With pumpkin spice season upon us, we all get to appreciate our favourite seasonal foods and drinks, so why shouldn't our dogs get to appreciate them as well? We love sharing our favourite treats with our pets and we want to tell you some great ways that you can help your dog get on board with our pumpkin obsession. Not only is it delicious, pumpkin contains natural and healthy nutrients to promote your pet's well being. 

Benefits of Pumpkin

Digestion

Pumpkin aids in digestion by providing a nutritious fiber source that helps regulate speed of digestion and acts as a bulking agent to improve stool quality.

Skin & Coat Health

Pumpkin also contains high quantities of Vitamin A, E and Zinc that play an important role in skin and coat health, vision, and provide antioxidants to protect against "free radicals" that can damage cells leading to possible health concerns like cancer.

Weight Control

When managing a dogs weight, Pumpkin can be used to provide a feeling of fullness, allowing reduced calorie diets or portion controlling to aid in weight loss without leaving your dog feeling starved.

Check out this article for more in-depth look at the benefits of pumpkin for your dog. 

Types of Treats

Treats can be used for a variety of reason such as training, rewarding, mental stimulation, or health solutions.

Typically training treats are much smaller, softer or high value, allowing you to give larger quantities for the duration of the training session. Rewarding and mental stimulation treats on the other hand, although still high value, are either going to be larger and take longer to consume or will be used to stuff a toy or used in a game to occupy your dog for a longer period of time.

Solution based treats are becoming more and more common as an easier format for including supplements into a dogs diet. Although they may not be a complete solution on their own, they can add to or enhance an existing health care routine.

Top 11 Pumpkin Dog Treats

Plato Turkey with Pumpkin Treats

Plato Turkey and Pumpkin treats are slow roasted semi-soft treats made from USA grown turkey. These grain-free reward treats are great for instilling positive routine behaviours or as part of an interactive foraging game.

Coco Therapy Coco Charms Pumpkin Pie Training Treats

Coco Charms Pumpkin Pie training treats are small, comparable to kibble, and are loaded with coconut, pumpkin and ginger. These small but tasty treats are rich in healthy highly digestible fats that support skin and coat.

Spot Farms Duck Wrapped Pumpkin Chews

Made from human grade ingredients, this chew is flavorful and will provide a longer lasting chewing experience. This treat is great for rewarding positive routine behaviors and have the added benefit of improving dental health through harder chewing.

Cloud Star Dynamo Tummy Soft Chews

This treat is designed to support daily digestion using pumpkin, peppermint and probiotics (healthy bacteria). It's softer texture makes it easy to break into small pieces for training or rewarding as well. We recommend following the feeding guidelines for this solution treat to maximize the effect of the digestive support. 

Darford Grain Free Pumpkin Biscuits

Darford pumpkin biscuits are a low glycemic, meat-free cookie. They are great for rewarding, and the the mini's can be used for training treats. Using nutrient dense fruits and vegetables, and natural flavours such as annatto and rosemary, this is the perfect "everydog" biscuits.

Treatibles Grain Free Pumpkin Hard Chews

Definitely the most unique of all the treats on this list, Treatible Grain Free Pumpkin chews are not just loaded with pumpkin, coconut oil and turmeric, these treats also contain PCR Hemp Oil. PCR (Phytocannabinoid Rich Oil) is used as a solution for anxiety and pain management. Always follow dosage guidelines unless directed by a veterinarian.

Tuckers Pork/ Lamb and Pumpkin Carnibar

Although this is marketed as a complete dehydrated diet, Carnibars can be used as treats too. It's a little extra work cutting the bars into training sized pieces, but it extremely high value and it's loaded with mineral-rich heart, and bone marrow. 

Northern Pumpkin Pie Training Soft & Chewy Bites or Bite-Sized Biscuits

This Canadian product comes in two formats, a crunchy biscuit and a soft chewy treat. Either one is great for training or reward depending on you dog's texture preference. Softer treats may be better for young puppies as they have a stronger scent to help keep them focused on you during training. 

Fruitables Pumpkin & Cranberry Crunchy Biscuits

This typically fruit based line, has a strong irresistible scent. The cinnamon is not only a nose pleaser, but cinnamon can help regulate blood sugar and increase insulin resistance. With only 8 calories per treat, Fruitables Pumpkin and Cranberry biscuits are perfect for overweight pets that still need to be rewarded for a being a good boy.

Blue Buffalo Pumpkin & Cinnamon Health Bars

Using cinnamon in this option as well, the health bars are quite a bit larger than the other biscuits on this list, so we recommend using them in more of a reward capacity.

The treats in this list are our favourites, and we hope they will be yours too, but remember to select a treat that is appropriate for you pet's needs, and the purpose of giving the treat. Smaller breeds, and young puppies may need smaller portions to avoid overfeeding and digestive distress.

Treats can be up to 10% of a dog's diet as long as the other 90% is coming from a complete and nutritious diet. Don't be afraid to give a few extra treats when training a new puppy, or providing mental stimulation using a puzzle or interactive game. Just make sure you offset these extra calories by reducing their food or increasing physical and mental activity.

Whether you are looking for a new idea for training treats, increasing your pet's health, or just wanting to share some of your favorite seasonal flavours with your dog, this list offers something for all.

Let us know your dog's favourite pumpkin treat!