Grooming Fun with Nature's Recipe Chewy Treats from Chewy.com

Another month, time for another product review! Chewy.com always has something amazing for us to try by way of training treats.

This time, we decided to test Nature's Recipe oven baked chewy treats. 

These lamb recipe treats with carrots and apples are, as advertised, chewy so I knew my dogs would like them. They have a pretty good, pretty natural ingredient list though I do wonder why sugar has to be the third ingredient. Isn't it enough that human diets have been poisoned by excessive amounts of added sugar, salt, and processing? Do our dogs really need sugar too, or wouldn't they like the treats just as much if they were pure meaty bits?

here's one anyway

Anyway, these questions are not for me to ponder. Since I realized a while ago that the internet doesn't need another picture of my dogs standing on top of their exercise ball to demonstrate their enthusiasm for a treat, 

I decided to test these treats out on my grooming clients.

Winston is a bit of a tough customer; he and I have a lovely rapport until it comes time to touch his paws at which point he snaps and tries to kill me.

I can't say that these treats really changed his mind about the whole nail clipping thing, but maybe over time they will. He definitely enjoyed them as long as I wasn't making any moves toward those precious paws. 

Next up was Molly, a hound friend of mine who I've been grooming for years. Molly's pretty calm at this point and we have a nice time together. 

The most impressive thing to me about Molly is how much fur comes off her!

A few minutes with the Zoom Groom and Molly's fur is all over my porch. 

Molly's had a pleasant massage, I've had the fulfillment of a satisfying deshedding session, and we're all feeling pretty good and relaxed. 

Nothing left to do but celebrate with a really good treat. 

And maybe Molly herself is evidence of the power of years of grooming sessions with high-value treats! Thanks Chewy.com for contributing such a valuable asset to my practice.

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.

Northwest Naturals Freeze-Dried Dog Treats--An Amazing Tool for Trick Training and Grooming Desensitization!

Recently, Natural Pet Warehouse contacted me and asked if I'd do a product review on some Northwest Naturals Freeze-Dried dog treats. 






Although Dahlia's evening wackies have abated somewhat, she still has her moments and I love having some high-value treats around to motivate and inspire them to channel that energy into something productive. 

And besides, who can say no to freeze-dried treats?

Brandon with Natural Pet Warehouse generously sent us both the salmon and the chicken liver freeze dried treats. Made from just a single ingredient, these treats are the simplest thing possible.  And dogs just go nuts for them. 

Just whip them out and suddenly everyone is at attention

and offering behaviors all over the place. 

Jumping up on exercise balls, lunging into a simul-down, 

rolling over with abandon, and 

joyfully, simultaneously offering a shake, since when there's a freeze-dried treat to be had there's no time to wait for the other dog to finish with the paw behavior first--gotta get that treat now. 

I know my dogs have pretty good lives, but sometimes I worry a bit about Fozzie. He's such an anxious dog, and despite all the fun we have together I wonder sometimes if he's overall that happy. 

Times like this, after a session involving freeze dried treats and fun tricks, I'm pretty sure he's happy. 












High-value freeze-dried treats also come in handy when you have a client dog who's not too sure about grooming. 

Kona is a sweet dog who's come a long way since his people first rescued him, when they couldn't even touch him with a brush without him snapping at them.

He still snarls and snarks a bit when he's approached with a tool, but we spent our first few minutes together just showing him the brush, then giving a freeze-dried treat.  










 
After an interval of this, Kona was much more relaxed

and I was able to brush him pretty much all over.

We were sitting on the porch and just enjoying a rare warm and sunny day, and went slowly and took breaks along the way

This is really my favorite kind of grooming job. Working with a dog who's worried about it, and really taking time to desensitize and change his mind about the whole thing by making it positive--with some really extraordinary treats!








I think Kona's really starting to change his mind about grooming. His parents have done a great job with desensitizing him to touch, handling, and brushing, and I love being a part of his process too!

Dogswell Vitality Chicken Breast Jerky Dog Treats

This month, our free trial from Chewy.com was Dogswell Vitality Chicken Breast jerky dog treats.



I'll just say it right at the top: dogs go nuts for these things. Jerky snacks just seem to be the best thing my dogs have ever sniffed or savored. 








As you know, we like to put our new dog treats to the test by seeing if the pups will work for them. A winter evening where I don't really feel like going for a long walk, and Dahlia is bouncing off the walls and and sinking her teeth into every corner of Fozzie, is the perfect opportunity to do some trick training. 

Now most dogs who have been trained using positive methods are more than happy to go into trick mode, as they know there's something in it for them. The question is to what extent the dogs completely lose their composure and offer enthusiastic novel behaviors when they know a particular treat is in store. 

These treats made my dogs just completely flip out. First up were the paw behaviors, in which both Fozzie and Dahlia were pawing all over the place in an effort to prove themselves worthy of a jerky treat. 








OK guys, let's learn a brand new trick: roll over. 

In moments they were throwing themselves on the ground and twisting over with paws in the air. 












Stand? No problem, if it'll help you reach those little wafers of ecstasy. 

Now let's try getting on that medicine ball. 

Got it!

Proof that high-value treats accelerate learning, and make canines into creative and innovative thinkers. 

The other great use for high-value treats is to work on counterconditioning with a dog who is afraid of something. A perfect opportunity came when my once-monthly hound clients came by to have a wash and a nail trim. 

Poor Candy had some ACL surgery not too long ago, so maybe she was a bit strung out from being crated for a few weeks. In any case, she was unusually nervous and wasn't having any of it when I got close to her paws. Only way to even start to make her feel better about the clippers was to wave one of those jerky treats over my lap, and touch the clippers to those paws. 

At which point she jumped off my lap in short order...but climbed right back up when another jerky treat came out.

Poor nervous dog. Glad she at least got some good treats out of that experience. 

Thanks Chewy.com for another fantastic snack experience. 

What's YOUR favorite application for a high-value treat?

Perks of being a Dog Professional

There are so many things I love about being a dog groomer. 

The opportunity to interact with breeds, sizes, shapes, and temperaments of dog that I would otherwise have little opportunity to experience.

The opportunity to spend literally hours stroking them, inhaling their hot breath, thoroughly massaging their paws and brushing their teeth and cleaning out their precious little velvety ears, and having those activities be not only socially accepted but encouraged, as they are part of my profession.

And then there are the enormous orders I feel totally justified in placing with PetEdge.com. 










 





Of course I need an entire gallon of Espree Hypo-Allergenic Coconut Shampoo. 






And of course I didn't just get another gallon of Top Performance GloCoat Conditioning Shampoo only because it meant I got a free 17 ounce Top Performance Green Tea & Mint Shampoo, but because I genuinely needed that product in order to be successful in my career.

And you probably know this already about me, 


but I didn't just get 16 ounces of The Stuff Detangler and Conditioner, 

8 ounces of Top Performance Oatmeal Conditioning Spray, 










and 16 ounces of Fresh n Clean No Tangle Spray 











just because I have a weakness for canine health and beauty products that smell good.

No, that would be because I'm a professional.

Do YOU have a positive outlet for your dog-related and purchase compulsions? 

Or do you simply embrace who you are, and the crazy dog lady (or gent) obsessions that go with it?

Wellness Wellbites--a new weapon in the war against long nails

Many of you are part of Chewy.com's product review program, where we bloggers get free dog stuff in exchange for our honest reviews. For our last review, we discovered the value of True Chews lils beef bully sticks.



This time we had the pleasure of testing out Wellness Wellbites Turkey & Duck Recipe Soft & Chewy Treats. 
















The ingredient list is impressive, composed as it is of whole animals and vegetables and not processed byproducts thereof. 

These treats have a substantial feel and as the name implies, are soft and chewy. 













This makes them good for older dogs who may have some tooth and gum sensitivity.

Now Lady may not be the best product tester in general, because I don't know if Lady ever met an edible product she didn't devour with enthusiasm.

So to really put these dog snacks to the test, we had to do something that required a high value treat.  Since Lady returned to us once again with long nails, it was a perfect opportunity for us to revisit this challenge with a fresh tool in our toolkit. 








Now I know I've written extensively about the slow, step-by-step process for desensitizing a dog to nail clipping. Lady is one of the most nail-clipper-averse dogs I have ever met, and we worked, when I had her before, on nail clipper desensitization without seeming to make much of a change. I think with a dog like her it would just take time, and patience, and very gradual steps.

But when I got her again she was obviously having trouble walking, and I felt a certain urgency to get those nails clipped. So I just held each paw, clipped each nail, and gave her a treat after each one.


























Though not happy about the whole thing, Lady did allow me to do her nails and once she realized she was getting a really good treat after each one, she did seem to endure it a little more readily. 

But this is definitely one of those cases of, in the words of my dearly departed mother, "Do as I say and not as I do." Whenever possible, the slow, steady desensitization is the way to go.

Just to see how the other pups responded to the clippers with the promise of a special treat, I wielded the mighty clippers on Fozzie's and Lamar's paws. Fozzie wasn't having any of it, but was a quivering mass as soon as he saw the clippers. Good thing his nails stay naturally short! Lamar, the moment he saw the bag of new treats, lifted his paws as if to volunteer for a pedicure. He was less forthcoming once he saw what was really involved, but I gave him a handful of Wellbites and called it a day.

Whew, that was stressful! Maybe we'll have to come up with a more pleasant way to review products.

Lady in action

You may remember that when I had Star, just about every blog post was an action post. There were action shots of Star zooming around on the pilates ball, hopping across the floor on her hind legs, teetering on the edge of rocky cliffs, spinning around, and skateboarding.

Action shots with Lady are a little bit different. Lady is such a relaxed being, that most of her action shots are about like this

Or maybe, when she gets a bit riled up, like this

 

Or when she's feelin' really frisky, like this 














Or, when she really gets excited, even like this! 

Whoa now girl, settle down.  Let's not get too wild. 

I am really hoping that once she gets her nails clipped and can start going for longer walks, she'll lose some weight, be more comfortable on her paws, and start to have more energy. Right now, her nails are so long that they are clearly affecting her posture and her ability to walk. 

Do you see how the nails are actually forcing her front paws back onto the heels, and the pasterns are tilted backward at a sharp angle? 


She loves to go for walks, but before long she is limping. I've tried a couple of times to gently introduce the clippers or the pedi-paws, but whoo-boy! Then we see some action. 

So we'll just have to be a bit more patient, until I can get her in to be spayed and have a paw-i-cure. Until then, she can enjoy whatever level of action she's comfortable with.

And hey, if all Lady's running around has inspired you, head over to Facebook and vote for Fozzie's picture to be on the cover of NOVADog Magazine in June! I think you'll agree that the photo of him impersonating an elephant needs to be on the cover of something.