You can learn a lot about where the dog industry is heading by walking around SUPERZOO for a few days. Sometimes the trend is obvious because you can’t go ten feet without seeing another version of it. Other times, it’s a handful of products doing something genuinely different that makes you stop and pay attention.
Our team was at SUPERZOO 2026 in Las Vegas, where more than 1,200 exhibitors filled the show floor and more than 2,000 new products made their debut. The official New Product Showcase alone included more than 1,000 products, with categories covering everything from functional nutrition and wellness to smart technology and AI.
After seeing what was there (and comparing notes once everyone’s feet recovered), a few trends kept coming up.
Some are continuations of things we’ve been watching for a while. Others are newer. And at least one involves leaving the hair on the cow hide, so 2026 apparently isn’t interested in being boring.
Here are the dog trends that stood out most at SUPERZOO this year, along with some brands that stood out in each category. Not all of these are available to buy yet, though.
1. Freeze-Dried Treats Are Getting Simpler
Freeze-dried dog treats aren’t exactly new. What stood out this year was the continued push toward limited-ingredient and single-ingredient versions.
Instead of long ingredient panels and elaborate recipes, we saw plenty of products where the selling point was basically: this is meat. We freeze-dried it. The end.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Simple ingredient lists make it easier for dog owners to know exactly what they’re feeding, especially when they’re dealing with food sensitivities or trying to identify which ingredients agree with their dogs.
It also fits into a much bigger trend we’ve been watching in dog food. Owners increasingly want recognizable ingredients, but they don’t necessarily want to deal with the storage and handling that comes with fresh or raw food.
Freeze-drying lands neatly in the middle.
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
2. Mushrooms Are Everywhere
Functional mushrooms have been creeping into the pet supplement world for several years. At SUPERZOO 2026, they were hard to miss.
Reishi, turkey tail, lion’s mane, cordyceps and other mushroom varieties are showing up in powders, chews, treats and functional formulas targeting everything from immune support to cognitive health.
The trend even made it into the SUPERZOO New Product Showcase winners. Real Mushrooms – Functional Mushrooms with Krill won the Holistic/Alternative Therapies & Supplements category.
That doesn’t mean every mushroom product automatically deserves a spot in your dog’s supplement cabinet. This is an area where the specific mushroom species, formulation, dose and supporting research matter quite a bit.
Still, mushrooms have clearly moved out of the obscure-supplement corner of the pet industry.
Expect to see a lot more of them.
Real Mushrooms Turkey Tail with Qrill
Real Mushrooms Turkey Tail with Qrill Organic Extract Immune-Support Flavored Powder Supplement for Dogs & Cats combines organic turkey tail mushroom extract with Qrill™Pet Antarctic krill powder in every serving. This tasty powder delivers beta-(1,3)(1,6)-glucans to help maintain a healthy immune response and support your pet’s microbiome.
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
3. AI Is Moving From Novelty to Health Tool
AI was everywhere at SUPERZOO, but the interesting part wasn’t seeing the letters “AI” slapped onto another pet gadget.
We’re finally starting to see companies use it for things that could actually be useful.
One of the biggest examples was Talktail’s AI Pet Health Monitoring Collar, which won the Overall Judges Award in SUPERZOO’s New Product Showcase. Talktail’s system monitors physiological measurements including heart rate, oxygen saturation and temperature.
That win is significant. Talktail didn’t just win a technology category. It took the overall award in a showcase containing more than 1,000 products.
The larger trend here is one we’ve been expecting: pet tech is shifting from tracking what your dog does to interpreting what that information might mean.
That’s a much more interesting use of AI than generating a cartoon picture of your dog as Napoleon.
4. Dog Longevity Is Becoming Its Own Category
Keeping dogs healthy as they age isn’t remotely a new idea. Calling it longevity certainly feels newer.
SUPERZOO had plenty of products aimed at supporting dogs throughout a longer lifespan, including supplements and functional foods marketed for healthy aging, cognition, cellular health, mobility and other age-related concerns.
Fera Pets, for example, introduced Longevity Soft Chews containing ingredients including NMN, resveratrol, phosphatidylserine and MCT oil.
The interesting shift is that these products aren’t necessarily being positioned exclusively for senior dogs. The message is increasingly about supporting healthy aging before a dog reaches his senior years.
5. Hydration Is Getting the Functional-Treat Treatment
Apparently plain water has been underperforming. One of the clearest trends at SUPERZOO was the continued growth of functional hydration.
Pawp Water is one example. The company makes ready-to-drink functional water for dogs in formulas targeting hydration, gut health, calming, and hip and joint support. Its electrolyte formula contains sodium, potassium and magnesium, while its hip and joint variety includes collagen.
Pawp Water Variety Pack Electrolyte, Hip & Joint, Calming, Gut Health Water
This functional hydration pack includes four targeted formulas—Electrolyte Hydration, Gut Health, Hip & Joint, and Calming—giving you an easy way to rotate daily support based on your pup’s needs. Each can is crafted with purified water and functional ingredients designed to complement hydration while supporting digestion, mobility, and relaxation.
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
Then there are broths and meal toppers from companies such as Brutus Broth, which turn adding moisture to food into something considerably more appealing than pouring another splash of tap water over kibble.
Brutus Bone Broth for Dogs Dog Food Topper
Every serving of Brutus Bone Broth for dogs is infused with Glucosamine and Chondroitin to support healthy hips and joints in all dogs including puppies and older dogs. Available in multiple flavors, including a plant-based recipe.
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
The idea makes sense, particularly for dogs that aren’t enthusiastic water drinkers or dogs eating primarily dry food.
What stood out at SUPERZOO was how much hydration is merging with functional nutrition. These aren’t simply flavored waters. Brands are using the liquid format to deliver ingredients traditionally found in supplements.
6. Collagen Has Officially Made the Jump From Human to Dog Wellness
If you’ve watched collagen take over the human supplement aisle, you probably saw this coming. Collagen appeared across dog treats, chews, broths, functional waters and supplements at SUPERZOO.
Some products focus on mobility and joint support, while others connect collagen with skin, coat or general wellness.
Bone broth fits naturally into this trend, too. Gnü Bone Broth Chews actually won SUPERZOO’s Dog category this year, while other brands introduced broth-based toppers, butters and treats.
We’re interested in this trend partly because it overlaps so many categories. Collagen isn’t sitting in one bottle labeled “joint supplement.” It’s becoming an ingredient built directly into foods and treats dogs are already consuming.
Whether every dog needs extra collagen is another question entirely. But judging by SUPERZOO, we’re going to be seeing considerably more of it.
7. Whole-Animal Treats and Hair-On Chews Are Having a Moment
This was one of the more visually memorable trends from the show.
Brands are leaning harder into minimally processed, whole-animal treats and chews, including products that retain the animal’s hair or fur.
Yes. Hair and all.
Girls Gone Raw focuses on small-batch, species-appropriate treats and chews, while Bar46 Farms produces single-ingredient beef hide chews from cattle raised on its own Idaho farm. Bar46 specifically sells hand-rolled hair-on beef hide chews.
This isn’t going to appeal to every dog owner. If you’re already slightly disturbed when you can identify which anatomical part a chew used to be, the fur probably isn’t helping.
But the products fit squarely into the larger movement toward less processing, traceable sourcing and using more of the animal rather than turning meat into something completely unrecognizable.
They’re also a reminder that “natural dog treat” is becoming considerably more literal.
8. At-Home Pet Health Testing Is Expanding Fast
This may end up being one of the most important trends from SUPERZOO 2026.
Pet owners can increasingly collect samples, run tests or send specimens to laboratories without starting every health investigation with a veterinary appointment.
Innovative Pet Lab offers stool-based testing for dogs and cats, including tests related to digestion, inflammation, immune response, gut permeability, stress and parasites. Samples are collected at home and mailed to a laboratory for analysis.
Other companies are tackling specific infectious-disease concerns. Tick-testing services can analyze a tick removed from a dog for pathogens associated with Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, while rapid-test companies are developing products targeting conditions such as parvovirus and Giardia.
Petwealth is pushing the idea even further through its work with Kennel Connection. The companies are exploring ways to bring proactive health screening into places dogs already visit, including boarding facilities, daycare centers, groomers and training businesses.
None of these tools replaces a veterinarian, and a home test result isn’t a diagnosis.
But easier access to health information could give owners another reason to notice a potential problem sooner and have a more informed conversation with their vet.
That’s a trend we’ll be watching closely.
9. Functional Everything Is Probably the Biggest Trend of All
If we had to pick one theme connecting most of what we saw at SUPERZOO, this would probably be it.
Dog products increasingly need to do more than one thing. A treat isn’t merely a treat. It’s a calming treat, collagen treat, mushroom treat, hydration treat or digestive-health treat. Water isn’t just water. A collar isn’t simply identifying your dog. It’s monitoring health data. Food isn’t only supplying calories.
Brands are talking about gut health, mobility, cognition, healthy aging and hydration. Some of that is incredibly useful innovation. Some will inevitably turn out to be clever marketing wearing a lab coat.
The interesting part is how quickly the distinction between food, supplements, treats, technology and preventative wellness is disappearing.
What We’ll Be Watching After SUPERZOO 2026
SUPERZOO is great for seeing what’s coming, but a trade-show floor is only the beginning. Now we want to see what happens when these products leave Las Vegas and encounter actual dogs.
We’re especially interested in the next generation of AI health monitoring, at-home testing, functional hydration and some of the emerging longevity products. And yes, we’ll be watching the hair-on chew category too.
Dogs, for their part, probably aren’t nearly as conflicted about that last one as we are.
