Dog treats!

All the time on Facebook, my friends post horror stories, warnings, snippets intitled “Don’t do this or this will happen to you.”  Today it was a warning against giving my dog chicken strips dog treats.  And like usual, I go do a google search to check the validity of the warning posts.

For one of the first times, a post actually had some validity.  It seems that those inexpensive, huge packs of chicken jerky we pick up at our local superstores actually could be harming our dogs.  According to one article by a vet, something in the chicken actually causes a syndrom in our dogs, making their kidneys go wonkey.  Doing further research, I found that this has been going on since at least 2008.  No forced recalls that I could find, just voluntary ones.

So by the looks of it, any chicken made anywhere could actually harm your dog.  I wouldn’t take a chance on it.  Stick to other treats and snacks for now.  You can read the 2 articles I read here, http://www.askavetquestion.com/news/2011/chicken-jerky-fanconi/ and http://dogfoodchat.com/kramar-dog-food-recall/.

One thing we did for our omnivorous lab/rott mix was purchase a small bag of a different type of dogfood than we normally feed him.  For him it was kibbles and bits.  He daily eats IAMS.  But for treats and training we’ll give him a few kibbles and bits.  It’s inexpensive, different than his normal dogfood so it’s still a treat and it has different shapes and textures to keep him interested.  Much less expenive than the $20 for 8 ounces of liver treats he got during training.