A Couple of Cowboys, Their Dogs, and a Lotta Raw Grit
Zach Weiland’s a cattle rancher and designer. Graham Ebner is an artisan who makes custom cowboy boots. Both live in Austin, Texas, work with their hands to make a living, and love their dogs — Blue and Newt (respectively). They also love high-quality goods, working with animals (Newt is Graham’s shop dog), and feeding them the very best Raw Food around. We sat down with Zach and Graham to talk about life, dog parenthood, and how grit is often the missing ingredient that turns good things into great ones. Here’s what they had to say …
Zach and Blue
Graham and Newt
Maev: Like a good love story, we’d like to know how your dog chose you or arrived in your life.
ZW: I got Blue 7 years ago from a friend of mine I met while at the University of Texas. My friend had a wonderful old Blue Tick hound named Bleu who accidentally had puppies with a dog on a ranch that shared a fence with theirs. She spammed me photos of the puppies everyday for about a week and really wanted me to take her favorite one home, Hank I think was his name, but in the background of all the photos she sent was this little runt laying down alone who was the only all black puppy in the litter and I knew he was the one for me.
GE: For many years, I was lucky enough to have an incredible best dog friend named Blitz. In 2020, he became sick with cancer, and within two days, I had to say goodbye to him. He’d been with my wife, Ali, and I for over a decade and was our glue. We were devastated, not to mention exhausted from the effects of 2020 in general.
A few months later we moved into a new house, it didn’t feel much like a home without a dog. After a lot of shelter-hunting and facebook-browsing we came across a little Shepherd puppy that needed a new home. Her current owner couldn’t have her in his apartment. We went to meet her and the moment I held her she was ours. She was less than 6 lbs and cried, cried, cried all the time. That hasn’t really stopped but she’s 60 lbs now and we’re glued to each other now just as much as we were then.
Maev: Tell us more about your dogs.
ZW: I’m sure you hear it all the time, but the difference here is that it’s actually true when I say it: Blue is the best dog on the face of this earth.
GE: Newt is a huge part of my life and my workshop. She loves going to work more than I do. She jumps into my truck to head to the shop and as soon as we round the corner to pull in she starts crying and jumping. She wants to get out and into the shop so bad she can’t stand it. She finds a cozy spot on the floor, usually tucked in between my desk chair and the wall or right under my feet if I’m standing at my workbench, and settles in for a long nap. Bootmaking is hard work.
Graham and Newt in Graham’s East Austin boot shop / studio
Maev: As designers and artisans, you obviously care a great deal about how things are made and their quality. Now add dog parent to the list of roles you play every day — how do you go about choosing food for your dog?
ZW: Oh man, Blue and I had a wild trip figuring out his diet at a young age and it’s still something I have to pay a lot of attention to every day. He has quite a few food allergies the worst of which is poultry which made finding the right food for him very difficult. Most dog food varieties on shelves have chicken or chicken meal as a primary ingredient on the ingredient list, even those marketed as beef foods so I have always opted for ordering his food cause I have a lot more control over what he eats.
GE: I can’t imagine loving this dog anymore than I do. When she was a pup we decided to buy the best food we could afford, and buy it locally if possible. She’s a bit of a picky eater, but she loves ocean proteins, so typically I buy the most holistic raw blend of ocean tasties. (Sometimes chicken, this girl loves chicken.) In the grand scheme of things, a few extra dollars on a bag of high-quality food isn’t much of an imposition especially if it helps my pup live well into old age.
Maev: Zach, can you speak to the changes you’ve observed in Blue with the switch to Raw. (We know he’s allergic to Chicken, but loves Beef.) And Graham, we know Newt’s not on Maev full-time (yet) but she loves her chicken. Same question.
ZW: Blue is the type of eater that doesn’t chew his food but really scarfs it and just swallows it whole then ends up with an upset stomach. But when I started serving frozen Maev to him he finally started slowing down and actually chewing his food. As soon as he hears me open the freezer he comes RUNNING even when I’m just in there to get myself a pint of ice cream or a steak to thaw.
GE: What can I say? Newt’s a sucker for simple, fresh proteins.
Maev: In your own way, please respond to the following statement (and one of Maev’s core values):
“The difference between good and great is grit.”
ZW: It sounds to me like that really speaks to just putting in the extra little bit of work or effort to do better than just “okay.” That’s definitely the way that I try to live my life every day whether it’s in my work, my art or even relationships with people and animals. That little bit of extra effort and attention to detail goes a long way.
GE: I identify with this acutely. There are a lot of people who make good cowboy boots. Mine are great because I choose to go the extra mile. Extra time, effort, attention to detail, and ultimately the desire to make something just that much better than it would have been otherwise.
Check out Graham’s work here: https://www.grahamebner.com/
Check out Zach’s work here: https://www.zjwieland.work/
