JR Pet Turkey and Venison Dog Advent Calendar

JR Pet Turkey and Venison Dog Advent Calendar is a 24-day advent calendar for dogs, filled with turkey and venison training treats.

Key Features

• Twenty-four doors, twenty-four treats: Pure turkey and venison training treats behind each door, which means the dog actually joins in with the countdown rather than watching everyone else open something.
• A full pack of Pure turkey sticks on Christmas Day: The last door is a whole pack rather than a single treat, so the twenty-fourth is worth waiting for.
• Venison is a genuinely novel protein: Which is unusual in a novelty product. Most dogs have never eaten venison, so this works even for a dog you are being careful with.
• Real treats, not novelty ones: 100% pure meat with no additives or preservatives. The same treats JR sell by the bag, in a calendar.

How Much Is Too Much

• Treats want to sit at around a tenth of a dog's daily calories. Everything above that either comes out of the main meal or goes on as weight.
• Air-dried meat is dense, because the water has been taken out of it. A 100 g bag is closer to three or four hundred grams of fresh meat in what it actually delivers, so it goes much further than the weight suggests.
• For training, break them small. A dog works just as hard for a fingernail sized piece as for a whole stick, and you get ten times the repetitions out of the bag.
• On a day with a big chew in it, cut the dinner. That is far easier than trying to take the weight off afterwards.

Single Proteins And Exclusion Diets

• These are single named proteins with nothing else in them, and that is what makes the range useful for more than treating.
• If you are running an exclusion diet to find a food sensitivity, a single protein treat is the only kind you can give without undoing the whole exercise. A treat labelled 'meat and animal derivatives' tells you nothing about what the dog ate.
• The novel proteins are the ones a dog has probably never been exposed to: ostrich, kangaroo, goat, rabbit, venison, sea bass. A dog reacting to chicken and beef has usually never met any of those, which is why a vet will point you at them.
• Introduce one new protein at a time and leave a couple of weeks between them, or you will not know which one caused what.

Storing Them

• Air-dried rather than cooked, so they keep by being dry. Keep them dry and they last; let them get damp and they will go mouldy.
• Reseal the bag or tip them into an airtight tub, and keep them off a sunny shelf and away from the hob.
• That matters more in this climate than it does where they are made. A bag left open in a humid kitchen softens within days.
• Natural products vary. Piece size, colour and thickness differ from bag to bag, because these were parts of animals rather than something extruded to a spec.

Good To Know

• Strictly seasonal, and it has to be in the house by the first of December to be any use. If you want one, order it in good time rather than hoping in late November.
• Twenty-four extra treats across December still count against the daily allowance. Trim the dinner slightly rather than adding them on top.
• Use the doors as training rewards rather than handouts. A treat that has been earned does more for a dog than one that has simply arrived.
• Keep it out of the dog's reach. A dog that finds the whole calendar will open all twenty-four doors at once.