It depends on if you are also trying to get your pup to lose a few pounds (best for tripawds to be slim) but w/ Abby, who is quite a skinny girl, I mainly give her various meat jerky treats. They're usually pretty big, but I just break them up so they last longer. There are a few different brands out there, but one I like is Dogswell – their ingredients are kept to the bare minimum – like the bag we have right now is just: cage-free chicken, flax seed, Vit A and Vit C. You can sometimes find them on sale at Target.

If your pup is trying to lose some weight, I'm sure Karen will weigh on the pugapalooza's love of green beans for a treat! (I haven't tried this yet with Abby, but apparently the pugs love them!)

When we switched to grain-free, we mostly used the meat jerky treats too. I forget the brand now, but they were "happy hips" with extra glucosamine and what not. Bo was a lab though…he would eat just about everything. He liked green beans and we did cheese sometimes too. I know some dogs like carrots, but that was the one thing Bo wouldn't touch!

Honest Kitchen dehydrated dog food also has recipes that you can actually makes treats out of their foods :)  I think they even might sell a recipe book…

go to http://www.theh…..itchen.com FMI.

I use their foods – Embark, Preference, Thrive, Zeal and now the new Love as well – all low carb diets.

Tracy, Maggie's Mom

What are people's thoughts on usa beef raw hides.  I found some small ones that look like they would be perfect for the treat cholla expects after finishing her dinner.  It would also give her an opportunity to chew a little- which she loves.  Weight is not an issue for her.  She is back to her old self, just a little more bossy :)

I hadn't used raw hides much in the past because of mixed things i have read about them but i know she loves them and these look safer than other's i have seen. 

Cholla's Mom, after research on commercial  raw hides (and this was before Cadence's cancer) we decided to get away from rawhides and into more natural things like bully sticks and flossies (made from tendons of cows). A lot of the rawhides and jerkies are made in China too and some dog's owners have reported getting sick, especially with the chicken brand. This was posted by admin in the Nutrition blog. Secondly, some of the rawhides, especially around the time of Christmas, have unnatural colors and the red and green dye comes out in the dog's poo. I will spare everyone an epic poem and just post these two sites on rawhides:

http://pets.web…..r-your-dog 

http://standeyo…..rning.html

We give Cadence raw U.S. Made and produced ostrich knuckles which I get at our local Two Bostons, bully sticks (recommended by her vet) and flossies. She also gets treats like Stella and Chewys carnivore kisses, Bravo dry roasted, and Pure Bites. These are all protein and none of the nasties like carbs and sugar or other fillers that are in a lot of treats. You cannot go wrong with those. 

You just have to read the ingredients list and fine print on all treats. Also keep in mind if you go with the raw bones, they will be bloody and have clots, and pieces of cartridge, etc. Make sure you lay a mat down in the area your dog will be chewing and be prepared to wash your dogs face, ears, and paws. Cadence looked like she took down a deer after she gnawed the knuckle. 

Oh P.S. We also decided to make our own home made chicken jerky for Cadence. We used chicken breasts and cut them length wise thinly and dried them on our dehydrator. They turned out great and she loves them and it was easy. 

Jan, you gave me a good idea. Maybe I will get a nice big piece of salmon, cut it up and dry it on the dehydrator. Hopefully I don't stink up my house like fish. The (smelly) things we do for the ones we love. 

Cadence's Mom

Of course, Jerry.  Silly me.