Home Made Dog Treats & Nylabone Chew

[Cudedog]

Can anyone suggest a dog treat that is easy to digest? Sugar had an upset stomach for two days. It looks like she is feeling better today. She threw up twice with mostly undigested dog treats in it. I quit giving her any but she thinks she should have a treat every time she goes to the bathroom. She is not interested in toys at all and will only chew on something that involves food.

Martha, my vet uses Pupperoni as dog treats in her office. They are one of the safer dog treats. A lot of store bought ones are made in China. My pups get Pupperoni and Milk Bones.

Sue, I try to not buy anything for the dog or cats that is made in China but they are sneaky with the labeling.

Hello all. I posted this on March 31 at the end of the “Tuesday, March 30” thread, and since I know from experience that I sometimes miss “end of thread” posts, and since it seems the discussion might still be ongoing, I thought I would re-post it on here, on its own thread.

If this is a repeat for readers, my apologies.
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Thanks to all who invited me back. This group means the world to me. I am still fighting a case of the "gloom and dooms", also because I have been having a tingling feeling in my left leg and foot. I might think that this is vaccine related, but it has been a month since my first shot (go for my second tomorrow morning) so probably not.

On to Martha's question.

Hope I am not "putting my foot" in it here, but in the 40+ years I have kept Staffordshire Bull Terriers, I have never given any of my dogs any kind commercial "treats". Partly because a large portion of dog treats are made in China (even those not made in China often have the ingredients imported from China), and partly because either the ingredients are either not listed at all, or the list is made up of super-long words that it would take a certified chemist to decipher.

My Big Joe is a very eager eater, so he thinks that a random bit of his daily dog kibble taken out of my pocket is a "treat".

If Sugar is less interested in kibble, you might try something that I used as "bait" back in the days that I was doing a lot of dog showing. "Bait" in this instance is a small bit of a food item that the dog badly wants, so is trained to stand "at attention" looking at the bait one is holding in one's hand for a few minutes (long enough for a dog show judge to make an evaluation) before the morsel is given to to the dog.

The bait I used I always made myself out of hot dogs. Usually the chicken kind, because they tend to be more aromatic and tasty when microwaved.

This is how to make them:

1. Take a hot dog (or two, or three) and thinly cut diagonally (not length-wise) until you have a small pile of nickle or dime size hot dog disks.

2. Put a paper towel on a plate, and arrange these pieces side-by-side (one layer only - don't stack them up) on top of the paper towel.

3. Put the plate of hot dog disks in the microwave, and microwave a few minutes until crispy (but not burned - a lot of grease will come out and soak into the paper towel as they microwave). As they cool they will no longer be "hot dog soft" but kind of dry and crunchy, almost like bacon.

4. Try not to eat them yourself - they smell (and taste!) really good.

5. When cool, put the pieces (just the pieces, not the paper towel) in a zip-lock bag in the freezer, fish out a treat or two from the bag as needed. After cooking in this way the pieces don't freeze hard, but stay crunchy even when frozen.

This is a great training treat as well. Dogs figure out pretty quick that if they "sit" they get a hot dog treat, if they "down" they get a hot dog treat, if they "come" they get a hot dog treat. Dogs are kinda smart in that regard.

Now that I have written all of this out it occurs to me that what Martha really had in mind was a "chew treat" of some kind. I also never gave any of my dogs chew treats for the the same reasons listed above, adding to that that chew treats can be a choking hazard (dog have died choking on rawhide chews).

The only kind of chew "toy" my dogs have ever been given was the Nylabone Galileo (of the appropriate size - they come in many sizes):

https://www.amazon.com/Nylabone-Galileo-Souper-Original-Flavored/dp/B000084ERH/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=nylabone+galileo&qid=1617216826&sr=8-1

I don't know if it is the unusual shape of the thing, but all of my dogs loved these, but would turn up their noses at any other kind of Nylabone.

Since Staffords are very enthusiastic chewers, and have extremely strong jaws, I would not let my dogs have one unsupervised, because they would chew one of the "knobs" on these things to a point - with the potential to crack off the point, and swallow it.

Probably this wouldn't be an issue with dogs that don't have the jaw power of Staffords, but it is always good to keep an eye on things in the dog toy department IMO.

Good luck.

Anne

Ps. If you put these hot dog treats in your pocket, be sure NOT to leave the article of clothing lying around before it gets washed, because the pocket will smell like treats. Good chance your dog will chew a hole in the garment's pocket, hoping to find more morsels. Ask me how I know this.

[Acadianmom]

Thanks Anne, I'll try the hot dog treats. Sugar takes a pill twice a day and I use slices of hot dog to rub on the pill but they aren't cooked.

Martha

[Bethers]

Anne, I don't mind the posting both places. I'm still working on finding something to hide a pill in that Ty discovers no matter what I do and after eating the peanut butter or hot dog, etc, I'll find that little dinky pill on the floor. Every now and then if I put it in his food with wet food he somehow swallows it. Even then it usually ends up on the floor! And if I put it down his throat, he will spend how ever long it takes coughing until it comes back up. So I now give him something else that may not work as well but he eats like a treat.