And The Best Dental Dog Treats Are….

So back in Mid-May I held a contest for a large amount of dog treats with the contest winner having to keep track and record the results and how they felt that the dog treats stacked up against one another. Fortunately for me and you readers, Gail won the draw and after a month or so, she had written me to let me know of her results and how she liked everything.

The following is what she reported. I would like to take a second to thank Gail for her participation and for doing an incredible job of tracking and making good on her promise to help me out with the report, I enjoyed the contest fully and look forward to doing more in the future.

DENTAL DOG TREAT REVIEWS

Subjects:

Boss – 11mth Border Collie Mix (50lbs)

Misty – 7mth Beagle, Pug Mix (19lbs)

Type of chewers: Aggressive! We’ve chewed up major rubber toys/ropes.

Week One – ‘Crunch and Clean’ by Hartz

Two biscuits a day

Observations:  These biscuits had a great dry crunch!  I’ve seen my two almost swallow some biscuits in seconds, but these took them a good couple minutes or so, nice dry crunch.  There was a noticeable pleasant smell to their breath for a short period after they ate them.  This noticeable smell didn’t last for a long time.  Might be great just before guests if you have folks who love doggie kisses visiting.

-***Noticeable affect on bowel movements: No

-Did my dogs enjoy eating these (take it each time offered finish eating it): Yes

-Would I buy these for breath: Likely

-Would I buy these for Tartar Control/Fresh Breath: Likely

-Messy: No (any crumbs were quickly licked up!)

Product Summary:

Over just regular biscuits that I might buy as treats, I would buy these because they had such a nice dry crunch which I would attribute to helping with tartar and the added breath benefit.

Week Two – ‘Chew Eez’ Beef Strips by Alpo

Two Strips per day

Observations:  My dogs knawed on one of these strips for a good long time.  The small dog 30-40min, the large dog 2 in 40min. The strips are hard and thin, and get moist as the dog chews.  Lots of positioning and repositioning, pulling and knawing while they eat. Certainly moved around the mouth a lot.

Concerns: ‘Beef hide’ is that the same are rawhide? I’ve been told rawhide isn’t good for dogs.

-Noticeable affect on bowel movements: No

-Did my dogs enjoy eating these: Yes! Very much so.

-Would I buy these for Tartar Control: Yes

-Messy: No

Product Summary:

With two dogs who love to chew, I enjoyed giving them these strips while out in the backyard.  The dogs loved them and it kept them occupied, really occupied with the chewing.  I would buy them for the length of time the dog was occupied alone! Regardless of benefit to tartar control.

Week Three: ‘Tartar Treats’ by Iams

One per day

Observations:  Small biscuits are the ‘seem hard, but mush with chewing’ variety.  Dogs ate them within a couple minutes.

-Noticeable affect on bowel movements: No

-Did my dogs enjoy eating these: Yes

-Would I buy these for Tartar Control/Fresh Breath: No.

-Messy: Because they are small, not really.  I might stay away from feeding on carpet since they mush a bit.

Product Summary:

Not something I would buy for Tartar Control or Fresh Breath.  There wasn’t a noticeable difference in breath and something that mushes doesn’t to me seem to be something that would help with tartar. I’m under the impression that chewing, cruchiness, crumbs, grit, knawing….and the like would be more conducive to keeping tartar away.  But if a product like this came with more information that explained why they keep tartar away, without any abbrasive quality, or long distance chewing, I might try them again.

Week Four: ‘Oral Health’ Snacks by Natural Defense

Two per week

Observations: medium sized bone, strong smell.  Look hard but chew pretty easily.  Dogs ate them within 10min.

-Noticeable affect on bowel movements: No

-Did my dogs enjoy eating these: Somewhat

-Would I buy these for Oral Health: Not likely. Dogs didn’t show enough enjoyment eating them.

-Messy: No, but if I had carpet I might stay away from eating on the carpet since these can mush a bit.

Product Summary:

Not something I would buy for oral health.  There was no real chewing involved, my dogs ate them fairly quickly, longer then a small biscuit, but still rather quickly.  Serving size was two per week yet there were only three in a box, I would think there should either be two or four so that you have a complete serving.  I would have enjoyed these more if the outside of the bone had been harder for the dogs to get through, to get the softer middle.

***Let’s face it, just like with kids, if a food makes for unpleasant changes to bowel movements, all the ‘it helps with tartar’, ‘it helps with fresh breath’, ‘it helps keep them occupied’ won’t matter one bit!