We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Glasgow recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jennifer thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

For all of her life, our Founder, Jenny Glasgow, has been smitten with animals of all kinds…the old ones, young ones, skinny ones, and, yep, you bet, the chubby ones.

While building her career as a successful entrepreneur, Jenny never strayed from her passion for animals and has been a Vet Tech since 1994.

Time after time, she’d see chubby dogs come in for their annual exam; their owners would be given basic instructions, “cut the food and exercise more,” but then they were not seen again until their next annual visit. A year later, back for a check-up, they were STILL chubby (or sometimes even heavier!)

She decided there should be an easier way for owners and Veterinarians to work together to help dogs shed a pound or two (or ten!)

Chubby Dog Nation™ was created to help pup lovers like Jenny take simple daily actions toward improving their dog’s weight and overall health with easy-to-follow digital guides, fitness, food tracking, and Veterinarian communication tools.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My first job in a veterinary clinic was in 1994 – I was in the kennels taking care of all the sweet (and some not so sweet) dogs and kitties in my charge. I cleaned up poop, gave medication, took them out for walks, made sure everyone was fed and had clean water – and loved every single second of it. I was hooked. I didn’t have the option to enroll in a vet tech program in my area back then, so I learned from the experienced, seasoned techs around me. I began as a tech assistant, absorbing as much knowledge as I could, learning technical skills like catheter placements and blood draws as well as the invaluable non-technical stuff like how to comfort a scared kitty or the best way to wrangle an energetic Great Dane puppy for an exam. Gradually working my way up to vet tech and then lead vet tech and eventually to the role of lead surgical tech. Even now, after three decades, you can still find me working in the clinics I adore. These days though, my focus has shifted from the surgical suite to the appointment rooms where I have the honor of providing love, care, and a helping hand to all our furry patients.

Over those last 30 years I noticed that when the sweet chubby dogs came in, the vets gave excellent weight-loss advice but then we didn’t see them again for another year when it was time for their annual check-up. And by that time not only had they NOT lost any weight, but in most cases were even chubbier. Their owners had the best intentions but sometimes it’s just hard to stay on track, I mean – who can resist those eyes?! I knew there had to be a better way to keep everyone on the same page to help these sweet chubby pups get to their healthy weight and live longer, healthier, happier lives – a working collaboration between the dog owner and their trusted veterinarian.
And so it was – Chubby Dog Nation™ was born.

One of the aspects I’m most proud/excited about is the work we are doing with the shelters. Many times, dogs come in that are either a little chubby or, in most cases, too thin. These dogs need a little extra help to get to a healthy weight. The medical director can set the diet for the foster parents to follow along with the Chubby Dog Nation™ app and keep tabs on their progress. We offer our program absolutely free to any animal shelter – all with the goal of helping these sweet pups get healthy and find their forever homes.

I’m also very proud and honored to have recently been elected to the NOMV (Not One More VET) board. This is an organization dedicated to tackling head-on the mental health crises in the veterinary profession. They do amazing work every day and I am honored to be a part of it.

Any advice for managing a team?

My team is my family and I would do anything for them. I think the best advice for maintaining high morale is praise often, definitely do not micro-manage (that’s the worst!), and always have their backs when they are in a pinch. We try to do something fun as a group every few months like escape rooms, dinners, shows, etc. Most of us are based out of the Charleston, SC area so always plenty to do!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think my 30+ years as a vet tech definitely helped but I also collaborated with a couple heavy hitters when developing the program. Dr. Craig Henke, DVM is the vet I have worked with for the last 20 years, he is an absolutely amazing veterinarian and helped me by reviewing the book/program prior to launch. Dr. Rebecca Remillard, PhD, DVM, DACVN is an absolute rock star. There is a textbook used in the vet schools called Small Animal Clinical Nutrition – she’s one of the authors. She also only lives about 5 hours away from me and I had the privilege of working with her on the “Diet Roadmap” portion of our program.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ChubbyDogNation.com
• Instagram: chubby_dog_nation
• Facebook: chubby_dog_nation

Image Credits

Photo credit – Erin Turner Photography