Smart Chips Peanut Butter Chews

Did you know that February is Dental Health Awareness Month? 

I sure didn't, until Chewy.com let me know and offered some dental treats to celebrate. 




We chose Smart Chips Peanut Butter Chews by Smart Bones. 








Since we've been working a lot with freeze-dried treats, which are super high-value and go down quickly, I wondered what it would be like to use a treat that takes longer to chew to work on something challenging like nail clipping. 







Apparently these treats smelled really good, and the dogs were eager to try them. I broke up one chew into smaller pieces and gave those out just in exchange for the dogs looking at the nail clippers. They took these chews off to their respective spots, and it took them a while to get through them. 

That's the good thing about these chews. Like rawhides, they take a while to chew, but unlike rawhides they are 99.2% digestible and made from ingredients like chicken and vegetables. 

So if you like to give your dogs a long-lasting chew, but worry about intestinal blockages, worry no more. 

We got to where the dogs could enjoy the chew with the clippers touching their paws.













I was hoping that with a longer-lasting chew, the dogs would be able to just relax and enjoy the chew while I trimmed their nails, and be so engrossed in that peanut-buttery goodness that they wouldn't even notice that the Grooming Tool of Death was doing unspeakable things to their little footies. 

But I'm afraid it will take some more work. Dahlia made it pretty clear that she's not ready to get close to those things for long. 

So we'll just take our time, and slowly build associations between those ghastly clippers and really, really high-value treats.


And we know where we can always get those! 

Thanks Chewy.com for all your help with making grooming less scary.