DOG TREATS – Choose only 1 benefit. Which one?

OK, this is not really a thought experiment because this is what every dog owner does even subconsciously each time they buy dog treats.

Here is a list of possible major ‘benefits’

• Cheap
• Tasty
• Healthy
• Easy/ convenient

Of course there are other ‘attributes’ if you were taking a full blown market research survey, but for t the most part, these are the dimensions that most people buy on. And very often the benefits don’t intersect.

The supermarket dog treat matrix.

The main dog treats by volume in Australia are cheap and easy access, because you buy them from the supermarket.  You put it in the trolley almost without thinking.  You may actually find that if you dont buy when the brand names treats are on special they are quite expensive by gram. So perhaps supermarket treats are mainly easy to buy.

The dog treats dimension of Tasty.

If you buy dog food pellets for your dogs you are probably aware that the only reason they eat wheat or grain is that it has meat added to it in small amounts. But even that has little to do with why a dog will eat it.  A dog will eat it mainly because someone in a lab somewhere worked out that you put sugar, salt and oil on anything (including cardboard) then cook it, and a dog will usually eat it.

This method of baking these three magical but hardly healthy ingredients are the main stayer behind dog taste.  A dog on a raw dog food diet will often not eat pellets or eat pellets last. They love cat food because of the magic three ingredients and the extra fat put on cat food.

Relying purely on taste as the way of knowing if your dog is eating healthy is a very inaccurate way – because of these guys in the factory in lab coats paid millions to trick your dogs for profit.

What are healthy dog treats

If you have read any of my previous articles you will know that dogs and I agree that the healthiest dog treats are meat based. They are natural and they provide the bio available essential amino acids dogs require as carnivores.

The problem for manufacturers is that meat, even low grade, is much more expensive than grain. So if you want to sell grain to a dog and their owner, you just need to add three magical (non healthy) ingredients and do a slick advertising campaign, perhaps with a deranged animated dog.

If you already feed your dog ‘dog food’ which is 3/4 grain, why would you feed them a snack or dog treat with basically the same ingredients or even less meat?  What is the purpose of that? Nothing.

Online healthy dog treats from our store

While our treats are the healthiest available, and tasty, because they include real meat, they can often be just as cheap as supermarket ones, even when factoring in postage. This is because we don’t have the huge mark ups required by corporations for their stake holders.

The only thing missing from our range is possibly convenience, but most people do so much online now days, including banking, so I doubt that its even convenience that is stopping people buying treats.

So is it lack of knowledge about what is healthy OR habit.

Habit is a powerful thing to break. Have you ever tried to give up smoking or excess sugar in your diet?  The same can be said for people trying to break the convenience of buying everything from the one supermarket, because that is what they do. That is the time of the week they shop.

The point of this article is that if you wanted to think about why you buy dog treats and what the most important thing is, surely it would be making your dog healthier?

Its just an added bonus that price and convenience benefits are thrown in – because we all know that carnivore dogs rarely pass up the option to eat natural meat  …  (taste is always there).

No animated dog required, just live healthy happy ones.