Dogs love food, especially treats! And treats can be useful for occupying and training your canine companion. Keeping our dogs healthy is important, so here trainer and educator John Woods helps us understand dog treat nutrition…
The Importance of Understanding Dog Treat Nutrition
When it comes to feeding Fido, understanding the nutritional elements of the snacks you feed him, and the implications of feeding treats, are important to raising a happy and healthy pooch.
Nutrition forms a uniquely essential building block for a healthy pooch and is something entirely controllable by their owner.
A healthy diet will make your dog’s coat appear glossy and healthy and enable them to maintain a healthy weight.
Nutrients in treats
When we speak about treats for your dog we are considering the big six nutrients in these snacks. The big six nutrients are:
Water
Protein
Fats
Carbohydrates
Minerals
Vitamins
With the inconsistency regarding dog food labelling, and manufacturing guidelines not being as strict as human food, sometimes dog nutrition can easily be forgotten or misinformed.
What is not debatable, however, is that water is the most important nutrient for your dog. We have prepared three handy tips which you can use to quickly assess the nutritional value of your dog’s snacks and assess if they are a good treat for your pet.
Tip 1: The Rule of 10%
Snacks, table scraps or treats should account for only 10% of your dog’s calorie intake. This can be easily deceptive as dogs typically around 20 calories per pound of body weight.
A 20-pound dog should consume around 500 calories per day. That’s 500 calories in total for their diet, so snacks should account for only 50 calories per day.
If you overfeed your dog snacks, it’s likely that their diet won’t be nutritionally balanced and they will become obese.
Tip 2: Feeding Times
The time you feed them a snack is just as important as what you feed your dog. Treats are best used in combination with positive reinforcement training to build positive habits around training and behavior.
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In between existing meal times is an ideal time to serve a treat. A typical dog will be fed, once matured, two meals daily. Once in the morning and once in the late afternoon or early evening.
As a rule, it’s best to serve treats in small quantities to engage their attention during training, to reward positive behavior or to encourage socialization.
Tip 3: Not all Treats Are Created Equal
When it comes to choosing a dog treat you have two choices:
Homemade Snacks
Shop purchased Treats
Homemade dog snacks are easier to control, in terms of nutrition, as they will be simple whole foods such as boiled eggs.
If you are purchasing treats for your dog from the store, as most of us do, it is easy to be misled by packaging which claims to be “organic”, “high in protein” or other pet buzzwords.
When buying these treats follow a common-sense method of only purchasing snacks where you know and understand the ingredients. If you can’t recognize or identify what’s in the treat, don’t feed it to your dog.
We assume the nutrients in the treats will be digestible by your dog’s gastrointestinal tract, so aim for snacks which replicate what their diet should look like (i.e. mainly proteins and fats).
Proteins and fats have served as a dog’s primary energy source throughout their existence, whilst carbohydrates have not.
Try to avoid complicated carbohydrates such as grains too, aim ideally for meat-based snacks fortified by vegetables for a good mix of protein, fats, minerals and vitamins.
Summary
Remembering our golden three rules (below) for feeding your dog will contribute towards a healthy and balanced diet with fulfilling treats:
A maximum of 10% of calories to come from snacks
Feeding treats away from meal times
Picking nutritionally healthy treats
Be careful that dogs, in multi-dog households, don’t fight over high-value treats
About the author: John Woods is on a dog training mission by looking to teach and educate 40 million dog owners on how to care for dogs. John is an editor at All Things Dogs and has studied Animal Behaviour and Welfare.
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