Small, simple and tasty, treats can make excellent training tools. They are great for motivating your pup, rewarding them for good behavior, or just for showing them how much you care. However, with an almost overwhelming number of options, finding the best treats for Goldendoodles can be tricky, to say the least. You may well be tempted to pick up any old bag – because how different can they all really be, anyway? The answer is very.
Here we will let you know what to be on the lookout for when picking out the very best snacks for your Dood. We’ll also provide some recommendations for healthy, happy treats that Doodle owners assure us their dogs can’t get enough of.
Table of Contents
- Best Treats for Goldendoodles: Buyer’s Guide
- Best Treats for Goldendoodles Reviews
- FAQs About Best Treats for Goldendoodles
Our Top 5 Owner-Approved Best Treats for Goldendoodles
Don’t have time to read the entire article? No worries. Here are our top picks and where you can get hold of them:
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Pick #1:
Pet Botanics Training Reward Bacon Flavor Dog Treats. Healthy and nutritious, these 3-calorie tasty treats are the perfect way to reward your pup for good behavior and keep them interested in their training.
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Pick #2:
King Kalm Crunch CBD Pet Hard Chews. Available in three healthful and all-natural flavors, these calming hard chews are great for spoiling your dog and helping them to relax in stressful situations.
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Pick #3:
Nutro Mini Bites Beef & Hickory Smoke Flavor Dog Treats. With real beef as the main ingredient, these tempting, chewy snacks are free from all things artificial. They are nutritious and make excellent low-calorie training treats.
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Pick #4:
Zuke’s Mini Naturals Chicken Recipe Training Dog Treats. Wholesome, delectable, and featuring chicken as the very first ingredient, these soft, bite-sized snacks are rich in essential vitamins and minerals for healthy pups.
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Pick #5:
Bocce’s Bakery Say Moo Beef & Cheddar Training Bites Dog Treats. Crafted with simple and healthy ingredients, these oven-baked treats come in at just 4-calories apiece, making them great guilt-free behavior rewards.
Best Treats for Goldendoodles: Buyer’s Guide
You’re no doubt passionate about your pet and want them to be happy. This means choosing the best kind of snacks for them. After all, you don’t want to undo all the good work of giving them the very best food. You want their treats to be…
Snackable
All dog snacks are not created equal or for the same purpose. Treats are designed for quick, little bursts of love and encouragement while out and about or during training. For this reason, they should be of a suitable size, easy to chew, and absolutely delicious to ensure that your pup keeps coming back for more.
Other food extras you give your dog for different purposes might be bigger, denser, and harder to chew. For instance, dental hygiene sticks have to be around for a while so your pup can get those gnashers sparkly clean while chowing down on them.
Nutritious
One of the biggest issues with treats is that their yumminess is often derived from high fat or high sugar content (much like our treats). However, for dogs, this doesn’t need to be the case. A high-quality treat with healthy ingredients can taste just as good, if not better than additive-packed alternatives.
The sad truth is that obesity is a growing problem for the country’s canines, and this can lead to all kinds of nasty issues. So, opt for low-calorie treats where possible and offset them by cutting back on the kibble. Keep in mind that treats should be just that – a treat and not a staple of your pet’s diet. They should account for no more than 10% of your dog’s daily calorie intake.
Natural
A complete and balanced diet is just as important for your pooch as it is for you. Natural ingredients are always your best bet when it comes to foods and snacks. To avoid unnecessary fillers and additives, choose treats with limited ingredients but plenty of healthful vitamins and minerals.
This honestly shouldn’t be too difficult a task as many snacks these days are formulated for the best benefit to your dog’s health. They include everything from dental sticks, as covered above, to chews that have supplements to boost immune action or help with mobility issues in seniors.
Diverse
Finally, treats are an excellent way to show your dog just how much you appreciate them. However, they can quickly become boring if you use the same ones all the time. After all, who wants to be stuck eating the same things day in and day out? Even the tastiest of foods lose their appeal if you have too much.
Your pup will likely appreciate a little variety in their treats as much as you do, so try to mix things up a bit. Many brands stock multiple flavors, so when you find one you and your dog are happy with, get it in every kind. Switching out textures as well as flavors is also a good idea for keeping things fresh.
Best Treats for Goldendoodles Reviews
Pet Botanics Training Reward Bacon Flavor Dog Treats
Bacon flavor – need we really say anymore? You won’t find many dogs who don’t go crazy for the taste. Most people love the stuff, too (maybe not the dog treat version, though). However, bacon isn’t known for being particularly healthy… Yet somehow, these little miracle treats are. Enhanced with Pet Botanic’s own ‘Botanifits’ and super low on calories, they perfectly complement a healthy canine diet.
Reviews for these snacks are overwhelmingly positive, with most owners stating that their dogs just love them. They find them to be an excellent training incentive, a good size to pop in their pocket, and there’s none of the strong, unpleasant smells or greasy textures of other treats.
Pros
These tick all the boxes. They’re super tasty, bite-sized, healthy, and low in calories – plus the price is right too.
Cons
Weirdly enough, some dogs just don’t like them, which is frankly baffling to us.
King Kalm Crunch CBD Pet Hard Chews
A little different from the other treats on this list, King Kalm’s pet chews are not designed for training, although they could certainly be used for it. These CDB-containing snacks are for helping anxious dogs feel more relaxed, especially in stressful or unfamiliar situations. CBD is also great for improved joint health and general wellbeing.
Another way these exceptional chews differ from the others is that the prominent flavor is not meat. In fact, these limited ingredient treats are completely vegetarian while still boasting a potent dose of nutrients and fatty acids in every bite. Owners state they have noticed a marked difference in their nervous and/or elderly pups.
Pros
Health-boosting ingredients are combined with beneficial supplements in these all-natural treats.
Cons
The inclusion of CBD, not a cheaply sourced ingredient, means these pet chews are more expensive than other types.
Nutro Mini Bites Beef & Hickory Smoke Flavor Dog Treats
Perfect for pooches with particularly sensitive tummies, these treats feature absolutely zero GMO ingredients, chicken by-products, or common allergens. Instead, they combine simple, wholesome beef and brown rice with other natural flavors for an awesome anytime snack. And at just 2.2 calories per treat, that really can mean anytime…
It’s toothy grins all around for these ones too, and pet parents seem equally as pleased. These delightful treats are super soft, so even those with a little less tooth in their grin these days can enjoy them, too. They also seem to be an effective training tool for younger pups, especially when encouraging them to take care of business outside.
Pros
Delicious smelling, tasty, and super low on calories. These bites are convenient to have on hand for a quick little treat for your dog.
Cons
These snacks are a little on the small side, so it’s all too easy to give your larger pup just a fraction more than they should have.
Zuke’s Mini Naturals Chicken Recipe Training Dog Treats
Crafted in the USA and with some of the best ingredients around, Zuke’s Mini Treats are another one that scores highly on the canine satisfaction scale. These chicken-flavored chews contain a healthy range of fruits and vegetables to boost your pal’s nutrition. Most impressively, they do all this while beating the Nutro snacks at a mere 2 calories per treat.
Reviewers declare these fine snacks the perfect size for training – even for larger dogs. They also admit to finding the smell of them ‘enticing.’ Though the treats are small, they are just the kind of ‘flavor bomb’ needed to keep dogs working hard for more—without ruining their appetite for dinner.
Pros
Teeny but tempting, these nutritious treats are certainly not all flavor and no substance. They pack a salubrious punch.
Cons
There have been a few packaging issues recently, so make sure you check these treats carefully before giving them to your pet.
Bocce’s Bakery Say Moo Beef & Cheddar Training Bites Dog Treats
With a name like ‘Say Moo,’ you would expect nothing less than sheer perfection from these beef and cheddar treats, and you wouldn’t be disappointed. Baked in the USA, these snacks contain locally sourced, high-quality ingredients with no weird fillers or additives. However, they are a little more of a luxury treat than others on the list, being 4 calories per bite.
Opinion here is a little more divided between 5 and 4 stars. However, this could be just that reviews are limited for this product right now. The only real complaint seems to be their small size, although one person mentions that they were a little too crunchy for training. For others, though, they seem to work perfectly, and the limited ingredients make them a great, guilt-free treat.
Pros
Simple ingredients mean that you know exactly what you are getting. They are great for regular use for active dogs.
Cons
The size of these snacks might be a problem for larger hounds – they won’t even touch the sides.
FAQs About Best Treats for Goldendoodles
Positive reinforcement training is all about making associations between positive behaviors and rewards. Basically, as soon as your dog has acted in the way you want them to, present them with a treat and lots of praise. They will come to associate following instructions with scrummy-tasting snacks – highly valued in doggy land, for sure!
Simple, recognizable ingredients really are best in dog treats, as they are in dog foods. Usually, protein is top of the list, with whole grains, fruits, and vegetables providing an assortment of beneficial vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that can boost your dog’s health.
The number of treats you can give your dog will depend on their size and the type of snack. A good rule of thumb is for no more than 10% of your dog’s daily calories to be from treats. Check out our handy calculator to see how many calories your dog should be eating in total each day.
While treats should always be given sparingly to keep their value high, you can use them at other times. Just don’t get into the habit of doing it every time your pup turns those sad dog eyes on you. Giving your dog a treat when you leave the house can help with separation anxiety. Likewise, a nice treat can help your dog better deal with strange and unfamiliar situations such as being in the car for the first time.
Treats are an excellent way of spoiling your dog a little when they deserve it. A little bit of food happiness is always a good thing! Just make sure that you select good-quality treats that will only benefit Fido and not make him overweight. Here we have provided some popular choices, each with excellent nutritional profiles, perfect for you and your pet.
What are your recommended best treats for Goldendoodles? Let us know in the comments below!
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I give my 2 mini doodles either turkey bacon by Fresh Pet, Lil jack training treats or blue buffalo jerky chews. They love all three.
January 31, 2024 at 9:55 pm