DooD: Dogs and Humans Do a Taste Test

Droolworthy?

​Fraternity brothers, truth-or-dare players, crazy hoarders with weird eating habits: These are all people whom we'd expect to dabble in dog-food munching. So, it came as a surprise recently when we found a dog food that was tempting to try.

DooD is a delivery food that's so much more than your typical Alpo or Eukanuba -- and at $2.50 per day and up, depending on the size of your dog, it's also a lot more expensive. But with New York foodies' obsession with all things local, organic, and CSA, and the plethora of pampered urban pooches (do you know that doggy day care costs as much as sending your child to preschool?), it was only a matter of time before a service like this reared its fluffy head.

A combination of the words "dog" and "food," DooD is a newish company that has already had a sold-out Gilt City sale (one of today's modern economic indicators?) and a slew of articles written about it. But have any humans tried to eat the veterinarian-approved fare? In the name of fun food stunts, we set about tasting the beef flavor.

Delivered in a vacuum-sealed pouch, the initial opening is extremely off-putting as it lets off a huge puff of, well, dog-food smell. The mashed mix is studded with discernible veggies (carrots, green peas) plus flecks of parsley and some flax seeds. Unfortunately, it's hard to get over the mushy texture. Yes, it's dog food. No, it doesn't taste like dog food per se (more like a mushy burger). But it's not human food, either.

The dog testers on the other hand, a Havanese and Lhaso apso-poodle mix, loved it. They practically snorted this stuff, not removing their heads from their bowls until every last rice bit was licked clean. Like they hadn't been fed for years.

So is DooD worth the investment? Well, it's cheaper than a day's worth of groceries from your local Whole Foods, but it won't satisfy in the way a hunk of meat loaf does. This one should probably be left to the dogs.

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