Variety is the Key
Dog treats are one of a number of ways to reward your dog. While nothing beats love and praise, as far as your best friend is concerned, a reward in terms of a treat has to be right up there. But there are actually a number of different types of dog treats, and that’s the purpose of this particular article.
Dog treats can be used to mark good behaviour or as a teaching aid such as in the learning a new trick. They can be used to disguise a pill for a dog who’s reluctant to take his medication. Or they can be used for positive reinforcement. To keep a reactive dog focused on its handler and distracted from a potential trigger, for example.
Dog treats come in all different forms and all manner of shapes and sizes. And they come in a wider variety of textures, tastes and smells than most people would have thought imaginable.
Training treats
As the name suggests, training treats are used for dog and puppy training. They generally come in the form of relatively small, easy to digest tidbits. They tend to be small and easy to digest because you might feed a good many treats during a training session in order to achieve a desired effect.
In the case of more difficult or advanced training, these treats might be ‘high reward’ training treats. Treats with a stronger smell, such as dried liver or fish for example. Treats that are likely to keep a dog just that bit more focused than, say, a treat made of banana or carrot. My mixes for liver cake training treats are a prime example of a high reward training treat.
Comfort treats
Comfort treats are the kind of longer-lasting treats you give your best friend when you’re going off to work. Or going somewhere that forces you to leave your dog at home for an extended period.
Comfort treats, by their nature, need to comfort your canine friend. They ideally need to last a while. To give them something else to think about other than how long it’s been since they last saw you. To relieve any separation anxiety he or she might be feeling. And, if nothing else, to make you feel a whole lot less guilty for leaving your best friend behind and not taking them with you!
Because people leave their dogs unattended when leaving them with comfort treats, such treats should obviously not pose a choking hazard. So no meaty bones please. They may last a long while, but you should never give your dog a weight-bearing or recreational bone when you’re not going to be there. Just in case a problem arises.
In addition to being long-lasting, any such treat should be size-appropriate. Appropriate for the size of your dog. Not of a size your dog could swallow it whole and potentially choke on it. And certainly not so hard that a smaller dog could fracture or break a tooth on it. An appropriately-sized Kong filled with peanut butter is an obvious choice for a comfort treat.
Because we love you treats
These kind of treats are just about all-encompassing. They’re types of dog treats that have a multitude of purposes. In our house, we give our dogs a treat every time we sit down to a meal. It stops my husband and I feeling guilty because we’re eating and our dogs are not. It removes any potential for a dog to beg at human meal times because it’s being rewarded with a treat. In a dog’s mind, we are eating, they are eating, everyone’s a winner!
And it draws us all together. Wherever in the house our dogs happen to be, as soon as they hear dining chairs being pulled out, they race to be with us because they know there’s going to be a treat on offer.
Similarly, we always give our dogs a treat at bed time. We take them outside for their final toilet break of the night, then give them a treat when they’re settled in their beds and before we say goodnight. Always here there are always two types of treat offered. There’s something scrummy and homemade which is generally consumed in a flash, and there’s a Kong filled with peanut butter which is likely to keep them occupied long enough for us to go to the bathroom and settle down in bed.
Not that our dogs are spoiled or anything. Perish the thought!
Healthy dog treats
Guided by my husband and in-house dog nutritionist, we ensure that every treat we give our dogs is both natural and healthy. That said, some treats are specifically designed for health purposes. Functional treats for the likes of digestive upsets, breath freshening or hip and joint support would fall into these categories. Dog treats that contain the likes of mint, turmeric and alfalfa would fit into the category of dog treats designed specifically to improve dog health.
As you may have gathered, there are many types of dog treats. Many reasons for treating and rewarding your dog. Importantly though, they should all contain 100% natural ingredients as can be found in my dog treat mixes.
The Dog Chef Guide to Homemade Dog Food
Looking to supercharge your dog's diet with fresh food?
Dog Chef Treat Mix
Fancy making homemade treats for your dog? My Bake & Treat dog treat baking mixes make 100% healthy and natural, dog nutritionist-approved dog treats. Dog treats so healthy, you can eat them too!
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The 4 Principles of Dog Nutrition
Losing my first dog way, way too early, made me wonder if better food could have helped him. Poor Khan passed away when he was just 6 years old. When Marco (pictured here with me) came along and he too suffered ill health as a pup, I made a decision. I decided to take matters into my own hands — to take responsibility for the pup I’d promised to love, honour and obey for the rest of his life. Once again my vet didn’t have the answer, so I decided to put my own theories to the test. I decided to start cooking for my dog.
At the time, my husband was reading a book by renowned nutrition experts Professors Marion Nestle and Malden C Nesheim. They are leading lights on the subject of human and animal nutrition in the USA. The authors maintained that if you are capable of cooking for yourself and your family, there’s no reason why you can’t do the same for your pet. That one is no more complicated than the other, providing you follow three fundamental principles of nutrition. These principles apply to all animals, including human beings and dogs.
1. Balance
In terms of a dog’s diet, balance entails getting its protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals in the right proportions. Just bear in mind that you don’t have to balance every meal. ‘Balance over time‘ is what you’re looking to achieve.
2. Variety
Think about how you feed yourself and your family. Today you have fish and chips. Tomorrow you have a roast dinner with all the trimmings. Over the following days you have a ham salad, a chicken curry with rice, pork tenderloin and mixed veg, a pizza with baked potato and coleslaw, and end the week with lasagne, chips and salad.
Different foods contain different nutrients in different quantities. Without giving it much if any thought, you have created a balanced diet with the meals above. That’s all you need to do for your dog!
I’m not saying you can feed your dog those meals. You can’t. And I’m not saying that is the healthiest diet in the world for a human being. It isn’t. But if you adopt that as a principle for home cooking for your dog, you can’t go far wrong.
3. Moderation
The third principle is just as straightforward as the first two. Feed your dog just the right about of food to maintain a healthy weight.
Studies have proven that overweight dogs live shorter lives. Excess weight is one of your dog’s greatest enemies. So feed just enough to fuel your dog’s body every day so that calories in equal calories out and you can’t go far wrong.
In terms of feeding our dogs, I’ve added one more ‘Principle of Nutrition’ of my own. Supplementation.
You see, no matter how well we feed our dogs, there’s always a little more we can do.
While, as Professors Nestle and Nesheim noted, it is exceptionally difficult to create a nutritional imbalance in a dog’s diet if we feed according to those principles, it’s comforting to be absolutely certain that our dogs have all the nutrients they need from their diet. That’s where supplementation comes in.
Supplementation is how we fill in any tiny cracks in an otherwise perfect diet.
So here’s my very own, fourth principle of dog nutrition.
4. Supplementation
No matter how well we feed our dogs, all dogs need calcium in their diet. If you home cook for your dog as I do, you will definitely need to supplement it with calcium, and a natural vitamin and mineral blend wouldn’t go amiss either.
Calcium is an essential mineral for a dog. It helps build and maintain strong teeth and bones. It also helps with digestion, assists in blood clotting, heart and nerve function and more besides. Whether you feed your dog 2 or 3 raw meaty bones a week or supplement with a calcium supplement, supplementing a dog’s diet with calcium is an absolute essential!
Most commercial calcium supplements are made of powdered limestone. Our dogs deserves better than ground up rock surely? So since the next best source of calcium after raw meaty bones is treated and ground eggshells, my dog nutritionist husband and I created our own Dog Chef Calcium.
I also recommend supplementing a dog’s diet with a vitamin and mineral blend. Once again, most commercial supplements for dogs are made with synthetic ingredients. They’re made in a lab with chemicals left over from the manufacture of other products. Far from natural in my view!
Dog Chef Daily on the hand is a 100% natural blend of specially chosen herbs and spices, handmade by me and my team in my own kitchens. It’s a daily superfood supplement for dogs that you could take too if you wanted. It’s entirely plant-based without any additives or preservatives whatsoever.
The Dog Chef Guide to Homemade Dog Food
Looking to supercharge your dog's diet with fresh food?
To summarise my 4 princples of dog nutrition: following those principles and supplementing with healthy ingredients, I found cooking for my dog a breeze. Marco thrived on it. I hope your dog will too!
Dog Chef Treat Mix
Fancy making homemade treats for your dog? My Bake & Treat dog treat baking mixes make 100% healthy and natural, dog nutritionist-approved dog treats. Dog treats so healthy, you can eat them too!
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