Treats for Man’s Best Friend
A walk along any pet aisle in any supermarket will reveal a huge range of ‘treats’, many of which are designed to provide a ‘feel-good factor’ to the dog’s owner.
Of course, many contain the good things for dogs and are put together in consultation with food scientists, but they also, often, contain unnecessary ingredients to provide that feel-good factor, as well as ingredients to aid processing and improve profit margins… in-store and distribution shelf-life being one of them.
My very own Man’s Best Friend, Joe The Cocker, is in the finest of health
Feeding Man’s Best Friend
Since Joe came home as s sickly 9-week-old puppy, his health and well-being have been at the top of my agenda.
After getting his badly abused digestive system back to health and seeing him gain weight at the correct rate, Joe has been on a raw diet.
His diet has been a commercially produced, human food-grade, complete raw feed. Complete, in this case, means nothing else is required. The feed contains the protein, minerals, fibre and fats that he needs. All are obtained through natural meat, fruit, and vegetables in properly balanced proportions.
In the same way, as a zoo weighs all the animal food, all of Joe’s food is weighed, and he is monitored every month (during a walk, we pop into the vet reception). This allows us to track his weight and adjust his food accordingly. It also gets him used to going to the vet.
Joe’s food comes in a 1.4kg deep-frozen ‘chub’ (like a sausage). Every other day a chub is thawed, and his meals weighed and portioned into small plastic tubs and kept in the fridge.
As I write, he has a chub of duck thawing.
So popular is raw feeding that a quick look on Amazon yields over 230 different items!
Treats
Joe has few treats, but those he does have are carefully selected to be the best they can be. His treats (used for training and reward) include:
- Frozen sprats – £3.00 from the fishmonger
- Frozen pumpkin – raw
- Frozen Sweet Potato – cooked
- Broccoli stems – most people throw these away, but dogs love them!
- Home Dried Lambs liver – £2.00 produces a good amount for training treats
- 100% natural Commercial treats
- Personalised ‘special’ treats for Christmas and birthdays etc. (see photos below), well, only the best for Man’s Best Friend.
Treats
Joe has few treats but those he does have are carefully selected to be the best they can be. His treats (used for training and reward) include:
- Frozen sprats – £3.00 from the fishmonger
- Frozen pumpkin – raw
- Frozen Sweet Potato – cooked
- Broccoli stems – most people throw these away, but dogs love them!
- Home Dried Lambs liver – £2.00 produces a good amount for training treats
- 100% natural Commercial treats
- Personalised ‘special’ treats for Christmas and birthday etc. (see photos below), well, only the best for Man’s Best Friend.
The above are personalised treats made to exacting standards in the UK by Afternoon Paws Ltd. Joe loves these.
Make your own treats:
During Joe’s first puppy class I learnt about drying treats using a dehydrator. Now I’ll dry inexpensive ingredients to use as ‘high-value’ treats for training sessions with him.
All dogs are intelligent, some more than others, and Joe, being a Working Cocker Spaniel is pretty smart, but this means that he needs regular brain stimulation, hence the treats.
What I found was an inexpensive dehydrator would allow me to produce high-value treats for next-to-nothing.
A quick look on the shelves of the local supermarkets yields a lot of cheap offal and chicken breast/thighs on their last use-by date. I snap these up and dry them.
The following photo shows 500g (dry weight) of chicken breast and sliced lambs liver after dehydrating. Total cost of the ingredients around £3.50 from Tesco. Compare this with the same weight in prepared liver treats from, say Pets At Home, where they will cost you up to £35, and you can see where the savings come in.
I use a simple dehydrator from Amazon, like the one below, and also use it to dry fruit for myself.
Conclusion
Dogs are sentient mammals with an omnivorous metabolic system that evolved over millions of years.
True, they are not the same as humans, but they are also not dustbins. Their diet is what makes them, in the same way ours make us.
Think about what you are feeding your dog because they can’t, and as part of the deal of being Man’s Best Friend, they trust you to provide good quality, safe and nutritious food.
A good resource for the health side of dog food can be found on the Your Dog Advisor website, where they have recently published a free and informative guide. Links below.
Useful links:
- Artisan bespoke treats from Afternoon Paws:
- A site dedicated to dog nutrition, All About Dog Food:
- A site run by professional dog trainers with some great, free resources, Your Dog Advisor:
- Some great treats that I have used for Joe, from Amazon:
If you are a dog owner and need to ‘Joe-Proof’ your car, take a look here, at our post about car seat protectors.
The links above are ones that have been found to be useful to me. On the Amazon links, I make a little commission at no cost to you, but I only link products that I believe to be of good quality and value.
FAQ:
What is meant by 'Raw Feeding'?
Simply put, Raw Feeding refers to providing your dog with uncooked meat as their food; however, this does have its dangers so a modern concept is to use either a prepared raw feed, often a ‘complete feed’ from a professional kitchen, or freshly killed raw ingredients.
What is a 'Complete Feed'?
A ‘complete feed’ is one that contains everything that your dog needs from its food. the only addition needed is a bowl of drinking water constantly available. A complete feed will often contain raw vegetables, for example. The list of ingredients in complete feeds from reputable kitchens will have been compiled by qualified nutritionists, experts in the field of dog nutrition.
Can I give my dog raw meat?
The short answer is yes; however, you will rarely find pig products in dog food, particularly in raw food, and some meats, such as Chicken can contain bacteria. The general rule is that meat, such as raw chicken should have been deep-frozen for at least two weeks unless freshly killed.
If you are caught out and need some food for your dog you could look for some lamb, venison, or beef. Remember, that dogs are not carnivores, they are omnivores. some raw fish will be very beneficial for (and appreciated by) your dog.
