Bark Avenue is a pet specialty business that was inspired and built on the efforts of one remarkable woman, Valeria Burton. She has a life's worth of experience breeding and handling dogs in Europe and America, and her story is a testament to her charisma, tenacity, and her love of animals.

Valeria was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary. She attended business school there and graduated at age 16, but by then she had already made her mark in the canine world. She was only 13 when she attended her first dog show as a Junior handler with her two Airedale terriers, Gina and Ripp, at the International Bench Show. The result: Valeria was proud to have the winner bitch and reserve for her dog. Later Valeria moved with her family to Austria, having to leave their homeland because of the Communist occupation, and waited in Austria for a year while trying to acquire green cards for US entry.

Valeria and her family eventually got their greencards, and they booked passage to their new home, the USA. Although she did not yet speak English, a young and charismatic Valeria dove into the world of dog shows with Gina and Ripp, her two Airedale terriers that her family had managed to smuggle out of their Communist controlled country! Valeria remarked, "We took our two Airedales with us, one of whom was pregnant and had 12 pups. You  have to imagine, this was leaving Hungary illegally during the Iron Curtain era in 1971 with two dogs. This is why I could never understand people giving up their animals when they move within their own country or just to the next block. We managed to bring our dogs to a new country with out any  language skills or a job waiting for us, but we made it."

Gina and Ripp lived a long and happy life until 1984, thirteen years after Valeria arrived to this country. "Dogs have always been part of my life from the time I can remember we had dogs, my dad hunted with Vizslas and Weimaraners."

During college Valeria worked for a major electronic company for six years, then moved to California and went to beauty school worked in that industry for a few years. She then explored a position in sales for several years, developing her marketing skills. During these years she had only an adorable miniature poodle that she found starved on the street. "After he went to doggie heaven my husband asked to have a 'real' dog so I went back to my first love, the Vizsla breed, whom you get to meet on our web site along with our recent rescue, Samantha kitty."

"We show our Vizslas, that is how this idea of the web site and being a vendor at dog show came about. I enjoy working with animals and animal people, like my husband said this is the happiest he has seen me in a long while." The products mostly came from the needs Valeria found she had with her own pets. "I found Body cooler when we moved to Texas, our dogs were not used to heat, so we went on the hunt for a product that helped the dogs as well as us. The pet mats are great to keep our dogs cool during our travels to dog shows and the wraps are great for our evening walks. I use the human version of the products my self when I play golf or just working in the garden, they keep me cool for hours."

Some of Bark Avenue's products are inspired by Valeria's European background. "The lavender because of Lexi, one of our Vizslas who we nicknamed 'Rosemary's baby'. One day I was making lavendar sachets for our closets Lexis came in to see what mom was doing, and in minutes she was sleeping peacefully on her bed, lulled by the calming scent."

Now Lexi's beds has lavender sachet in them, which keeps her sleeping through the nights and calms her. But she is not the only one to benefit from sachets in Valeria's house. Zoltan, her male Vizsla, gets to take credit for the development of the eucalyptus sachets. "Mosquitoes just love him, he will walk around the yard with dozens of them on his back. Now that we keep the Eucalyptus and Penny Royal sachets in his bed, and rub him down with the sachet before going out, there are no more bites for my boy!" It also keeps flees away and the eucalyptus/pennyroyal blend protects humans as well. "We keep some on our patio table to keep mosquitoes away from me. And, when we go for walks with the dogs, I keep one in pocket."

The dog and cat tags featured on Bark Avenue are from an Australian company, Red Dingo. These are the best quality tags to be found anywhere, and at a price that rivals the poor pieces of tin found at the local pet supermarket! "They were just something I was looking for my dogs that looked nice and not wear off in a few month, we love Red Dingo because these tags do not fade. They look like new even after years of wear. All you need to do is clean them once in a while."

As for some of Bark Avenue's other products, Valeria suggests "We are always looking for fun things that are unique and useful.  Keep us in your favorites and grow with us, we will be adding products as we go."

Thank you for visiting our site I hope you had a great walk down Bark Avenue. 
 
~Valeria Burton