What do you look for in a good dog treat?

[AintNobodyHereButUsChickens]

I'm thinking about starting up a little dog treat business. I'm very much still in the 'thinking about it' stage. So what sort of flavours of treat? What types of treat? Like biscuits, jerky etc? ANY pointers will be gratefully received, I literally had the idea 2 hours ago and am just doing research into what people would want!

Also any pointers about setting up a small business like this would also be really helpful

Be aware that the dog treat industry is VERY highly regulated - you need all sorts of approvals from the council and you'll need a food hygiene certificate. All your recipes need approval and testing (which you need to pay for). Any change in ingredients or source means another round of testing.

I researched this (I'm a dog walker and wanted a way to make extra money over lockdown) - I decided to sell treats from wholesale instead as all you need is product liability insurance

I believe you can claim a small business exemption but you need to speak to the council and make sure they've registered you as exempt before you sell anything.

Sorry, I really hope that doesn't put you off but I was so surprised at how strict it all is. It's more stringent than it is for humans!

No that's sort of what I expected. Do you know how you go about getting your recipes approved and tested?

I think each council do it differently but you'll need to speak to your local trading standards officer I imagine! I think the restrictions aren't so bad if you're using human-grade ingredients but I have to admit I didn't look too much into it once they started talking about laboratories

I would ring/e-mail your local council and ask. Mine were really helpful when I looked into doing doggy daycare - they just want to help you do it all legally and they were happy to answer all my questions!

Oh I wouldn't know where to start with the legal side but when I'm looking for treats I try to find rawhide free but something that lasts for a bit to chew on not gulped straightdown. We buy the goodboy cheesy sticks at the moment I think.

I only buy raw cooked and dried liver or duck - with zero else in it

Anyway, to answer your actual question

I only feed air-dried, raw treats. Things like beef trachea, pizzle sticks, buffalo skins etc. I would never buy anything containing rawhide and I'm not a huge fan of doggy treats with things like peanut butter as I feel like it's just unnecessary calories for something that barely touches the sides.

Whereas a natural chew will last him at least 20-30 minutes so it's good value for money too.

@AintNobodyHereButUsChickens there is a lack of dog treats out there for dogs who are meat intolerant. I manage to pick up peanut butter & banana waggs however they are hard to find. Other than that I take out prawns as training treats. I'm not alone as many dogs have meat intolerance.

I would agree with the pp. Our dog does not tolerate meat so his treats are mainly fish but I've started giving him Tribal treats too which he loves.

I don't like treats with too many added ingredients. The less ingredients the better for us. I tend to either but tiny training treats or biscuits (aside from the fish ones like sprats etc) .

When I'm looking for treats for my dog, I prefer things which are best described as 'dehydrated bits of animal', such as treats2sit4.co.uk/natural-dog-treats-treats2sit4 I see anything labelled as "meat and animal derivatives" as a big red flag. There's a lovely lady locally who sells dog treats, but they're all grain based (baked flour biscuit things) which I'm not keen on. DDog isn't grain free but I do try and limit the amount he has.

Be aware that the dog treat industry is VERY highly regulated - you need all sorts of approvals from the council and you'll need a food hygiene certificate. All your recipes need approval and testing (which you need to pay for). Any change in ingredients or source means another round of testing.

I'm not sure this can be true for small scale producers - it would mean that making dog treats in your kitchen would be more tightly regulated than making food for human consumption!

For human consumption (e.g. if you started a business making cakes from home) the basic process from a paperwork point of view is

• register with the council as a food business 28 days before you start trading - this registration cannot be refused
• get food hygiene level 2 certificate (one day course, not expensive)
• get public and product liability insurance, and employers liability insurance even if you only occasionally get a friend to help you out (not expensive - you should be able to get an annual policy for

@DeathByWalkies it is a lot more highly regulated than food for human consumption, especially if you're doing it on a large scale.

www.businesscompanion.info/en/quick-guides/animals-and-agriculture/manufacturing-your-own-pet-foods

Have a read of this. It's a lot more complicated than making food for human consumption unfortunately as dog food and treats have to be labelled in specific ways and must contain information about all sorts of ingredients etc.

There's info on there about sending things off to be tested for salmonella etc. and how it has to be done by certain laboratories. It really blew my mind when I realised how much legislation is involved!

I don't think people realise how complicated it is - yes, it's fun to make little "pupcakes" and stuff for your dog but if you're planning to sell on a decent scale there's a lot of red tape involved.

You can apply for a small business exemption but whether this will be granted (or not) is up to the individual council.

Do you mean chew type treats or training treats?

For the latter mine need to be small (so the dog doesn't get full up mid training class), smelly, not full of rubbish and easy to handle so the reward can be given quickly.

www.staffordshire.gov.uk/business/animalhealth/Documents/Manufacturing-your-own-Pet-Foods.pdf

Useful info here.

As with other PPs, I feed as natural treats as possible. I would have thought the market is saturated to be honest, unless it was an add-on to an already functioning pet-related business.

I.e. if you were my dog walker, groomer, or had a stall at the local market selling home-made dog coats etc., I could see these would be a potential other thing you could offer, but there's already a lot of people selling treats out there. What could you add that is different?

For me something suitable for pancreatitis. Low fat but good low fat. I boil chicken up for her at the moment but I’d love a low fat chew that would take her ages to eat through. She has one carrot a day but something else would be nice to ring the changes.

Yes, I would tend to agree with @rbe78 that everyone started doing this over lockdown (I'm not sure they're all legal either!) and that it's quite a saturated market.

I buy pre-made treats in bulk, make up personalised chew boxes and sell them - but it's not my only business and I couldn't make a living from just that. I'm also a dog walker and pet sitter - many of my customers are existing clients - and I target a breed specific FB group I use and sell a lot through there, but tbh it only makes me maybe £2-300 a month max, and some weeks I sell nothing at all.

It's a weird business because people will buy, but then because they wait for their dog to finish their previous lot before re-ordering, there are lots of gaps!

@AncientandFabulous

For me something suitable for pancreatitis. Low fat but good low fat. I boil chicken up for her at the moment but I’d love a low fat chew that would take her ages to eat through. She has one carrot a day but something else would be nice to ring the changes.

Have you tried cows ears or buffalo skin? Both super low in fat and long lasting too!

warmfluffytowels thank you - just had a look. Cows ears could work (I’d need to speak to her vet) but buffalo skin is too high in fat. Has to be under 5% as anything more always sets off another bout!

My dog is super allergic to everything and the only decent hypo allergenic treats I find are always massive so I cant use them for my small dog. Allergies are incredibly common in dogs and yet groomers, dog walkers etc still give random treats to allergic dogs and make them sick. So my hope is that hypo allergenic treats get more options and become more common.