Today we’d like to introduce you to Pennye.
Hi Pennye, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I came to pet nutrition by a rather winding route. Before animals became my full-time focus, I trained in gemmology and graduated as a human-focused massage therapist. Both taught me to pay close attention to detail and to how a body works as a whole. Growing up, we always had animals, including dogs, cats, guinea fowl, and horses, I was always raised in a home where love and respect of animals was taught and they were cherished members of the family.
My path into pet nutrition began with a dog named Artemis. When she was diagnosed with diabetes, my business partner Julie Paez and I discovered that the conventional dog food she’d been eating, built on corn that her body turned to sugar, was making her condition worse. I knew that if we were eating a correct, mostly organic and farm-centric diet then that should work for her as well. We began researching raw and whole-food diets, and the more we looked, the more we realised the problem went beyond food, because so many pet products contained ingredients that were hard on animals and on the planet.
We couldn’t find the kind of store we wanted for Artemis, so in 2005 we opened one: The Big Bad Woof, a name that began as a homage to our own wolf pack. Our Hyattsville location became the nation’s and Maryland’s first Benefit Corporation, and we were B Corp certified, have been named Best of DC for over a decade, and run our freezers on 100 rooftop solar panels at our Takoma, DC store.
That experience led me deeper into integrative pet nutrition, and over more than twenty years I’ve built my practice around one idea: so much of a pet’s health begins in the gut. I earned my certification as a holistic pet health coach and became a Standard Process Whole Food Specialist. In November 2025 I launched Woof Nutrition, which offers personalised diet and supplement programs for dogs and cats, blending evidence-based nutrition with holistic approaches such as herbal medicine and TCVM, and working alongside veterinarians. Today I help families with pets facing allergies, digestive trouble and immune challenges, and and I’m growing a collaborative cohort of pet health coaches who share knowledge and support one another in caring for animals more completely.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road, and I wouldn’t want to pretend otherwise. When we opened in 2005, we were trying to build a pet store around ideas that weren’t mainstream then: raw and whole-food diets, sustainability, and a legal structure that answered to people and planet as well as profit. Few customers or suppliers knew what a Benefit Corporation was, and we spent a lot of those early years explaining ourselves. We were told that we could not source a lot of our hard goods from the US, and if we did, no one would be able to afford them.
Being a small independent business that takes on big chains and online giants is a constant balancing act. We choose products for their ingredients, sourcing and ethics, not their popularity, which means doing more work for every shelf we stock. We focused on supplying from local and regional makers as well as bigger manufacturers, and when the melamine pet food crisis in 2007 took many brands off of the shelves of Big Box stores, we were there to help people get good food at a fair price.
The hardest chapter was closing our Hyattsville store, the location that had made history as Maryland’s first Benefit Corporation. That was a very difficult time for us, as it was built to be a flagship store for franchising, and it was in a community that was up and coming but not quite ready for us yet. Helping serve people who worked hard, but still struggled to care for their pets was important to us then and is even more important to us today in a post-pandemic world.
That reflection is part of what led me to launch Woof Nutrition. Spending more time one-on-one with families whose pets are really struggling has been the most rewarding part of my work. Resilience has a real place in my heart and to try and help people find a better path to care for their companion animals.
We’ve been impressed with Woof Nutrition, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What we do
I run two connected businesses. The Big Bad Woof is an independent pet store in Washington, DC, which opened in 2005 and sells organic, premium and raw diets, holistic supplements and sustainable pet products. Woof Nutrition, which I launched in November 2025, is my holistic pet health coaching practice. There I create personalised diet and supplement programs for dogs and cats, combining evidence-based nutrition with herbal medicine, TCVM (Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine) and a focus on restoring the gut microbiome. I work alongside clients’ veterinarians, never in place of them.
What we’re known for
The store is known for its standards. We choose the foods we carry for their ingredients, transparency, fair labour practices and sustainability, not for their popularity. We have been named Best of DC for over a decade, and received the Global Pet Expo’s Single Store Retailer Excellence Award in 2023. Woof Nutrition is known for getting to the root cause of a pet’s allergies, digestive trouble or immune challenges, where many approaches only manage symptoms.
What sets us apart
Most pet businesses either sell products or give advice. We do both, and the recommendations comes from more than twenty years of hands-on experience, so a customer can walk in with a worried question and leave with a plan. Our original Hyattsville store was the nation’s and Maryland’s first Benefit Corporation, so our accountability to people and planet is a legal commitment, not just a slogan. We also run our store freezers on 100 rooftop solar panels.
What I’m most proud of
I’m proudest of the trust we’ve built.We have so many customers who return with the new pet after we have cared for the one they lost, the people who come in and talk about the change in diet that made their pet healthier, and about the great Staff we have on hand to help them and guide them. I’m also proud that our community work runs alongside the business. We partner with rescues and shelters, deliver free to Woof Pantries, donate pet food to human food pantries so animals can stay with their people, and I serve as a RedRover Long-Distance Responder for animals affected by disasters.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Julie Paez, my co-founder and business partner. We opened The Big Bad Woof together in 2005, and she has been beside me through the whole journey. Her keen decision making skills and guidance has been invaluable, as well as her collaboration on all of the products we carry and how we keep moving forward all of these years.
Dr. Ruth Roberts, DVM. She was my mentor in my holistic pet health coaching training, and she shaped how I think about integrative care. She is now my co-developer on a coach training curriculum, so what began as mentorship has become a true collaboration. I look forward to many more years working with her.
The Big Bad Woof team. General Manager Harmony Dale and Store Manager Patrice Dean keep the store running, from vendor relationships to trade shows, and they bring new ideas for how we can serve people better. Harmony & Patrice also brings in interns each year, giving young people a first step into the pet industry. They keep the store humming and manage everyone from Teri, our original employee from Hyattsville, to the new interns that come to us each Summer. Mary Doherty, our community coordinator, keeps us connected to local rescues and neighbourhood events. At Woof Nutrition, Hally Simpson keeps my practice organised and supports clients, which lets me concentrate on the pets.
The makers and manufacturers. An independent store is only as good as the products on its shelves, and ours are only as good as the people who make them. We are grateful to the small-batch supplement producers, independent treat and food companies, and artisan makers, local and national, who share our standards on transparency, fair labour and simple ingredients. Many of them answer our endless questions about sourcing and formulation, because we won’t put a product on the shelf, or recommend it to a client, until we understand what’s in it. Some of the local makers started in garages and kitchens, and it has been a joy to watch them grow.
A special thank you to Generation Pet. Our distribution partner just up the road in Maryland is independent and built around independent retailers, and they believe the best pet food and supplements should be available to neighbourhood stores, not only big chains. Their team knows the products, trains our staff, and takes the time to find the right items for the pets we’re trying to help. They even help store our chicken feed from Ernst Feed & Grain, since we have to order a pallet at a time! They have been behind us and for since we opened, and we couldn’t do what we do without them.
My clients and our community. Pet parents who trust us with their animals’ health, often when they’re frightened, have taught me more than any course. One of our favorite customers, Abby, reached out to us to help support a wonderful lab named Pepper, who is the Arlington County Courthouse Dog, and Pepper helps families and children stay calm when they have to appear in court. I’m also grateful to our neighbours in Takoma, the rescues and pantries we partner with, and the local business community through the Old Takoma Business Association and Think Local First DC.
And finally, Artemis. It all began with her, and I’d be remiss not to say so. She taught me patience in the face of a serious illness, and how to question her treatment and support her through good nutrition.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thebigbadwoof.com
- Instagram: @bigbadwoofdc & @woofnutritiondc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bbwoof/ & https://www.facebook.com/woofnutrition
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pennyejn/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bigbadwoofdc & https://www.youtube.com/@woofnutritiondc
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-big-bad-woof-washington-2?osq=The+Big+Bad+Woof
- Other: https://www.woofnutrition.com
