Chorley firm Frederick's develops ice cream for dogs (From Chorley Citizen)

Chorley firm Frederick's develops ice cream for dogs

2:00pm Thursday 7th March 2013 in Chorley

An ice cream firm, concerned about customers feeding their pets, has produced a “canine 99” that does no harm to doggie diets.

And now deserving dogs can get a non-dangerous lick of a specially-produced ice cream while their owners enjoy an icy treat.

Frederick’s Ice Cream, based in Chorley, have launched the creamy frozen treat, Lucky Dog. The ice cream has been formulated by the firm for dogs who are lactose-intolerant and find it difficult to digest dairy products.

The product contains no dairy or fat so can be more easily digested by hungry pooches.

The “nutty idea” then went to taste tests with the most popular flavour being peanut butter.

Donna Townson, development director at Frederick’s said the idea was to produce a pet-friendly product. She said: “Many of our customers in our ice cream parlours enjoy a visit to us while out with their dogs. They often treat them to a small ice cream cone.

“A couple of years ago, a customer asked us about dog-friendly ice cream, as we know dogs cannot easily digest dairy.

“So we developed the idea, along with an army of willing doggy volunteers, and Lucky Dog was created.”

The family firm, which is more than 100 years old, has two outlets in Chorley and one at the Chill Factore Alpine Village, in Manchester.

They employ 11 full-time and 53 part-time staff.

Donna said it was difficult to select the final flavour.

“After testing many flavours we discovered peanut butter seemed to go down the best so that’s the flavour we have initially launched,” she said.

“But we’re already looking at other flavours to give our canine customers a choice.”