The other day Sadie got a sample of a new type of treat she’s never tried before – a cow ear. Sounds pretty gross to me, but Sadie was excited when I took it out of the package. I’m always happy when she shows interest in all natural dog treats, so I was glad when she grabbed it right away and ran off to chew on her new treat.
At first Sadie had a grand time chewing on her cow ear and trying to figure out the best way to hold it. Then I noticed that she wasn’t eating any of it. Sadie was treating the ear more like a toy or a paper towel, ripping it up into little pieces just for the fun of it. I can understand her confusion. It does have a very different texture from any of her other treats. It almost seems like a giant doggie tortilla chip, although it doesn’t break nearly as easily.
I actually had to convince Sadie that she could eat the pieces if she wanted to. Eventually she got into the habit of tearing off a few pieces, then eating the pieces, then tearing it up some more. Honestly I think she enjoyed destroying it more than she enjoyed eating it. There are still pieces laying around the house that she broke off but never bothered to eat. But it makes a good distraction treat for my dog, giving her something to do with the built in reward of eating the pieces she tears off.
This post is part of the Tasty Tuesday blog hop hosted by Sugar the Golden Retriever and Kol’s Notes.
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Treat or not a treat is a good question, that being cow. Rawhide (cow skin) is actually a bad treat for dogs, as it doesn’t digest and causes issues for a lot of dogs, but I don’t know about the ear. I’d assume, it being cow skin, that it would be similar to rawhide. Pig skin or ear is a great multi-purpose chew, though. Or the cow hoof.
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Thanks for the info! I knew rawhide can be potentially dangerous, but for some reason my brain didn’t connect rawhide and cow ear. Now I’m glad Sadie’s not too interested in it 🙂