What is The Dogwatch Company?
The Dogwatch Company is a Minneapolis-based business that provides outdoor gear for humans and dogs. We manufacture and sell products that are unique and are meant to enrich your experience of the world. We have a podcast and journal that provides information and perspectives on topics related to both our products and interests.
Given that dogs are the longest standing human companions, and are frequent companions for our people, we spend our time and efforts on them as well.
Look Hard
Together on this DOGWATCH, we look out and survey the distant horizon. We don’t stare absently or focus on a screen that takes our mind to a different world. We are what the naturalist John Burroughs called the “KEEN-EYED OBSERVERS.” We pay attention. We LOOK HARD at our objects and surroundings, and reflect on ourselves. We think and record and draw. “Some people seem born with eyes in their heads and others with buttons or painted marbles,” remarked Burroughs. We are looking to HAVE EYES.
The Dogwatch is Happy Hour
The best thing about a dog is that in the morning it is ALWAYS HAPPY TO SEE YOU. It is then waiting in the window when you come home. It shows us how to love.
On this DOGWATCH we are always happy to see you. Its most literal placement, at the end of the day, is like a much-needed happy hour. We welcome old friends and new acquaintances to talk and learn and experience the world. A dogwatch is a place to gather and to appreciate each other and shared experiences.
Love Your Life in Style
There is nothing wrong with loving your life, and loving to be in style. Style does not necessarily come from a designer brand or a significant investment of money. Style is how we find ways to express ourselves and our values. Style is about QUALITY and UNIQUENESS and SELF EXPRESSION. When we find our own definitions of style we find things that make us feel CONFIDENT and WHOLE when we walk out the door in the morning. The search for quality and style helps us LOVE OUR LIVES.
Where Style meets the Outdoors
This DOGWATCH might take us to the park to WALK THE DOG, to the TOP OF A MOUNTAIN, down a tree-lined street TO WORK, or into the COCKPIT OF A FLOATPLANE. Each one can be its own kind of adventure. We are seeking elements of style that make us FEEL OUR BEST, that take inspiration from nature and help us experience it. We might find breezy linen and organic cotton when it is warm, and cabled wool and waxed cotton when it is cool.
Independent and Local
We believe in the power of people, and look to do as much of the sourcing and production of our products from INDEPENDENT and LOCAL businesses as possible. The relationships we have already made with suppliers and partners have enriched us, and we hope to have our customers only one step removed from the people who make our products happen.
Patina
We believe in high quality objects, and employing fabrics and materials that make us feel good and look our best. Part of this quality is also longevity, and an ability to patina over time–to develop character and show the marks of age. A steel mirror or watch documents a narrative with scratches, a wool coat or linen shirt with rainwater and sand.
Hold fast
Sailors in the nineteenth century would often tattoo “HOLD FAST” onto their knuckles, matching this pair of four-letter words to the natural canvas of their fisted knuckles. These tattoos were a superstitious act, a talisman that helped them believe that they could hold fast to the rigging in rough weather. On this DOGWATCH, we consider the experiences and objects that can help us hold fast in our lives, whether it is a knowledge of brain science and walking, the benefits of keeping a dog, or a waxed cotton jacket that literally helps us BUFFER A PUMMELING STORM. John F. Kennedy once suggested that we “hold fast to the best of the past, and move fast to the best of the future.” We agree and aspire to heed this advice.
The Right Thing
PAUL NEWMAN, a patron saint of the DOGWATCH famously said “If you see the right thing to do, you’d better do it.” Finding the path that we want to travel in life both individually and together requires paying attention. If you don’t believe Newman, take it from Queen Latifah: “It’s not easy to do the right thing. But, doing the right thing makes you strong, it builds character.” It could be what we want to wear or how we treat someone. It could be what job to take or whom to marry. It could be choosing which river to explore. We decide what we want to do, and what we should do. Then we need to muster the courage to do it. On the DOGWATCH, we look within ourselves and to others to move forward with what ‘WE’D BETTER DO.’
Dogwatch, n.
The "dogwatches" are some of the shifts taken on ships to keep watch over their progress. On our dogwatch, we look out and survey the distant horizon. We aim to be what the naturalist John Burroughs called the “keen-eyed observers” We look hard at our objects and surroundings, and reflect on ourselves.
The Dogwatch is Happy Hour
A dogwatch’s literal placement, at the end of the day, is a symbol of a much-needed happy hour in today’s world. On our dogwatch we are always happy to see you. One of the best things about our canine companions is that they, too, are always always happy to see you. It is the waiting in the window when you come home. It is the always showing up and endless love of what it is. Our dogwatch shows us how to love and appreciate what is.
Independent and Local
We believe in the power of people, and look to do as much of the sourcing and production of our products from INDEPENDENT and LOCAL businesses as possible. We actually make things in Minneapolis. The relationships we have already made with suppliers and partners have enriched us, and we hope to have our customers only one step removed from the people who make our products happen.
The Right Thing
PAUL NEWMAN, a patron saint of the DOGWATCH, famously said “If you see the right thing to do, you’d better do it.” Finding the path that we want to travel in life both individually and together requires paying attention. If you don’t believe Newman, take it from Queen Latifah: “It’s not easy to do the right thing. But, doing the right thing makes you strong, it builds character.” It could be what we want to wear or how we treat someone. It could be what job to take or whom to marry. It could be choosing which river to explore. We decide what we want to do, and what we should do. Then we need to muster the courage to do it. On the DOGWATCH, we look within ourselves and to others to move forward with what ‘WE’D BETTER DO.’