CANIDAE’S New Grain Free Dog Treats are “Pure Heaven!”

By Keikei Cole, canine guest blogger

Holy Mackerel! Correction, I should say yummy duck and salmon. I was going through my daily lessons the other day, not paying close attention to my regular tiny meal (aka my treat) the boss had in her hand. When I heard “Good Girl,” I knew my treat was on its way to my mouth. Imagine my surprise when I discovered a different taste. I noticed a hint of duck as I crunched away. No way! I figured it was my imagination left over from my duck hunting dream. Come to find out, it was one of CANIDAE's new grain free Pure Heaven dog treats.

I have no idea how the boss finds these great tasting treats, but she does a good job picking out some fine “motivators.” That's what I call those tiny meals she rewards me with when I do something good. Sometimes I get some just because she loves me! Cool, huh? Anyway, she smiled while I smacked my way through one treat, and then gave me a different one. She said one biscuit was called Pure Heaven Duck and Chickpea, and the other one was Pure Heaven Salmon and Sweet Potato. Is a chickpea related to a duck? Oh wait... I bet that's what little ducks are called?

Later, I had the boss out for her walk and we ran into my canine buddies Gunner and Eva. The humans were yakking away when all of a sudden the boss pulls out some of MY new CANIDAE treats. Well, I sat immediately. Gunner and Eva took one sniff of the offered treat, and did the same thing. Gunner's mom was surprised that he snarfed his, because he’s pretty picky about the treats he eats. Later that evening, Gunner sent me a message via doggy grapevine, and said he absolutely loved that treat! So, these new grain free treats must be exceptionally good if Gunner likes them.

Do Dogs Understand Human Speech?

By Langley Cornwell

Most dog people believe that their pets can understand them; some say their pets are in tune with their moods and emotions, and some even go so far as to say that their pets understand their actual words.

Nonetheless, scientists have yet to conclusively determine how much human speech dogs can truly understand. If you have a dog, you know they are able to link sounds with actions (let’s go for a walk, get in the car, lay down, shake, bow, etc.) but they struggle with concepts. For example, if you say, “Go get a toy” the dog will do just that. But if you have a ball and a rope side by side and you say, “Go get the rope” the dog may have a hard time determining which toy you are asking for.

There are exceptions to this. In fact, my friend’s yellow lab has 5 Frisbees, each a different color. If you tell her to get the pink one, she does. Likewise, if you ask her to bring you the red one, she does. Clearly, my friend’s dog displays a high level of cognition. And all of this is without any training!

Research confirms that dogs can functionally understand and use concepts like larger and different with a good bit of training with high value rewards like Canidae Pure Heaven treats, but my friend’s dog simply has this ability. Most dogs can label objects but have problems with differences like color or size (bring me the red Frisbee, bring me the big ball).

A well-known experiment conducted by German researchers confirmed that a Border Collie named Rico had a vocabulary of over 200 words. The researchers started by validating Rico’s vocabulary in a controlled setting. To do this, they collected 10 items Rico was familiar with. They had Rico’s owner issue a verbal command for the dog to fetch a specific item from another room. Rico performed this task perfectly. Next, the researchers wanted to take the experiment a step further so they placed another item –  one that was unfamiliar to Rico – among the familiar items. The owner requested the new item by name, even though Rico didn’t know the name of the item, and Rico brought the new item back to his owner.