the dog treat thread

Autumn is absolutely spoiled! ;) I just went out of my way to stop at a store to try some new treats. I like to buy a new kind of treat each time, rarely the same kind twice unless we really like them. I find it fun to open a new kind and see how it fares. Autumn has probably tried 90% of the treats on the market at least one time. I thought it would be fun to find different preferences and experiences.

Dog's favorite treat: Three dog bakery carob doughnuts (expensive and hard to find here) Autumn goes nuts for these.

Dog's least favorite: Marrowbone or anything similar, the only treats Autumn spits out.

Good/bad experiences: A bulk treat similar to marrowbone but shaped like a steak :( - Autumn gets the runs from these. BilJac treats :rolleyes: - they have as small of a shelf life as a ritz cracker once opened. Homemade soup type treats with spicey scents are good for breath :D .

When does dog get treats: When I get home from work usually and three small treats at night- I take them to bed so that I can get Autumn to move so that there is room for me and so I can have the blankets.

I feed sooo many treats with all of the training my boys get, so they are also treat connoisseurs. :)

My favorites (their favorites): Chicken Chips, Freeze-dried liver, & Old Mother Hubbard P-nut biscuits. They're biggest favorite is probably Liver cookies that I make.

Best training treats: Natural Balance or Redbarn soft food rolls & Charlee Bear treats.

Worst treats: Anything with crazy food dyes/corn syrup/sugar/etc in it, grosses me out. I also hate using really crumbly treats or those that cannot be broken into smaller pieces.

I love the Charlee Bear treats for my treat pouch or pockets. They love the freeze dried liver but it makes such a powdery stinky mess in my pocket/pouch LOL. I still get them at times though. Mine love the P-Nuttier biscuits too, though I haven't gotten any in a long time now. Cheese bits and hotdog bits are big items too for them. I got some dehydrated chicken breast filets one time they sure gobbled up. Of course homemade treats are always a big hit :)

Tommy & Tasha obviously have good taste! hehe :p

Beanie prefers milkbone cookies. it's the only food i can get him to actually really want something.

Gracie eats everything and then everything she's not suppose to eat. :rolleyes:

Star is a treat snob, you usually have to beg her to take a treat. But we got some yummy-chummys from the Husky Hike last year that she went crazy for. (they're made of chum salmon.) Unfortunately, no one around here carries them. She also likes these little chicken-leg shaped things from the grocery store (can't remember what the're called), and the really small Mother Hubbard bits. Sherman will eat anything, but is especially attentive when those puffed crunchies, anything peanut butter, or Scooby Snacks are around.

I don't feed commercial treats anymore unless if someone gets them for my dogs as a gift or if I take them to the pet store and the clerks want to give them one. I feed home-baked treats or treats from a bakery. We don't have an actual dog bakery in town, but there is a small pet store that bakes some to sell. They are really pricey though, so I usually just make my own. I also have a dehydrater to make dried meat and organ treats.

I don't often try out new treats on them.. mainly because we've already tried the good ones at the local store, and all the ones we haven't tried have yucky ingredients. I just found a PetsMart in a nearby city though so I'll be picking up loads next week for Kai's birthday presents. =D

Kai's favorites are Marrowbones and freeze dried liver (Kaedyn doesn't have a favorite.. he loves them all!) Marrowbones have yucky ingredients but I still use them because he goes NUTS for them! I mainly use them for recall training.. since I want him to have great experiences with the "come" command. I also use little bits of cheese and rollover to agility training. The cheese makes him give that extra effort (the difference in speed is incredible!) but I mix it with rollover because it's cheap, less fattening, and he never knows when he gets good ol' rollover, or the jackpot =P

My/their least favorites are all the ones with yucky ingredients.. Eukanuba, Purina, etc. They just seem to know somehow!

Junk food is junk food so I'm usually not concerned about giving them as treats. Sometimes when I look at a label I'll decide I just don't want to buy something like that, but more often than not processed treats seem better than the kibble labels-I figure because the treats are a few dollars a pound so they better be good.
Today Max and Autumn got a healthy treat, a bag of woofy pop microwave popcorn for dogs. I sat there and fed them as if I was feeding pigeons. It seems to have calmed Max's stomach- she's been stinking up the house all day.