RuffMutts has added a third location to its growing pet food, supplies and grooming business with the opening of a store on Stephen Street in beautiful downtown Morden. The store joins a location opened late last year in Altona Mall, and the original RuffMutts in Niverville.

“Morden, and in particular Stephen Street, has been a location I’ve wanted to set up in since we first came to Morden for our son’s hockey tournaments several years ago,” explained RuffMutts Co-Owner Guy Britten. “It’s a nice sized city, and Stephen Street reminds me of one of my first jobs in Edmonton in my cousin’s store on Whyte Avenue. Whyte Avenue is like Stephen Street, with small independent businesses, often owner operated, in a historic part of the city. We love dealing with rural communities, smaller cities, and towns. We offer honest service and quality pet food and products, and find that those values reflect our customers and their values. We have had several customers tell us they like the fact they can meet their pets needs without leaving Morden now. We hope that sentiment continues to grow as time goes on.”

The story of RuffMutts begins with Guy and his wife Mandy. Mandy started a dog grooming business out of their home in Niverville in 2011, which quickly evolved into retailing pet food.

“We were always big pet lovers,” he said.

‘Big’ is the key word considering the duo has three large dogs as family pets; a rescue dog named Moose, who they believe is an Italian-Mastiff, a Great Dane-Mastiff mix named Norman, and Ralphie who is also a Great Dane-Mastiff mix.

“I started looking at the nutritional aspect of pet food, and I did a lot of research, and speaking to experts in the field,” explains Britten. “From that, we started selling some food, outside of the grooming shop.” The business grew from there to the original RuffMutts location in Niverville, followed by the Altona store and now Morden.

RuffMutts Morden offers the best pet food you can get on any budget, as well as a wide variety of supplies and products.

“Almost all our pet food (dog, cats, small animals, reptiles’ birds, etc.) is Canadian made with Canadian ingredients,” said Britten. “We sell toys, litters, leashes, treats, pet health products, pet safe cleaning products, custom engraved dog and cat ID tags, and more. We won’t sell it if we wouldn’t use it or give it to our pets!“

Regarding pet food options, RuffMutts sells raw frozen, raw dehydrated, freeze dried, quality Canadian made kibble, with quality grains or grain free, to meet any pets needs. A few of the brands they carry are Acana, Orijen, Naturawls, Mountain Dog, Smack (made in Winnipeg), Perfectly Raw (made in Starbuck), Hero, Baxter and Bella, Kong and many more.

“It’s very exciting to open our third location in Morden,” noted Britten. “Like I said, I’ve wanted to set up in Morden for years now, and the “Ferguson building” at 275 Stephen Street was perfect for what RuffMutts needed. There's a bit of nerves when opening a new store, especially with the pandemic, but we wanted to come here for a while now.”

With RuffMutts now having three locations across Southern Manitoba, Britten reflected on whether they would be looking at serving other areas, too.

“For now, we are looking at offering services to areas around our stores by expanding our delivery,” he explained. “We will be announcing that we will be doing deliveries to Winkler, Carman, Plum Coulee, etc., soon. With our new E-commerce site it will be more convenient for our customers to order food and products. We hope this will allow more people to feed their pets better quality pet food and save money doing it!”

RuffMutts is a true Southern Manitoba success story, one that continues to grow.

“We know we are new in Morden, but we have been operating out of Southern Manitoba for almost 10 years now,” noted Britten. “We try and develop our relationships with the community by offering honest services and quality pet food and products. We look forward to meeting as many people as possible in Morden, and working with organizations like the Pembina Valley Humane Society. Once we are able, we will be having a Grand Opening for Morden and Altona, so keep your ears to the ground for some great deals and prizes.”

RuffMutts in Morden is located at 275 Stephen Street, and is open Monday to Friday from 10a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Saturdays from 10a.m. to 5 p.m. Call them at 431-813-RUFF (7833), email morden@ruffmutts.ca or visit them at RuffMutts.ca . You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram @RuffMuttsMorden to stay up to date on products and specials throughout the year.