Ava Monroe’s Sniffs and Snacks to the Fizzy Pup

Childhood is a time for creativity and learning, and from the age of 12, Ava Monroe has certainly done just that. She has created unique brands of dog treats and soda mixes, cultivating large crowds at local events throughout the Capital Region. It all began, incidentally, with a desire to travel to Myrtle Beach with her friends, leading to the discovery of her entrepreneurial talents in marketing and culinary arts to earn money for the trip.

For the Monroe family, dogs are a part of life. They have three dogs, each with a unique personality, so Ava began crafting dog treats in her kitchen. It spurred the creation of Sniffs and Snacks, where she used simple ingredients like peanut butter, pumpkin, whole wheat flour, and turmeric to make delectable treats for dogs. With the help of her mother, she learned how to navigate the approval process from the Department of Agriculture and the permit approvals with local cities and towns.

Ava would sell her Sniffs and Snacks dog treats at craft fairs alongside her grandmother, who also creates unique crafts. She doled out her homemade treats to a variety of dog owners and inspired a following on social media. Later on, she created Fizzy Pup with her father, curating a rotating variety of delectable soda mixes with humorous names.

If you have ventured to the Shirt Factory for their Thursday Night Food Truck Corral or Jay Street Marketplace’s Nightmare Market in Schenectady, you will have seen their unique logo with a pug wearing sunglasses while drinking out of a mason jar. The logo, loosely based on Ava’s dog, brilliantly exemplifies her personality and love of dogs.

Ava creates blends of soda mixes with unique names that relate to each event. When they attended the Whitehall Bigfoot Festival, they had the Big Foot Brew with root beer, butterscotch, and cream, while the Lower Adirondack Pride Festival inspired multicolored concoctions with edible glitter. Throughout this process, the Monroe family became friends with the vendor community, especially B&E Brew’d Creations.

Outside of her entrepreneurial escapades, she is still a normal teenager with ambitions of venturing into the Information Technology field. She enthusiastically told me about SUNY Adirondack’s Pathways to Technology, or PTECH, program, which allows high schoolers in Washington, Saratoga, Warren, Hamilton, and Essex counties to learn practical skills and develop qualifications to get a head start in college.

But no matter what the future holds for Ava, the Monroe family has created something special for many different communities to enjoy, from Schenectady to Glens Falls and beyond. Excitingly, Ava secured a spot at this year’s LARAC Festival on June 13 to the 14th. Be sure to follow their social media to learn where Fizzy Pup will be next on Instagram or Facebook.