Healthy, natural treats for dog?

seamus

No, I'm not on some crazed new-age health food buzz. My Staffie is allergic to wheat & yeast and doesn't seem to tolerate sugar very well. It makes her sick, makes her fart and worst of all she gets ridiculous itchy to the point where she's going insane. The vast majority of packaged treats and food contain any or usually all of these things, so are no use to me.

I'd been giving her hot dog pieces for the last few weeks and she loves them, but her skin condition started getting worse, and on closer inspection, there's yeast in the hot dogs for some reason

I was thinking of cooking chicken and chopping it up into little pieces, but that's quite expensive. I've heard of people using chopped up fruit, how well does that work? I'm primarily using treats for training - she responds very well to it, but the treats need to be something she can't resist, something mildly tasty isn't good enough.
I'd only just started getting her conditioned to recall in the house, but she's very quick now to ignore me when she realises I have no treats, so I'm keen to get something back to reinforce her training!

easyeason3

Cheese?
My dog goes crazy for cheese.

You could do the diced chicken pieces & only give her a treat every second or third time?

peasant

talk to your local butcher

They are usually quite happy to give you a few juicy marrow bones for free.

morganafay

Or you could try to get scraps of meat from the butchers, or cheaper meat?

I give my dogs raw veggies as treats sometimes, bits of carrot, parsnip, sweet potato, swede. They love it. But don't give them too much carrot or they have orange poo! It might take a little while for a dog to start to like them. And they are quite sugary so not sure how that'd affect your dog . . .

mymo

Try carrot or turnip pieces, my two loved them. I cook extra when making dinner and keep in the fridge. They also love peas and broccoli, so I alternate veggies with bought treats. Works great.

Xiney

for training you could try any of the james' well beloved hypo-allergenic treats I think, they use potato instead of grain, they're available on zooplus.


for other treats, peanut butter always goes down well

tk123

Xiney wrote: »

for training you could try any of the james' well beloved hypo-allergenic treats I think, they use potato instead of grain, they're available on zooplus.

We had these and they didn't agree with our guy at all!! If she loves hotdogs (like our guy does) you can mix some hot dog pieces in with the dogs kibble and it'll take on some of the hot dog flavour - i usually do this with our guy for training and give him both but you could always take the hotdog out?

Fruit and veg wise he loves banana, frozen green beans, carrot, apples and his fav - peppers! :rolleyes:

seamus

Thanks guys. Cheese seems like a good idea, just need to keep an eye on how much we're giving her.

Butcher's scraps might work, though we're both vegetarian so we don't otherwise buy meat; I can see us constantly forgetting to pick it up when we're out shopping. And my wife doesn't like handling raw meat

I'll try the raw veggies as everyone seems to be reporting good things, she loves things with strong flavours so I'll experiment.

Peanut butter is her favourite, we use it for giving her pills and such, but messy to use for training!

paultf

Burns do these treats:

http://www.burnspet.co.uk/dog/treats_products.asp

I give mine the Kelties which they like.

peasant

Keep in mind that dogs can't digest raw veg.
Giving them a carrot or whatever isn't feeding them, just occupational therapy

Graces7

If you cut up liver and dry it out in the oven, like meringues, it makes tasty treats..

And there are recipes online for dog treats; home made so you can be sure what is in them.

Ours love raw pasta; shapes and shells.

We go for the marrowbones every time; someimes the night echoes with the CRUNCH of the gnawing.

We cannot afford meat but it is a habit now to call in at the same butcher for scraps each week. Ask him which day is best as they clear them; some give to rescues.

Our dogs eat very well indeed.. And hardly costs us most weeks.

kylith

My pair go mad for carrot, apple, peaches, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, in fact every fruit I've tried. Try it out when you're eating some yourself and see what he likes best.

iguana

Most dogs love fish. A spoon of cheap tinned tuna or sardines should go over extremely well and shouldn't have any negative effects apart from fishy breath.

Don't give them uncooked or smoked salmon or trout though as these fish can contain a bacteria which is toxic to dogs. Both are fine if properly cooked.

Dried tripe would probably work very well too.

Mary-Ellen

You can get gluten free sausages they might agree with her better.

My parents dogs get scrambled eggs when they're poorly and they love it
Spoilt little beggers

You could try making french toast with gluten free bread and cube it for treats.
Or even try quorn bacon strips (I'm not sure if they contain gluten) but the little beggars at home love them too

mymo

Sorry didn't make it clear in above post, but I use cooked veggies. Mine won't eat raw veggies:rolleyes: (except my peas growing in the garden which they stripped completely last summer:mad:)

Theres some great recipes online for making your own treats, most can be frozen. keep meaning to try some myself.

peasant

seamus wrote: »

I'm primarily using treats for training - she responds very well to it, but the treats need to be something she can't resist, something mildly tasty isn't good enough.
I'd only just started getting her conditioned to recall in the house, but she's very quick now to ignore me when she realises I have no treats, so I'm keen to get something back to reinforce her training!

Sort of missed that bit at first reading.

I'd advise to use treats sparingly when training, exactly for the above reason.
A clever dog will train you ...to be its treat dispenser:D. And a really clever dog will work its way up the menue too

By all means, use treats when you first introduce a new training subject to keep the dog motivated long enough for the message to sink in. But after that praise really has to be enough.

The point of training is that your commands should be heeded at any time, especially in emergencies and when it really counts ...and those are exactly the situations where you won't have a bag of treats with you.

If you really want to threat, do so when the training session is over and the dog has performed well, so that the praise during training adds up to a juicy treat at the end.

Personally, I prefer praise, cuddles or a play session as a reward.

In our house treats are treats, they are just given, not awarded.

Graces7

peasant wrote: »

Sort of missed that bit at first reading.

I'd advise to use treats sparingly when training, exactly for the above reason.
A clever dog will train you ...to be its treat dispenser:D. And a really clever dog will work its way up the menue too

By all means, use treats when you first introduce a new training subject to keep the dog motivated long enough for the message to sink in. But after that praise really has to be enough.

The point of training is that your commands should be heeded at any time, especially in emergencies and when it really counts ...and those are exactly the situations where you won't have a bag of treats with you.

If you really want to threat, do so when the training session is over and the dog has performed well, so that the praise during training adds up to a juicy treat at the end.

Personally, I prefer praise, cuddles or a play session as a reward.

In our house treats are treats, they are just given, not awarded.

Funny. I missed that implication too.. would never use treats as a reward in that way. Am with you on this altogether. for the same reasons.

Collie; I have still recall problems with her; ad when she obeys and I see her racing full tilt across the field at me. I just open my arms ready to hug her. Means far more than food.

Food is huge pleasure all by itself, isn;'t it?

seamus

While I agree with you both to an extent (though maybe I am agreeing with you entirely), using treats to train does work for me.

Cuddles aren't really an especially compelling reward for her (maybe she gets too many! ) and I certainly wouldn't rely on praise and cuddles to get her to come back to me when out and about. However, her recall is much stronger when out than when at home, maybe she doesn't understand at home because she usually gets a pat on the head whenever someone passes her, regardless of what she's doin

That said, I am only at the early stage of this training and I have the basic sit, down and stay nailed without treats; I think I just ran out of rewards at the wrong time...