Dog Treats and Toys from @Chewy

Jeffie, Rudy and Rosie especially love Chewy this month because they were sent a dog toy and a bag of dog treats to review.  That's twice as much fun!

They were more than happy to taste test some Orijen Free Run Duck Singles Freeze-Dried Dog Treats.

Made with a single meat ingredient, Orijen Singles provide a simple and pure way to reward and nourish your dog with natural tastes he will love. Made from cage-free duck raised on natural grains and well water in Ontario, Cananda, these unique treats are loaded with goodness and natural flavor. They're gently freeze-dried to keep your cherished dog healthy, happy and strong, and are made without cooking or preservatives so you can feel good about treating him!

Key Benefits

• Single-source treats
• Made from 100% meat and nothing else!
• Freeze-dried to lock in flavor and nutrition
• Guaranteed analysis to mirror mother nature
• Low calorie and carbohydrate free
• Approximately 55 treats per 2-oz bag and 95 treats per 3.5-oz bag

Ingredients:
 Duck liver, boneless duck

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein (min.)50%
Crude Fat (min.)30%
Crude Fiber (max.)1%
Moisture (max.)2%

 

Jeffie loves the smell of Orijen Free Run Duck dog treats.

All three of my dogs have enjoyed Orijen dog treats and freeze dried dog food, so I was confident they'd like these treats.  I love that they contain just one real ingredient: duck.   Jeffie and Rosie loved them.  In the interest of full disclosure I have to tell you that Rudy spit his out.  Guess he's not into duck.

Quack, quack! Jeffie and Rosie want more!

The good folks at Chewy also sent us a KONG Squeezz Ball with Handle Dog Toy

KONG Squeezz Ball with Handle is the perfect interactive toy for you and your dog. Designed for durability with a recessed, protected squeaker, KONG Squeezz Ball with Handle is great for indoor and outdoor use.

Rosie got the hang of the KONG Squeezz Ball with Handle right away.

Key Benefits

• Perfect for tossing, tugging and retrieving
• Recessed/protected squeaker induces play
• Available in two sizes: M and L
• Colors vary (Ruby, Amethyst, Emerald or Sapphire) - You choose the size, color ships at random!

We received a ruby KONG Squeezz Ball for large dogs and it was a big hit with my dog pack.

You want me to tug it?  How about you throw it instead.

The squeaker is just loud enough to be interesting to my dogs - without getting on our nerves.  Though Rosie really wanted to chew on the handle and Rudy preferred playing fetch instead of tug of war, I'd say the KONG Sqeezz Ball is a winner.

Umm, Rosie, you're not supposed to chew the handle.

Rudy says:  Throw it!

We've been giving our dogs KONG toys for years.  We've found them to be safe, soft in their mouths, very durable, and they keep our dogs engaged for both inside and outside play.   The KONG Squeezz Ball with Handle is a barking good addition to the KONG dog toy offerings.

Rudy and Rosie love this new KONG toy for their tandom retrieving.

We first became aware of Chewy online pet products over three years ago.  We loved them then and we still do.  Living in a rural area, we can purchase brands and products that we can't find locally.  Plus, Chewy has great prices and there's always a sale going on some of our favorite dog products.

There are lots of reasons to like Chewy.com

• Fast shipping to our front door (free if our order is over $49)
• Over 200 brands to choose from in pet food, treats, and supplies
• Great prices and frequent sales
• Easy to navigate web site and terrific customer service
• Chewy.com gives back via their Shelter and Rescue Network 

 * We received a KONG Squeezz Squeezz Ball with Handle dog toy and one 2 oz package of Orijen Free-Run Duck dog treats from Chewy.com in exchange for our honest review of the product and service.  We received no other compensation - financial or otherwise.

Talking Dogs is the official blog of For Love of a Dog Jewelry.

We're joining the Tasty Tuesday blog hop today.  This is a blog hop that celebrates good food, sponsored by Sugar the Golden Retriever and Kols Notes.  

Orijen Freeze-Dried Dog Food from Chewy.com | Product Review

We like Orijen dog treats, so when Chewy.com asked if we'd like to try Orijen Adult Freeze-Dried Dog Food, we quickly agreed with the understanding that we would use this as a topper for our dogs' regular food.

We like that Orijen pet food is made in Canada with regional ingredients that are sustainably raised, human grade, and fresh.

In fact, their freeze dried foods are made from fresh, raw ingredients.  The food is then flash frozen and freeze-dried to preserve freshness.  According to Orijen, this offers all the benefits of a raw diet.  

According to the Chewy.com web site:

Orijen Adult Freeze-Dried Dog Food is loaded with meat ingredients (90%), including a Biologically Appropriate symphony of cage-free chicken, turkey and nest-laid eggs from local farms, plus wild-caught herring and flounder from North Vancouver Island — all delivered to Orijen's kitchen fresh, where they’re flash frozen and gently freeze-dried to lock in their goodness and taste. Brimming with goodness to nourish your dog completely, Orijen Adult Freeze-Dried Dog Food features poultry and fish in authentic Whole Prey ratios, including richly nourishing liver and heart, marrow and cartilage which supply essential vitamins and minerals in natural form, dramatically reducing the need for synthetic ingredients in Orijen foods

Key Benefits

• Freeze-dried to lock in flavor and nutritional value
• Made without preservatives
• Balanced meal perfect for daily feeding
• High-protein, low-carbohydrate formula

Chewy.com sent us a bag of Orijen Adult Freeze Dried Dog food.   Inside the ziplock bag we found 12 little "cakes" of food to re-hydrate.  The food smells good - a bit like alfalfa.

To feed, you need to crumble the number of "cakes" into a portion of hot water to re-hydrate.  This procedure reminds me of those boxed amaryllis bulbs available around the Christmas holidays.  You know the ones where you need to "create" the potting soil from a dehydrating "cake."

At any rate, with a ration of 1/4 cup of hot water to each cake, this procedure takes about 5 minutes.  It's safe to say that Jeffie, Rudy and Rosie thought it smelled fantastic and were pretty eager to try it. 

Orijen Adult Dog Freeze-Dried Dog Food Ingredients:

Chicken (ground with bone)*, turkey (ground with bone)*, whole herring*, chicken liver*, chicken heart*, whole eggs*, spinach greens*, pea fiber, turkey liver*, turkey heart*, whole flounder*, ground sunflower seeds, Red Delicious apples*, Bartlett pears*, Red Heart plums*, Tilton apricots*, pumpkin*, Butternut Squash*, Imperator carrots*, cranberries*, blackberries*, blueberries*, kelp*, mixed tocopherols, chicory root, dandelion root, summer savory, peppermint leaf*, ginger root*, zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, copper proteinate, manganese proteinate. * DELIVERED FRESH, preservative-free and never frozen.

You might need a magnifying glass to read the instruction for preparing this food.  Instructions are on the side in very fine print.  (Or maybe I just need new glasses!)   And here come's the only less-than-pro remark I have to say about this food.

Our pack includes two 90-some pound dogs and a 70 pound still-growing puppy.   

A 6 oz bag of Orijen Adult Dog Freeze-Dried food contains 12 medallions (which I'm calling "cakes).  

Recommended Usage

Using the table below as an initial guide, feed approximately 4% of your dog’s weight in reconstituted food daily. Feel free to supplement with the occasional raw meaty bone. WEIGHT OF DOG MEDALLIONS PER DAY 2 kg / 4 ½ lb 1 ½ 3kg / 6 ½ lb 2 5 kg / 11 lb 3 7 kg / 15 ½ lb 3 ¾ 11 kg / 24 lb 5 ¼ 15 kg / 33 lb 6 ½

For your dog to enjoy ORIJEN’s amazing fresh food flavors to the fullest, rehydrate orijen freeze dried foods by adding 1/4 cup (4 tbsp) (60ml) of warm water per medallion, wait 2-3 minutes and serve. HAVE A LARGER DOG? For each 5kgs/11lbs of additional body weight feed 1 1/2 additional medallions daily PUPPIES AND PREGNANT DOGS? PUPPIES: up to 50% grown feed twice adult amount, 50-75% grown feed 1½ times the adult amount, and 75-100% grown feed 1¼ times the adult amount. GESTATION: add ½ extra medallion per 5kgs of mothers body weight per day. Lactation: feed free choice. LEFTOVERS In the unlikely event of leftovers, we recommend refrigerating them immediately and discarding any leftovers older than three days.

Using that guide, it would take 15 1/2 medallions (cakes) to feed just Jeffie each day.   

In fact, to feed all three of my dogs would be 38 per day - just over 3 bags.   The cost of a 6 oz bag is $12.99 at Chewy.com. $38.97 per day.  Cost would prohibitive for many pet owners.

That said, if you had a small or very small dog, this would be a convenient and less costly way to feed your dog a diet similar to the popular raw diet.

All three of our dogs truly loved this food.  I think it is worthy noting that this food received the Dog Food Advisor's second highest rating of 4.5 stars.  

I'm pleased to recommend  Orijen Adult Freeze-Dried Dog Food.  I like the healthy ingredients and that this food is made by a Canadian company I trust.  Plus, I received it from Chewy.com, a company I love for their superior customer service, super fast home delivery, and wide selection of pet food and supplies.

* We received one bag of Orijen Adult Freeze-Dried Dog Food from Chewy.com in exchange for our honest review of the product and service.  We received no other compensation - financial or otherwise.

We're joining the Tasty Tuesday blog hop today.  This is a blog hop that celebrates good food, sponsored by Sugar the Golden Retriever and Kols Notes.  

Talking Dogs is the official blog of For Love of a Dog Jewelry.

Follow-up Friday: Dog Book, Dog Treats, Dog Ticks

I'm happy to be joining Heart Like a Dog in the follow-up Friday blog hop again this week.  This is the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.  Hosted by FUF creator, Jodi at Heart Like a dog and co-hosted this week by Misty Shores Chesapeakes.

So far it has been too cool and rainy to do any real swimming at our house, but maybe that's a good thing!  While we've been waiting for the sun to shine, I've been online window shopping doggie life jackets for Rosie because I'm sure she's going to love it.  However, I'm glad to have stumbled on this blog post from Life in the Dog Lane about Swimmer's Tail in Dogs before we took our first dip in the pool this year.  I'd never heard of it.  It is real and if you have a pool and your dogs swim with you in it, you better check it out!

Live within traveling distance to Kansas City?  One of my favorite places, Wayside Waifs has been selected as one of 50 shelters in the US to compete in the ASPCA/Rachael Ray $100K Challenge.  Wayside's goal is to adopt 1,831 animals by August 31, 2013 and win the cash.  To kick off their efforts, Wayside Waifs is having an "Adopting Around the Clock" event beginning tonight at midnight.  All adoptions are just $25.



Wiener Dog Song: Dog Song Saturday
Just have to say... if you love wiener dogs, you should watch this Doxie dog music video!

Adopt Thor a Bernese Mountain Dog Mix
Three years old, beautiful, and waiting for you in St Louis!  If you're not participating in the Tuesday Tails blog hop, consider joining us.

Thor - Available for adoption at the HSMO

Book Review: It's Just A Dog by Russ Ryan
Russ Ryan is a real dog lover and he's written a charming dog tale with humor and heart.  Be sure to check out our book review, plus enter to win a paperback copy of It's Just A Dog.  Hurry!  Giveaway ends Sunday night midnight.  Plus, if you purchase this book, do it before September 2.  Prior to that date 50% of the sales will be donated to Muttville Senior Dog Rescue!

A barking good dog story by a guy who loves dogs!

As part of the giveaway, I asked readers to comment about how they would feel if their beloved dog came back as a ghost and how their current dog(s) would feel about it.

A few commented that it would scare them, including Amy, Sugar, lennyg.  Several said they'd love it!  I agree with Snoopy about that quote saying love never dies.  Danielle, Christine and Caren... their dogs are their first dogs, so they couldn't answer the question!

Jackie said, "If Bailey came back (our first dog) she would be like, 'hey! How come Rita gets to eat wed food, when all I ever got was kibble?!!'"
I know my Benji would say the same thing!

I've thought a lot about Shelley's comment that she's had dreams of her 20 yr old dog, Penny, coming back as a ghost and Shelley had a chance to tell her what she didn't get to.   Wow.  If Lucy came back as a ghost, I'd feel that way, too.  And I would be thrilled.

Orijen Dog Treats from Chewy.com Product Review
This wasn't the first time we've received dog treats to try from Chewy.com and to say my dogs are fans of Chewy.com is putting it mildly.  There's a double bonus for Jeffie.  Not only does he usually love the dog treats and taste testings, he gets to try to scare the life out of the FedEx man. 

A number of readers commented favorably about Orijen /Champion Pet Foods.  We loved these treats!

The Tick King on a better day!

The Tick King Dog
I published a teaser on Wordless Wednesday.  In fact, on my Facebook page I said:  Moses in the bulrushes?  No.  Jeffie in the cattails.  Almost everyone seemed to think this was a pleasant adventure.  Nope.  Not even for Jeffie.

I am still creepy crawly and so is Jeffie.  We're still picking/finding ticks from this little adventure.  Yesterday I found 3 seed ticks on him.  Dead, but still...  This year we realized the ticks were going to be bad.  The dogs have now had 2 (monthly) applications of Frontline.  Usually we do not have to apply any topicals.

Most of the ticks are just catching a ride.  But not all.

Here's the real problem:  though Frontline does kill them if they're sucked in and does seem to kind of repel them... it takes only a few hours for disease to transfer from the tick to the host once they've sucked in.

Add to that, though Frontline kills the ticks that manage to attach, I'm now finding dead ticks on Jeffie.  

Smart ticks.  Though Rudy and Rosie would be more tender morsels, Jeffie's wild fur coat makes a perfect place to run and hide.  Jeffie now endures many (way too many if you ask him) "tick checks" a day.  

I'm really not sure how many ticks total there were.  I stopped counting at 50 and my guess is that was about half way through the "big" removal.

We usually do not even have to apply any topicals to the dogs, in spite of living on a farm in the country.  So, even if you've never had any problems with ticks before, I encourage you to be vigilant.

We're organic gardeners, but this year we're spraying. 


So, what 's your week been like?  Join the Follow-up Friday hop and tell us all about it!



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Orijen Dog Treats from Chewy.com: Product Review

When Chewy.com contacted us to see if we'd like to give Orijen dog treats a taste test, we jumped at the chance.

We love Chewy.com because they have such a wide selection of pet food and treats, fast home delivery, plus their customer service is outstanding.

This order was no exception.  Within just a couple of days, FedEx delivered our Orijen Black Angus Beef Freeze Dried Dog Treats.


Our dogs loved these dog treats!  They smelled good as soon as we opened the package and each dog was eager to take a turn with the taste testing!

Rudy could hardly wait!

Jeffie tries to savor the taste!

Orijen single-source dog treats are 100% pure meat, grain-free, 5-7 calories per treat and come in five flavors:  Alberta Wild Boar, Brome Lake Duck, Black Angus Beef, Free Range Bison, and Ranch Raised Lamb.  Orijen has also created three formula-matched treats (matched with their dog foods):  Original, Regional Red, and Tundra flavor.
  

 According to the Chewy.com website:

Orijen includes more fresh meat than any other dry pet food brand.  Orijen is designed to mirror a natural animal diet and includes a diversity of meats.  Free-run chicken and turkey, fresh whole eggs, free-range red meats and fresh saltwater and freshwater fish make for a healthy and nourishing diet.

Orijen is made by Champion Petfoods and is produced using only the freshest regional ingredients.  Champion Petfoods is Canada's award-winning pet food maker.  Located in the heart of Alberta's prairies, Champion Petfoods got their start in 1985.  Their foods are matched to the digestive systems of both dogs and cats.  Origen brings peace of mind to owners by promoting peak health of their pets in addition to containing natural flavors that their pets crave.

Champion Petfoods closely works with local farmers, fishermen, food processing innovators, and the scientific community to produce the highest quality products.  Arriving fresh from the region each day, the meat is never frozen and never exposed to heat or chemicals.  The harvested fruits and vegetables are ripe with vitamins, enzymes, and antioxidants.  The natural herbs help strengthen organs and tissues while supporting the digestion process of pets.

All these fresh ingredients are processed under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's highest food safety standard.  Even the ingredient suppliers are approved by the United States Department of Agriculture.

We gave the Orijen Black Angus Beef Singles Freeze-Dried Dog Treats a taste test.  Ingredients:  Angus beef liver, boneless Black Angus beef, Black Angus tripe.

Pros:

• 100% Pure beef
• High in protein
• Grain-free formula 
• Only 6 calorie per treat
• Single ingredient treat
• Made without cooking or preservatives
• Re-sealable bag for freshness
• Made with Canada’s best and freshest ingredients in Orijen's own kitchen!

Priced $7.99 to $12.99 at Chewy.com, it's easy to fill your cart and there's free shipping with any order over $49!

We give these dog treats and Chewy.com all paws up!

Rosie says:  More, please!

* We received one bag of Orijen dog treats from Chewy.com in exchange for our honest review of the product and service.  We received no other compensation - financial or otherwise.

We're joining the Tasty Tuesday blog hop today.  This is a blog hop that celebrates good food, sponsored by Sugar the Golden Retriever and Kols Notes.