Treat Tuesday: Bravo Bonus Bites Freeze Dried Salmon

The freeze dried salmon treats from Bravo have been hiding at the bottom of my treat bin since SuperZoo. We've tried several different freeze dried liver treats, but this was my first encounter with freeze dried salmon. It stinks. A lot. Like, wow. These things are just USA-sourced Atlantic salmon, and nothing else. They come in nice little non-crumbly cubes.

Good For: Dogs with allergies. High-value training treats. Being highly visible when tossed on the ground.

Not Good For: Situations where you don't want to smell like salmon, because O.M.G. Seriously.

Bottom Line: Unlike freeze dried liver treats, the stank from these doesn't cling to your hands. It comes off with just soap and water, you don't need lava soap and an scrub brush.

Treat Tuesday: Caru Alligator Recipe Baked Bites

A representative from Caru gave me a bag of their new Alligator Recipe soft treats at SuperZoo so I could write a review. These are a soft-baked jerky treat that is grain-free, gluten-free, and super allergy friendly. The first ingredient is alligator, followed by garbanzo bean flour, beet molasses, vegetable glycerin, dry milk, and potato flour. The treats are soft enough for Ru to chew up easily, and can be broken up into the perfect size for training treats without getting all crumbly. They're also tasty enough to tempt picky dogs.

Good For: Dog with allergies to everything but dairy and potatoes. Picky dogs. Breaking into training treats. Handing to the dogs on my way out the door without making my hands smell all meaty.

Not Good For: Low-value training treats. Long-lasting chewing.

How Much We Like Them: Gonna ask my local shops to carry these if they don't already, because I like the idea of feeding my dogs alligators.

Treat Tuesday: Primal Beef Nibs

Hey, Primal makes bite-size training treats now! These Beef Nibs are made from beef heart, sea salt, and that's it. I think they look almost exactly like cross sections of a Slim Jim, but I'd need to chop up an actual Slim Jim to be sure. Primal also makes chicken, turkey, and pork treats in nib-form.

Good For: High-value stinky training treats. Picky dogs. Dogs with allergies.

Not Good For: Feeding an entire handful at a time since there's not a whole ton in the bag.

How Much We Like Them: Even Ranger was willing to eat them without hesitation. Obviously we ran out of them immediately, need to buy more now.

Treat Tuesday: Plato Hunder's Crunch

These Hunder's Crunch treats by Plato Pet Treats are like little stinky fish wheels. I was expecting something kind of like a dog biscuit, but it turns out they're a sort of jerky roll. The package says this, but please forgive me for missing that bit because the package says a ton of other things too.

Good For: Keeping all the dogs busy crunching for several minutes. Hiding for the dogs to find via smell. Picky dogs. Dogs with allergies to anything but fish.

Not Good For: High-value training treats. Not smelling like fish.

How Much We Like Them: Even Ranger, who can be a bit finicky, got crazy-eyes and ran off with one of these when I was passing them out.

Food Friday: Alternative Protein Roundup, Rabbit Edition

Brisbane's Bark Blog has been around for close to two years now, and in that time we've reviewed a lot of food and treats that use allergy-friendly alternative proteins like rabbit. Since Brisbane is allergic to poultry, I don't normally consider turkey and duck to be alternative proteins. I also know that beef is a common allergen, and that buffalo and bison may not be different enough for dogs with beef allergies. Lamb was considered alternative a couple of decades ago but has become increasingly more common since then. For the purpose of this blog post, I'm going to stick with the more exotic choices.

Rabbit is a high-protein, lean meat that, frankly, should be cheaper and easier to find in the grocery store. Those little buggers are everywhere, on the trail one even leaped into Brisbane's mouth. I bet giant bunny feedlots in the middle of California would smell way better than the legions of cows currently occupying that space.

This picture has nothing to do with this post.
Photo by Erin Koski

Rabbit Food

I think our favorite rabbit-based food is Stella & Chewy's Absolutely Rabbit, freeze-dried is always a winner around here. Wysong Archetype was also a winner until Brisbane's allergy test revealed his barley allergy. Raw is also quite popular, and Brisbane and Sisci both loved the Primal Nuggets we tried. The place where I work used to carry Wild Calling Hoppy's canned dog food, and that was what we tempted picky dogs with until our vendor stopped offering it. Instinct also offers a rabbit-based canned food. Our least favorite was Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet Potato and Rabbit, which is high in carbs while being low in protein and fat. Mostly it's just widely available and worth trying if you're not sure what your dog is allergic to and can't get something like Wysong Anergen 2 instead.

Rabbit Treats

In addition to rabbit-based diets, we've found a bunch of bunnymeat treats. Some are made almost entirely from rabbit meat, like Wysong's Dream Treats and Barkworthy's Rabbit BonBons. Others have some additional ingredients, like the Etta Says Crunchy Rabbit Chews that also contain rawhide. Zukes offers a couple of different rabbit-based versions of their semi-moist treats. Their Lil' Links Rabbit and Apple Recipe are still safe for Brisbane's ever-growing list of allergies, but their Mini Naturals are full of barley so those are now off the menu for us.

Have you found a rabbit-based product we haven't tried yet? Please share in the comments!

Treat Tuesday: Dogswell Boundless Chews

These Boundless Long-Lasting Chews by Dogswell are shaped like infinity symbols. That's why I couldn't resist giving them a try. In case anyone was wondering, they don't last an infinitely long time. I found them at my local Petco, and the Dogswell website oddly does not mention them at all. In fact, there's almost no mention of them whatsoever on the internet as of December 2015. Why is that?

According to the Dogswell Facebook, "Boundless Long Lasting Chews are actually a new product and as of now are only being sold in Petco stores." Apparently they aren't particularly being advertised or promoted, either. Maybe they're only available in certain test markets?

At my local Petco, Dogswell Boundless chews come in two sizes, for medium and large dogs. They are made in the USA, but some of the ingredients may be imported. The ones I bought were medium, for 21-50 lb dogs, and they were $5.99 each. They were available in two flavors, chicken and bacon. Shockingly, the bacon flavor is safe for Brisbane's many food allergies. It contains no poultry products, no egg products, no corn, no barley, and no sweet potato. Amazing! Boundless chews are made out of potato, tapioca, glycerin, peas, milk, bacon fat, sunflower oil, and some vitamins.

Sometimes 5 minutes feels like infinity...

The fine print on the packaging says this chew is not suitable for dogs under 10 lbs. I noticed this after the fact, but Ru ate a 2" piece of Sisci's infinity chew and lived to tell the tale.

Good For: Lasting about as long as a bully stick of similar size while being totally non-stinky. Dogs with beef, poultry, egg, grain, or sweet potato allergies.

Not Good For: Lasting longer than a bully stick of similar size. dogs with potato, tapioca, pea, or bacon allergies.

How Much We Like Them: Brisbane finished his in about 15 minutes flat. Sisci took almost an hour on the project and Ru managed to steal the last bit when she was momentarily distracted. I will probably buy these again as an occasional treat, mostly because I like the shape. If they were a couple of dollars cheaper I'd totally stock up.

Food Friday: Zignature Kangaroo Formula

I picked up this bag of Zignature Kangaroo Formula dog food while visiting relatives in Boise. One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to visit grocery stores and pet stores to see what kind of products I can find that aren't available back home. I've been looking for this particular Zignature food for a while and was quite pleased to finally find it.

The Company

Following the trail from Zignature to the parent company is interesting. I believe Zignature foods are co packed by Tuffy's Pet Foods, a packer I respect a lot for their commitment to food safety. Who actually owns Zignature the pet food marketing company? It's Pets Global, maker of Fussie Cat foods. They are based in Santa Clarita, California, which means they are pretty local to me.

I found this interview with the founder of Zignature from last year, which includes a link to PetsGlobal.com, a e-commerce trade platform for manufacturers and purveyors of pet supplies. Zignature's Pets Global does not appear to have any relation to this company based in China. I'm not sure if Zignature's Pets Global owned the domain name previously, or if the Pet Age website just made a mistake when they linked it.

The Food

Zignature's big selling point is that they avoid using the most common food allergens in their products. Like most top-quality foods, they leave out corn, soy, wheat, and any other grains. However, they go a step further and also exclude chicken, eggs, potatoes, and dairy products. They don't include any sneaky chicken either, no chicken fat, cartilage, or flavorings way down the ingredients list. Most of their foods also use a single source of protein, which makes them a great option for dogs with allergies. This makes me feel like they had dogs like Brisbane in mind when developing their formulas, he can eat four out of their seven kibbles. 

I appreciate the focus Zignature puts on low-glycemic foods, diabetic dogs in particular really benefit from these. No potatoes means no sweet potatoes too, which is great for Brisbane. He is allergic or sensitive to chicken, turkey, duck, eggs, corn, barley, and sweet potatoes. We only found out about the sweet potato, corn, and barley allergies recently. Finding Briz-safe food is the entire reason I put together DogFoodWizard.com. 

The Verdict

Brisbane loved the Zignature Kangaroo Formula kibble, as Brisbane loves anything edible. Sisci can be slightly more selective about food and treats, but she chowed down immediately and loved this food. Ru is super picky but also ate it right away, so it must be good!

Zignature kibbles are collectively rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on the Dog Food Advisor site, but the individual formulas range from 4-5 stars. The kangaroo formula must be a recent addition, as it is not represented on the site. This is a food I would be comfortable feeding my dogs for an extended period of time, particularly if I rotated between the four Briz-safe formulas.

Food Friday: Real Meat Beef Dog Food

Real Meat Dog Food is an air-dried food made from beef, bones, and organs. It is produced in New Zealand from free-range grass-fed cows, and has all the nutritional awesomeness of raw meat, without the need for refrigeration or raw food handling precautions.

I found another air-dried dog food! I would be madly in love with this food if I hadn't found Ziwi Peak first. I was aware of Real Meat's jerky treats, and this is basically a giant bag of those. Only instead of just treats, it's actual dog food so I don't have to feel bad if all of Brisbane's calories come from training treats.

The Company

Real Meat's most widely available product is probably their 95% meat jerky treats. These are great for training, and available in several different proteins for dogs with allergies. They have lamb, and venison jerky treats, as well as the more common chicken and beef. They also make some really cute dog food seasonings made from several different meats. I've never seen these in a store before, but they all have chicken in them so I wouldn't be buying them anyway. 

Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs, so I appreciate that most of Real Meat's products are made with a single protein source. They don't feel the need to cram chicken or eggs into every recipe. I like that this company is family-owned, and their website says they put their investment into making really good food rather than advertising and marketing. It's a pretty incredible food, and a bit less expensive than Ziwi Peak.

The Food

Real Meat originally made three varieties of their food: beef, lamb, and chicken. Each is made from just that protein source, with a little parsley, rosemary, pumpkin, and vitamins. They have recently added a turkey food, and a turkey and venison food; both of these also contain ground beef bone. I really appreciate that their packaging and website aren't plastered with statements about nature, dogs being wolves, or their diet in the hypothetical wild. The food stands on its own, it doesn't need a bunch of hype. What little hype there is can be found in small print.

This is a pretty amazing food. Naturally Brisbane loves it, as Brisbane loves all things edible. Sisci also enjoys it. Ru...likes it, but it consistently makes him reverse sneeze. It's weird. Usually spicy food that does that to him. Dog Food Advisor gives all the Real Meat recipes five out of five stars.  

The Price

Real Meat Beef dog food is really, seriously dense. At 724 calories per cup, it's the most calorically dense food I've encountered after Ziwi Peak. This is great for 6-lb Ru, who needs to fit a ton of calories into his tiny body. Not so great for 40-lb Brisbane, who needs the same amount of calories as Ru and is the most efficient dog on the planet. A 2-lb bag of Real Meat beef cost around $24 and provides 4250 calories, so $0.56 per 100 calories. If I was to feed Brisbane only this food, it would cost me well under a dollar per day. Were I to use the company's recommendations, it would cost closer to $5 a day.

It's cheaper than Ziwi Peak, but Real Meat air-dried dog food just doesn't work as well for training treats. The food is made in much bigger chunks, so I have to break them up into much smaller pieces before I can use them. The dogs also just aren't quite as nuts for the Real Meat. I guess it's not stinky enough.

Treat Tuesday: Alaska's Puppy Love Wild Salmon Jerky Treats

I've been trying to figure out where this bag of Wild Alaskan Salmon Jerky Treats came from, since I don't remember buying it and its not in any of my subscription box pictures.  I'm pretty we got it as an oops bonus after BarkBox sent us forbidden proteins in our allergy-friendly BarkBox for a second month in a row. These are from the Seldovia Wild Seafood Company's brand of dog treats, Puppy Love.

Good For: Mid-value training treats for balance and perch work. Picky chihuahuas who don't like most of the treats Brisbane gets for balance and perch work.

Not Good For: High-value training treats in distracting environments. Picky heeler puppies. Making my hands not smell like fish.

How Much We Like Them: See how that bag is almost empty? I had to save these just so I could take this picture.

The July Allergy-Friendly BarkBox

The theme of July's BarkBox is the Circus! This box was a long time in coming, well over a week. We got five items, but both big bags of treats are not Briz-safe. He's allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs. The allergy-friendly BarkBox is not supposed to contain anything with chicken, turkey, beef, corn, wheat, or soy (unless they mess something up...). Unfortunately, that sometimes still leaves us with a box full of duck and egg treats.

This month we got a bag of Grain Free Roast Duck treats from Lucky Dog. These are apparently brand new and not even available on their website yet. They're made in the USA. Lucky dogs that belong to my coworkers, these will be going to them.

Those My Doggy Cheesy Bite cookies are soft and probably nice-smelling. Know why they're soft? Eggs. More cookies for my coworkers' dogs. Also made in the USA.

The only edible thing in this box fo Briz was the Emerald Pet Piggy Twizz...Twizzie? Twizzy? The chews are called Piggy Twizzies, I'm not totally sure what the singular of that should be. It didn't last very long, but Brisbane certainly enjoyed it.

I had a lot of trouble finding the website for Encore, the maker of this firehose flyer. It was on the fourth page of Google search results! This one isn't particularly attractive for Brisbane and Ru, but the current foster pup enjoys carrying it around the house.

My favorite thing in this month's box is the BarkMade Circus Elephant stuffy. Way too cute! I love cute stuffed dog toys, I consider them part of my interior decorating. The elephant looks great on the floor with all our dinosaurs. Overall this box was sort of disappointing, with two big bags of treats I'll have to give away. The elephant helps with that, a little.

Food Friday: Wysong Anergen 2

Wysong Anergen 2 is a rabbit-based pet food with peas and potatoes. It is a 40% protein food and suitable for dogs, cats, and ferrets. Though it is essentially a dried kibble, Anergen 2 also contain shreds of freeze-dried rabbit.

Wysong sent me samples of three different foods. The original Anergen formula is a lamb and rice kibble. The Archetype Rabbit formula was a freeze-dried food made almost entirely out of rabbit meat. Anergen 2 feels like a combination of the two, as it contains both kibble and freeze-dried rabbit. This is my favorite of the three.

All Wysong foods contain a variety of probiotics, prebiotics, and other digestive aids to help pets get the most out of their food. I'm pleased with the idea of a food with enough meat that it's just "carnivore food". I mean, dogs are certainly omnivores, but they can certainly thrive on a meat-based diet. Cats and ferrets are both obligate carnivores, meaning they are not omnivores and their diets should contain little to no carbohydrates. Anergen 2 is suitable for cats and ferrets along with dogs, which tells me this is a high-protein, low-carb food.

I like the Wysong company a lot, although they do use the "appeal to nature" fallacy quite a bit. Though Dr. Wysong is a veterinarian, I'm a bit skeptical of his claims in part because he cites Pottenger's Cats as part of the reason raw diets are superior. A favorite of "natural" diet aficionados everywhere as proof that cooked food kills and raw food sustains life. This was a very interesting study spanning ten years, but it was poorly-designed as a nutrition experiment. The Pottenger cat study had low-quality control groups, or none at all. None of the diets used were complete, and the entire study predated the discovery of the importance of taurine in cat diets. I don't believe the results have been replicated by anyone else, either.

As highly as I think of Wysong's foods, I do feel that the company serves up the same "natural life-giving nutrition" sales pitch as every other food company, but with the trappings of science. My biggest criticism is the way they seem to be talking out both sides of their mouth when it comes to nutrition. The information provided for the Archetype raw foods includes lengthy explanations of how cooked foods literally kill pets, yet Wysong also sells inexpensive chicken-and-rice kibbles that are comparable with every other top-quality dog food on the market. If conventional kibble kills pets, why do they sell it? If dogs can thrive on high-quality conventional kibble, what's with all the fear-mongering when trying to sell the raw food?

It all comes down to marketing in the end. Every product Wysong makes is very high quality though, and if I had to choose a brand of food to stick with forever, this would be an excellent choice. Wysong foods aren't widely available in my area, otherwise Anergen 2 would definitely be part of our regular food rotation. This is absolutely a food I would be comfortable feeding my dogs long-term, and they both love it.

Food Friday: Wysong Anergen

Wysong Anergen is a hypoallergenic dog food designed by a veterinarian. This is a food with high enough protein for cats as well as dogs, which is unusual. It contains probiotics, prebiotics, and lamb as an alternative protein source to the usual beef and chicken. Anergen scores an impressive 4.5 out of 5 stars on the Dog Food Advisor website.

The sample bag of food came with the collection of free goodies that Wysong sent me. I love free stuff, especially free stuff that is safe for Brisbane's chicken, turkey, duck, and egg issues.

Nearly twenty years ago, my cocker spaniel was severely itchy. Her slightly sketchy vet sold my mother a big bag of lamb and rice kibble and a flat of matching canned food. The idea was that the food we had been feeding her (Pedigree from the grocery store, this was before I had any sort of dog autonomy) was made out of chicken and corn and "animal by-products", and so the lamb and rice food introduced a novel protein as well as a novel carbohydrate. Allergies tend to develop after a person or dog has been exposed to a specific food, and more exposure often means a greater likelihood of developing allergies.

Twenty years later, lamb and rice are both common ingredients in dog foods. A quick trip down the aisle of the grocery store will show that even cheap economy foods often contain lamb and rice, or at least byproducts of these ingredients. Fortunately, Wysong has since developed a rabbit, pea, potato allergy food.

The "hypoallergenic" label on Wysong Anergen troubles me slightly, because this is for all appearances a lamb and rice dog food. While it would be a great place to start for a dog eating cheap chicken-and-corn byproduct dog food, there's nothing I can find that makes Anergen inherently hypoallergenic.

Some prescription hypoallergenic dog foods are made out of hydrolyzed proteins. These have been broken down into their component amino acids, making it more difficult for the body to recognize and freak out about them. I've known a few dogs that still had issues on hypoallergenic food made from hydrolyzed chicken, though, so I suppose the term "hypoallergenic" is subject to interpretation.

Wysong Anergen is definitely a limited ingredient diet, and I do like the company a whole lot. I'm not certain I'd choose this food as something to feed my dogs continuously for a long period of time unless we were trying an elimination diet. Happily, the Wysong company also does not recommend feeding dogs the same food every day for years. I signed up for their weekly email along with my sample pack, and this week's edition was all about rotational feeding, Included was a comic with a person first at a vet's office with their dog, happily accepting advice to feed their dog a single type of food every day for years, followed by the same person at a pediatrician's office, scoffing at the exact same advice when applied to their child.

Wysong specifically recommends rotating between different foods, and also different types of foods. I could actually feed Brisbane a variety of foods while sticking to Wysong products. They currently offer four different kibbles suitable for his allergies, along with three dehydrated foods, and three canned foods. This rotational diet could include lamb, rabbit, quail, pollock, salmon, beef, and venison. That's a lot of variety from one company!

Treat Tuesday: Walk About Goat Jerky

Walk About Goat Jerky is made from 100% Australian goats. These are made in Australia from Australian goats. They are grain-free and fortified with vitamins and omega fatty acids. According to the guy at the pet store, they are also pretty tasty. I haven't actually tried them myself because...well...

Good For: Dogs with food allergies. Tearing into small pieces for medium-high value training treats. Stuffing in the Busy Buddy Booya. Hiding and letting the dogs smell them out.

Not Good For: Keeping my hands clean while training the dogs. Low-value treats.

Treat Tuesday: Honest Kitchen Beams

At the suggestion of one of my awesome readers, I got Brisbane some Beams fish treats from Honest Kitchen. They are absolutely disgusting. Brisbane loves them.

These things are just dried Icelandic catfish skins. Those are marine fish, unlike the catfish that inhabit American lakes and rivers. Honest Kitchen advertises these as an alternative to chicken jerky or bully sticks. They don't last Briz nearly as long as a thick bully stick, but they last way longer than any kind of jerky treat we've tried. This is definitely an allergy-friendly dog chew.

Good For: Dogs with food allergies. Occupying Brisbane for about 10-15 minutes. Making my husband ask "Where is that horrible smell coming from?"

Not Good For: Lasting as long as a thicker chew. Being discreet and nonoffensive. Looking pretty.

How Much We Like Them: This is the only thing Brisbane has ever attempted to swallow whole. For about 60 seconds I wasn't entirely certain he could breathe and was considering whether I should pry it out of his throat or perform the doggy Heimlich maneuver. He's still lovingly licking the floor where he chewed it (after horking it back up) several minutes later.

Food Friday: Evanger's Hunk of Beef

Evanger's Hunk of Beef is a canned dog food supplement, but not a complete and balanced diet. The name delivers, this contains chunks of cooked beef and nothing else. It has the dubious honor of being the most disgusting thing I have scooped out of a can for my dogs to date. I expect that someday I will work up the courage to buy them some canned green tripe, and this record will be smashed. Until then, we have the Hunk of Beef.

This is a grain-free food with an ingredient list that consists of a single item: beef. It is cooked in its own juices and looks significantly less appetizing in person than the picture on the can.

It's worth repeating that this is not a complete and balanced dog diet. It's a food supplement, meant to be added to Evanger's vegetarian canned food to make a complete diet, or added to a complete and balanced kibble. Since it doesn't have anything in it but cooked beef, it lacks calcium, fiber, and other important nutrients.

I've mentioned the somewhat colorful history of the Evanger's company before. They've had some silent recalls where product was pulled from store shelves without any information passed to consumers. There have been some recalls, but at least Evanger's owns their own packing facility.

This particular product is proudly proclaimed to be "hand packed". The website goes into further detail, declaring that the meat was placed into the can by hand. I'm not entirely certain how I feel about the value our culture places on things done "by hand". There are lots of things that are honestly better when done by hand, but these things tend to be artistic in nature. "Hand painted" and "hand carved" mean a lot when I'm buying pottery or furniture. Other things seem to be pointlessly advertised as "by hand". Obviously an ice cream shop will be serving "hand scooped" ice cream, and restaurants will have "hand poured" wine, there's not really any other sensible way to do it. I can't remember I saw an ice cream scooping machine, or a wine pouring machine.

When it comes to "hand packed" dog food, I'm sort of on the fence. It's nice to know that a real live person personally stuffed this can full of beef while presumably watching to make sure nothing weird got in there. On the other hand, automated processes can be less prone to error. I haven't decided whether I prefer my dog food to be more like art, or more like driverless cars.

Given the company's range of issues, I'm not planning to feed my dogs Evanger's Hunk of Beef on a regular basis. This is more of an occasional stinky treat.

What's the grossest thing you've ever scooped out of a can for your dogs?

Treat Tuesday: Aussie Naturals Fish Strips

We got these Aussie Naturals Fish Strips in our January BarkBox, and they have been stinking up my  treat cabinet ever since. They are made from salmon skin and nothing else. Just 100% sockeye salmon, a great allergy-friendly chew. Did I mention they smell like fish? A whole lot? They come in a resealable plastic bag to help contain a small fraction of the fishy smell, and are made in the USA.

Good For: Dogs with allergies to almost everything. Small dogs who enjoy a good chewing session. Mid-sized and large dogs who enjoy a brief chewing session. Shiny healthy skins and coats.

Not Good For: Ripping into smaller pieces. Lasting Brisbane longer than five minutes. Extremely picky chihuahuas. Feeding the dogs on my way out the door when I don't want to arrive at my destination smelling like fish.

How Much We Like Them: Well Brisbane thinks they're super awesome. They are also supposed to do amazing things for his skin and coat. I'm trying to get his hair to grow back after a particularly bad round of allergy issues, and he needs all the omega-3's he can get.

Treat Tuesday: Yaky Charms!

I did it, I finally bought some Yaky Charms for the boys. They are just as marvelous as I imagined. Yaky Charms are made from yak milk, cow milk, lime juice, and salt. They are allergy-friendly dog treats for anyone who doesn't have issues with dairy products. The best part of Yaky Charms is, of course, that they come in a microwave popcorn bag so they can be popped in the microwave.

Note: Yaky Charms do not pop nearly as loud as popcorn, the sound is really quite faint, so don't turn away from the microwave and plan to just listen for the popping.

Good For: Capturing that biodegradable styrofoam packing peanut texture. Weirding the dogs out the first time they encounter them, "Wait, this is food?" Teaching dogs with poor eye-snout coordination how to catch. Making me giggle with glee every time I see them. At $3 a bag these are a really good deal, too.

Not Good For: Suspicious dogs who fear change. People who can't microwave popcorn without scorching it and also mind their kitchen smelling like burned yak.

How Much We Like Them: Enough that I can barely keep my awkward geek self in check. I want to tell everyone about Yaky Charms. I want to say the name over and over. Yaky Charms. Yaky Charms. Yaky Charms. The dogs like them, too.

The August Allergy-Friendly BarkBox

Last month I almost canceled our BarkBox subscription when I received yet another box of mostly chicken-based treats and unappealing toys. I was informed that there was a new allergy-friendly BarkBox we could try, with no chicken, turkey, beef, corn, soy, gluten, or wheat. While we could still be showered with duck and egg-filled goodies, I figured it would significantly increase our chances of getting Brisbane-safe treats. BarkBox delivered!

We got a big bag of heart-shaped Superior Farms Venison Biscuits! Grain-free, egg-free, and poultry-free, these are easily my favorite thing we've ever gotten in a BarkBox. They're also a bit nostalgic, we got a bag of lamb-flavored biscuits in one of our first BarkBoxes, and they were Josie's favorite treat. She went out crunching a bowl of them at the vet. These are stinky, dense cookies that are the perfect size for cramming into Kongs and other stuffable toys.

The other bag of cookies is Feel Good Treat Co Seafood Chowder, and it outdoes the venison treats for stink. These things are fishy as hell, in the worst way. We got some Baker's Best Maple-Glazed Salmon with Blueberries treats from the same company in our March BarkBox, but those weren't anywhere near this level of funk. The dogs love them.

We got a Jax and Bones Nautical Wheel Rope Toy that Ulysses helpfully chomped. Knotted rope toys aren't very popular around here, but on visiting the site I discovered that they have both a sauropod and an octopus rope toy. Yes, I'm complaining again that I didn't get the right toy in my box. I know we're signed up for the allergy-friendly BarkBox, can they also make a dinosaurs-and-cephalopods BarkBox?

The last item is one that I'm very excited about, it's a Waboba Fetch ball. Waboba, the ball that bounces on water. We have got to get to the pool with this one ASAP. A ball that bounces on water might be enough to get Brisbane to actually jump off the side of the pool instead of insisting on taking the stairs every time.