Dogs do not care if you give them a tasty T-bone or bone-dry treats

Courgettes should be used to reward pets as they eat food so fast they barely even taste it, say experts

WHETHER it is a slice of ham, chicken or a Scooby-snack, pet owners love giving their dog treats. But experts now believe dogs do not care about what food they are getting, as they barely taste it before wolfing it down.

Georgia Woods-lee, a canine nutrition expert at Liverpool University, believes people should therefore move away from calorific, fatty treats and instead give out vegetable snacks as the dog is unlikely to notice any difference.

“Food is fuel rather than anything else. Dogs don’t spend a whole lot of time tasting their food. It’s normally swallowed very, very quickly,” she said.

The act of giving and receiving the treat, she added, is “far more important than what the treat actually is”.

She believes courgettes are the ideal titbits for dogs as they are low in calories, full of water, and pose no health issues for dogs.

“Treats are a big deal because they are used in bonding and training and we, as humans, show love with food,” she told an audience at BSAVA Congress 2023 in Manchester.

“There is a rule of thumb that treats should make up about ten per cent of daily intake, but it is very individual.

“Courgettes are a favourite of mine because they are very, very high in water and very, very low in calories.

“They are accepted by most dogs and they can literally eat them until they come out of their ears. There are no detrimental effects to eating courgettes.”

Also on her list of the best treats to give to dogs are watermelon, cooked cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber, ice cubes and sprouts.

“The sorts of things I have on my list include a lot of green, watery vegetables,” Ms Woods-lee said.

“Carrots are not on my list. They are a root vegetable and have around four times the amount of calories as a courgette. A small piece of carrot is fine but owners want to give volume, they want to give their pets loads of snacks, so I would be choosing the green veg.”

She said regulating the timing of treats is also key to ensure owners are not pestered by their pets as they open the fridge door, start cooking, or are sitting at the dinner table.

“We need to be careful when giving treats because dogs get an expectation extremely quickly,” Ms Woods-lee warned.

She also urged people to ditch cups

‘Dogs don’t spend a whole lot of time tasting their food – it’s normally swallowed very quickly’

or handfuls as measures of dog food because they “are really inaccurate”.

People should instead weigh out their meals with scales to avoid under or overfeeding. More than a third of dogs are overweight, she said, and accidental feeding is a major contributor.

“I can understand from an owner’s point of view why they get the diet plan wrong for their pet because there’s an enormous range available in shops now and often not much guidance,” she said.

“Of course, we want the owner to buy the best quality food that they can afford and ideally not chop and change.

“For dogs, food is fuel rather than anything else.

“So unless we get a very bad reaction to that food I encourage owners to stick with it.

“Don’t start chopping and changing, it leads to bad habits later on. So start very much as you mean to go on.

“If owners want wet foods or dry foods then that’s absolutely fine, I have no particular preference.

“Dried foods, of course, are much more cost effective so possibly is a better recommendation in this day and age when money is such a concern.”