I love to make our dogs homemade treats. Our dog recipe app on iTunes (available for download at the app store, search: dog recipes) has a bunch of our tried and true recipes for treating our babies to something special.
Quality of treats is as important as having a good dog food regimen. We think of a dog biscuit as the equivalent to 1 M&M to a human, when really, for an average dog, it is more like the whole bag! So, quality of treats and how frequently they are used are pretty important.
I've recently found a great brand of treats that are wheat, soy, and corn free and made of healthful ingredients at, of all places, Target! They are also on Amazon.com, but for the same price, so I just get them at Target. We have all enjoyed Big Bark Bakery brand's Bare Bones Oatmeal Cinnamon treats.
In fact, I've tried them and they really are quite tasty, if not a little bland (for humans, they could be a bit sweeter, but honestly, they are pretty good, though I don't suggest buying them as a human snack in general). I often try our dog treats. It helps me determine if the treats are worth our boys having the extra calories. If they taste salty at all, I know they aren't worth it. Extra salt just isn't something I want to add to their diet.We love Innova's small bars (the large bars don't fit in their kongs, but the small bars do easily), Wellness treats, and Zuke's. Zuke's has a line of edible bones with carrot and parsley in them that are great for our Saint Bernard's teeth, which are always a big problem.
Mostly, we use treats as a very special, only occasional type item. Our boys might get one treat in a week's time, and then when we have company over, they often get a kong filled with goodies, so when they get it, it is incredibly special. They really value the time they get a special treat, so it is always a good experience.
We like to stuff kongs with just about anything, but a combination we like a lot is reduced fat peanut butter and treats or Laughing Cow spreadable light cheese with treats. We spread a little of the peanut butter or the cheese in the bottom of the kong, then we shove in three Innova small bars (we use large sized extreme (black) kongs), and then top with more peanut butter or cheese. Then, when they crunch on the kong and break the treats, the peanut butter or cheese clings to the treats and it takes them an extra long time to clean out the kongs entirely. This makes a great babysitter if you have to be away for a lot of hours, or if you have company over and need your dogs out of the way. They have a good time and don't mind being ignored for a 30-60 minute period, depending on how long it takes them to annihilate the kong.
Our boys used to enjoy raw beef marrow bones, but they ended up being too rich for Gordie's tummy (gave him the runs and a tummy ache) and Angus can't have the bones because he is prone to urate stones and the marrow bones can contribute to the stones forming. However, that is just two cases. Our previous bulldog, Rosie, LOVED marrow bones and had no issues with them. If you have never tried them, ask at the butcher counter for beef marrow bones (usually, they are frozen) and I always ask for them to cut them into halves, a managable size for any size dog, unless you have a fierce chewer who is large breed. Even Angus, Mister I'll Destroy Anything I Chew, was perfectly content with this size. Give the bone to your baby in their crate, because it will stain your carpets, plus if you have multiple dogs, they will usually fight over these (raw bones make the primal side come out of even the most docile, submissive, non-food aggressive dogs, so don't underestimate the power of the marrow bones!) and you can keep them separated by putting them in their crates.This is also a trick we use for crate training. Marrow bones are like the ULTIMATE snack for almost every day, so almost no dog can resist spending time in their crate when there is a marrow bone to distract them. I'll be posting on crate training soon, but for now, if you need help with crate training, try the marrow bone trick a few times a week for two weeks, and see how it goes. Then step down (marrow bones are fatty, caloric, and rich, so you don't want to feed them often for very long) to filled kongs, then down to chewing bones like Nylanbones (the durable brand are usually a good option for even the tough chewers, though flexible brand are okay for some dogs).
For big celebrations, like their birthdays, we make a special cake or cupcakes (we call them pupcakes), or we make frozen yogurt. They have no idea it is their birthday, but we get a real kick out of them going nuts over a special treat!
