Check Out Consuelo Galicia’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Consuelo Galicia.

Hi Consuelo, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
Hello, yes thank you for taking the time to get to know Achilles Heal. In 2015, I began cooking for “Achilles” my red Doberman when he was around 1 year old. He had the most horrible gas after eating dog food – his gas would make us feel like our eyebrows were melting off. I talked with our Vet at the time, he explained to me that Dobermans have a short digestive tract and that his body was doing its best to digest the dog food he had eaten, there were two ways to help him, feed him raw or cook for him. Feeding raw was not an option as I was not confident I could do that properly. I researched a recipe and began cooking for him. Once I made the decision, Achilles was served fresh homemade dog food. His gas went away in two days! It was the best decision I ever made for him. There were many health benefits we noticed within weeks, his fur was always soft, however, his coat now was so shiny and soft. The whites of his eyes became healthier, we had not noticed they were not so white until they became whiter. His teeth were whiter. When doing pooper-scoop, his poop was not as stinky. Over the years, he always maintained a good weight of 75-81 pounds depending on the time of year, always heavier in the winter. Every Doberman that came into our family immediately went onto homemade dog food. All of them experienced the same positive health changes. One of the Dobermans we rescued was so overweight, with balding spots all over her body, her eyes were a green-yellow color. Within 45 days she lost 37 pounds – drastic, yes! However, the Vet was not concerned because he knew what we were feeding her, and she was continuously getting healthier. Her hair grew all over her body, especially on her balding spots, her eyes turned white, her teeth turned white and because she lost all that weight she began to walk more, she even began to run and play. Her name was Cali, she was so amazingly smart and knew she was in a loving, safe home and was so grateful every day – lavishing kisses on us after every meal and always playful with us outside. My daughter would tell me over the years to turn this into a business and cook homemade dog food for other families, I finally decided to turn the lifestyle we have into a business and have homemade dog food available for any other dog mom and dads who want to feed their pups a healthier meal. Our story started with Achilles, we did a play on his name. Achilles Heal. Heal spelled like healing because in many ways he healed our hearts.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have tried to make well-thought-out decisions regarding the business. At times, it takes longer to make a final decision and causes a bit of a delay in moving forward for myself. I had wanted to fully open in 2022, but some of my decisions caused a bit of delay. In February 2023, Achilles passed away, this was very heartbreaking for our family. I didn’t expect him not to be with me when I opened. This was not a lifetime dream for me. This started from the love I have for him ensuring he lived a healthy lifestyle. To honor Achilles, we opened on his birthday, April 28, 2023. I believe in our lifestyle of feeding food prepped homemade dog food. I believe other people want to provide a healthy, affordable meal for their pups too. I invested and designed a Tuff Shed in my backyard, into a beautiful working kitchen so Achilles Heal has its own space to food prep all the meals and treats. All the cooking was always done in the kitchen in my home. We required more space to be successful and “the kitchen” as we refer to it has turned out to be one of the best decisions I made for Achilles Heal. One of my friends told me “You have not even realized your dream yet” and I understand what she meant. I have so many tasks still to complete and I have so many ideas and thoughts I want to bring to fruition. The biggest challenge right now is ensuring we keep up with supply and demand and making smart decisions for upcoming brands. We have been at the Cherry Creek Fresh Market every Saturday since June 2023, we started a treat brand end of June 2023 and it has become very successful. Our main event will always be our food-prepped homemade dog food. It is nice to see we are successful when we think through an idea, remain consistent, and build relationships with our customers. Going into the winter months our biggest challenge will be remaining in contact with our customers. We have decided to do a Saturday pick-up, notifying everyone by text weekly. We hope this decision helps assist us in remaining a stable part of their pup’s food and treatment lifestyle.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I still do have a career with a financial institution. I have been with my company since the late 90’s. My Manager is aware of Achilles Heal and fully supports me and is aware at some point I will be leaving to take care of Achilles Heal full-time. Currently, my daughter Desirae can fully support all the needs of food-prepping homemade dog food and treats. I couldn’t do this without her, we are successful together. Our goal is to always be consistent in our product, no matter the timeframe, or who cooks/prepares, our customers should always receive high-quality products from us. I am very proud of how easily we have been able to remain consistent. The relationships we have been able to grow this summer have been amazing. The conversations we have with people who want to know more information and possibly try our food-prepped homemade dog food have been very informative and worthwhile. People are always amazed our food is an actual home-cooked meal. There is no extra processing or preservatives. You can see the rice, protein (chicken, chuck steak, or meatball), you can see the vegetables. They are so amazed that our food prepped homemade dog food is human-grade food! When my nephews were smaller if they came over when I was cooking for our pups they would always ask “Auntie can I have some dog food?” My response was always “Yes but don’t tell your teachers I’m feeding you dog food” followed by “it’s not dog food until it hits the bowl!” That is how my slogan came to be, after saying this for years, it still is a true statement, it is not dog food until it hits the bowl. I know the quality of our food is consistent and tastes good. I know it tastes good because we still sample a bite here and there to ensure it remains high quality. I can honestly say the meatballs we make melt in your mouth – I try one each batch we make. I know larger companies are offering healthier meal options to pet owners – what makes me proud of our brand is you can visually see all ingredients, that your dog is receiving a well-prepared meal. Our dog food is not processed to the point you cannot tell what is in the meal. I believe this will encourage people to believe and trust in our company as we grow. We currently offer two-grain meals and one non-grain meal. We offer a subscription service currently 14/21/28 days, with customers purchasing depending on what their freezer can hold. Currently looking to expand to allow purchase of 1-6 bags or 7-day subscription, which will be coming out end-November 2023. The food is provided frozen, with the routine of freezer-to-fridge-to-bowl. Our treat brand is not currently on our website, we allowed our customers at the Cherry Creek Fresh Market to take advantage. With the market ending November 4th, 2023, we will be adding our treat brand to our website. We also will deliver 40 miles in any direction of Pecos and 36/Boulder Turnpike. We have a few new brands/products we are researching that we hope to have available by the end of the first quarter of 2024. We are excited to add these to our options for customers as these products have been requested many times this summer. News to come soon.

What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The biggest lesson learned is that patience is key to this dream. Also clear communication is always important. We also must remain hopeful for the future and grateful for the present.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.achilleshealdogfood.net/
• Instagram: @achilleshealdogfood
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AchillesHealDogFood

Image Credits
Desirae Llanes & Wally and Asher