After a marathon session at the off-leash park, you and your pup return to the backyard, dog-tired and desperate for a drink. You set down a dish of water and settle into a patio chair with a beer.

She laps up the fresh water for just a moment, before sniffing the air and putting a hopeful paw on your knee. She definitely wants what you’re having, but since alcohol and hops are poisonous to canines, ‘Ms. Puppy-dog-eyes’ is out of luck.

Fortunately, there’s a better option for beer-loving dogs the world over: dog beer. Made by three different companies in the U.S., Australia and Europe, these dog-safe ales are flavoured with beef and free of alcohol, carbonation (which causes tummy upset in dogs) and hops.

Arjan Berendsen, a pet shop owner from the Dutch town of Zelhem, was one of the first to come up with the idea. He had a ‘Eureka!’ moment eight years ago, during an annual trip to Austria where he and his wife play hunting games with their dogs and some friends. When the tired group brought out the beer at the end of the day, the double standard struck him. “So, I came up with the idea to discover a way to make a drink that contains ingredients of beer, looks like beer, but without the alcohol and bubbles.”

The logistics took some time, but in 2007 Kwispelbier (“tail-wagging beer” in Dutch) was born. Now, the pooch hooch is sold throughout much of Europe.

Dog lager from down under Elise Schumacher, an Australian pet shop owner, has been selling her version of dog beer, DB, for the last six years. She came up with the idea after a guest at her backyard barbecue attempted to share his beer with her dogs before another guest explained the dangers of beer to dogs.

Curious, she searched on-line to find out why alcohol is harmful for dogs and asked home brewers if there was a way to make a dog-safe alternative. After testing the first batches on her dogs, she refined the process with a food technologist and vet. Now, she sells DB in her Sydney pet shop, Paws Point.

DB’s slogan, “Shout your best friend a beer,” embodies the Australian love of beer. “We have a hot climate and our national culture is very focused on playing sport and enjoying the outdoors, which is usually coupled with drinking beer,” says Schumacher.

Canada doesn’t have its own dog-friendly brew yet, but Canucks can purchase Arizona-based Bowser Beer through Jenny Brown, a former nurse and long-time businesswoman, initially sold dog pretzels. “It hit me one day that what goes with pretzels, but beer?”

Two years after the first batch, Bowser Beer has taken off. It provided a tasty treat at the pre-release party of Marley and Me, was purchased by Barbara Walters for her Havanese, ‘Cha-Cha,’ and was auctioned at a charity event at the Playboy Mansion.

Bowser Beer is meant to be fun, but Brown hopes it’ll spread the word of the dangers of feeding alcohol to dogs – hence the product’s tagline, ‘Is your dog drinking responsibly?’ “It’s an alternative to shaking your finger,” says Brown.