The Good: Good ingredients, Our dog loves them, Minor dental benefits
The Bad: Expensive, No real nutritional benefits
The Basics: A treat our dog loves, the Exclusively Dog Cookies Carob Flavor Sandwich Crème Dog Treats are a bit expensive and offer fewer benefits to a dog than most treats.
Sometimes, I'm a bad dog owner. While my wife was out working last night, I had our dog Mitzie up on the bed, watching old movies with me and eating popcorn. And Mitzie, as it turns out, loves popcorn and is all too happy to eat the burned kernels of microwaved popcorn that I would rather not eat. I mention this at the outset of my review of Exclusively Dog Cookies’ Carob Flavor Sandwich Crème Dog Treats because when my wife arrived home brandishing them last night, I had to tell her Mitzie shouldn't have any until morning (I didn't want our dog to explode!). Mitzie looked at me with grave disappointment, as if to say “If I had known there would be cookies later . . .” Anyway, Mitzie is a very old dog (17 years old now) and she seldom gets excited about new treats anymore. So that Mitzie had such a strong reaction to a new treat being brought into the house ought to say something!
Rather nicely, the night of anticipation did not diminish Mitzie's desire. When we finally gave Mitzie these this morning, she went wild for them. Yes, they are exactly as good as they promised to be and Mitzie responded extraordinarily well to them. So, what are the Carob Flavor Sandwich Crème Dog Treats? They are exactly what they sound like; they are an Oreo-style cookie made for dogs!
Exclusively Dog Cookies are new to the pet store my partner works at and the Carob Flavor Sandwich Crème Dog Treats come in an 8 oz. bag which resembles a bag of cookies for people. Exclusively Dog Cookies grants petlovers eighteen of these sandwich cookies per bag and that's a bit few at the $4.00 price tag our store has on them. Even so, with Mitzie getting up in years, we do tend to spoil her. The Carob Flavor Sandwich Crème Dog Treats are designed to give dogs the chocolate they crave – which is bad for them! – without the potentially lethal consequences. As a result, these dog cookies look like a generic brand sandwich cookie with two chocolate-like wafers with a white crème between them. The chocolate-colored cookie parts are carob, so it tastes close enough to chocolate to fool the palate of a dog (we presume; Mitzie devoured hers without any complaints).
This one and a half inch in diameter dog cookie smells strongly of chocolate (almost more of a coffee smell, the scent is so concentrated) and the moment one was removed from the package, our decrepit cocker spaniel came running, so this is clearly a draw to dogs. Mitzie would have pretty much swallowed this whole if my partner or I had not held onto it. The soft cookie shell easily broke apart and Mitzie more or less swallowed half before doing the same with the other half of the cookie. And therein comes my only non-price-related gripe with Exclusively Dog Cookies Carob Flavor Sandwich Crème Dog Treats; because the cookie is so small and because it is soft, even smaller dogs will have little problem swallowing it with limited mastication. Because the dog is not chewing the cookie much, it is not scraping plaque off the dog's teeth. This diminishes its value to me; as a pet owner, I tend to like the treats I give our animals to do something for their health and well-being.
That said, there is nothing bad in the Exclusively Dog Cookies Carob Flavor Sandwich Crème Dog Treats. With ingredients like crystalline fructose, carob powder, and natural vanilla flavor, these are very much a dessert product, just like their human-oriented equivalent. These treats are kosher (in case you're keeping your dog Kosher or you break into them in the middle of the night and Don't want to offend the lord, I guess) but are not wheat free. They do not, however, contain any animal by-products, so that's nice. As well, they have a guaranteed analysis of 4% crude protein, at least 17% crude fat, and no more than 2% fiber and 6% moisture. As with most treats, these are recommended for active dogs who have access to good, clean water throughout the day as well. And while many dog treats I've found do not have expiration dates, the package of these cookies my wife brought home expire in December of 2010 (Note: it was late December, 2009 when this was originally written!), so they do seem to have a more limited shelf life based upon the all-natural ingredients.
This product was our first experience with Exclusively Dog Cookies and while the package has a 100% satisfaction guarantee, we will not be exercising it; our dog loves these, so much so that we're already looking into other flavors for her. But considering that these are a dessert treat for dogs, it's a harder sell for the thrifty and pet-concerned owner than most treats. We have been trying to buy more treats that are made in the U.S.A. (which these are) but even so, our willingness to buy more Exclusively Dog Cookies products will come when our budget and Mitzie's metabolism can handle it!
For other dog treat reviews, please check out my takes on:
Yogurt Booda Bones
Mixables Grandma's Country Stew
Senior Greenies
7/10
For other pet product reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment