Wellness

The more I learn about dog food and nutrition, the pickier I get about what my dogs eat. Including their treats.

For the most part, my dogs get homemade treats. I like to use chicken, cheese, beef — stuff you can get from the grocery store and prepare at home. Limited ingredients, no fillers, no wheat, no corn, no soy, no by-products. There aren’t a lot of manufactured dog treats I’ll feed to my dogs based on my high standards for nutrition and wellness.

I was introduced to a company called Wellness and their protein bars.

I read the ingredient list first thing and was satisfied: they passed my test.

Here’s what’s in the above: Chicken, Turkey, Peas, Flaxseed, Natural Flavor, Cane Molasses, Salt, Broccoli, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Mixed Tocopherols added to preserve freshness, Dried Cultured Skim Milk, Rosemary Extract.

So, they passed MY test. What about the dogs? Did they like ’em?

DID THEY LIKE ‘EM? They’re Labradors for goodness sake, of course they liked them.

No, seriously, they really liked them. Our littlest (and oldest) Labrador, Lily, reminded me this morning that we had some in the pantry. And that SHE should have some after breakfast.

This is how I found her this morning about 10 minutes after breakfast.

She had let herself into the pantry. I laughed and asked her “What do you want, Lil?” Don’t laugh, she can answer, honestly. She points her nose directly to the treat bin and then looks at me. I opened the bin and sure enough, there were treats in there. I’d forgotten we had them!

As I opened the bag, all four dogs — and the cat! — gathered ’round and started drooling. Let me amend that, the cat didn’t drool. Anyway, they all were quite happy with this turn of events and gladly gobbled every piece I doled out.

Clearly, I’m smitten with these dog treats. Here are some of the things I love:

• Their ingredients, as I mentioned, are top-notch.
• I love that they’re under 21 calories per treat.
• They’re packed with nutrient-rich super foods like sweet potato, kale, broccoli, blueberries, pomegranate, carrots, and more
• Contain no GMOs
• Made right here in the US!

For me, as a trainer, I would cut these into tiny pieces — they come in thinnish “bars” which are far too large for training. That’d be the only thing I’d change.

Here are the available varieties:

Turkey & Duck with Kale, Beef & Bison with Blueberries, Salmon & Whitefish with Pomegranates, Chicken & Turkey with Sweet Potatoes

You’ll likely find these at your local boutique doggie supply store and the MSRP is $7.99, which is a fair price given the quality, ingredients, and goodness involved. I don’t hesitate in recommending these. Lily concurs.

These treats were supplied to me at no cost for my dogs to enjoy and for me to share with my impressions and opinions with you, the readers. I was not compensated in any way.