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When my dogs are truly dirty, nothing helps but a bath. But occasionally they just smell a little like dog food or, you know, dog. Pepper & Tanky sweetens things up with a line of cruelty-free, French eau de parfum for dogs. The packaging makes me laugh (in a good way); the dainty blue atomizer looks like something from my grandma’s makeup table, making it that much more fun to spritz my 175-lb. drooling mastiff. He and his younger sis took it in stride — no sneezing, no skin allergies. (I later read that I was supposed to spray the perfume on my hand, then rub on my dog’s coat. Oops.)

We tried the Vanilla Woof scent, and while I can’t say it smells exactly like vanilla, I have to admit that a day later, our dogs smelled a little more pleasant, as if they had just been groomed. I offered to let a friend try a dose of Big Dawg (with bergamot and neroli), Peaches n’ Cream or Puppy Love (bergamot, amber, and jasmine), but she begged off, saying, “The smells my animals make can’t be fixed with perfume!” Touché. Get your sweet-smelling stuff for $44 per 2 fl. oz. at your luxury pet boutique or at Pepper & Tanky online.

Mary Sheely