We strive to help your Perfect Pup LOVE their training time with you, while providing them the highest level of nutrition that even you would love to eat.

Getting the idea for a freeze-dried dog treat began years ago when I started looking into what to feed my first dog. I was in undergrad, and Madi was a little red nosed Pit Bull. She wasn't picky about food. She even got into my bag and ate a whole bag of prunes, twice! That was a funny, and not so funny, aftermath. I remember going to the pet supply store and talking with everyone and anyone who could talk to me about dog food. I wanted to feed her the best I could find! And I also needed to find something I could afford. I remember talking with my first vet about dog food. I remember hearing different things about all the dog foods, and ultimately identifying one that wouldn't upset Madi's digestion.

My second puppy was a number of years later. Axel came into my life after graduate school and I had a whole new capacity to understand health on a different level. I figured I was capable of finding a good food for him and spent a lot of time studying labels and learning what was considered exceptional dry dog food, and what was not. I noticed that he wasn't thriving. In fact, some of the fanciest and most expensive dry dog foods made him sick. I started looking into what to feed him beyond what was in the pet stores. I started researching raw. I still remember feeling uncertain about feeding him raw meat. I watched and thought, "when I met this puppy on the farm, he was chewing on a dead carcass." I was sure that I had to be missing something, considering dogs on farms eat dead animals all the time.

With Amira, I knew I wanted to incorporate some raw, but for convenience, I wanted the best dry dog food I could find. I noted that she wasn't thriving either. She was itchy, all the time, and as I did more and more reading to figure out why she was itchy, I decided to take a new approach. I would bite the bullet and dive into all raw. The BARF diet. A Species-appropriate diet. A prey-specific diet. All terms that started me on this path of being absolutely convinced that dogs NEED fresh whole foods to thrive.

HOW I FEED MY DOGS NOW:

After all of the learning opportunities that my dogs have given me, I have finally come to a sustainable way of feeding my dogs. I feed raw meat, bone, organ, and carcasses. I feed some vegetables that are not heavy in carbohydrates. I use some supplements and herbs to keep their diet balanced. I try to make sure that I am feeding enough variety to keep the dogs healthy. I don't get too crazy, mostly because good meat is hard to find, and not a lot is available in Alaska. I DO NOT feed my dog's "dog-grade" meat. I used to, and it really messed them up. They were itchy all the time and getting ear infections regularly. I started feeding only human-grade meat instead.

Amira is 6 years old now and super healthy. Her coat glistens (and gets comments all the time.) Her ears always smell dry and sweet. Her teeth are clean and healthy. The vet says her teeth look like those of a one-year-old. The whites of her eyes are clear. She has plenty of energy, and her poops are always good and small.

This being said, there are dogs that have no interest in a chunk of raw meat. My Nalipie came from a line of dogs that have little or no interest in eating raw meat. If a dog isn't raised on a raw diet, or if their mother didn't eat raw, they may never be interested in a piece of meat that hasn't been cooked. Freeze-dried raw is a great way to get your dog some high quality meat without them being turned off. On days when Nali wasn't interested in raw meat, cooked meat, or anything at all, these treats were a hit! We can all thank Nali and Amira for their role in getting these treats going. They truly are my inspiration!

Part of their daily meal is used during our daily training session that we do while on our morning walk. I always have my treat pouch handy, and having freeze-dried food on me makes a light and convenient, healthy snack. We used to try cheese and hot dogs like our dog trainers recommended, but those made the dogs gassy and had other adverse effects on their poops. I also noticed significantly more ear infections and itchy skin when we fed them cheese and cured meats as treats. I truly feel that these dog treats are the simplest way to add the healthiest thing you can add to your perfect pup's diet: raw meat.

MADE IN ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

TRAINING WITH HIGH VALUE TREATS

Before I got Axel, I had decided that I wanted a dog that didn't need me to carry treats with me all the time. Poor Axel was a casualty to my ego.

BONDING OVER FOOD: This is what we do as humans. Why not as a human-animal bond? Most animal trainers in the world use food. It is effective. And it makes for a really uplifting training session. Everybody feels happy.

I learned with Axel that once food became part of the training process, we started making some serious progress. I felt empowered, and he felt loved.

SO, WHY SPEND SO MUCH MONEY ON TREATS?

High value treats hold much more weight in a training session. Think about human children; my nephews learned to poop in the toilet because they got a small toy every time they had a successful poop. That being said, if you told them that they need to do something, and you offered them a reward that is meaningless to them, you wouldn't get a poop in the toilet very often. Maybe not at all.

That being said, many dog trainers suggest using cheese and hot dogs as rewards. There are endless treats that you can buy at the pet supply stores. There are endless products! How do you choose? And why buy the highest quality? I have been there, and I have looked at the packaging. First off, is it human-grade? Second, is it made with whole foods? Third, are they ingredients that a dog should be eating? Will they promote the health and longevity of my beloved pet? What about food recalls? I fed Amira some dehydrated chicken jerky treats that I found when she was a puppy. She got so sick, she puked and puked. I learned that many dog treats source their chicken from China. Those ingredients aren't necessarily human-grade. They aren't USDA inspected. I noted that they had glycerin in them (a filler), and I can't imagine a dog eating glycerin in the wild. In my humble opinion, there are not sufficient regulations on most animal "feed" products (which is what they call sub-human-grade content) to keep my animal safe. So I started looking at the "fancy" stuff like meal toppers and single ingredient training treats, spending the money on the high-end freeze dried meat. But, again, is it human-grade? This has become the reason behind why Perfect Pup Premium Training Treats exist. I want to offer highest value, highest quality treats that you can feel 100% good about feeding your dog.