How many treats is too many?

Vets have a rule of thumb for this and it is refreshingly specific. Treats should make up no more than ten percent of a dog's daily calories. The other ninety percent comes from their complete, balanced food.

The reason is not that treats are bad. It is that complete dog food is formulated to hit a set of nutritional targets, and most treats are not. Push treats past a tenth of the day and you start diluting a balanced diet with an unbalanced one.

The part everybody forgets

The ten percent covers everything. Not just the thing you hand over after a walk — the training rewards, the crust of toast, the bit of cheese the pill went inside, the chew they got while you were on a call.

Owners routinely add fifteen to thirty percent extra calories this way without counting a single one of them. It is the single most common way a well-fed dog quietly becomes an overweight one.

Doing the arithmetic once

Find the calories per cup on your dog's food bag, multiply by how many cups they actually get, take ten percent. That is your treat budget for the day, in calories.

A dog eating 800 calories a day has an 80-calorie allowance. A dog eating 1,400 has 140. Write it on the tin lid if it helps — you only have to work it out once.

Why we make them small

Dehydrated chicken is mostly protein with the water taken out, so a piece goes further than it looks. If you are training and need volume, break the pieces down rather than handing over whole ones. Ten small rewards and one large one cost the same, and the small ones work better anyway.

If your dog is on a weight plan, ask your vet to give you the number rather than estimating it. They will usually do it in thirty seconds.