Snacks to share with your dog
There’s a certain amount of mess and smell associated with dogs. It’s never particularly bothered us, but we’ve gotten to know a couple of children who can’t stand the scent, touch, or texture of dog treats or dog food. They’re fine with their dogs, even the big, slobbery dogs. But contact with the treats gives them the creeps. Every time one boy gave his dog a treat he had to run and wash his hands.
We met these kids in our training class, where it’s necessary to reward dogs. Treats are the reward of choice for most dogs. It’s also the easiest and fastest reward to deliver. Even dogs who aren’t usually treat-motivated work for high-value rewards, like Chicken Heart Treats.
Not an option
These children couldn’t deal with the dog treats, despite how effective they are for motivating dogs to pay attention. And there’s no way to nurture the relationship between the kids and their dogs if they’re in the other room washing up.
We asked the children if they’re okay with handling people food. They were fine with that. The parents hadn’t thought to use regular food items as training treats. But as long as the dog likes it and it’s okay for dogs to eat, there’s no reason not to use them, either for training treats or shared snacks.
Snacks dogs like, too
Some of the options are obvious: pieces of carrot, apple, banana, green beans, celery, etc. Dogs seem to love blueberries and strawberries and they’re fine to give dogs. We know a dog who adores broccoli. That’s fine, too. Cucumbers are great, especially if you’re trying to get your dog to lose weight. A frozen cucumber slice is a terrific treat. Peas are good, so is cauliflower.
These are all healthy options. Which isn’t really the point of training treats. Unless your dog (like Hope’s Torque) would jump through fire for celery. Then it’s a great training treat. Your dog gets to decide which treats are best. No matter how nutritious, expensive, or wholesome the treat is, if the dog doesn’t like it, it doesn’t work.
There are some treats/snacks that fall somewhere in-between healthy and junk. The one we use most is “O” shaped oat cereal. While it may fall in the nutritious category, our dogs will only eat the “honey-nut” flavor, so we lose some points there.
On to the junk food
Which leads us to the true point of snacks. When you want a snack, do you reach for the broccoli or the chips? Yeah, us, too. So which snack foods can you share with your dog? In moderation, of course.
Popcorn. Most dogs adore popcorn. Leave out the salt and butter, though. Air-popped is ideal, though not always available. Look for low-sodium packages. It’s also terrific for teaching dogs to catch things in their mouth.
Peanuts and peanut butter. One of our favorite training tricks is to smear peanut butter on the end of a long kitchen spoon and let the dog lick it. It saves a lot of bending over when you have a small dog! (Be sure there’s no xylitol in the peanut butter or anything else. It’s extremely toxic to dogs.)
Pretzels. The salt isn’t great, but as long as dogs don’t get too much, it’s okay.
French fries. They’re not good for anybody. But everybody loves them. Dogs, too.
Hot dogs. Our trick for using hot dogs as dog treats is to slice them thinly and microwave the slices on paper towels until they’re dry. That way the slices are easily portable in a plastic bag or treat pouch.
Cheese. Dogs love cheese. String cheese is particularly easy to share with dogs. They won’t mind at all taking that bite you meant for yourself.