The Harringtons Beef Meatballs High Meat Dog Treats are soft, chewy meatballs at 45 per cent beef, suitable from eight weeks. One thing to flag before you buy, because the name does not: these contain chicken as well as beef.

Key Features

• 45% Beef: Beef is the main ingredient
• They Also Contain Chicken: Chicken meat is in the recipe alongside the beef, so this is not a beef-only treat -- worth knowing if you are avoiding poultry
• Rice And Pea Protein: Make up part of the remainder
• No Artificial Colours, Flavours Or Preservatives: Harringtons' standard across the treat range
• From Eight Weeks: Usable as a puppy training treat
• 70g Bag: Soft enough to break into smaller pieces

What High Meat Means Here

The inclusion figure on the front is the useful number, and it is genuinely high across this range -- far above a cereal-based biscuit treat. What to check is what makes up the remainder, because a 90 per cent meat treat still has ten per cent of something else in it, and on a 45 per cent treat that something else is most of the product. Harringtons list no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives across the range.

Soft Treats, Not Chews

These are soft and chewy rather than hard, which makes them good training treats and poor occupiers -- a dog will eat one in seconds rather than working at it for ten minutes. If what you want is something to keep a dog busy, this is the wrong aisle. If what you want is something small, high-value and easy to break up for recall practice, it is the right one.

Treats Count As Food

The usual guidance is to keep treats under about a tenth of the day's calories and to take the equivalent out of meals. A high-meat treat is genuinely better than a biscuit made mostly of cereal, and it is still food. Break the larger pieces up for training rather than giving them whole -- a dog works just as hard for a small piece as a big one.

When A Food Change Is Not The Answer

Diarrhoea lasting more than a couple of days, blood or black tarry stools, repeated vomiting, scratching to the point of broken skin, recurring ear infections, or any unexplained weight loss all need a vet rather than another bag of food. Switching foods repeatedly is one of the commonest ways an underlying problem goes undiagnosed for months, and it also makes a proper elimination diet harder to run later.

The Carbon Claim

Harringtons describe themselves as the UK's first carbon-negative pet food company and say more than 98 per cent of their packaging is recyclable. That is their claim rather than our measurement, and carbon negative in practice generally means emissions are offset rather than never produced. It is worth knowing because very few pet food brands publish anything on this at all -- and worth reading as marketing rather than as an audit.

Who Makes It

Harringtons is made by Inspired Pet Nutrition in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, which also makes Wagg and Butcher's. One thing worth untangling: the 1923 date you see attached to the brand belongs to the company, not to this range. It refers to the year the Harrington family started an animal feed mill in Tadcaster. The Harringtons pet food range itself launched in 2008.

Out Of Stock Right Now

This one is out of stock at the moment. The page is here for reference while we wait on the next delivery -- ask us and we will tell you where it is.

Good To Know

• Break them up. A dog works just as hard for a pea-sized piece as for a whole one, and a 70g bag goes a lot further that way.
• Suitable from eight weeks, which makes them usable for early training.
• Reseal the bag and keep it somewhere cool. Soft treats dry out and go hard, and in this heat they do it fast.