How to Make Dog Ice Pops by Emily Jones
Make and Bakes for Dogs
Learn how to make dog items and dog treats and other dog related items.
Dog Treats – The good, the bad and the ugly
What makes a good dog treat
Do you give your dog treats ? Do you know what is in your Dog treats ? In this post we look at what could be in the treats you give your dogs and what is a good healthy treat that you could give them instead.
This post started out as a basic review of The Cornish Barkery and the wonderful dog biscuits they bake. They sent us a few different types to try and believe me our lot never turn down a doggie choc chip cookie. They went down a treat. I tried them with my two dogs and so did the guys on our Facebook group All Things Dog
See this review from Jessica from our group…
Or Boris and Deefa who’s mummy posted this photo and said that they like their Cornish Barkery Pork & Basil Sausage Biscuits!To buy click here
So I was going to post that my dogs loved The Cornish Barkery biscuits over all other biscuits, that my dogs would choose these over anything else offered to them, but I have realised that this was not the post I wanted to write. In fact to sell these homemade biscuits to you on the premise that my dogs would eat them over anything else is a lie .. honestly I just caught Dinky Daisy in the field eating sheep pooh ! It’s not the first time – she came in once with a lump of it stuck to the top of her head looking innocent like she had not been munching her way through a pile of the stuff ! So the truth is my dogs will really eat anything from gourmet dog biscuits to pond weed, yes we have had that eaten too. It comes down to what I want my dogs to eat, I am the owner, I need to give them healthy, real food – not chemicals, colouring’s, poor ingredients that can do them harm.
Dinky Daisy
Writing this review, as it started, sent me down a slightly different road to what I had planned. I am now looking at what is in other dog biscuits, compared to these. I started to question why it was that the best before date on the The Cornish Barkery dog biscuits gave me a couple of months but when I looked at a box of supermarket, big brand, dog biscuits they did not go off for a whole year, what’s in a dog food that lets it last that long? Why such a difference?
Think I need to investigate this a bit more…
I love that when I read the ingredients on the The Cornish Barkery that I immediately understood them
Take the Choc Chip Cookies;
wholemeal flour, dog-friendly chocolate chips, water
Choc Chip Cookies
I understood and recognisied every ingredient – I am happy to give these as a treat to my dogs. If I am giving my dogs a treat with these I know I am giving them real food. Happy dogs and happy owner.
Compare this to the ingredients I found on a box of big brand dog treats
Cereals
Glycerol
Meat and Meat Derivatives
Vegetable Protein Extracts
Various Sugars
Oils and Fats
Minerals
Milk and Milk Derivatives
With Antioxidants
Meat Derivatives, Vegetable Protein Extracts – what are these ?
Milk Derivatives …what?
and various sugars..ummmm
Looks like a bit of a complicated list to me and I am unsure what many of these are…
I am no food scientist – and to be honest nor are most of us – I want to look at the label and know what I am giving my dogs . How about you ?
If you want to join in the discussion on the above points then please leave a comment or visit our Facebook Group All things Dog and join in there.
If you would like to purchase a Dog Barkery product please click to visit The Cornish Barkery
I did not make money from the links in this post and all views are my own and I would love to hear your views on the subject of ingredients in dog food and biscuits.
Emily, Grace and Dinky Daisy x
Healthy Dogs: why I have changed my habit of giving my dog leftovers
In this post we look at what foods makes your dogs healthy dogs , do you give your dog human food treats, see what foods you can not give your dog and what human foods you can. Make sure you have healthy dog , and the human food that you are giving them is not harming them.
“No, Grace you can not have the doughnut”
How hard is it to say no when the eyes are pleading with you – “pleeeeaaaasssseeee can I have a little bit of what your eating”
Well, I have been looking into what human foods dogs can and can not eat – hopefully I can then come up with some healthy dog treats that I can make at home to replace the shop treats and leftovers off my dinner plate.
It may sound like a huge leap to now start talking about The Animal Welfare Act 2006 but stay with me on this – The PDSA PAW report 2016 looks at the welfare of our pets.
It states that in 2016 the PDSA found that over 4m pets are fed leftovers as part of their main meal – If you are planning to give your dog human food as a treat the advice on is that you should give no more than 5% of their diet, the rest being made up of their own dog food. Information found on pets.webmd
Giving our dogs our leftovers is harming them – they are becoming obese and poorly. So back to the Animal Welfare Act – it gives pet owners 5 welfare needs that have to be met- One of these is ‘the need for a suitable diet’ and another is ‘the need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease’
Here is the extract from The Animal Welfare Act 2006 – why not have a read
Promotion of welfare
9 Duty of person responsible for animal to ensure welfare
(1)A person commits an offence if he does not take such steps as are reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure that the needs of an animal for which he is responsible are met to the extent required by good practice.
(2)For the purposes of this Act, an animal’s needs shall be taken to include—
(a)its need for a suitable environment,
(b)its need for a suitable diet,
(c)its need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns,
(d)any need it has to be housed with, or apart from, other animals, and
(e)its need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.
(3)The circumstances to which it is relevant to have regard when applying subsection (1) include, in particular—
(a)any lawful purpose for which the animal is kept, and
(b)any lawful activity undertaken in relation to the animal.
(4)Nothing in this section applies to the destruction of an animal in an appropriate and humane manner.
To read the full Act please follow this link The Animal Welfare Act 2006
So we have a legal responsibility to feed our dogs the correct diet and not contribute through poor diet pain, suffering and disease…I know when I share my bacon sandwich with my dog that it is not good for her, but I think that I am rewarding her, treating her. I am going to change my habit – no more sharing my food with my dogs, I want them to stay well, healthy and active – not obese and having a shortened life span.
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