, all produced in an off-site commercial kitchen. A separate freeze-dried meal topper line is made through a third-party contract manufacturer. Products are sold in-store, through the bakery’s website, and on Walmart Marketplace; wholesale ordering for pet retailers, groomers, and veterinary practices is available through the platform Faire.
The Mansfield location also features a Chew Bar, where dogs can sample products while their owners browse, and a Soft Serve Doggy Fro-Yo Bar that has become a draw for in-store visitors. The brand has extended into print as well, publishing a recipe guide called “Baking with R&B Dog Bakery” and a coloring book titled “Reese and Benjamin: The Dogs Who Built a Bakery,” both sold through Amazon.
The Nonprofit Running Alongside
Byrd founded a second organization, separate from the bakery and structured as its own entity: Paws 4 A Cause Pet Food Pantry, a 501(c)3 nonprofit registered in Arlington, Texas, with its tax-exempt ruling dating to 2024. The pantry provides pet food and supplies to families in the DFW area facing financial hardship, including veterans and families at risk of having to surrender their pets because they can no longer afford to feed them. Byrd serves as executive director. The company directs 2% of R&B Dog Bakery’s profits toward the pantry’s operation, according to the company; community partners include the Dallas and Fort Worth Veterans Affairs and an American Marketing Association student chapter at the University of Texas at Arlington.
“I don’t think people who are having a hard time should have to make a choice between feeding their family and feeding their pets,” Byrd told Pet Food Processing in July 2026.
Building Toward Retail
The past two years have been a deliberate period of reinvention for the business. In 2025, Byrd completed the Walmart Retail Readiness Entrepreneurship Program, a structured accelerator that helped shift R&B’s orientation toward the consumer packaged goods market. She is also completing the Intuit IDEAS program, a small business accelerator providing coaching and access to grant funding for qualifying entrepreneurs.
In parallel, she joined the third cohort of the Black Pet Business Network’s RISE program, short for Retail Inclusion and Success for Entrepreneurs, a year-long initiative designed to give Black founders in the pet industry mentorship, industry relationships, and broader retail visibility. RISE participants from the third cohort are scheduled to present at SUPERZOO, one of the pet industry’s major annual trade shows, in Las Vegas on August 12, 2026, in the event’s Next Wave Pitch Competition.
Packaging has evolved alongside the programming, moving from paper bags to matte-printed retail pouches designed to carry the brand’s origin story on the front. The company describes itself as GO TEXAN certified, a Texas Department of Agriculture program recognizing locally made products, and as People and Planet First certified. Byrd also runs what the company calls a zero-waste initiative, in which product scraps are repurposed as samples or donated rather than discarded.
Expansion options under consideration include a larger production facility with a small retail component, and a mobile treat truck that could be booked for dog birthday parties, community events, and dog-friendly venues, extending the same celebration-centered model that has defined the brand since Byrd baked that first homemade cake for Benjamin.
Further detail on R&B Dog Bakery‘s product development, ingredient philosophy, and RISE participation appears in Pet Food Processing, which profiled the company in July 2026.