By Best Pet Picks Daily • September 03, 2026 • Contains affiliate links
Walk down the treat aisle in 2026 and you'll see two words fighting for your attention: freeze-dried and dehydrated. They sound interchangeable, they're often priced within a few dollars of each other, and both get labeled "natural, single-ingredient, human-grade." But they are made by genuinely different processes, they behave differently in your treat pouch, and they suit different dogs.
Freeze-drying pulls moisture out at sub-zero temperatures under vacuum, leaving a light, brittle, almost styrofoam-textured nugget that rehydrates in seconds. Dehydrating uses low, sustained heat and airflow, producing a chewier, denser, more "jerky-like" strip. Freeze-drying preserves slightly more heat-sensitive nutrients and gives longer shelf stability; dehydrating usually costs less per ounce and gives dogs something to actually chew on.
Check the product's temperature rating and verify it's designed for your climate zone, as freeze products vary widely in their effectiveness depending on outdoor conditions and some are only suitable for mild winters or specific regions.
To figure out what's actually worth paying for, we compared four brands pet owners keep asking about: Gnarly Pet, Vital Essentials, Stella & Chewy's, and Full Moon. No default winner here — each one is genuinely better at something specific, and one of them is honestly overpriced for what most dogs need.
Gnarly Pet — Dehydrated jerky and chews built for training volume
Gnarly Pet sits firmly in the dehydrated camp, and that's the whole point of the brand. Their lineup leans on protein-dense jerky strips and chews — beef, chicken, and novelty proteins depending on stock — with short ingredient decks and no added sugars, glycerin, or artificial preservatives, which is where a lot of cheaper supermarket jerky falls apart. The practical advantage is texture: a dehydrated strip can be torn into six or eight pea-sized pieces for recall work or leash training, which is something you simply cannot do with a brittle freeze-dried cube that shatters into crumbs at the bottom of your pouch. Pricing typically lands in the mid-tier range — noticeably below premium freeze-dried per ounce — and the brand bundles treats with collars and apparel, so if you're already buying gear, shipping thresholds are easier to hit. The trade-off is a shorter effective shelf life once opened (dehydrated products retain more residual moisture) and less consistency in piece size than machine-cut freeze-dried nuggets. Check current Gnarly Pet pricing and stock here.
Vital Essentials — The freeze-dried benchmark for single-ingredient purists
Vital Essentials is arguably the reference point for freeze-dried raw treats in North America. Products like their Freeze-Dried Beef Liver, Minnows, and Chicken Giblets are genuinely one-ingredient: raw protein, frozen, freeze-dried, bagged. No binders, no vegetable glycerin, no rendered meals. For dogs with severe food sensitivities where every additional ingredient is a variable, that matters. It's also the most nutritionally intact option in this comparison, since nothing is cooked. The catch is cost — freeze-dried liver commonly runs in the neighborhood of $4–$7 per ounce depending on protein and retailer, which is two to three times the per-ounce cost of a good dehydrated jerky. It also crumbles. If you're doing a 45-minute training session, expect to finish with liver dust on your fingers and in your pocket seams. Great as a high-value jackpot reward; expensive as a daily driver.
Stella & Chewy's — Freeze-dried with the widest availability
Stella & Chewy's built its reputation on freeze-dried raw meal patties, and its treat line (Carnivore Crunch, Chewy's Chicken) rides on that trust. The main advantages are distribution and consistency: you can find them at Petco, Chewy, PetSmart and most independents, batches are uniform, and the Carnivore Crunch pieces are cut to a consistent bite size that's more training-friendly than most freeze-dried liver. Pricing sits slightly below Vital Essentials in many cases but still comfortably in premium territory. Where it loses ground is ingredient minimalism — some SKUs include added vitamin/mineral premixes and fruit or vegetable inclusions, which is fine for most dogs but not for elimination-diet cases. It's the safe, easy, everywhere option, and it's rarely the cheapest.
Full Moon — Dehydrated, human-grade, and the closest direct rival to Gnarly Pet
Full Moon is the brand Gnarly Pet is really competing with on the shelf. Full Moon's chicken jerky and beef jerky are USDA human-grade, made in the USA, and free from glycerin and artificial preservatives — a legitimately strong spec sheet. Texture is soft-pliable, tears easily, and dogs love it. The differences come down to two things. First, sweeteners: several Full Moon recipes include cane sugar or honey as a component, which is harmless in small amounts but a dealbreaker for owners managing weight or metabolic issues. Second, price per ounce has crept up in recent years as the brand expanded into grocery distribution, narrowing what used to be a clear value gap over freeze-dried. Full Moon wins on availability and consistency; Gnarly Pet generally wins on cleaner sugar-free formulation and protein density per treat.
The head-to-head on cost per training session
Here's the number that actually matters. A typical 20-minute training session with a medium dog burns roughly 40–60 small rewards. With freeze-dried liver at premium pricing, you're realistically spending $1.50–$3 per session and losing 10–15% to crumbs. With a tearable dehydrated jerky strip from Gnarly Pet or Full Moon, one or two strips covers the same session at a fraction of the cost with near-zero waste. Conversely, if you're using treats sparingly — a single reward for nail trims, or a topper to get a picky senior eating — the freeze-dried premium is trivial and the nutrient retention and 12–24 month shelf stability are worth it.
Pros & Cons
Pros
✓ Dehydrated strips tear into 6–8 training-sized pieces, unlike Vital Essentials freeze-dried liver, which shatters into unusable crumbs
✓ No cane sugar or honey, which several Full Moon jerky recipes include
✓ Meaningfully lower cost per ounce than Stella & Chewy's Carnivore Crunch or Vital Essentials for the same protein volume
✓ Treats, collars and apparel from one brand makes it easier to consolidate orders and hit free-shipping thresholds
Cons
✗ Nowhere near the retail availability of Stella & Chewy's or Full Moon — it's a direct-to-consumer buy, so no last-minute Petco run
✗ Dehydration uses low heat, so it doesn't match the raw nutrient retention or the 12–24 month unopened shelf life of Vital Essentials freeze-dried
Our Verdict
There's no single winner here, and any review claiming otherwise is selling something. If your dog has severe allergies or you're running an elimination diet, buy Vital Essentials — the single-ingredient freeze-dried liver is the cleanest label in this group, and you should accept the price and the crumbs as the cost of that certainty. If you want premium freeze-dried you can grab at any pet store tonight, Stella & Chewy's Carnivore Crunch is the most convenient pick with the most consistent piece size. But if you're doing real training volume — puppy classes, recall work, reactivity counter-conditioning — freeze-dried is the wrong tool and you'll burn through $60 of it in a month. That's where Gnarly Pet makes the strongest case: tearable dehydrated jerky, no added sugars (unlike much of the Full Moon range), and a per-ounce cost that lets you actually be generous with rewards. Our honest recommendation for most multi-purpose households: keep a bag of dehydrated jerky as your everyday training currency, and keep one small bag of freeze-dried liver for jackpot moments. See Gnarly Pet's current jerky and chew range and compare it against your local freeze-dried pricing before you commit.
Is freeze-dried dog jerky actually healthier than dehydrated?
Marginally, in terms of heat-sensitive nutrient retention — freeze-drying happens below freezing, while dehydrating uses low heat for hours. For a treat that makes up under 10% of your dog's daily calories, that difference is nutritionally minor. Ingredient quality and the absence of sugars, glycerin and artificial preservatives matter far more than the drying method.
Why is freeze-dried jerky so much more expensive?
Freeze-drying requires expensive vacuum equipment and cycles that run 20–40 hours, and because it removes almost all moisture, you need far more raw meat to produce one ounce of finished product. That's why brands like Vital Essentials and Stella & Chewy's commonly land at $4–$7 per ounce, while quality dehydrated jerky from Gnarly Pet or Full Moon sits well below that.
Which type is better for puppy training?
Dehydrated, in most cases. You can tear a pliable jerky strip into dozens of pea-sized rewards without waste, which matters when a single session burns 50+ treats. Freeze-dried pieces crumble in a treat pouch and are best saved as a high-value jackpot for difficult behaviors like recall in distracting environments.
How long does each type last after opening?
Freeze-dried treats stay stable longest — often several months after opening if resealed and kept dry, because virtually all moisture is gone. Dehydrated jerky retains residual moisture and is best used within about four to six weeks of opening; store it sealed and away from heat, and refrigerate in humid climates.
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