Ampac Manufactures Dog Drinking Pouch Package for Wetbone Company

CINCINNATI, Ohio—Wetbone Company is launching the first-ever water in a flexible drinking pouch package for dogs on the go. The 16-ounce, dog bone-shaped pouch, features two-compartments with a reservoir for the purified, vitamin enriched water at the bottom and a “drinking bowl” at the top. The pouch, a three-layer, polyester/foil/linear low-density polyethylene lamination, is being manufactured by the Ampac Flexibles business unit of Ampac Packaging.

Wetbone’s patent-pending delivery system relies on an additional 4 mil piece of polyethylene (an upside-down gusset), the middle section of which is heat-sealed to opposing inner walls of the flexible pouch (close to the top) to create a hammock-like drinking bowl. Four voids in the heat seal (two on each side) create small 9mm channels which enable the water to transfer from the lower compartment into the top or bowl section when the pouch is squeezed.

To use, the pet owner removes the tear strip at the top of the flexible “bone” and opens the press-to-close zipper. Then one hand is used to squeeze the bottom of the pouch, while the other is cupped around the top section forming a rounded opening. The squeezing action forces a small amount of water through the channels and into the top bowl area. The owner can then offer the pouch to the pooch for drinking.

The channels also allow the water to trickle back down into the bottom receptacle if the dog elects not to lap up all of the liquid in the top bowl. The press-to-close zipper enables the pouch to be resealed and transported again for later use.

The concept is the brainchild of Wetbone cofounders and product developers Sue Tyska and Tony Tropea. Both had extensive experience developing products in a variety of other categories when they came up with idea to address the pet market in an innovative and portable way. Their challenge was to find the right pouch producer that could translate their concept and turn it into something that was able to be commercially manufactured.

“The most challenging part was the flow rate. We didn’t want a ton of water in the bowl when the consumer first opened the pouch. We needed to find a way to properly move the water from the reservoir into the bowl and do it in a way that would give us a pouch that could be commercially manufactured in a cost-effective way,” Tyska explains.

Ampac created several renditions and prototypes for Wetbone before coming up with a functional solution. “This was a challenging concept to execute,” Herlehy said. “We needed to come up with a way to execute the design in the quantities Wetbone required and also within their budget constraints.”

Some of the challenges included a structure that was thick enough to enable the pouch to stand up, and to survive drop tests, while still being cost effective. The real “magic” however was modifying the automatic heat sealer to create appropriately-sized gaps in the seal so that the channels were formed.

“You need to create a channel system which allows water to migrate into the upper bowl—not too slow and not too fast. We were shooting for a filling speed of 5 to 7 seconds when steady pressure is applied to the bottom reservoir,” Herlehy said.

Ampac engineers had to modify the sealing jaws to make sure that exactly the right amount of heat was present so that the channels didn’t inadvertently seal shut as a result of radiant heat migrating over from the contact points. Creating the channel at an optimum angle for filling was also an issue. The location of the seal placement and size of bowl were two additional considerations.

“Dogs drink with their tongue and we wanted to offer a bowl to them that wasn’t too deep or too shallow. We went with a medium size so that the concept would work with dogs of all sizes,” Tyska said.

“We went through many renditions and prototypes to get it right. For each trial iteration, we also needed to modify the tooling. All in all, this project was two years in development,” Herlehy said.

From inception to execution, the vision behind Wetbone was to give dogs the same drinking mobility that consumers now enjoy—portability, lightweight, resealability and easy-to-drink.

“We selected 16-ounces because you want to have an amount that isn’t going to disappear in one serving. We also didn’t want to go too big, because we still needed the pouch to be portable and to also fit into a pocket or bag,” Tyska said.

The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association notes that there are 73.9 million dogs in the United States. It put pet spending in excess of $38 billion dollars in 2006. Because 70 percent of dog owners travel with their pets, attention to hydration is essential to a dog’s health.

“My partner and cofounder Tony Tropea is the genius behind the graphic and package design. He took advantage of the 5-color rotogravure printing process as well as the foil material. The result was a product that screams off the shelf and establishes a strong brand identity,” Tyska said.

“Several companies that we approached initially didn’t want to work with a start up operation, however, Ampac saw the potential of the idea from the very beginning. They shared our vision. If it wasn’t for them, we might not have gotten this off the ground. They partnered with us within our means to make this happen,” Tyska concludes.

The suggested retail price for Wetbone is $1.99 per pouch. The company also has plans for multipacks. Additionally, later in the year, it hopes to offer additional varieties such as Dental (purified water with chlorophyll and Q10 to promote fresh breath and healthy gums) and Sport (purified water with performance enhancing electrolytes).