Are hot dogs ok for my 4 1/2 month Yorkie?!?!?
 

I am taking my yorkie(4 1/2months old) to puppy kindergarten in a week, and the trainer wants me to bring soft treats for him and she recomended raw hot dogs! All we have given him is Hypoallergenic treats from the vet, they don't upset his stomach and given him diarhea, but other store brand kinds have. I am freaked out to give him raw hot dogs but she has said it is fine?

Anyone have any idea what I should do, we are new dog owners and feel totally naive about everything!

We used Nature's Recipe before we fed hollistic and you can find those at PetSmart and are a decent treat. Otherwise, I'd use Wellness Jerkey, it's soft, can be broken into teeny pieces so your pup doesn't get full and stop wanting treats, and has a strong aroma. Stay away from hot dog and treats like Pupperoni!

thanks a lot, I'll check out Petsmart tomorrow!

That's what I use all the time too... Wellness Jerkey. Roxy loves it & I like being able to easily break off tiny pieces as needed.

hmm... maybe i should try those for my babies!

Yikes! :eek:
Hot dogs are loaded with nitrates which researchers are linking to cancer! Definitely would not be bringing in a hot dog!

The breeder I got Sasha from told me to give her a tiny piece of hot dog before bed as that was something she did with her dogs/puppies at her house. Sasha is my first dog so I was very uneducated about everything when I first got her. If I had the choice to go back and change that I would since now I know better, but I didn't do it for very long and the pieces were so small that I don't think it would've done her any harm. I wouldn't recommend it, especially since yorkies tend to be prone to pancreatitis, but I always see several people using those Nature's Recipe treats for training classes. They seem to be a big hit!

Yes, they say soft treats but HOT DOGS??? How odd! I use something called Wild Bites-- buffalo and blueberry-- break them in to tiny pieces. She responds well to them, and is the best in class :p

We brought white meat chicken to class with us and gave little tiny tidbits as treats. I had all the puppies in the class hanging out with me.

I would avoid hot dogs. You are correct, the breed is prone to pancreatitis. I just spent $1200 in two weeks with Barney's recovery (and that was just from eating dog food never mind hot dogs!) along with stress and worrying that my dog was in horrible pain. Pancreatitis is very scary.

Have fun at obedience school!:)

Well after reading this i feel so much better. I really thought i was the only one that actually cooks all my baby boys meals. Lol. My family thinks im nuts, but obviously right ha ha... I only feed him chicken and veggies, like a stew or soup. I gave him beef once and it nearly killed him for some reason. The vet said to just avoid it. She also said under no circumstances should we give him hot dogs, (i thought he would like them so i asked)... Is there anything else with great taste i can give him in place of the meat, i think he is getting bored with the chicken and fish?

Exactly and they are not raw. They are a packaged precooked processed-meat product and are full of salt, preservatives and fillers. I'd bring the treats my Yorkie is used too and tell the trainer to deal with it.

If you are feeding your puppy home cooked food you need to make sure you are properly balancing the meals. In addition, most veterinary nutritionists will dissuade you from feeding home cooked to dogs under 1 year of age. I fed my pups home cooked exclusively for the first 5 years of their lives then used dog food 50/50 with it. Now we are back on 100% home cooked.

Balancing the diet is not easy nor cheap but it is very important. Your dog's nutritional needs are different than ours. Long term problems may be brewing if you are not doing this properly. There are resources on the internet from credible sources (i.e. veterinary nutritionists) for you to read and learn about home cooking for your dog. I just used the Welcome to Pet Diets site run by a prominent New England veterinary nutritionist to formulate a diet for Teddy, a healthy 16 month old dog (cost is $25). I did it so I could use the supplement "Balance It" rather than individual supplements as I've done all these years. The site will not let you pull a diet for a pup under 1 year old.

As for foods for variety - you can give fresh raw veggies (except onions/garlic) as treats. Mine seem to really like green beans, carrots, baby spinach, broccoli, bell peppers.

hot dogs are high in salt and fat; and can cause many problems; you can get
Buddy Biscuits Natural Soft & Chewy Dog Treats from petco

Hot dogs aren't ALL that weird to feed to your dog as treats... a lot of professional trainers uses pieces of hot dogs to train. I'm not gonna lie -- I sometimes will use little bits of hot dog but only when training Jackson a new trick. They highly motivate him... much more than dog treats. I use any kind of real meat (whether it be chicken, etc) when teaching him a new trick. He really loves the Wellness jerky treats, as well as Zuke's training treats, and chicken jerky (not made in China! ;)) Those are the 3 treats I typically buy him that he loves the most when it comes to dog treats. Once he's perfected and learned the trick, he just gets dog treats for doing it. :)

But he just gets *so* much more excited to learn something new when we have a hot dog, cheese, ham, or something else. I'm not claiming it's healthy, but it's never caused any issues for Jackson, and I'm not feeding him hot dog every single day or anything. But I think part of the reason Jackson is so willing to please and learn new tricks is because I try to use real meat... that's what dogs will work for! ;) However, I will say... that in a training class, you're going to be use LOTS of treats so hot dog is probably not the best choice because you don't wanna use too much of it. I also like boiling chicken breast for Jackson and using that as treats.

It is true that lots of trainers use hot dogs. My dogs will learn new tricks for a piece of baby spinach or a carrot but it is true that meat is more of a motivator in puppy class/obedience school when there are a lot of distractions around. I'd still stick with chicken breast or something that is a natural food and low in fat. If I even *say* the word chicken, I have three :aimeeyork:aimeeyork:aimeeyorks giving me their paw, rolling over, or waving at me. They are cute little buggers!