Ruff Pine Dog Treats - Emily and Nick
- Brick + Tides
- Jan 21
- 5 min read
The story of Ruff Pine Dog Treats starts with a purchase on Facebook Marketplace.
In 2019, Nick and Emily Conley are twenty-one, recently out of college, and five years into a relationship that started when they were sixteen. Nick is from Biddeford. Emily is from Saco. They buy a 1993 Ford Falcon camper van and decide to travel the country. They don’t set a destination. They don’t set a return date.
Friends and family respond in roughly the same way. You kids are crazy. Sometimes it’s said with a laugh. Sometimes it isn’t.
They load the van with what fits: clothes that can be worn again, a few cooking supplies, mainly essentials.
Their dogs, Blue and Willow, circle the interior before settling into spots that will soon feel permanent.
They choose stops based on a passion for craft beer and where the dogs are welcome. Brewpub patios. Restaurants with water bowls tucked under tables. Hiking many trails and exploring national parks and the beauty the country has to offer.
Niagara Falls is the first real stop. Close enough to feel like a warm-up, far enough that turning back already feels unnecessary. After that, the distances stretch.
They head west and stay there. The van works harder in the mountains. They sleep in campgrounds, BLM Land, parking lots, anywhere quiet enough to let the dogs settle.
Clean clothes start to feel like a limited resource. Hot showers turn into something you think about hours in advance.
By the time they reach Texas, they’ve been on the road for months.
Nick notices it first. Dogs aren’t an obstacle. They’re expected. He doesn’t say much about it. The observation sticks.
News of a virus begins to follow them. They cross back into Maine in March of 2020. About a week later, everything shuts down.
The van stops moving. The dogs stay close.
Staying Put
Back home, time stretches. Routines loosen. Like a lot of people, Nick and Emily start paying closer attention to small things—what they eat, what they buy, what their dogs eat.
They don’t like the ingredient lists on most dog treats. Too many items they don’t recognize. Too many things that feel unnecessary. Emily buys a small dehydrator in 2020. It isn’t a business decision. It's a curiosity.
They start out making different single ingredient treats for their own dogs. Trying new recipes from Beef to Chicken. The kitchen smells like whatever they’re testing that day.
Their dogs react immediately. Friends notice. Family asks questions. Someone asks if they can buy a bag.
They live in a one-bedroom apartment. The kitchen becomes a workspace. Counters fill up. Labels are handmade. They don’t talk about scale. They talk about whether something works.
In January of 2022, they named what they’re already doing: Ruff Pine Dog Treats. Pine for Maine. Ruff for dogs. The name sticks.
They learn the rules. Dog treats in Maine require registration, clear labeling, weights, and a guaranteed analysis showing protein, fat, and moisture. Emily handles the paperwork while working a corporate insurance job during the day.
At night, after their first child goes to sleep, she packages treats, seals bags, answers messages, and prepares for farmers markets. Weekends disappear into tents, crates, and conversations.
Nick keeps detailing cars for a business he started years ago, Detail Dynasty. ( @detail_dynastyllc) His business moves the way it always has—word of mouth, long days, physical work.
Eventually, the question comes up that they’ve both been circling. Emily doesn’t want to return full-time after their second child. Ruff Pine Dog Treats already takes most of her energy.
“If you care about it enough and you put love, time, and energy into it, it’s going to be worth something.”
Nick tells her to quit.
There’s no speech. No promise. Just an understanding of how much work it will take.
Emily works farmers markets while pregnant. She works nights. She works weekends. She works right up
until the day she goes into labor. The business adjusts.
Ruff Pine Dog Treats Repetition
Ruff Pine Dog Treats grows the way small businesses usually do—through repetition.
Single-ingredient treats become the backbone: beef heart, beef liver, chicken jerky. Customers with dogs that have allergies notice quickly. Knowing exactly what’s in the bag matters.
They add biscuits next. Still minimal ingredients. Shaped like moose and lobsters. Flavors like peanut butter pumpkin and blueberry bacon. Maine shows up without being explained.
Farmers markets stay important. Dogs come to the table. Owners ask questions. Feedback is immediate. Tourists buy treats while visiting Maine and order more once they’re home.
By 2025, they sell nearly 8,000 bags of treats in a year. Every one handled by hand. Biscuits cut, packaged, sealed. Bags labeled one at a time.
They get into retail stores. Some close in the winter. Some stay year-round. New Morning in Biddeford and Kennebunk was their first retail store to give them a chance. They remember that.
They take on custom work—airplane-shaped biscuits for the Portland Jetport and private aviation companies. Requests they didn’t plan for but know how to fulfill.
At home, they add chickens. Eight of them. The eggs go into the biscuits. It’s one more part of the process they can see from start to finish.
They now have two boys, one and four. Nick still runs his detailing business of 10 years, Detailed Dynasty. Emily runs Ruff Pine Dog Treats full-time. Family helps when needed—deliveries, packaging, watching the kids when days stretch long.
They talk about scaling. Equipment. Space. Maybe part-time help. Nothing feels abstract. Everything feels close.
Shorter Distances
Owning a dog treat company doesn’t look like driving across the country. Most days, it looks like packaging orders after bedtime or loading wooden crates into a car before a farmers market.
But some habits never left.
They’re still comfortable without a fixed plan. Still used to solving problems as they come up. Still paying attention to where dogs are welcome and where they aren’t. Still thinking about food, movement, and what it means to live alongside animals instead of around them.
The trip didn’t turn into a business idea overnight. It didn’t need to. It taught them how to keep going when things break, how to live with less, and how to notice details without trying to turn them into conclusions.
The movement is different now. Shorter drives. Heavier loads. Less space in the backseat.
The dogs are still there.
The work still travels.
And the decisions—what to make, how to make it, where it could grow—are still theirs, shaped by the same trust that started the trip.
Visit RUFFPINEDOGTREATS.COM for ordering info, events, custom orders, and wholesale orders.
Follow Ruff Pine Dog Treats on INSTAGRAM. @RuffPineDogTreats
Follow Nick's Detailing Business: @detail_dynastyllc
Thank you to Emily and Nick for their time on January 13, 2026, at the Little Ossipee Lake public boat launch in Waterboro. They packed their car with treats, brought Blue and Willow along, and stood on the ice long enough to make this story and these photographs possible.
