AWESOME AUSSIES

Many owners love to lavish goodies on their pooches: bacon and cheese snacks, pig ears, and an endless stream of table scraps. But all that affection comes at a hefty price. Before Fido turns fat, it may be time to consider healthy dog treats.

In other words, skip the cheesy chews and bring on the baby carrots.Baby carrots? Yes. “Dogs like the crunch,” says Ernie Ward, DVM, aveterinarian in Calabash, N.C. Ward is also president of the Association forPet Obesity Prevention. He founded the group in 2005 to highlight the growing  problem of heavy, out-of-shape pets. He has treated many overweight dogs that come to his practice with osteoarthritis. “That is the number one thing that wesee: obese pets that are literally crippled by pain,” Ward says.

Heavy dogs also face heightened heart disease and cancer risks, Ward says. About 44% of dogs in the U.S. are overweight orobese, according to statistics from his group’s web site. But he tells WebMD that owners can take action. “When you look at obesity-related disorders,” Wardsays, “they are typically chronic, incurable, expensive, but generally preventable.”

Are treats making dogs fat? Treats have a place in a dog’s diet, veterinarians say. Besides spicing up adog’s day, treats -- such as small liver treats or salmon flakes -- are anexcellent way to motivate and reward puppies. One example might be duringhouse-training.

But today, Ward says, too many commercial dog treats are loaded with fat and sugar. “This makes these treats almost irresistible,” he says. “This is whyyour dog will dance and howl and yip and run and do amazing things just to getone of these goodies. I call them calorie grenades.”

Even a single, high-calorie treat, such as packaged beef, bacon, or cheese snacks, can fill as much as one-fourth to one-fifth of a small dog’s daily calorie needs. “It’s really dangerous,” says Ward, “because pet owners are inthe habit of giving two or three treats at a time. Voila -- obesity.”

Experts say that too many owners forget to factor treats into a pet’soverall caloric intake. “A general recommendation is that treats should notmake up more than 15% to 20% of the pet’s total diet,” says Sarah Abood, DVM,PhD. Abood is an assistant professor of small animal clinical sciences at the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine. She tells WebMD that the restriction still holds whether it’s commercial treats or people food.

Certain store-bought treats, such as dried chicken strips, are a better,low-fat choice than some of the heavily processed, high-fat snacks, says MarkNunez, DVM, a veterinarian in Van Nuys, Calif. Nunez is also president of theCalifornia Veterinary Medical Association. “I usually tell my clients, if it sounds like junk food, it probably is junk food,” he says.

Natural Dog Treats For owners interested in homemade or organic dog treats, Ward says, “It’sstill better to give natural, whole foods. I look for crunchy vegetables.” He suggests offering small portions of snacks such as green beans, celery, or cooked yams, including canned ones. “You have to experiment with your own dog,”he says. But avoid onions, garlic, grapes and raisins, which are toxic todogs.

Some owners have told Ward that their dogs refuse veggies. But he encourages them to keep putting healthy choices before them, as parents would do with children.

In the summertime, Ward freezes small chunks of apples, kiwi, and watermelon into ice cubes for his dog to lick outdoors. “They’re great for a hot day.Those are simple things that people can do,” he says.

Nunez says chicken hot dogs or tofu hot dogs -- the ones for human consumption -- can also be cut into pieces for dog treats.

It’s also easy to concoct delicious, natural dog treats at home, Ward says.Here’s one of his recipes:

Lickety Split

1 frozen banana

1 cup rice milk or nonfat yogurt

Place ingredients in blender. Mix until creamy. Serve chilled.

Each 4 oz. serving has about 65 calories. To reduce calories, substitute 2/3cups strawberries instead of using a banana.

Table scraps and bones What about feeding a dog from the dinner table? Nunez discourages the habit because it trains a pet to become a meal time mooch. “You don’t want to get the dog used to begging at the dinner table,” he says.

In contrast, Ward believes that it’s unrealistic to expect dog owners to avoid table feeding. But that doesn’t mean that owners should slip their dogs greasy chicken skins or scraps of fat. “I think it boils down to having good choices,” Ward says. “If you’re going to feed from the table, make it vegetablechoices.”

Both veterinarians agree, though, that contrary to popular belief, dogs should not chew on bones, either from the pet store, butcher’s counter, or leftovers from owners’ meals.

“It’s a common thought that dogs have been eating bones since the dawn oftime. But bones can cause a lot of problems,” Nunez says. Dogs can fracture aback molar when they crunch down on a bone, or they may swallow bone splinters and suffer gastrointestinal irritation. “As a general rule of thumb, I tell people to avoid bones,”Ward says. “I don’t see any need from a nutritional stand point, and it runs aninherent risk.”

Compressed rawhide bones, horse hooves, and pig ears can also irritate orobstruct the intestinal tract, experts say.

So what’s a bored dog to do? Instead of giving a dog a bone to gnaw, place afew healthy treats inside a rubber Kong dog toy, which makes the pet work harder to dislodge snacks with its tongue. “That occupies a lot of time,”