Thanksgiving Kit for the Dog
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The dog's problem on Thanksgiving is not the food. It is that eight people are arriving at four, everybody is in the kitchen, and the one person who usually throws a ball is holding a roasting tin. This kit is two stations and two bags: something to empty in the morning, something to lick in the afternoon, and two smells strong enough to compete with a turkey coming out of the oven.
Four in the afternoon, and nobody is available
A dog underfoot in a hot kitchen gets shouted at, and then it goes and stands by the front door instead, where it meets every arriving guest at knee height. Neither of those is the dog's fault. The fix is having somewhere else for it to be, prepared before the first car pulls up. The same reasoning drives our rainy day indoor enrichment kit, which is the version for a Tuesday. The full set of kits lives on the bundle guides hub.
Station one, the turkey you can freeze
SodaPup describes the Roasted Turkey eDispenser as a rubber, turkey shaped chew toy and treat dispenser for large dogs. SodaPup says it is orange with a textured surface, made from rubber, and can be filled with kibble, peanut butter or frozen treats, then frozen for 2 to 4 hours for a longer session. SodaPup also states it stands 4.25 inches tall by 3 inches wide, holds about 5 fluid ounces, weighs 7.3 ounces and is sized for dogs 30 to 60 pounds. That two to four hour freeze window is the useful number here. Load it when you put the bird in, and it is ready when the guests are.
Cheddar bites are what goes inside. One ingredient, cheddar cheese, eight ounce bag, freeze-dried in Malvern. They pack into a five ounce cavity without turning to paste, and a frozen load takes roughly three times as long to clear as the same load at room temperature. That is the difference between covering the arrival and covering the first ten minutes of it.
Station two, a mat for when the oven door is open
SodaPup describes the Fall eMat as a lick mat with a fall leaves raised pattern, sized for dogs and cats. SodaPup says it is made from TPE and measures about 8 inches by 8 inches, and that you spread peanut butter, yogurt, pumpkin puree, apple sauce or wet food into the leaf pattern, or freeze it first for a longer session. Two stations rather than one is deliberate. A dog that finishes the dispenser at four twenty needs somewhere to go at four forty, and standing up to refill a toy in the middle of carving is not a plan.
Freeze-dried tripe is the one that beats the smell of the actual turkey, which is a high bar on this particular day. The only ingredient is beef tripe, in 1.5, 2 or 4 ounce sizes. It is unpleasant to a human nose and irresistible to a dog, and that asymmetry is exactly what you want when you are trying to call the dog out of a kitchen. Our freeze-dried treats are made in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania and ship from us, and the rest of the single ingredient range is in the freeze-dried treats aisle.
What is deliberately not here
There is no turkey flavored dog dinner and no pumpkin biscuit. Most Thanksgiving lists carry both. We left the dinner out because this is not a food kit and swapping a dog's meal on the day eight strangers arrive is a bad idea for reasons that have nothing to do with the recipe. Biscuits went because they empty a dispenser in one shake. Everything here either crumbles into a cavity or smears into a groove, which is the property that makes a station last. If you want to sort our range by protein or format before you swap anything, Explore does it.
The day, in order
- Morning, bird in the oven: pack the turkey dispenser with cheddar bites, add a splash of water, freeze it upright.
- Same time: load the mat and freeze it flat.
- Three o'clock: walk the dog properly, further than usual. A tired dog will settle onto a station; a fresh one will carry the toy into the kitchen and drop it by your feet.
- Ten to four: dispenser down in a room with a door, away from the hall.
- Four forty: swap in the mat without conversation, then close the door again.
- After the meal: tripe in your pocket for the recall you will need when somebody props the back door open.
No table scraps. Cooked bones, onion and rich drippings are the three things that turn this day into a phone call to an emergency clinic, and the usual route is a guest being generous rather than anybody in the house. Say it out loud before people sit down. SodaPup/True Dogs, LLC items are sold and shipped by SodaPup/True Dogs, LLC through Shopify Collective, not made or shipped by Sniff and Shift.
What it stands in for
A crate, a baby gate and an afternoon of apologizing. Two refillable objects cover the day and then carry on working every weekend after it, which a novelty biscuit does not. The tripe bag will outlast the leftovers by about two months.
Questions
My dog is 20 pounds, is the turkey dispenser wrong
SodaPup sizes it for dogs 30 to 60 pounds, so a smaller stuffable toy is the better swap. The mat works at any size and is the piece most people use more.
How far ahead can I load these
The night before is fine for both. A load that has been frozen overnight is harder than one frozen for two hours, which buys a little more time.
What do I do about the guest who wants to feed the dog
Hand them the tripe bag and tell them one piece. People want a job, and this way the dog gets rewarded for sitting rather than for standing next to the table.
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