For six years now, Nicci Cammack has been changing the way that people care for their pets. Well, that’s been going on for much longer than the past six years—let’s just say that it’s been six years since she made it official and founded NorthPoint Pets & Company. In fact, her pursuit for good advice and information is a big reason why she started the business in the first place.
“I started and continue to evolve the business based on an unmet need for real, unfiltered information,” says Nicci. “Pet parents need a resource that doesn’t judge or try to sell based on profit and that is what NorthPoint Pets is. We always do or recommend what is right, even if it is something we don’t sell.”
Nicci is mom to Taser (Am Staff/Pit Bull), Beau (Dachshund), and Mika (Black Lab). Mika is a police K9 originally raised by Guiding Eyes for the Blind and both Taser and Beau are rescues—Taser from a fighting ring in New York City and Beau at three months old. Beau is the little dog with a big personality and is obviously the boss of the pack. In fact, he starts his day by marching into the kitchen, sits and waits for a NOBL food bar before he will even consider going outside to do his business.
Other dogs in her life have been rescues too, such as Trinity and Dasso who are no longer with us, yet both of whom benefitted from Nicci’s care and drive to overcome the medical challenges they faced as rescue dogs. Ultimately, it was the care she provided to little Taser that got Nicci’s thoughts turned toward opening a business.
“After chasing his medical issues with a variety of veterinarians, foods, and medications that didn’t work I knew there had to be another way.”
NorthPoint Pets has taken that founding sentiment to heart by being what an independent retailer can be: a resource for premium food, as well as a resource for unbiased, honest, and well-researched information regarding the pet food, nutrition and overall care of dogs and cats.
Nicci says, “I love talking to people and providing insight and information that they have never heard or experienced before. Opening up someone’s mind to different perspectives is really fun, because you get to see how they evolve the care they provide their pets.”
PERSPECTIVE
Nicci's perspective is that there’s not one product, supplement, or type of food that acts as a “magic bullet” for pet wellness. “It doesn’t exist.” Nicci goes on, “Instead, you’re looking for a lifestyle change – because you can’t heal in the same environment that made you sick in the fist place. When people finally realize and put this perspective into practice, they see common issues that they have struggled with for years like skin, ear, or GI issues start to go away and resolve as a result. Seeing all that result from a changed perspective is rewarding.”
That’s quite a long way from “the old days” when many of us had our first family dog. In Nicci’s view, “People used to just feed ‘dog food,’ but now people care about ingredients, sourcing, company standards, and the people and story behind a product.” Her concern is that too many pet food companies aren’t meeting that need. She believes, “Marketing is driving consumer education and perception in a way that is detrimental to both pets, owners and the industry in general. I would like to see more companies step up and offer unfiltered education that moves us in a positive and productive direction. As a retailer it’s exhausting to always have to break through the marketing jargon and constantly educate customers about truth vs. marketing.”
GETTING TO KNOW GUARDIAN, NOW NOBL
Nicci first got to know the MoRE canine food bars from Guardian Pet Foods because they offered a great nutritional and lifestyle fit for some of her clientele. “Because I have a lot of law enforcement clientele the bars were an awesome emergency ‘go’ meal, and something that was safe to feed before/after high activity such as tracking, or ‘food-reward’ K9’s who are trained to alert to various scents. I used these for several months as just that for a lot of my teams, and they love the love that it’s easy to carry and store,” says Nicci.
Beyond that, she also liked the way the packaging on our bars did its part to educate. “Initially I remember loving the pie charts on the back of the packaging since I always taught all my working dog nutrition classes to look at carb content when picking a food for their K9’s.”
Over time, many more of her customers at NorthPoint have discovered the food bars and taken a shine to them too. “We have several types of customers that feed them,” says Nicci. “The ones that feed them exclusively are generally the smaller dogs that are picky. Others mix the bars in with various types of food, use as training treats, especially for puppies, or use as a ‘granola’ bar when hiking, and so forth. And obviously the police K9 teams, those dogs really have an affinity for them and it’s really neat to see.”
We’re so happy to spotlight Nicci and her team at NorthPoint Pets. In all, we’re striving to be all the things she’s looking for in the pet food companies she does business with. “I’m always looking for honesty, transparency, and an authentic approach. I don’t think anybody is getting anywhere doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. At this point, new products and companies need to be innovative, sure. But what’s most important is: how they are raising the bar with transparency and proving that their products are safe and live up to the quality they claim?” says Nicci. And we agree.
We encourage the NOBL pack to visit Nicci and her people whenever possible in person at NorthPoint Pets & Company in Cheshire, Connecticut. As part of our launch of NOBL Foods and in coordination with NorthPoint Pets & Company, they are offering a timed discount that can be redeemed online or in person, 25% off any toy. Please see below:
It is always a pleasure to go into NPP! Nikki and staff are so knowledgeable. We started using NoBL bars for our small dog- very picky eater- scoffs them up! Of late, Ziggy has not been scratching his body!