It’s an (Upscale) Dog’s Life

The man who brought you Orville Redenbacher Microwave Popping Corn is back with a new line. But this time the snacks are for your pet.

“Dogs and cats do not live by bread alone,” says James Myers, who now heads Pet Panache of Connecticut. Or rather, “Staple dry food isn’t enough. They like snacks and treats too.”

Popcorn, French fries, bagels, goldfish-shaped crackers and lollipops are just a few of the “natural treats for the discriminating pet” that Pet Panache sells in pet stores and natural foods markets around the country.

In the booming pet treat business, novelty is the name of the game. “The treat industry does close to a billion dollars a year,” says Karyn McGarrie, Pet Panache’s general manager, “and it is growing in all the different markets--supermarkets, specialty pet outlets--regardless of the recession. Ours are higher-end trend items.”

So with current food trends very much in mind, Pet Panache recently introduced its stylishly packaged International Accents line, which includes “Mexican-style Nachos” and “German-style Schnitzels” for dogs and “Norwegian-style Kippers” for cats.

“As humans, we are able to experience and enjoy the varied tastes of foods from cultures around the world,” enthuses the International Accents box, “and what a pleasure they are! But our pets have not been so fortunate . . . till now.”

Myers helped develop and market microwave popcorn a decade ago while working for Hunt-Wesson, part of a marketing career that has also included roast nuts, snack puddings and Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee. He says there are “tremendous similarities” between human snacks and pet treats.

“All snacks appeal to the senses--visual, auditory, the feel of the package, the sound of the crunch,” he explains. “The idea is to create an experience through all the senses that captures the imagination.”

Of course, when people buy snacks for their pets, the fanciful side gets even more play. “These snacks break a barrier,” Myers says of Pet Panache’s products. “They make people ask, ‘What kind of mood is my pet in today?’ It’s not a functional experience, it’s an imaginary experience. That’s what people are paying for.”

Another similarity, Myers says, is the importance of quality. So one of Pet Panache’s key selling points is that their products are not only cute but healthy, with ingredient lists that would not look out of place on the side of a box of human snacks.

For example, the “Italian-style Calamaries”--crunchy ring-shaped crackers for cats--are made from corn, corn oil and seafood flavor. The “German-style Schnitzels” for dogs are little sausages made of pure rawhide. And while the “English-style Crumpets” are more like whole-grain drop scones, they include such health-food staples as lecithin, wheat germ and brewer’s yeast.

To the human palate the snacks are a little flat. The nachos seem under-salted and rather stale, and the crumpets taste a bit too healthy. But both did well in a recent impromptu taste test with some neighborhood dogs. Offered a choice between the nachos, the schnitzels, the crumpets and table scraps (represented by some leftover artichoke quiche), five dogs ranging from a pure-bred Dalmatian pup to an arthritic yellow hound unanimously scarfed up all four and begged for more.

International Accents items are just beginning to appear in Southern California. At $4.99 for the 2- to 5-ounce packages (weight varies according to the product, not package size), they are even pricier than many human snacks, but they’ve already proven a hit at one of their first outlets, the Bel-Air Town Market.

“We’ve done real well with it,” says a man there who identified himself as “Mr. Chuck.” “There’s nothing else like it. Everything else is just dog food.”