Sunday, April 16, 2017

Happy Easter and Chewy Review

Welcome to our 22nd annual Easter biscuit hunt. Since this is also a Chewy review, I'll be honest and disclose that we held the hunt on Friday. Today we're having thunder storms with tons of rain.
We started our hunts in the living room of our townhouse in Maryland when we had three dogs. It's been fun for them and for us and we've learned a lot about how the dogs think. Over the years we've hidden lots of different goodies, (disclosure # 2, we've never hidden eggs). We've used regular dog biscuits and one of our favorites, Charlee Bear treats. They both worked well. When the pups were little we used baby carrots and last year because of the boys bad tummies, we used chunks of sweet potato. The only thing that didn't work for us was cheese balls. Apparently they have little  or no smell and the dogs couldn't see them in the grass. We had to point them out.

This year because Fudge, Sebastian and Mackey are on diets, we chose puppy sized Milk Bone biscuits. If they were lucky enough to find them, there weren't a ton of calories to upset the diets.
 We  held a preliminary hunt for Sydney and Sebastian. Syd doesn't play well with others and I wanted to avoid tensions. Sebastian moves at a slow pace and though he can find the biscuits, he usually gets beaten to them by the faster dogs. Rob and I hid the biscuits, some obvious and some well hidden.
Then we let Syd and Sebastian out. I needed to show a biscuit to Sebastian to let him know what to do, but then he went around looking for treasure by himself. Syd was a gobbling machine. She may be nuts but she isn't stupid and she knew instantly what to do. She cleaned up.
 Then we put those two inside and hid more biscuits. We made this hunt harder. Again we put a few in plain sight, then really made them work for the prizes.
 I was amazed that they knew immediately what was going on. After scarfing up the first few obvious ones, they spread out to look for hidden biscuits.
 Some worked in groups.
 Bailey likes to work alone, naturally.
Mackey jumped on the roof of the tower dog house to see if there were any up there. There were.
 Tess, who used to have to be led to each biscuit, now knows exactly what to do and even thought to check inside the tower. She was right.
Fudge isn't as fast as he used to be, but he found his share.
Finally the last biscuits were eaten. A few hours later it was dinner time and I'd planned for it. It's not unusual on special days for dogs, or peeps, to overindulge and sometimes tummy aches are the result. Because some of the pack had consumed a lot of biscuits, dinner was simple. Everyone got straight kibble with no exciting toppers, except one. On each bowl of kibble I sprinkled some Solid Gold SeaMeal.
For the past few years we've used FortiFlora as a probiotic. If someone is feeling poorly they get it every meal, otherwise we use it weekly for maintenance. This time we decided to try Seameal because I was intrigued by the ingredients. It's made with red, green and brown seaweed for vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. It also contains flaxseed for omega fatty acids. It promotes digestive health, good coat and skin and boosts the immune system.
 The dogs just thought it tasted great. Eight of them licked up the very last grain of SeaMeal when the kibble was gone.

Disclosure #3: Sebastian did not like the SeaMeal. He doesn't always like to try new things and I usually work them into his diet gradually. I don't know how he did it, but he managed to push all the SeaMeal to one side of his bowl and ate just the kibble. The girls were happy to lick up the SeaMeal that he left behind. I think if I disguise it better for a few days he'll get used to it.

The SeaMeal worked nicely. The Water Dogs loved the fishiness and nobody had an upset tummy that night.

If you're thinking about trying a treat hunt, all the goodies I've mentioned here, Milkbones, Charlee Bears, FortiFlora and of course SeaMeal are available from Chewy. They'll even deliver them right to your door, so you can just have fun.
Disclosure #4: Chewy sent us the jar of Solid Gold SeaMeal Supplement for dogs and cats at no cost to us in exchange for our honest review.

6 comments:

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

We are sure we'd like SeaMeal. We love fish! The hunt was great. We've only ever had a kibble scramble. Not sure we'd find hidden treats, except by accident. Happy Easter!

Molly the Airedale said...

What a fun hunt! I want to have one of those too! Happy Easter to all of you!

Matilda the Boxer said...

What a grreat idea! I'm telling Momma we need to do a belated Easter hunt.

Marjie said...

I always have a big jar of Milk Bones puppy sized treats here for the visiting pups. Maddie had a blast sharing them with Tank this weekend. We always hold easter dinner on Saturday so everyone can relax, hang out and leave mid-afternoon on Easter day, so you're celebrating the way we do! Great hunt pictures; I'm glad everyone had a good time and hunted plenty of biscuits.

Angels Amber and Max DaWeenie and Mom said...

You guys look like you had a wonderful Easter "bone" hunt! BOL

Happy Belated Easter. My Internuts aren't working very good.....again. :(

Lapdog Creations said...

22nd annual? WOW! We always love seeing your fun Easter hunts!