This Founder Thinks Your Dog Wants a Routine as Badly as You Do

Most of us have a complicated relationship with structure. We buy the planner, we love it for two weeks, we abandon it. But the research keeps siding with the planner: routine tends to make people steadier and more productive, and it does the same for dogs. Predictable meals, walks, play, and bathroom breaks are genuinely good for a dog’s nervous system, to the point that even zoomies tend to fire at consistent times of day. That overlap, the idea that our dogs want a rhythm as much as we do, is the entire premise behind the supplement brand Reggie.

Josh Weiss launched Reggie in late 2020, and the name is not an accident, it’s short for “regimen.” Weiss came to it after an eclectic run as an entrepreneur, everything from selling prom dresses online to working in finance, before landing on the one thing that stuck. A lifelong dog owner and a daily supplement-taker himself, he wanted to bring the same preventive, routine-based approach he used on his own health to his dogs, and found nothing on the market he actually wanted to recommend.

The routine is the product

Reggie’s real design idea is behavioral, not chemical. The brand gives each of its supplements a distinct visual marker so a dog builds a reliable association with it, folding the supplement into the same daily pattern the dog already thrives on. The pitch is that wellness becomes a habit rather than a chore, and that owners finally extend to their pets the same steady self-care they give themselves. Weiss leans into the parallel hard: his own two dogs, Jordy and Teddy, come to the office, appear in the brand’s photos and ads, and get team dog-park breaks, which he describes as an authentic extension of the routine, not a marketing set piece.

The flagship for anxious dogs is Reggie’s Anytime Calming Chews, around $30, built on recognizable, human-grade ingredients like ashwagandha and L-theanine rather than a long list of unpronounceables.

The shopping advice worth stealing

Here’s the useful part, and it applies no matter whose supplement you buy. Weiss’s own rule for vetting a product is to check that it uses a meaningful amount of each active ingredient, not a sprinkle for the label, and to favor short ingredient lists made of things you recognize. Plenty of supplements, he points out, include too little of a key ingredient to do anything at all. As a shorthand: organic, natural ingredients, and the shorter the list, the better.

That advice tracks closely with what veterinarians say, because the supplement aisle is famously unregulated.

“The two questions I want owners asking are ‘how much of the active is actually in here?’ and ‘who tested this?’” says Dr. Amara Solis. “A calming chew with a thumbnail of an ingredient is a treat, not a supplement. Look for a real inclusion rate, a short recognizable formula, and third-party quality testing, and run anything new past your own vet, especially if your dog takes other medication.”

The National Animal Supplement Council seal is one easy marker of a company that submits to quality audits, and it costs nothing to look for. None of this replaces a conversation with your vet, but it does filter out a lot of the noise before you spend a dime.

The telehealth experiment

Reggie also runs a telehealth service alongside its retail line, an idea that grew out of the pandemic, when Weiss noticed how many people had become uneasy about in-office visits, and how many pets simply hate going to the clinic. The bet is that some care can happen remotely, lower-stress for the animal and more convenient for the human, the same way telehealth reshaped parts of human medicine. It’s still an experiment, but it fits the brand’s through-line: make good habits easy enough that people actually keep them.

What’s new

The broader shift Reggie is riding, calming supplements built on ingredients like L-theanine and ashwagandha, has only grown since launch, and so has scrutiny of it. If you’re shopping this category now, the buyer’s checklist matters more than the brand name: confirm the current formula still lists the actives at meaningful amounts, look for third-party or NASC-style testing, and treat any product making dramatic behavior claims with suspicion. For situational anxiety in particular, most vets still frame supplements as one piece of a plan that also includes training and environment, not a standalone cure.

Supplements can interact with medications and underlying conditions. Talk to your veterinarian before starting your dog on anything new.

References

• National Animal Supplement Council: supplement quality and the NASC Quality Seal.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine: information on animal supplements and label claims.