Dogs delight in the chase of this delivery truck

People order pizza delivered to their door.

What if dogs could order chow the same way? A Reno-based delivery service for pets makes that dream a reality.

Pet Chef Express is part of a consortium of 18 independently-owned businesses.

They combine their buying power to order custommade product from an Ohio pet food manufacturer.

In Reno, Pet Chef is operated by Walt and Sue Buckmaster, through their company,WS Buckmaster, Inc.

It operates from a small Reno warehouse that can accept about 12 pallets of product a week, at 2,000 pounds of chow per pallet.

They're moving to a 1,700-square-foot warehouse next month.

It's big enough that the company can place a full pet food order independently, and accept 22 pallets, a full truckload, with the resultant savings in delivery charges.

The new space on Double R Boulevard in South Meadows will include a 350-square-foot display area, an experiment to find out how many people would want to come by in person.

Currently, says Buckmaster, several people manage to seek them out in their back alley location each day.

Customers for the delivery service include elderly pet owners who don't get out much and busy working people.

The average order is two 20-pound bags; some buy 120 pounds of pup chow at a pop.

Because each shipment fills a specific consortium order, the pet food is usually only a week old when the pallets are unloaded at the Reno warehouse.

So the food is fresh, says Buckmaster, noting that grocery store brands may have been warehoused for a long time.

In the past few years, a lot of competition has sprung up in the pets business, says Buckmaster, but they have all been retail variations on the pet store."We're the only ones that deliver." While delivery is the company's strong suit, it also brought on the biggest headache.

"We went through six drivers before finding a good one," says Buckmaster."They've got to know the customer, the product, and how to handle money and checks.

They need to be able to think what to do if no one's home."

Among the drivers who didn't work out was one who was too nice; he would yak to any customer who was at home, Buckmaster recalls.

That resulted in phone calls to the office from frantic pet owners saying it was past time to feed the dog, but their weekly delivery still hadn't arrived.

Another driver looked only at the delivery manifest, not at the invoices, and so delivered an entire list of wrong orders.

That resulted in a call from an irate homeowner who said: I don't have a dog.

This dog food was left on my front porch.

The neighborhood dogs tore open the bags.Now there are ants all over.

I want you to pay to send out an exterminator.

Their delivery area is west to Verdi and east to Fernley, north to the state border and south to Pleasant Valley.

The territory beyond that, into the Carson Valley, belongs to a different Pet Chef consortium member.

When it comes to sales, says Buckmaster, nothing beats a face-to-face chat.

The couple finds home shows a good venue,"because people are browsing and visiting." "We find we do better in a face-to-face situation, rather than cold-calling or mass advertising," says Buckmaster.

That's why they book into farmer's markets all summer long.

However, acceptance as a vendor at a farmers market requires one to make something or grow something.

That's why Sue Buckmaster got into the baking of dog biscuits.

She develops the recipes and bakes the doggie treats in her home kitchen.

Flavors include peanut butter apple, chicken Parmesan, cheese twist, pumpkin biscotti and pineapple walnut raisin muffin.

"Believe it or not, some people want vegetarian biscuits even though canines are carnivores, says Buckmaster.

To provide protein, those veggie biscuits contain dairy and egg.

"We have two test kitchen dogs, Casey and Gabriel," she says.

One of the German shorthair pointers, she admits, has gotten a little large a hazard of the job.

While mass advertising is a bust, selective advertising is a boon, says Buckmaster.

Pet Chef sponsored a Pet of the Week segment on a local TV channel and runs print ads in a specialty pet publication.

But by far the best marketing is word-of-mouth personal referrals, says Buckmaster.

The couple generates those with the personal touch.

They send out a customer newsletter to keep pet owners apprised of all manner of events from Mutt Strut to Paws in the Park plus new product offerings.

They track pertinent information in the company database."We know the names of everybody's dog.We know if they have a new puppy," says Buckmaster.

Rewards of the business are displayed on the office bulletin board, pinned full of note cards and pet photos from dog-loving customers.

But the real reward, they agree, is knowing that they've helped people keep pets.

They tell of an elderly housebound woman who told them that she would not be able to keep her dogs, her only companions, if it were not for their delivery service.

"It's a happy business," says Buckmaster.

"After 36 years in auto sales, it's nice to deal with people who are so friendly and happy to see you."