Best treats for Weimaraner with itchy skin

If your Weimaraner is scratching and you suspect treats are the trigger, that's a really common and frustrating situation — and honestly, the treats are often the culprit. Most commercial treats are full of chicken, beef, cereals, and additives, all of which are frequent offenders for skin-reactive dogs. The best treats are high in protein, low in additives, and sized appropriately — and single-ingredient treats like dried fish skin or pure meat strips are usually the safest place to start when you're trying to identify a problem. Tell me a bit more: how old is your dog, how big, what treats have you been giving, and do you have any idea what ingredient you're trying to avoid?

Chicken is genuinely one of the most common food sensitivities in dogs, so that suspicion is well-founded. Supermarket jerky also tends to have additives, glycerol, and sometimes undeclared proteins, which makes it hard to pinpoint the exact trigger. The Bonio biscuits are worth ditching too — wheat, sugar, and multiple protein sources, not great for a reactive dog. What are you mainly using treats for with him? Training, rewards, or just giving him something to enjoy?

Perfect — that's actually an easy use case to solve well. For a recall reward on a sensitive 8-year-old Weimaraner where you want to cut chicken out of the equation, I'd go straight to Forthglade Pure Salmon Skins. They're 100% salmon skin, nothing added — no chicken, no grain, no additives. Salmon is a novel protein for most dogs who've been eating chicken-heavy diets, so the immune system is much less likely to react to it. The strips are easy to break into smaller pieces for training, they're high in natural omega-3s which can actually help calm skin inflammation over time, and they have a strong smell that dogs find very rewarding — important for a Weimaraner who needs a good incentive to come back. You can find them on Amazon UK or in most decent pet shops. Give it two to three weeks with only these and see if the scratching settles — it'll also help confirm whether chicken really was the issue.

It's a fair question, but novel proteins — ones the dog hasn't been exposed to before — are much less likely to trigger a reaction precisely because the immune system hasn't built up a sensitivity to them. That's the logic behind fish, venison, or duck in elimination diets. Salmon skin is also a single ingredient, so if he does react, you know exactly what caused it — no guesswork. Just introduce them gradually over the first few days rather than giving a large amount straight away, and keep an eye on him. If the itching improves over the next few weeks on salmon skin only, that's strong evidence chicken was the driver.

Good plan. Cut the chicken jerky and the Bonio completely while you're testing — even small amounts can keep a reaction going. Stick to the salmon skins only for three to four weeks and you should have a clear picture. If the skin settles down, you've found your answer. If it doesn't improve at all, it may be something environmental or worth a vet visit to look at more broadly. Good luck with him.