about puppy treats/question

[l'arc~en~ciel]

how's it going everyone? we just bought nutro puppy ultra biscuits (can't remember the exact name ) but i feel that the biscuit is kind of hard for her. should i feed it the way it is or put some water on it to make it a bit softer for her?

so far, we dont have any problems about her. but, she does cry when we take her out to our backyard. we're trying to get her used to be outside more.

anyway, i plan to buy her puppy treats so we can train her. but, i'm not sure if it's safe for her age (7 weeks) to eat puppy treats.

thanks in advance have a good day all

[IliamnasQuest]

What I would recommend for training treats is to take chicken breast or beef heart and simply cook it yourself. Use a bit of garlic powder (not salt) on it, and then you can just put it in the microwave and cook it. It helps to cut it into medium size pieces before microwaving.

Then take it out, let it cool and cut it into tiny little pieces - and I mean TINY. Use some ziplock baggies and divide it up into amounts that can be used for 2-3 training sessions and then toss the baggies into the freezer. Pull one out when you want to train. It won't take long for them to thaw.

By doing it this way you will avoid all the extra stuff - artificial ingredients, fillers, sugars, salt, etc. - that most places add to their treats. By using very tiny pieces of actual meat, you're avoiding filling her up too quickly so that you can train frequently (a few minutes at a time, several times a day, is ideal). Meat is a natural thing for our dogs to eat and shouldn't be a problem for her at all, although at first she may get a bit of soft stool if she's not used to it. But by keeping the amounts very small that probably won't happen.

It's a little messy to use this kind of stuff to train, but it's very effective! Start off with attention training (http://www.kippsdogs.com/tips.html) and go from there. Practice little puppy recalls too and praise/reward her lavishly when she comes to you. Keep training positive and fun and she will just thrive on it. And you'll have fun too!

By the way, biscuits and other hard things aren't the best items to use for training. You want something that she can/will gobble down quickly so that you can go on to the next training exercise/game. I'd save the biscuits for when you want to give her something to chew on to keep busy for a bit.

Melanie and the gang in Alaska

[Auddymay]

Are these about 1 inch square biscuits, look like a girl scout cookie? Those are very hard, and no good for training, it takes a puppy forever to chew a small piece of it up! They won't hurt your puppy's teeth, but I would put them away about a month so she can grow into them!

[bama]

What Auddymae said,
and what Melanie said....
PLUS:
Crunchy food or treats are good for helping to keep the teeth clean, but you'll want to make sure they are healthy treats and don't have all the bad stuff Melanie already stated.
I know not everyone wants to purchase a de-hydrater like me to make treats, but you can get the same results by cooking small thin slices of chicken breast placed on a cookie sheet at 250 degrees for 5 hours. (I recommend hormone free, anti-biotic free chicken) Once cooked, you can break the crunchy slices into very small pieces.
Keep these in the fridge for up to a month. Take out of the fridge enough for each day's treat supply.
Congrats on your little guy and good luck.

Bama

[l'arc~en~ciel]

thanks for the replies everyone. we really appreciate it. we will see if we can cook it haha

[ronnichow]

i found these fabulous little liver treats to train with, they are tiny like an eraser on a pencil and chewy so they don't have to crunch and fall on the ground, and they are all natural, and she loves em, oh and they don't crumble or get all gross in the pocket
ronni and andouille