Start with the job the treat is doing
Treats and chews are not one category — they're three. Mixing them up is how owners end up overfeeding, breaking teeth, or giving their dog a chew that does nothing for their teeth despite the marketing.
Training treats need to be small, soft, smelly, and low-calorie. A 25-pound dog needs roughly 700 calories a day. A single training session with a clicker can hit 80+ rewards. If your treat is 8 calories per piece you've just blown 90% of your daily treat budget on one walk. Look for treats under 4 calories per piece. Zuke's Mini Naturals at 3 cal/piece and Wellness Soft Puppy Bites at ~3 cal/piece are the trainer defaults for this reason.
Dental chews are the only category where the evidence bar is high. The Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) reviews submitted clinical studies and awards a Seal of Acceptance to products that demonstrate 10%+ plaque or tartar reduction. As of 2026 the dog-side list is short: Greenies, Whimzees, Virbac C.E.T., OraVet, and a handful of others. If a chew is sold as "dental" but the package doesn't carry the VOHC seal, you are paying for a treat, not a clinical tool.
Long-lasting chews are about occupation and tooth health for heavy chewers. Bully sticks are the safest format: single-ingredient (100% beef pizzle), digestible, and unlike rawhide they break down rather than splintering. Choose US-sourced when possible — Best Bully Sticks and Jack&Pup both publish sourcing. Himalayan yak cheese chews are a second strong format — dense, slow to break down, and you can microwave the nub at the end for a "puff" treat.
Hard bans
The FDA has issued explicit warnings on three categories, and every veterinary nutrition and dental source aligns with them.
- Rawhide. Documented choking, GI obstruction, and contamination. The fact that any pet store still sells it is more a function of legacy inventory than safety.
- Cooked bone treats. Ham bones, pork femurs, smoked knuckles, rib bones. The FDA logged 90+ adverse events and 15 deaths between 2010 and 2017. The bones splinter.
- Xylitol. Increasingly used in "sugar-free" peanut butter, gum, and baked goods. Causes rapid insulin release in dogs and can kill within 20 minutes. Never buy peanut-butter treats without explicit "xylitol-free" labeling.
A fourth, softer caution: jerky pet treats sourced from China. The FDA's 2007–2018 investigation into chicken-jerky illness was never closed with a single root cause, but the volume of reports caused a market shift toward domestic sourcing. Read the back of the bag and prefer US- or Canada-sourced.
Calorie discipline
Cornell's Riney Canine Health Center estimates 60% of US dogs are overweight or obese, and the single most common cause in otherwise healthy dogs is treats and table scraps. The 10% rule is simple: total daily treats should not exceed 10% of your dog's daily calories. For a 25-lb dog at 700 kcal/day, that's 70 calories. That's about 23 Zuke's Mini Naturals — or one bully stick, or one and a half dental chews. Pick which calorie budget you're spending.
What to ignore
"Grain-free" treats: same FDA DCM concern as grain-free kibble (open since 2019); skip unless your vet diagnosed a grain allergy. "Single-ingredient" claims on multi-ingredient bags: read the actual label. "Made in the USA" with no sourcing detail: sourcing matters more than packaging location — ask where the protein came from.
