This product used to be good. The treats were soft/chewy.. NOW, ROCK HARD! very disappointing especially in the older dogs who have lost some of their teeth.

I bought these soft-baked prescription diet treats about five months ago and they were soft and easily broken into pieces for my small old dog with only 3 teeth. I just bought another bag and they were hard and couldn’t be broken into small pieces. Did the recipe change? Did I just get a stale batch? I don’t know.

First and foremost, these are NOT soft, so "Soft Baked" is a misnomer. They're not hard like a rock and won't crack like rocks, but they're solid, very DENSE and FIRM. They're medallions with about a 1" diameter and 3/8” thickness. Let me put it another way so you'll have a better sense of how firm it is. If you use this treat to throw a fastball at drywall, it will dent the drywall. If you use this with a slingshot, it will do serious damage. The treat won't disintegrate or crumble because it has just enough give that prevents it from shattering. If you have a medium to large dog who has good, solid teeth, he/she should be able to chew through these. For toy breeds and small dogs who don't have good, strong teeth, I would advise against giving them these treats. Generally, toy breeds and small dogs don't have strong, thick bones (upper and lower jaw) into which their teeth are anchored deeply and solidly. The shallow anchoring and small size of their teeth make them prone to being loosened and/or cracked from forcefully biting hard or firm, dense foods. Unfortunately, many toy and small breeds lose their teeth as they age because of the aforementioned lack of robust bone structure and/or neglected dental care by their owners. When our Pomchi was saved by the Rescue, his teeth had been neglected to the point that almost all of his teeth needed to be extracted. Can you imagine the pain he must've been having from all of the rotting and loose teeth!? When we adopted him, he only had 4 teeth remaining, and no two were opposing. So, he can only *chew* soft foods and snacks. Basically, his gums do the *chewing*. For those of us with small dogs who require a prescription diet (C/D Urinary for stones in our case), there are no prescription SOFT treats that comply with their special diets. There are no prescription treats that "melt" in their mouths. I've looked long and hard... What can you do? They need their treats, right? They deserve their treats! So, I make my own. Yes, it's a lot of work and takes some doing, but I transform these dense, solid treats into SOFT snacks that crumble and melt in his mouth. -- Use a HEAVY kitchen knife (chef's or SANTOKU) to plunge cut each medallion into smaller pieces. 3 cuts side to side and 3 cuts top to bottom make 16 small pieces. *Because the treats are so dense, you'll use the "mincing" or "rock chop" technique. Your off-hand will be over the front end of the knife to steady the knife as you rock the knife through the medallions. The smaller they are, the faster they'll "melt" in the next step. -- Throw the batch of small pieces into a small sauce pan. I use a 6" non-stick sauce pan. If you have enough pieces to cover the bottom of the pan, add BOILING HOT water up to the top of the pieces. COVER AND SIMMER in the lowest stove setting. Remember, you're not "cooking" these. What you're doing is dissolving the pieces to create a pâté that's consistent with mashed potatoes. -- The first time you try, you'll be surprised how much water it takes to "melt" these treats. If you try without cutting them into smaller pieces, you'll learn how much longer it takes to soften them. This is where you live and learn how much water to use and how much to add along the way. -- As the pieces absorb water, they soften and become mashable. Again, because of how dense these are, it takes time for the pieces to "melt" all the way through. It may appear done, but you may find that there still are solid pits that haven't been softened yet when you check by crushing them with a fork. If you see dark spots when you fold the mash, those are the hard pits. -- Once the batch is cooked through and the mash is smooth without unmelted pits, let it cool for about 30 minutes. -- Lay out parchment paper on the countertop or table. Transfer the mash onto the paper. Spread the mash into a sheet that's about 1/4” to 1/3”. (When water escapes during the baking step, the sheet with thin, so don't start with anything less than a thickness of 1/4”.) The easiest way to spread this is by laying plastic food wrap over the mash, then pressing. Use your hands or a rolling pin. You can peel off the plastic wrap easily when you're done. No sticky mess. Don't feather the edges of the sheet and make them too thin to avoid dry and burnt edges. -- Once you have the mash mat, preheat your oven to 350° F in the Bake setting. Set the rack mid-height. *This is where "trial 'n error" comes in because the temperature and length of baking will vary depending on your oven (electric, gas, conventional vs convection, etc.) Somewhere between 300° F and 350° F is probably the ideal range. -- In my conventional electric oven, I baked at 350°F for 15 minutes, then flipped the mat onto the parchment paper and baked the other side for another 10 minutes or so. You're not really cooking it; you're "dehydrating" it. With the baking, you want it to form a "skin." After it's been dried enough, you can *tear* the mat into strips that are easily *chewable* to even your toothless companions. -- Let it cool completely. Tear into pieces and put them in a Ziploc bag, but DO NOT SEAL the bag. Moisture will continue to escape for another day or two or three, and you don't want to seal in high humidity in the bag and promote mold. I had mold after 5 days in a batch that hadn't been "dehydrated" enough in the baking step, so be aware. Trial and error. * Although the treats come with a shelf life, I don't know what the safe shelf life is for my morphed concoction, so I only create batches that last a week, two at most. To play it safe, I would not create a large batch that's equivalent to a month's worth or larger. Mold is what you need to watch for. ** Do you like the smell of fresh bread baking in your oven? Well, it doesn't smell anything like that when you're making the mash. It doesn't smell good. At least, not to bipeds. If you have kids, they'll be complaining about how stinky it is, so be prepared for a bunch of complaints! *** If you have an old blender or food processor, you can pulverize the cut pieces and "dry melt" them. It'll make making the mash easier and quicker.

These are the only treats my dog is allowed to have and 1 out of 8 bags we've ordered arrived "soft". The rest were hard as a rock. We've tried Chewy, Petsmart and Petco with all the same results. This product will harm your little one's teeth. Very disappointing!

These and the hard Hills Prescription treats for Urinary/Kidney problems are the only treats my dog can have. She is little so she can't eat the big ones. These little SOFT baked treats are RARELY ever soft. I buy 6 bags on auto ship and if we are lucky 1 or 2 of the bags are slightly soft. We have to cut each treat into several pieces. I have tried knives, kitchen shears, a pizza cutter and most recently a rocking chopper. Part of the treat is wasted due to so much crumbling during the cutting process. They are all my dog can have so we continue to buy but I definitely wish these were better and there were more choices.

When our Bichon was diagnosed with bladder stones we had to find options for treats. This is her favorite morning treat.

Our first bag of treats were semi-soft, the next two were hard as a rock. As in, it could lead to a broken tooth hard and almost impossible to break into smaller pieces. As the only "soft" treat I've found for my dog on the k/d diet, I'm extremely disappointed! My senior dog already has issues with his teeth and these treats are a disaster ready to happen.

I'm not sure what happened, he ate a few when I first offered them, but now he turns his nose up at them.