ARCOLA - Elvis suddenly belts out "You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog," and his nothing but hound dog audience

- Sophie and Tucker the bassets and Noah the beagle - get down and boogie right there on the kitchen floor.

Welcome to treat time in the Hackler household in Arcola, where the cookie jar plays the King's platinum 1956 record every time it's opened. The family dogs have come to know that the song signals the arrival of another delicious morsel, and their whirling dancing crowns a frenzy of slobbered anticipation.

This, however, is no gastronomic walk in the park. The dogs' owners, Carol and Rick Hackler, run the PupDog Bakery gourmet dog treat business right out of their kitchen, and the pets are their taste test audience. Feeding time has gotten to be serious business.

Rick Hackler explains that it costs up to $400 to develop a new dog treat recipe, and there's no guarantee man's best friend will even give it a second sniff.

"It's not the ingredients so much as the food testing, the lab testing that costs the money," said Hackler, 50. "The label has to specify the crude fat, protein, crude fibers, things like that, and each of those labels has to be registered with the government's Department of Agriculture."

Heady stuff, but this mom and pop business - with son Joey, 16, acting as Webmaster - doesn't monkey around. PupDog sells via the Internet and specialty stores and zips its products to 23 states, including Hawaii, and is even getting serious inquiries from a retailer in Great Britain.

The bakery's tasty but ferociously healthy and low-fat treats won't make Fido tight around the collar, either. We're talking Amish-supplied ingredients such as brown eggs, whole wheat flour, local honey and peanut butter sweetened with Blackstrap molasses. Treats also are decorated with carob, which tastes and looks like chocolate but has none of the toxins found in the real stuff.

All this is turned into exotic products resembling cookies, ice cream cones, brownies, bones and even birthday cakes, dipped and drizzled with yummy carob and other delicacies such as yogurt coloring. Prices range from $12.99 for 12 biscuits shaped and decorated like ice creams to $12.99 for one big treat shaped and decorated like a sumptuous birthday cake.

It's more than you might pay for something plucked off the supermarket shelf, but every healthy PupDog goody is handmade, hand decorated and cooked up in the family kitchen, where the Hacklers prepare their own meals. And for all those dog-owner customers gazing into their faithful companion's big brown eyes, the very idea of asking, 'Am I spending too much on you?' tends to get stuck in the throat.

"People care more and are more health conscious about their dogs than they are about themselves," said Carol Hackler, 48. "They probably take their dogs to the vet more than they take themselves to the doctor. Dog owners are looking for healthy things for their dogs because they want to extend their lives."

So, as a business plan, you could do a lot worse. And the Hacklers know how to plan and organize. She is an assistant vice president at First National Bank of Arcola and he was a two-term treasurer for Douglas County. He then spent 10 years working for former state Treasurer Judy Barr Topinka and was a volunteer in her political campaign as she tried to unseat Gov. Rod Blagojevich to be the state's top dog in 2006.

Topinka and team gave it their best shot but turned out to be barking up the wrong tree. The Hacklers were prepared, however, perpetually running their household on what they called the "four-year plan," making sure major bills were squared away between election cycles.

They knew they would need another long-term business iron in the fire if things didn't work out for Topinka and got PupDog up and running before the election. Happily, it took off like a greyhound, with Web site visits going from 218 a month at the beginning to more than 900 in May of this year.

The couple is now looking for stores that could carry their dog goodies in the Decatur area while the husband and wife team continue to work occasional outdoor markets and fairs because they both enjoy meeting customers, both two- and four-legged. Selling stuff that looks good enough to eat has posed some awkward issues with face-to-face human consumer relations, however.

"We have treat cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies, and occasionally, there will be someone who thinks it's a free sample and goes for it," said Rick Hackler. "People get embarrassed when you have to tell them."

Tony Reid can be reached at treid@herald-review.com or 421-7977.