If your dog is finicky on backpacking trips, Puppackr may have a dehydrated solution for both of you
(Photo: Will Brendza)
Published July 7, 2026 01:23 pm
My dog was drooling as he watched my friends eat dehydrated backpacking food. We had covered the seven miles to our campsite, and everyone was working up an appetite. Korra stared, licking her lips and begging for food with her eyes.
However, she was about to enjoy her own backpacking meal. A backpacker “chicken dog food” pouch was cooking right next to my own backpacker’s pantry dinner. If she could just read the packaging, she would know she was in for a gift.
A few weeks ago, I came across this brand days out In denver. Puppackr makes dehydrated backpacking meals for your four-legged hiking companions. The pouches come in different sizes for different sized dogs and use the same real ingredients as human backpacking food. Their cost is also almost the same.
I was skeptical, but my curiosity was also piqued. If nothing else, this seems like a new idea and a fun way to engage my dog in the time-honored backpacking tradition of eating dehydrated food out of the bag.
Now, I probably know what some of you are thinking: kibble is essentially dehydrated dog food. Why would I spend extra money on a single meal for my dog instead of bringing a ziplock of what they are fed at home?
This is quite a fair question. But according to Jenny Phillips, founder of Puppacker, it’s much more than a novelty product. As he explained to me, the idea was born out of necessity. His own dog, Chopper, is a very finicky eater when he’s in the backcountry. Try as she might, she couldn’t find any dog food on the way that she could eat.
“When I first started backpacking with him, food became a barrier,” Phillips said.
So, Philips created its own solution. He based the original Pupkar recipe on the veterinarian-recommended “Blue Diet” and began dehydrating chicken, rice and pumpkin at home. it worked. Just like that, Chopper started eating on backpacking trips and Phillips realized his solution could help other dogs, too. She started bringing extra dehydrated dog food on backpacking trips to share with other picky dogs, and their owners loved the idea.
Pappacker has been on the market since March, and so far, it only has one flavor for dogs – the Chicken Dog Food flavor that I had for Korra. The meal has only four main ingredients: chicken, white rice, pumpkin powder, and ground flaxseed (which Phillips’ veterinarian recommended adding for extra fiber). This combination is believed to settle the stomach of dogs.
Maybe I was hungry too, but the food looked pretty good as I read the ingredients while Korra and I waited. When it was ready I was curious to know his thoughts.
Result
Full disclosure: Korra is not a picky eater. If he had the thing I had brought, he would have worn the scarf.
That said, I could tell he loved Pupakkar food. The biggest problem for me was to make sure he didn’t eat it Very Fast. It portioned well for his size (I got medium, and he’s a 53-pound dog) and smelled great. Perhaps predictably, he licked the bag clean.
After a long day of exercise, it was a healthy, hearty, well-earned meal. She was regular the next day – no upset stomach, no digestive issues. This recipe was designed to produce exactly that result.
At 5.73 ounces per package, Pappapackers add negligible weight to your backpack. This is probably a little more weight-efficient than regular kibble in a bag. However, at $9 to $14 per package, it’s not cheap. For an overnight backpack, as I did, the cost isn’t too bad. For longer trips, this will increase.
Some dogs may be sensitive to chicken, which is why the next flavor to come out from Pappacracker will be beef-based. Phillips said she wants this to be a viable solution for as many puppies as possible. She knows how happy Chopper is when he’s on a trip wearing his pack, she says. She wants to spread that happiness to other dogs.
Puppacker definitely made Korra’s backpacking experience fun. In fact, I may have created a monster – now she knows what’s inside those weird bags that humans always eat on backpacking trips, and if she doesn’t have one of her own, she knows she’s missing out.
