A good dog is a trained dog.

The level you train them to, is up to you, and your dog.  But without some form of training, you both want be making many friends.

An off-lead dog park (with social dogs), typically can take care of much about how your dog approaches and engages with dogs.  But if you want to speed up and retain what your dog will do when you give them commands, dog training treats are a must.

The number one reason people give up on training their dogs is time/ frustration.  They might say that their dogs are stubborn (or worse).  But the reality is that dogs are very similar to humans when it comes to learning. Unless they can immediately see something in it for them, why should they bother?

At a fundamental level, you should probably want your dog to know the commands for sit and stay, 100% of the time.  This is a must, for visitors, when you are out, or if there is an emergency.

But what are the best dog training treats?

If you say a brand, then the advertisers have won.  If you say a list of ingredients, then again, commercial interests have won.

If you say a NATURAL, single ingredient meat source.  Then you are back in control of what you are really feeding your dog.  There are many benefits to this, but the one that many people stick with, is avoiding allergies and sensitives in their dogs.

People hate seeing their dogs in pain, or worse, having an allergic reaction that can be life threatening.  Food Allergies can be connected to meat proteins, fats, or plant proteins etc.

However, if your dog is showing signs of allergies and you have had them tested at a vet, and maybe done an extensive exclusion diet, then at least you will know what single ingredient meat-based treats are safe for them.

You should probably note that most commercial dog foods are loaded with grains or plant matter that are unnecessary to the domestic dog species.  Except for fibre, the add little protein and plenty of carbs that they don’t need at all.  They can get all of their energy needs from meat protein and fats alone.

Knowing that your dog descended from wolves, true carnivores, should have you wonder why, except for supplier costs, are plant matter included in dog food at all.  But knowing that your dog is based on a carnivore, that tolerates plant matter, should tell you that a single ingredient meat treat, is of much more value to your dogs mental and physical wellbeing, than a single ingredient Plant based treat.

So allergy wise, or food sensitive wise alone, you can see how giving your dog a meat based dog training treat, that only includes ONE ingredient, pretty much ensures their best health, and zero chance of any bad allergy reactions.

Single ingredient dog training treat and its enhanced nutrient value

Avoiding allergies is an obvious important trait of your training treat, but also is getting high quality proteins into your dog.   A single natural ingredient (meat or offal such as livers) is an essential way of adding the good essential amino acids, without the fillers that commercial dog treats have.

Most people and dog trainers find dog treats vital in their training program, but adding MORE grains and low bio-available and low total amounts of protein is just a wasted opportunity to enhance your dog’s nutrition. Bio-available means that more of the treat is digested and used by the dog’s body, it also avoids gastrointestinal issues.

While non fermentable fibre is important for good bowel health in dogs, you will usually find that it is a specific fibre that is added to the mix (has the right fermentability index), not just part of the regular grains that are included.  Beet pulp is typically added separately in the high-quality dog foods because it has the sweet-spot of fermentability.

Fibre value on packs is typically around 4%.  As you can see, you don’t need to add much to get good solid stools.  Fur or other non-digestible animal parts are how wolves and wild dogs take care of fibre in their intestine, naturally, but most domestic dogs don’t get those luxuries, so have to have a plant fibre instead.

What we are saying, is that fibre is typically the only thing in the plant world that commercial dog foods need to keep a dog healthy.

If it wasn’t a question of cost (and their profits) your dog would exclusively be eating all animal products.

Palatability and specialised diets

Scientists who work in large corporate dog food labs, spend years finding the exact combination of sugar, salt and oil and anything else they can slip into food, to making a dog eat an unnatural “food”.  Dogs do not NEED sugar, or extra salt in their diet.  But sugar will make anything bland, taste acceptable.

Curiously though, there are very few dogs in the world, who don’t like the taste of meat, 100% natural.  Scientists don’t need to Frankenstein a dog treat to get their dog to eat it, when they are providing a natural meat-based dog training treat.

When a dog loves a food just for the food itself, it shows that the palatability of natural single ingredient meats are the best taste and smell for them, as well as providing the protein their body needs.

There are a lot of ‘specialised diets’ going around.  That is because if you can tweak one or two micro ingredients and label a bag of kibble something different, like it will provide miracles to cure whatever it says its going to on the pack, that can add a few extra dollars and extend the product range.  Make it really look like the corporation really knows their stuff and are doing the best by your dogs.

But the curious thing, is that if you look up a few of the specialised packs ingredients, you will see that they are virtually the same.  Changing the grain from one type to another doesn’t change that its still a plant, and still no where near as bio available to your dog.

That is why the trend for grain free (where they just substitute potato) or going gluten free (when it should actually be plant free) is so dodgy.

If your dog truly has an allergy to the wheat, then that makes sense.  If the company is just jumping on a human trend, then that is just going to add cost to your shopping.

CONCLUSION

Natural dog treats (single ingredient) avoid the risk of allergies of sensitivities, when you know what your dog is allergic to.

They provide the essential amino acids that they mightn’t get enough of in dog food, and there are highly bioavailable (the dog can use whatever it gets).

Highly palatable, means that your dog will LOVE a meat or offal training treat, and you won’t feel guilty.

There are NO downsides when you feed natural 100% single ingredient meat or offal dog training treats.