A gingerbread bar for dogs that is genuinely soft, not a hard biscuit pretending to be one. Four bars to a pack, each one easy to tear into halves or quarters with your fingers, which is the reason to buy it: it works as a Christmas treat on the sofa and as a training reward on a cold walk without carrying two different bags.

The recipe is plant-based and grain-free. Chickpea flour does the structural work, with dried ginger at 4%, dried carrot at 2% and fresh banana at 1% carrying the gingerbread idea, plus carob, cinnamon and turmeric. The published analysis is Crude Protein 13%, Crude Oils & Fats 8.5%, Crude Fibre 5.7%, Crude Ash 2.5% and Moisture 18%, which is a low-fat figure for a treat this soft.

• Four soft-baked bars in a 60g pack
• Vegan and grain-free, with no meat or dairy
• Dried ginger 4%, dried carrot 2%, fresh banana 1%
• Crude Protein 13%, Crude Oils & Fats 8.5%
• A complementary food, fed as a treat or reward

Vegetable glycerine is second on the ingredient list. That is what keeps the bars pliable rather than crunchy, and it is a sugar alcohol, so these are a treat to portion rather than a biscuit to leave in a bowl. It also means a dog who only really works for meat may look at you blankly the first time. If that is your dog, keep these for the tree and use something animal-based for recall.

Who it's for: owners who want a festive treat that suits a plant-based household, a dog with a meat sensitivity, or simply a soft bar that breaks down into training-sized pieces without crumbling into your coat pocket.