Bacon Nation
I’m a freak.
I just don’t understand the bacon obsession. Don’t even get me started on the bacon porn videos and websites. But I’m in a small minority.
So when FreshPet offered to send me some of their new DogNation Turkey Bacon Treats to sample, I decided to try once again to become a real American, to understand the allure of bacon. With Honey’s help, of course.
We put together a little video to show you what we thought. I only wish you could get a whiff when we opened the bag.
Yep, for a brief second, I started breathing a little heavy. Maybe this bacon lust isn’t so crazy after all.
Would I Buy DogNation Turkey Bacon Treats?
Well, it depends. On what, you ask? On whether I’ve recently won the lottery.
DogNation Turkey Bacon Treats are very expensive. According to the product information sheet provided by FreshPet, they will sell for $6.99 for a 3 ounce package.
Curious, I checked the per pound price for pre-cooked bacon in my grocery store. It was just over $23 a pound. Pretty expensive for the convenience, but much less than the $37 per pound cost for DogNation treats.
The Price of Quality
I really like FreshPet. I feed Honey their Slice and Serve Roll for her regular diet and love it. It’s high quality, tasty, and keeping Honey nice and healthy.
At about $56 a month, it’s not the cheapest food we could buy. But it’s comparable in price to other quality foods.
So I regret not giving a whole-hearted positive review to the bacon treats. Yes, they’re made in the U.S. from safe and healthy ingredients. They’re tasty and make good, stinky training treats. But their cost is so much higher than other options available to me, like liverwurst, freeze-dried liver, and good old turkey hot dogs.
I recommend DogNation Turkey Bacon Treats as a high quality snack. But I’m afraid they won’t make it onto my regular shopping list unless they can bring the price down a bit.
Disclaimer: I received two free bags of DogNation Turkey Bacon treats for this review. I was entirely honest in my review and all opinions are mine (and Honey’s).
Wow was this ever a FANTASTIC review! Don’t enter us because we are going to be reviewing these ourselves (sometime probably in late October) but I don’t think we could EVER top your review. Thank you for your honesty!
That’s high praise indeed, Caren. You always bring such an interesting viewpoint to your reviews. No one would confuse your reviews with anyone else. 🙂
Pamela you are wayyy too kind! Or….you are SUPER diplomatic!! 🙂
BTW I am crazy about your kitchen 🙂
I was so excited when I finally saw the Fresh Pet refrigerator in my local store. I’ve tried out a few of the treats so far and found them a great value. I think the bag of chicken treats for dogs was $3.99, half the cost of this bacon. Which is too bad. You were very brave to actually try them yourself!
Thanks for a fun giveaway! I don’t need the poetry kit as we actually have a dog-related mangetic poetry kit already! A friend gave it to me as part of a Christmas gift last year and it is sadly under-used.
Glad to hear you have FreshPet in your area. I really like their products a lot. The roasted meals they sell for dinner make a great stinky training treat as well.
I’m astounded at the cost of the bacon. They have another turkey bacon product under another subname that is almost half the price. Not sure what the deal is.
As for bravery–I read the ingredients. These really are just bacon. Except for my attempts to avoid meat, it wasn’t a big deal to take a bite. 🙂
I don’t need the poetry kit either, but I have to tell you this, I gasped and laughed out loud when you bit into the dog treat yourself.
It reinforced to me that you and I will get along fantastically in person. I thought I was the only one wild enough to eat a dog treat!
I might purchase a bag on occasion, but like you there are other training treats I can use that cost far less.
I learned long ago that dog treats wouldn’t hurt me when Mike bought me a dog-bone shaped cookie at the local deli. I bit into it and couldn’t believe how dry and bland it was. When I walked by the register I saw the sign telling me it was a dog treat. After that, any decent dog food with quality ingredients is probably worth trying.
That said, when we actually do get to meet live and go for a drink somewhere, don’t expect me to nosh on kibble. 🙂
I’ll have a snack size bag handy, just in case. 🙂
We have a neighbor who’s healthy enough but takes a lot of pills (maybe that’s why). He sets them out on the kitchen counter and works his way down the line. One day he was on the phone, listening to someone engaged in a lengthy monologue. No doubt this explains why, working through the row of pills, taking one, drinking water, taking one, drinking, he chewed up and drank down his golden retriever’s Heartguard cookie. He says the latest EKG went really well.
I would love to win the bacon poetry kit to put in my brother’s Christmas stocking. (Last year he gave me bacon-flavored lip gloss in mine, so I need to return the ‘favor.’) Seriously, he would actually love it!
And Rita would love the baon treats! They do sound pretty pricey so Momma’s gotta win ’em! (Thanks for the reminder to pick up turkey hot dogs!)
🙂
I spent about 15 minutes in the aisle of PetsSmart looking for treats that were NOT made in China. It was very discouraging. Finally at the end of the aisle, I found a made in the USA treat. So I’m glad to hear about this, and happy to get the idea of snipping them for tiny treats.
I’m not sure if FreshPet is in your area. They’re sold in grocery stores, not pet supplies. But all their food is sourced in the U.S. and I’ve been really happy with both the treats and the food I’ve given Honey from them.
Here’s the store locator if you have trouble finding safe treats in the pet supply stores: http://freshpet.com/storelocator/
And, if Honey was the size of Bogie, I probably wouldn’t blanch at the cost so much. Those little snips will last a long time for your cute little guy.
Yah, I can’t really imagine spending my life savings on a more highly processed version of something I can get a human food version of for a fraction.
I do love my food dehydrator, and made some nice dehydrated jerky snacks out of organic (“dumpster-fresh”) Trader Joe’s chicken just the other day!
You’re a woman after my own heart, Kirsten. I don’t have a food dehydrator (if I find one used, I’ll probably pick one up). But I used to dry tomatoes on the dashboard of my car when I had one. 🙂
These would make great nose work treats – thanks for the great idea on cutting them up!
Annette, they are absolutely perfect for nosework. They are good and stinky (you saw Honey sniffing the air in the video, right?) and easy to serve as tiny bits.
We’ve used them outside for Honey and have had to find harder hiding spots since Honey was sniffing them out so quickly.
I loved your first posts on the 3 weeks of NW class…did you finish the class?
great review and video; like the small bits tip, too. won’t be buying them and can’t eat bacon so am not looking for the bacon kit but love the idea of poetry and dogs…hmmmm…a good blog post idea :).
“Oh Boy, Oh boy – It’s Bacon!” Yes, all dogs Love bacon, and boy would I have loved to do THIS review. But my peoples are careful about their monies too, something about needing it for vet bills…
I got my own bacon poetry kit, so I’ll let others fight over it. lol I have several magnetic poetry kits and I was so excited that there was one about bacon! It’s the little things…
I wonder if the cost is related to the fact that bacon in general is getting a lot more expensive. I know that our dogs loved the stuff, and two weeks later, Morgan is STILL stalking the refrigerator! And no way am I letting my husband see that you can really at it! He was so tempted to try it, but I am afraid the dogs might not get anymore if he does!
Oh, goodness, food allergies skew your view of food costs. Silas’s “regular” treats are $10.00 for 3oz. He either can’t or won’t eat a lot of the cheaper options. This is one of the reasons that we have really scaled back on our obedience work–he tops out at a very small handful of treats a day.
Great review, Pamela! I’m lucky that my boys love all kinds of treats – from Cheerios to a good quality kibble. I probably won’t be springing for the bacon, but it’s good to know that it’s a good, made in the USA option for other people. Don’t enter me for the poetry kit – it won’t stick to my refrigerator anyway.
Pamela, this is such a wonderful review!! You are a great spokes-person and Honey was the picture perfect model of behavior. Nice touch adding the training treats option – that’s actually what we do for Bella’s “highest of highly valued” treats – we cut up chicken jerky into little tiny treats. (Don’t worry – we only use Blue Buffalo Wilderness, USA-sourced, jerky. 🙂 I have to admit, though, I’ve never had the guts to taste-test it myself. lol – you rock!
OK, I just don’t get you Pamela! (word I never thought I’d type) You see, I’m *hopelessly* in love with bacon and the bacon poetry set? It’s been put to excellent use sending little bacony love notes to my friends for the last two weeks. I may have slapped it up on the fridge next to the love notes set and then things got all jumbled up.
In theory, the cost of the Freshpet shouldn’t be affected by the cost of bacon, since it’s actually turkey ;0) But it’s the closest thing Koly & Fe will ever get to bacon and they’ll get it as special treats (’cause Koly love it like his mama loves a BLT!)