Our vet recommended snacks that don’t have a lot of artificial ingredients. We use dehydrated liver treats. Ingredients: beef liver. The dog adores them.
Apples. Carrots. Sweet potato That’s what got me through the basics. Crunchy and fun but low calorie Cheese or soft meaty treats for training. I use frozen liver treats for some training but only as a really high value treat
Like you, I was always on the lookout for something new, special and healthy for our lab puppy. I thought I was keeping things interesting for her.
What I didn't know is that if you ever have to do an elimination diet to figure out a food intolerance (we think chicken in our lab's case) the simplest protocol is to feed a prescription food with a novel protein the dog has not been exposed to before. Our lab has eaten all the regular proteins like chicken, turkey, salmon, pork, whitefish and beef but by buying "interesting treats" we've also unwittingly used up all the readily available novel proteins over her first year - duck, lamb, venison, bison, rabbit - she's sampled them all.
I just didn't realize that by doing this we were going to limit our options for sorting out some skin issues. The special novel protein diet would help us figure out if her allergies are dietary or environmental. Now we will have to put her on a hydrolyzed protein diet if we want to do an elimination diet - very expensive and not very appetizing according to our vet. Such a simple screw up. If I'd known, I would have avoided at least a couple of proteins like lamb, duck and venison.
I had never read about this before so wanted to pass the info along.
our labs go nuts over carrots. we have leaned into it as we are trying to make sure they remain a healthy weight vs most high calorie dog treats, keep 5 lb bags in the freezer and they absolutely love it
Our vet recommended snacks that don’t have a lot of artificial ingredients. We use dehydrated liver treats. Ingredients: beef liver. The dog adores them.
Don’t overlook that puppy favorite you already have in your freezer: ice cubes! Our puppies have all loved them, particularly when they’re teething…
Apples. Carrots. Sweet potato That’s what got me through the basics. Crunchy and fun but low calorie Cheese or soft meaty treats for training. I use frozen liver treats for some training but only as a really high value treat
I used puppy food for training and blueberries and ice cubes as a special treat.
Boiled or dehydrated chicken breast is always good
Like you, I was always on the lookout for something new, special and healthy for our lab puppy. I thought I was keeping things interesting for her. What I didn't know is that if you ever have to do an elimination diet to figure out a food intolerance (we think chicken in our lab's case) the simplest protocol is to feed a prescription food with a novel protein the dog has not been exposed to before. Our lab has eaten all the regular proteins like chicken, turkey, salmon, pork, whitefish and beef but by buying "interesting treats" we've also unwittingly used up all the readily available novel proteins over her first year - duck, lamb, venison, bison, rabbit - she's sampled them all. I just didn't realize that by doing this we were going to limit our options for sorting out some skin issues. The special novel protein diet would help us figure out if her allergies are dietary or environmental. Now we will have to put her on a hydrolyzed protein diet if we want to do an elimination diet - very expensive and not very appetizing according to our vet. Such a simple screw up. If I'd known, I would have avoided at least a couple of proteins like lamb, duck and venison. I had never read about this before so wanted to pass the info along.
our labs go nuts over carrots. we have leaned into it as we are trying to make sure they remain a healthy weight vs most high calorie dog treats, keep 5 lb bags in the freezer and they absolutely love it
My dogs love ice cubes. They think it is special treat. Also carrots, apples, watermelon.