Food & Treats
Food & Treat Options
Sometimes I do recommend particular brands and I’ve made notes below when that is the case. However, this category in general includes so many options that what you see below are just a few good ones. There are certainly other good brands and your vet will undoubtedly recommend their preferred brands. I do recommend with treats that you’re careful to chose items made in the U.S. where manufacturing is more closely monitored.
Dry Food
FROMM GOLD Dog Food
I use a high quality holistic dog food from a company called FROMM. This company was established in 1904 and has been focused on making a truly complete nutritional package for puppy and adult dog health since. FROMM GOLD dog food has no corn, wheat, soy, grain fractions, fillers or byproducts and it is naturally preserved. Tannhäuser dogs love the duck, chicken, lamb, whole eggs and Wisconsin cheese! The food is enhanced with probiotics to aid digestion and salmon oil for a healthy coat.
CANNED FOOD
HILL'S CANNED
Hill’s Science Diet makes canned food appropriate for puppies to adult dogs to seniors. This is often the brand that veterinarians recommend due to it’s high quality ingredients and nutrition.
BLUE CANNED
Blue is another high quality canned food my customers have used. This company also has options for puppies thru senior dogs.
Treats
One can become a huge fan of Trader Joe’s when it comes to dog treats. They have a good variety of high quality treats at reasonable prices.
FULL MOON SAVORY STICKS
Thankfully there are a number of companies making human grade treats with high quality ingredients. Full Moon offers several different options for your pup.
Chews
You’ll see this note from many sources and from your vet, I do not recommend rawhide chews due to the difficulty dogs have with digesting them.
Customer Recommended
older/adult
BULLY STICKS
Offering a good long chew, Bully Sticks are great for keeping your pup busy for a bit. They are not rawhide and they are not so hard that it risks damaging your pup’s teeth.
These are just quite large chews so a puppy that is more like 3-4 months of age and up will do better with them.
Customer Recommended
older/adult
HIMALAYAN CHEESE STICKS
These cheese sticks are definitely fun and a good long chew. I highly recommend you do not give them to your pup out of the package. They are known to break teeth. The cheese is very very hard. The trick is to soak them in water. My customer said they use boiling water for 15 minutes or more (it’s totally fine to forget about them and come back later). Then put them in the microwave and watch the magic! They puff up like crazy and the result, when cooled, is still a nice long chew for your pup. They will work chewing it and breaking off chunks. Time in the microwave depends on the strength of your machine. Try a minute to three minutes and just watch them puff. The photo below shows the sticks before puffing (spoon for size) and after (at the top).
This particular brand has been consistent in size and quantity. You get around 5 sticks in the bag which is filled by weight.
These are large treats so slightly older puppies, perhaps around 3-4 months of age, would do better with them (and you still might not want them to eat the whole thing at one sitting).
An option is that Trader Joe’s (always a good source of well priced treats!) has had smaller ‘pre-puffed’ cheese treats called Chhurpi that would be great for a younger puppy.
Training Treats
BEEF LOG
Cut up into small pieces, these logs are excellent training treats.
TRICKY TRAINERS
These training treats have minimal ingredients and they’re all reasonable things. No nasty chemicals or things that sound like plastic! They come in a variety of flavors and are reasonably firm. That means when you reach in your training treat bag for one, you’re not getting all these gummy crumbs stuck under your fingernails and the treats aren’t breaking down. There are other similar brands.