GREENSBORO, N.C. —
Sit. Give me your paw. Come here. These are the classic commands that warrant a treat.
Sometimes, our dogs get treats because they're just so cute we can’t stand it. But how many treats are too many?
“Treats are like cookies and for every treat we give them, it's like us eating a cookie. So, if we give them 10 treats in a day it's like us eating 10 cookies a day and we would be packing on the extra weight as well,” said Kelley Gebhardt, Veterinarian at Happy Tails Veterinary & Emergency Clinic.
I will confess, I give my dog too many treats. To help curb that, in my house, we've added blueberries and carrots instead of dog treats. Just like humans, dogs need more veggies than cookies.
You know how sometimes we eat simply because we're sitting in front of the TV? We often give dogs snacks at that time too which makes our bad habit a problem for the dog.
“The good thing about pets is they cannot raid the pantry at night. Because they can't go and freely eat as much as they want, we can really help them lose the weight by helping them in that way,” said Gebhardt.
One of the items we should NEVER give our dogs? Corn on the cobb. IF dogs ate it like humans, just the kernels, it would be fine. The problem is, dogs often eat not just the corn, but they try to ingest the entire cobb, which is undigestible.