The Importance of Dog Treats

If you have a dog or have had dogs in the past, you know the importance of Dog Treats. They are used for so many reasons.

TOP 2 REASONS FOR DOG TREATS

#1 - Training, then there is training, oh ya and training. Are you getting the idea? Dog Treats are one of the most important elements when training your dog. You will be using dog treats from the very earliest training times.

#2 - Rewarding. Rewarding your animal when he has accomplished what you have asked of him is like giving your son or daughter a hug. Dogs understand dog treats. The word treat will make his tail wag and put a smile on his face.

You've heard the saying "food is the way to a man's heart"... well, dog treats are the way to your dogs heart. When your dog is a puppy you will want small little treats that can easily be chewed when he is being trained. For every act of obedience you will give that pup a tasty dog treat. After a while he will get the idea of what you are asking of him and do that "trick" every single time. Before you know it he will respond to your command without receiving a dog treat. These dog treats will be used for basic training of the sit, stay, come and down commands. Your goal should be to have these commands obeyed verbally, without dog treats, by the time your pet is 6 months old and if you are very deligent in your training your dog will obey these commands even sooner.

Read the labels of your dog treats. Look for high amounts of protein and low amounts of sodium. Be especially mindful of labels that say by products (this means that if it is a chicken product they are using the beak, feet and basically everything but the feathers). And, if you can, find products that contain glucosamine, this is very good for the animals joints.

Some dog treats are very good for your dogs dental health but stay away from the rawhides. This is what my vet has told me because digestion problems. If you have ever seen a dog with rawhide you will notice that after your dog has chewed on it for awhile it becomes soft and pliable and if swallowed could be very hard to digest. We have several of the nylon bones but you also must be careful with them because once chewed small parts become jagged and could cut your dogs mouth.

There are several very good products on the market so be very selective and read the labels.

As you can see, our oldest dog, Jack loves big tree branchs that he hauls out of the woods next to our house. He then proceeds to chew them up all over the yard. Thankfully he doesn't eat them he just chews them to pieces!

And yes, in the picture above that is sweet corn that our dogs are eating. That is their preferred dog treat. At the time Jack was 2 years old and Joey was only 4 months old, but nothing has changed, they still love sweet corn.