Are some dog treats better than others?

 

Do you give your dog treats?

Most dog parents use treats as a reward when they’re training or just because they love their dogs. Are you one of them?

How much thought do you put into the stuff you give your dog? Not all of them are the same. And not all dogs are the same, either. That means that what works in some cases won’t work in others. But how do you know which ones are best for your dog?

Types of dog treats

Dog parents have lots of choices in food rewards for their dogs. For example, you could give your dog the following:

• Commercially prepared treats, including any packaged treats made in factories. These usually have a general list of ingredients, but you don’t know specifically what’s in them and trust the company.
• Whole foods as treats. Whole foods like chicken, carrots, or other single-ingredient foods that your dog might like. When you give a whole food, you know exactly what you’re giving your dog.
• Specialty treats. These are made by small companies or individuals and packaged individually. They usually have a limited number of ingredients and aren’t mass-produced, so they are more controlled.
• Homemade treats. Something that you or another individual makes just for your dog for consumption at home. These aren’t intended for other households, so they can be very specialized according to the needs you and your dog have.

Since a food reward is whatever your dog considers good to eat, the definition varies greatly for your dog. This list is far from complete.

What limitations does your dog have?

If you have an active, healthy dog, choosing what foods to use for rewards might be as simple as whatever is convenient for you. However, some dogs require more consideration.

If your dog doesn’t need the excess weight, they will require low-calorie treat options. Other dogs might have food allergies or other health conditions that require you to limit certain things. In these cases, knowing just what you’re giving to your dog will matter greatly.

Whatever your dog’s needs, having choices makes it a lot easier to give your dog treats.

We prefer homemade treats

We cook for our dogs because some of ours have food sensitivities. Plus, we like knowing that there are no extra additives or unknown ingredients in our dogs’ treats.

The benefits of this approach are:

1. knowing exactly what’s in them
2. being able to adjust ingredients to suit any of our dogs who have special needs
3. Ensuring the overall nutrition for our dogs

Here are some resources for finding homemade dog treat recipes. I have NOT personally tried them all, but there are tons of choices, and you can usually find the ingredients around your house without any special shopping trips.

Tasteofhome.com

allrecipes.com

Puppyleaks.com

For more information, here’s a post I wrote called Healthy dog food; what exactly is it? What dog treats do you feed your dogs? Let me know in the comments below.