Dog Food and Treats to Avoid For the Health of Your Dog

I found this blog the other day. The headline was the same as the one above that I used. It was interesting in the fact it was really tugging at the "scary strings" to frighten you into avoiding all commercial pet foods and treats, and to cook for your pet at home. The website is "supposed" to be laden with recipes to help you accomplish this goal. After I checked out the website, I was a little stunned at how they completely bashed "all treats".

The problem I have with this website is that there is "some" truth in the articles Jennifer writes about. But here is where I draw the line. First, she talks about all dog treats are bad, all commercial dog foods are bad, here's a sampling recipe of something healthy you can bake at home. (This is their recipe - not mine. This excerpt is from the Pooch Place)

Oatmeal Dog Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup butter — cut into pieces
• 4 beef or chicken bouillon cubes
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups grated cheese
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick
cooking spray.

Mix oats into a medium bowl, top with pieces of butter and the bouillon cubes.

Pour in boiling water and let sit 10 minutes to dissolve the butter and bouillon.

Mix well, then add whole wheat flour, cornmeal, sugar, milk, eggs and cheese.

Add enough of the all purpose flour to make a stiff dough.

Mix well

Roll out dough. The thinner the dough, the crisper the baked treats will be.

Use a cookie cutter to cut out cookies in fun shapes.

Bake on prepared cookie sheets until hard, 5-15 minutes depending on how thin the dough is rolled.

Remove from cookie sheets and cool completely.
This recipe makes 4 dozen cookies

Do you guys see what I see up there? 2 tablespoons of sugar. Hmmmm...interesting. This seems to conflict with her core message - that what you bake at home "will always be healthier for your pet". But wait! Theres more!

This whole website - and at least two others that I find all linked to the same information, seems to be interested in selling us one thing - an ebook that is supposed to be telling us how to feed our pets. If this recipe indicates the quality of the ebook, I think I would be a little skeptical of what I was reading.

This proves to me there is one valuable bit of knowledge that is helpful in determining what to and what not to feed your pet - and that is to pay close attention to the ingredients yourself. Sugar doesn't need to be in any dog treat - even the ones you make yourself. This blog loves to talk about obesity, heart and kidney failure, and a myriad of other health problems, but are they selling you a real product, or are they selling you the hype?