Meet Alejandra & Sara | Alejandra & Sara- Co-founders of Doggizen

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alejandra & Sara and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alejandra & Sara, what is the most important factor behind your success?
We believe that our most important factor behind the brand’s success is the fact we have created a brand, a community and products that are based on our personal needs and finding that they were other people’s needs as well. We have built our brand for and by ourselves.

Our company’s relatability helps people feel part/involved in our growth. We are dog moms, just like all our followers, in search of places and services around Miami that welcome our girls.

Lack of information plus a booming community, helped us build an even stronger relationship with fellow dog parents in our city looking for a more active “dog-friendly” lifestyle.

We actively participate as dog parents, we are very authentic with our opinion, and everything we recommend is because we have tried it first. We are not experts in the field by any means, but the information we provide and the products we have created are based on our own experience and on what we have learned over these past two years. We learn, create and share as we go. Creating a more informed product and service based on precisely what we would love to see around us.

We also love what we do, and we think that is a huge factor in every business’s success.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Doggizen started as an Instagram account to share Dog-Friendly Places around Miami. We became dog moms around the same time, and we wanted to spend every minute of the day with our girls.

Miami has such nice weather year-round, allowing us to take them everywhere, but once we started looking online for recommendations, we found nothing but outdated information.

At the time, we were looking to open a business together, so we thought that while we worked on another project, we could explore Miami’s dog-friendly side, take pictures of our dogs (we were doing it anyway), and share them with our family and friends. Fast forward two years, we can proudly say that we have built a community around dog lovers and bringing our beautiful city one step closer to being more dog-friendly every day.

We now share and promote local businesses, host events for small businesses, dog parents, and off course, dogs to be part of, and we have also created a product line of accessories. In addition, we have built relationships with everyone that encourages a more dog-friendly lifestyle creating spaces for dog parents to enjoy their day to day in Miami.

Like any new business, challenges are expected, long hours and the fact that we do everything ourselves, from creating the content we share to cutting and sewing our products, plus the not-so-fun side like accounting stuff. We feel we have many responsibilities now since we are active members of this community and have a voice that is being heard. But all the constant late nights and hard work these past two years have been beyond rewarding; the community has welcomed us with open arms and so much love. We are inspired by the messages we receive, and we love meeting people that follow us and thanks us for the information we are sharing.

We are very excited about what Doggizen is becoming; we are looking for ways to become more sustainable with our products and our events. We want to host more significant events with exciting activities for our community. We want to see Miami continue and expanding into a more dog-friendly city, and we want this community to grow and support each other in every possible way.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh, this one is pretty hard! How to pick one area of Miami? I think the best way to answer this would be our ideal day in the city 🙂

Wake up and head over to Hobie Beach at Key Biscayne, one of the dog-friendly beaches here. Take our paddle boards (they also have rentals available) and go for a ride along the beach. After this, we will be hungry, and there are endless possibilities, but maybe venture up north to Miami Design District for brunch. We love the açaí bowls at Pura Vida, so you most likely will find us there! After brunch, we would take the girls to D.O.G. Wynwood to get them a quick bath and remove all the beach water from them while we shower at home. As soon as they are ready, we would pick them up and head over to Wynwood to stroll around and most likely end up grabbing a Michelada at Veza Sur (one of our fave local dog-friendly breweries). Then the debate on where to eat. Sara is vegetarian, so she might pick SoBe Vegan in Miami Beach for a late lunch. At the same time, Ale will eat anything and suggest getting Diavola pizza at IronSide Miami over by the MiMo district. Typically on the weekends, great dog-friendly events are going on around the city. We most likely will be in one of those. If not, we will burn whatever energy is left in the girls by taking them to Blanche Park or Morningside Park, two of our favorite dog parks. After this, all four of us will most likely sleep for 24 hours 😂.

Other places we always keep in mind are (to name a few):

Parks: Snyder Park, Performance Pups, Tails and Trails Doral, Kennedy Park, Perrine Wayside Park, Barkham at Markham, Morningside Park, Maurice A. Ferré Park, Village of Key Biscayne Dog Park, Hobie Beach, Tropical Park, Margaret Pace Park, Haulover Park, the Barnacle, Pintos Farm*, Berry Farm* and Fairchild Botanical Garden* (*check dog day schedule).

Breweries: Barkyard N’ Brews, Tripping Animals Brewing, Spanish Marie Brewery, Lincolns Beard, Beat Culture, Cerveceria La Tropical, Veza Sur, MIA Brewery.

Malls: Aventura Mall, Merrick Park, Brickell City Center, Upper Buena Vista, Miami Design District, Bal Harbour Shops.

Dog Stores/Services: Wynwood Dog Food, D.O.G. Hotels, Woof Gang Bakery, Good Boy Pet Care & Nutrition, Pet Wants, Classic Dogs, Helpet.

Restaurants: SoBe Vegan, Cielito Artisan Pops, Lulu’s Ice Cream, Pura Vida, Green Street Cafe, Coyo Taco, 1800 Lucky, Sugarcane, La Latina, Tacology, Hachidori Ramen, Talavera, Bulla, Yoko Matcha, Burger Meister, Boketto, IronSide Miami, Night Owl Cookies, OTL, Yellow Green Farmers Market.

If you need more ideas, just head over to @Doggizen and send us a DM 🙂 we will gladly guide you anywhere you are in the city!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people we want to dedicate our shoutout to. First, to our beautiful dogs Carlota and Roberta for inspiring us, for teaching us to love, create and venture into something we never thought we would do. Our family and friends, for their encouragement, constant support, help, and willingly coming along this crazy ride. To the dog-friendly community of Miami, for being simply put, awesome, for all the great feedback we have received, and for wanting more, they treat us like family! They are the reason we continue to do what we do. Finally, to the great local businesses that have partnered up with us and have believed in our mission since day one, we can’t wait to keep growing alongside them.

Website: www.doggizen.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doggizen/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doggizen

Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Doggizen?ref=shop_sugg

Image Credits
Profile photo by Marianela Manzanilla-@photomanzanilla Carlos Mardones- @DogExpression @Doggizen