sugar in dog training treats

by Mary
(Sibley, LA)

We are taking a 3 month old rottweiler to training classes and are using training treats.

We read on packages and several of them have cane sugar in them. Is sugar harmful for our dog?

Hi Mary
In small amounts the sugar isn’t going to harm your pup, but it’s not going to do him any good either!

When training a pup treats are a very important part of encouraging him to behave in the right way, but you only want to be giving him a ‘tiny’ taste each time. Too many treats can spoil his appetite for his ‘proper’ food (which is where he’s going to get the nutrition he needs to grow and develop properly), plus it can cause him to gain more weight, more quickly, than is good for him.

There are quite a few options to the highly colored/flavored or sweetened treats on the petstore shelves. Here are a couple you may want to consider…

  • Freeze-dried liver This is pretty expensive, but even dogs who aren’t very food motivated LOVE it (in my experience anyway) and just a tiny piece is tasty enough to keep them happy. You can find it in most pet stores or online.
  • Natural Dog Treats More and more companies are realizing the benefits of using natural ingredients rather than chemical ones…. and not just in dog food, natural treats are available too. Check out Only Natural Pet Store for one of the best selections around.
  • Frozen Biljac This is often used as dog food, or as an addition to dry dog food, but it works great for treats as well. The only drawback is that it spoils quickly, even in the fridge, so you need to keep it in the freezer and defrost as much as you need each time.
  • ‘Home-made dog treats’ There are lots of recipes for home made dog treats, but if you want something very quick and easy, thinly sliced hot dogs (either raw or microwaved until crispy) are always popular. Tiny slivers of low fat cheese or cold cuts are tasty too, but you don’t want to give too many of these types of treats either as they tend to be high in fat, and hot dogs have all sorts of stuff in them! Good for a change though

Hope this helps a bit. Good luck with the puppy training. If you need any extra training tips visit my Free Puppy Training Tips. Have fun.

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May 03, 2010

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Veggies
by: Tania

Hi, My Rottie is 3 months and every since we started training we’ve used veggies. We don’t buy dog treats from the store. He loves broccoli, green bean, carrots, celery and we try new thing all the time. He loves his veggies.


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