Pup-Peroni Pleases My Pooch

When our dog Mokey was a puppy, we couldn't ever get her interested in catching whatever dog treats we might toss to her. She always waited until the food hit the ground and then scurried over to pick up the morsel with her teeth, usually dropping it a couple of times before finally eating it. Perhaps she was just overly cautious, but we hated to see her missing out on the visceral joy our first dog, Sandy, experienced whenever something edible went sailing through the air and she had a chance to show off her skills.

Mokey's life changed the day we brought home her first bag of Pup-Peroni. The meaty sticks, like Slim Jims for dogs, are lengthy and sectioned off so that one stick can easily become five tidbits. When we opened up that bag, the aroma made her take notice; she sat before Mom, quivery and shivery with her tail slightly wagging. She wanted that Pup-Peroni more than she'd wanted the Beggin' Strips, more than the Snausages, more than anything else we had offered in the past. And when Mom tossed her a small portion of one of the odiferous logs, she intercepted its descent to the floor, snapping it up with great satisfaction. And she's done that ever since.

Pup-Peroni comes in Original Beef, Lean Beef and Bacon flavors; there's also a Ribs option available, but Mokey never seems to get too excited about smaller treats that are shaped in a particular way; we're trying to work our way through a container of footballs right now, and it's taking a while. She comes around to just about everything eventually, but she reserves her passion for Pup-Peroni; when we run out for a few days, we have a rather forlorn hound on our hands.

Pup-Peroni's nutritional analysis for the Original Beef and Bacon is the following:

Crude Protein: 24.0% Min.
Crude Fat: 12.0% Min.
Crude Fiber: 2.0% Max.
Moisture: 24.0% Max.

The numbers for Fat and Moisture are slightly lower in the Lean variety, but Mokey is such an energetic dog that she seems to run off whatever she's eaten in the last few hours whenever we let her out and she does a series of zooming laps around the yard.

Ingredients include Beef, Meat By-Products, Soy Grits, Sugar, Liver, Salt, Propylene Glycol, Garlic Powder, Caramel Color, Natural Smoke Flavor, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Nitrite, Red 40, BHA and Onion Extract; the Bacon flavor also features actual bacon.

Mokey's sampled all sorts of dog treats, but when we hit the grocery store, we know which one we can't go home without, and at $4 per 8-ounce bag, it won't break the bank. The bags are designed with a convenient ziplock top, but if you prefer the Pup-peronis can be safely stored elsewhere. For instance, we keep ours atop her kennel in a tin that originally held pastries. Actually, that placement is pretty appropriate; I can't think of much that Mokey would find more delectable than these irresistible Pup-Peronis.