Cooking For Your Dog

I have been a dog trainer and a vet tech for what seems like forever!  I have never “catered” to my dogs’ food choices.  If I were to let them choose, my 12 year old dog would opt for Reese’s Pieces and Peanut Butter Cookies for all of his meals!  He is a dog after my own heart!

I haven’t jumped on the raw diet bandwagon and I don’t have the time or effort to cook all of my dog’s meals for them.  I don’t believe in spoiling them when it comes to their meals either.  You surely know someone who’s dog will only eat homemade meals.

Personally I don’t believe that most homemade dog food recipes and raw diets get the dogs all the vitamins and nutrients they need in all the right amounts.  I know that most try, but I don’t believe that they have been around long enough to provide my dogs with all that they need.

I understand that there are many of my readers that make their own dog food or feed the raw diet and do a great job and have wonderful results, but for now it is just not for me.  I believe in the research and nutritional components of some of the large dog food companies.  I am not here to discourage anyone from making their own dog food.

However, I recently had a scare when it comes to dog treats.

I use to give my dogs a third of a piece of chicken jerky at night when we all went to bed.   And, my dogs started begging to go to bed around 7 p.m. each night so that they could enjoy their nightly ritual!  I didn’t realize that the FDA had been cautioning pet owners about chicken jerky products made in China since 2007!  YIKES!!!

It got me thinking; perhaps it would be safer for me to make my own dog treats!

For years I have been telling my obedience clients to use human food for treats (in moderation of course) because if lots of small children get sick from string cheese we will know a lot faster than if dogs get sick and the process it takes to diagnose and relate it back to a food or treat item.