Snack Time!

Dogs seem to have undergone a major biological change since my childhood. We had multiple dogs at all times and they were very low maintenance. We feed them whatever was on sale at the grocery store. They were rewarded with a nice ham bone. We let them run free in the yard without flea collars, tick sprays, Frontline or Advantage. Heartworms were unheard of, we only visited the vet when there was a free rabies clinic each summer, snuck them tidbits from the table and let them sleep in our beds. They all lived to a ripe old age and did so without contracting any fatal and painful disease and we gave each other many years of joy.

These days, taking care of your dog is complicated, expensive and requires a background in veterinarian technology, at the very least. They require all sorts of testing, monthly maintenance medications and more vaccinations than a tent full of circus animals. Unless you’ve gone to medical school you’re at the mercy of your local vet to keep your pet healthy.

One thing you can do for your dog, as a layperson in the field of nutrition, is make sure your dog eats healthy. One area of concern for me has been treats. I have spent countless hours in the pet products aisles reading labels on doggie goodies. In the old days, a bone was a great treat-it was always readily available and the dog loved it. Now, it’s practically against the law to give your dog a bone. It could splinter inside of him and cause great pain, injury or death. Ack! Talk about killing them with kindness.

Many years ago, someone gave me a rawhide bone to give my toy poodle. He seemed to really appreciate it. In fact, he went to town on it. I was assured that it was all natural and had no harmful ingredients. GREAT! And Taddyboy loved it. Until a little later when we discovered that Taddyboy couldn’t digest the rawhide. He was in a great deal of pain and we had to rush him to the vet because we had no explanation for his whining and writhing. Turns out, rawhide doesn’t digest. Poor baby had to wait until he passed it out the other end. END of rawhide treats for us.

Then we discovered Greenies. This was like manna from heaven. Oh how Tads loved a Greenie. For some reason, we didn’t connect his morning pukefest with the Greenie he had the night before until I mentioned it to a friend much more experienced friend who confirmed that our guy had an overly sensitive digestive tract.

So our poor guy didn’t get a lot of treats that were designed to clean the teeth and consequently, he had many cleanings at the vet and lost several teeth.

Finally, after Mackie came into our lives, we found a product that is, so far, one hundred percent safe, cleans the teeth and keeps the dog happy and occupied. These treats are made of dried sweet potatoes. That’s the only ingredient-sweet potato. They are all natural treats that come in a variety of shapes and sizes (Mackie loves the horn shaped ones). They are fun for the dogs, easy on your pocketbook and pose none of the choking issues of Greenies or Rawhide. They also seem to last longer, at least in our house with a bruising seven pound toy poodle.

Since they are organic and can be used without factory processing, dried sweet potatoes can be made easily at home. How? I thought you'd never ask.

With a food dehydrator, you just slice it into thin strips and follow the directions that come with the dehydrator.With an oven, just slice it the same way and bake it for 2-3 hours at 200 degrees with the oven slightly open (stick a wooden spoon to keep it open) Jerky treats can be made for the dog the same way.

I buy mine from my favorite store: The Animal House in Ocean City and if you give them a call (609-398-3771) they'll ship anywhere in the US. Or you can go to http://www.pookiesbowwowbakery.com/ and check out a different type of dried sweets. Either way, you can't lose. And neither can your dog.

The poodle endorses this review.

And totally recommends the product.