The Innocent Hound Sliced Venison Sausages with Potato

Getting a dog through an exclusion diet is rarely defeated by the food. It is defeated by the treats — the training rewards, the biscuit handed over at the door, the thing somebody else gave them — because those are the bits nobody writes down.

The composition here is short enough to read at a glance: venison at 80%, then vegetable glycerine, potato and minerals. Nothing else. The Innocent Hound hand-make them in Yorkshire and air-dry rather than bake them, and sell them sliced. The analysis is crude protein 32.6%, crude oils and fats 15.8%, crude ash 3.2%, crude fibres 0.5% and moisture 31.9%. They are grain free, described as hypoallergenic and single protein, and listed as suitable for dogs on raw diets.

• Venison at 80% of the composition
• Single protein, grain free, hypoallergenic
• Crude protein 32.6%, crude oils and fats 15.8%
• Crude ash 3.2%, crude fibres 0.5%, moisture 31.9%
• Air-dried and made in Britain
• 70G pack, listed as suitable for raw diets

Grain free is not the same as starch free. Potato is in the composition, immediately after the glycerine, so if what you are avoiding is carbohydrate rather than cereal specifically this is not the treat for it. There is no calorie figure and no guidance on how many slices a day, and at 15.8% oils and fats these are rich enough to be worth counting. No slice count is published for the 70G pack either, so how far it goes depends on how thickly you cut what arrives.

Who it's for: owners working through a food trial with their vet, and anyone with a dog that has already reacted to chicken, beef or lamb and needs a reward that will not undo the experiment.