A Sampler Of Training Treats For Dogs, Milk-Bone Trail Mix Is Good!

The Good: Apparently delicious, Great for reinforcement
The Bad: Lacks the dental benefits I want when giving Myah treats, Pricier than other Milk-Bone treats.
The Basics: Milk-Bone Trail Mix is a good reinforcement treat for dogs, though there are others I prefer (and can better afford!) to give Myah.


Since my wife went off to Michigan to work for the summer, I have been alone with our Siberian Husky, Myah, who never really seemed to like me before now. Now, she comes to work with me every day and I take her to the park – beautiful park, Green Lakes State Park (reviewed here!) – that she loves each day as well. I suppose I am growing on the girl, which is nice because I know my wife would kill me if anything happened to Myah. Literally kill me. Fortunately, I have been working with Myah and even getting her to do a few new tricks. That’s not entirely true; I bring Myah to work where one of my co-workers continues to get Myah to do new tricks.

Fortunately, before my wife left for the summer, she picked up several different types of dog treats. One was a bad of treats specifically designed for me to use with Myah while training and for reinforcement of good behaviors. That treat was a bag of Milk-Bone Trail Mix! Before these, the onkly Milk-Bone treat Myah had was the Milk-Bone MaroSnacks (reviewed here!), which she absolutely loved.

Milk-Bone Trail Mix comes in a 9 oz. box filled with dog treats. The Milk-Bone Trail Mix come with four different pieces in the mix. There are rolled oat bones – brown and white. Both rolled oat bones are 1” long by 1/2" wide and 5/16” tall. They are pressed rolled oats, made into the shape of tiny bones, just like what one might expect from Milk-Bone! The Trail Mix also includes sweet potato discs. These discs are orange, supple like good dried fruit and are a little over a half inch in diameter. The Real Beef chunks are 3/4" by 3/4” by 3/16” blocks of real meat. This smelled just like beef jerky and made for an interesting combination of pieces. All four pieces were in our Milk-Bone Trail Mix with about equal frequency, which is nice.

Myah, predictably, went right for the beef pieces first, even picking through the other pieces to consume the beef part of the trail mix before the other three types of treats in the assortment. After that, though, she exhibited no preference. She ate the sweet potato and rolled oat bones with a ferocity that made it clear she liked what she was eating, but she showed no desire to discriminate between the various pieces in the Trail Mix after the beef was gone.

Because half the contents of the Trail Mix are supple, this treat does not have as much in the way of dental benefits as I usually hope a dog treat will. That makes it good for reinforcement, but not a strong treat that I readily endorse. If it’s not scraping plaque and tartar and/or freshening Myah’s breath, it’s not doing all a dog treat could, in my book!

Lacking in extensive dental benefits, Milk-Bone Trail Mix is, at least, fairly healthy for dogs of all sizes. With a guaranteed analysis that declares the Milk-Bone Trail Mix have at least 11% crude protein and 6% crude fat and at most 3% fiber and 16% moisture, these are not at all bad snacks. Made primarily of wheat flour, whole ground wheat, and brewer’s rice, Milk-Bone has made a generally snack for dogs.

Milk-Bone Trail Mix are small enough to be great for a training reinforcement snack, but I’m not wild about the packaging and price. Because they only come in resealable 9 oz. bags, it is very easy to go through bags of these while training for a few weeks. Myah and I went through an entire bag one week and I suspect getting her to roll over is going to cost me another whole bag! The environmental impact of that – in addition to the cost – is not something I am wild about.

That said, Milk-Bone Trail Mix are apparently tasty and enough of an inducement to get Myah to follow basic commands. That makes them worthwhile to me!

For other dog treat reviews, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Dental Smartbones Large
Hartz Crunch ‘N Clean Savory Dog Biscuits
Purina Benefuls Baked Delights Stars

5/10

For other pet product reviews, be sure to visit my Pet Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the dog product reviews!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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