DibbleDog Research on pet merchandise, animal gifts, and companion products

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Food & LifestyleJuly 7, 202610 min

Pet catalogs reshaped retail and how we buy for our pets

Inside the quiet power of the printed and digital catalog how one format became the pet gift industry's most trusted reference guide for buyers, retailers, and gift-givers alike.

The Page That Taught Thousands How to Shop Long before algorithms suggested what to buy, there was the catalog. It sat on kitchen tables, slipped into holiday stockings, and gathered soft-cornered edges from repeated handling. In the pet gift industry, that worn page carries more weight than most people realize. It is not simply a list of products. For many buyers, retailers, and passionate gift-givers, it has been something closer to a curriculum. This is a story about that transformation about how the humble...

Food & LifestyleJuly 6, 202610 min

How a Cape Town maker scaled custom handmade growth

Emma of The Slow Studio began with embroidery between study breaks. A decade later, she runs a Cape Town studio built on the idea that slowing down is not a limitation it is the product.

Many assume handmade businesses scale through aggressive marketing or chasing fleeting trends, but Emma van Wyk of The Slow Studio proved them wrong. Building a thriving custom embroidery business in Cape Town wasn't about speed; it was about deliberately embracing slowness. From university study breaks to a full-fledged studio, Emma built demand by prioritizing meticulous craftsmanship over rapid expansion. "The journey of Emma, founder of The Slow Studio, begins with observation more than intention," writes...

Food & LifestyleJune 27, 202610 min

Pet illustrator's lookbook launched a wholesale business empire

A profile traces the origin, structure, and materials behind a small-batch wholesale operation that grew from a single printed catalogue.

A Single Catalogue Before the Algorithm In a quiet corner of a converted studio space, stacks of folded paper sit in neat piles beside a drawing desk. Each stack is a 12-page lookbook, printed in limited runs, folded by hand, and sent out to gift shops, boutique retailers, and wholesale buyers across the country. This is where the wholesale operation began not with a website, not with a viral post, but with a printed object that could survive a buyer's desk for months without losing its shape. The lookbook...

Food & LifestyleJune 26, 202610 min

Manlius food truck rally thrives on community, smart planning

A behind-the-scenes look at the annual Liberty Square Food Truck Rally in Manlius, NY, and how a single Thursday evening has quietly become one of the region's most enduring community traditions.

A Thursday Evening in Manlius That Means Something On the surface, a food truck rally is a simple proposition: people gather, trucks serve food, music plays, and the evening unfolds. But the Liberty Square Food Truck Rally, held each summer at Liberty Square in Manlius, New York, has quietly become one of the area's more durable community rituals a place where neighbors who might otherwise never share a table end up doing exactly that. It is organized by Leigh Baldwin Advisory , a wealth management and financial...

Food & LifestyleJune 26, 20269 min

Alev Siesbye's bowls speak volumes about enduring design

A profile of the Turkish-French ceramicist whose decades-long devotion to a single form offers a quiet blueprint for makers of functional ware.

After ten thousand iterations of a single bowl shape, ceramicist Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye discovered the enduring power of repetition in design. This relentless focus on a single form wasn't about achieving perfection, but about stripping away everything unnecessary to reveal the bowl's essential character. Siesbye's work demonstrates how a commitment to consistent production can unlock timeless qualities in everyday objects. "It's the work which has to tell you that it's done," Siesbye has said. "You can't be the...

Food & LifestyleJune 25, 202610 min

The Grief Architect How Pet Memorial Art Built Sustainable Practices at the Intersection of Loss and Creation

Tracing the journey from cremated remains to lasting artwork, this feature explores how grief counselors and skilled artisans have developed ethical, six-figure-capable practices at the crossroads of bereavement support and memorial craft.

The Space Where Love and Loss Meet There is a moment, after the veterinary appointment, after the silence settles into the rooms where a pet once slept, when a grieving owner holds a small container of cremated remains and faces a quiet question: What now? For many families, the answer has historically been an urn on a shelf or a scattering of ashes in a meaningful place. But over the past decade, a quiet industry has emerged at the intersection of grief counseling, material science, and visual art one that...

Finance & MarketsJune 22, 202610 min

The $10,000 Per Month Question What Rising Long-Term Care Costs Mean for Families Planning Ahead

A sourced look at where care costs stand in 2026, why they're climbing, and what households can do to prepare before a crisis hits.

Late on a Tuesday afternoon, a woman named Tammy La Barbera sat in her mother's living room in New Jersey, watching the light shift across the walls. Her mother, Ada, was 90 years old and had been diagnosed with dementia five years earlier. In recent months, Ada's condition had deteriorated quickly enough that Tammy made a decision millions of American families eventually face: she quit her job as an event manager to become a full-time caregiver. "I don't have help here, and I know it's going to get worse," Tammy...

Technology & AIJune 20, 202611 min

How Dave Lewis Rebuilt His Tech Career Around Where AI Was Headed Next

After two Big Tech layoffs in three years, a Montana father of two chose to stop chasing his next job and start chasing where the industry was going instead.

The Moment a Career Question Became a Career Pivot Dave Lewis spent more than a decade building something that looked like career security. Google. Amazon. Microsoft. Three of the most sought-after names in technology, stacked on a résumé that would open doors almost anywhere. But in the span of three years, both Amazon and Microsoft let him go and each time, he found himself staring at the same quiet, urgent question: Where do I actually fit in the future of this industry? The answer he eventually arrived at...

Editorial ResearchJune 15, 202614 min

The Room Where the Cat Bed Matches the Couch How Pet Home Integration Is Rewriting the Gifts Market

A quiet convergence of pet products and interior design is changing how people buy, give, and think about animal-themed gifts and the 2026 retail landscape is finally catching up.

The way households shop for their pets has shifted in a way that would have seemed improbable five years earlier. Where pet products were once treated as purely functional whimsical side purchases tucked out of sight buyers increasingly expect them to read as part of a designed interior, the same way a lamp or a sofa does. Pet beds, feeders, and accessories are now chosen to complement a room more than clutter it. That change captures something that market researchers and product designers have been watching build...

Technology & AIJune 14, 202611 min

Third-party car warranties gain traction with dealers

A behind-the-scenes look at how independent review platforms are changing the way American drivers shop for automotive protection and why the methodology matters as much as the rankings.

When a Repair Bill Outlasts the Warranty It is a familiar scenario for many drivers: a mechanic delivers the news that a major component, such as a transmission, needs a costly repair, and the manufacturer's warranty has already expired. Faced with a bill that can run into the thousands, owners often discover they had been thinking about extended coverage the wrong way. What many find is not a single magic solution. It is a category of independent review platforms organizations that spend weeks calling customer...