What are the best treats for small dogs?
Short answer: the best treats for a small dog are single-ingredient, 100% real meat chews that are fully digestible, sized down to a small jaw, and small enough in calories that a daily treat doesn't quietly turn into a weight problem. Thin bully sticks, beef trachea, and small chicken or beef chews check every one of those boxes. What you want to avoid: rawhide, fillers, artificial preservatives, and anything hard enough to crack a little dog's tooth.
I'm Preston Smith, co-founder of Bully Sticks Central. We've been shipping natural chews to dog owners for years, and the questions we get from small-breed owners are almost always the same three: is it safe, is it going to make my dog fat, and will she actually eat it. Here's how we think about it.
Why does size matter so much with small dogs?
Two reasons: choking risk and calories.
A treat that a 70-pound Lab swallows without thinking is a genuine obstruction risk for an 8-pound Yorkie. Small dogs also have small mouths and, in many cases, crowded teeth — brachycephalic and toy breeds are especially prone to dental crowding and periodontal disease, which is one of the most common health problems veterinarians see in small breeds (VCA Animal Hospitals).
Then there's calories. The general veterinary guidance is that treats should make up no more than about 10% of a dog's daily calories (American Kennel Club). For a small dog eating a few hundred calories a day, that 10% is a very small budget. One oversized treat can blow through it. This is why we tell small-dog owners to buy the thinner, shorter version of a chew rather than handing over a full-size one — same chew, right portion.
What should you actually look for on the label?
- One ingredient. If the label lists more than the meat itself, ask why. Our chews are single-ingredient — beef is beef, chicken is chicken.
- No rawhide. Rawhide is a byproduct of the leather industry, it swells in the stomach, and it's the chew most often associated with blockages. We don't sell it, and we don't recommend it for small dogs.
- Fully digestible. A chew your dog breaks down is a chew that won't sit in the gut. Beef trachea and bully sticks both digest; nylon, hooves, and antlers don't.
- Hardness you can dent. The old vet rule of thumb: if you can't dent it with a fingernail or wouldn't want it hitting your kneecap, it's hard enough to fracture a tooth. Slab fractures on the upper carnassial are a classic result of chews that are too hard.
- Sourcing you can trace. Ours is ethically sourced from grass-fed American and Argentinean farms, and it's 100% high-quality guaranteed. If a brand can't tell you where the meat came from, that's information too.
Which chews work best for small breeds?
Thin bully sticks
Thin and standard bully sticks are the default recommendation for most small dogs. They're 100% natural, high in protein, and the thinner cuts give a small jaw something it can actually work on instead of just carrying around. They're also long-lasting relative to a soft training treat, which is the whole point of a chew — mental work, not just calories. If you have a puppy, we wrote separately about bully sticks for puppies.
Beef trachea
Trachea is one of the better options for a small or senior dog because it's soft enough to be gentle on teeth while still requiring real chewing. It's cartilage, so it naturally contains glucosamine and chondroitin. We covered whether trachea dog treats are safe in more detail.
Small chicken and beef chews
Chicken feet, small chicken chews, and similar cuts are light, digestible, and easy to break into pieces. They're a good rotation option — small dogs get bored, and rotating textures keeps a chew interesting instead of ignored.
What to skip
Cooked bones of any kind (they splinter), antlers and hooves for small dogs, rawhide, and anything with a long ingredient list you'd need to look up. The FDA has warned about jerky treats specifically after years of illness reports (FDA CVM).
How many treats can a small dog have per day?
Use the 10% rule as your ceiling, and count chews toward it. In practice, for most small dogs that means one appropriately sized chew a day, or a chew every other day plus a few small training treats. If your dog is putting on weight, the chew isn't the thing to cut first — cut the food slightly and keep the chew, since the chew is doing work the kibble isn't.
Should you supervise?
Yes, always — with any chew, any size dog. Take the chew away when it gets down to a piece small enough to swallow whole. That end nub is where nearly every problem happens, and with a small dog the swallow-able size arrives sooner than you'd expect. Fresh water nearby, and if your dog has never had a particular chew before, watch the first session start to finish.
The bottom line
Small dogs don't need different treats so much as they need right-sized ones. Start with a single-ingredient, fully digestible chew, buy the thin or small version of it, count it against the daily calorie budget, and supervise. That covers most of what can go wrong. If you're unsure which cut fits your dog, our natural dog treats and chews collection lists thickness and size on every product — and if you get it wrong, we'll make it right.
This post was last updated at August 6, 2026 23:06
