Sarah H. Kim
- Mar 8, 2020
- 2 min read

TREATS! TREATS! TREAT!

Updated: Apr 17, 2023

As a dog trainer, I always have food or treats on hand as it is an accessible primary reinforcer; dogs need food to survive. However, one of my pet peeves are using low quality or highly processed food/treats as high valued treats that I see many other trainers use; cheese, hot dogs, deli meat, bacon, and most treats commercially made and sold in many large pet stores. What many of these have in common are how highly processed they are, either contain preservatives, synthetic vitamins, high amount of sodium and poor quality ingredients/sourcing.

I personally think that food in itself can improve many dog's state-of-mind and health which can correlate to a lot of their behaviors in their daily lives. Many of you know that I personally feed my dog on a "DIY Raw Food" diet, but in my mind, its just food that is minimally processed! So why should I continue to feed more processed foods when I have put all this time and work into providing my dog a healthy balanced biological appropriate diet.

My checklist to find High-Quality Single Ingredient Treats:

Fresh or Lightly Air-Dried or Freeze-dried
Pasture-Raised, Grass-Fed, and Ethically Sourced
Easily break into smaller or large pieces
IDEALLY Muscle meat (muscle meat, heart, lung, gizzards, green tripe)
or fully nutritionally balanced
Secreting Organ Meats (liver, kidney, spleen, pancreas and etc) - can lead to softer stool

How many treats should we feed daily?

Treats are just like food, so keep in mind about your dog's daily nutrition, weight, and activity level. My rule-of-thumb is an additional max of 10% of their daily diet:

(Dog’s weight in lbs) x 0.04 = oz of treats per day

FAVORITES

*Best for training!

Tucker's Freeze Dried Raw Dog Food*

Vital Essentials Freeze-Dried Grain-Free*