Skill: EASY

Ingredients: Chamomile tea bag, 3 cups of distilled boiling water

Prep Time: 5-10 minutes (incl.steeping)

Storage: Glass bottle, up to 3 days in fridge

Suggested serving: ¼ – 1/2 cup  (adult Scottie) 

Give the dog a tea?! – PART ONE

Floating around with a mug of tea probably best captures me as a personality; my tea imbibing Scottie in turn, has his in a bowl, and radiates a physicality sloshing with water i.e. beautiful coat, poop and energy, harbouring a personality cultivated at an early age to be open to novel, gastro-enhancing, body-hydrating experiences. Therefore, in homage to my Scottie’s internal water baby, this two-part blog is going to focus on the benefits of hydrating herbal tea offerings to our canine family members.

As tea is mostly water, it is a great hydrator to any diet.  Mammals on average are 70% water, so hydration is key to keeping the cells healthy and joints and blood moving freely. It also ensures the expeditious flushing of toxins from the body; this detox function being pertinent to a breed such as ours known to be genetically predisposed to liver disease. In addition, the older Scottie will find age related conditions exacerbated if they aren’t sufficiently hydrated e.g. aging kidneys put further under strain and body temperature becoming harder to regulate. In relation to the latter, it may be more prudent as a first port of call to seek to bump up your Scottie’s liquid intake rather than dumping them into that seasonal jumper or cool-jacket, cuteness factor aside!

There are many ways to bolster water in a diet, in addition to the cornerstone water bowl – creating a bone broth being a previously blogged example – however, brewing up  a herbal tea is an easy culinary option that has many additional benefits depending on the herbs in use.

A popular tea with humans, chamomile is the perfect introductory tea for our Scotties. It is naturally caffeine- free – which is key to any herbal tea offering, as caffeine is a known toxin to dogs – and its floral, slightly sweet taste makes it a palatable inclusion to most food bowls to boost liquid intake. The herb has long been attributed to various medicinal qualities, notably improving digestion, reducing gastro inflammation e.g. tummy upsets, and as a notable calming and anxiety remedy; it is even useful as part of a de-wormer protocol, especially for roundworms and whipworms.

Therefore, the first step to offering your Scottie some chamomile tea is to peruse the ingredients list on any packet before you buy. The tea should be chamomile flowers only; this is not so much an issue with loose tea – normally sold as whole dried flowers – but to be checked if you are intending to use tea bags. Avoid anything with additional flavourings, be it artificial or natural; herbal tea bags often seem to have added flavourings, although thankfully this does seem to be less so for chamomile tea. If you can afford to buy organic do so; this will give your tea the extra boost of further antioxidants and fewer pesticides, thus ensuring more protection for the fragile Scottie liver.

Brew up some tea using filtered, on the boil water, dependant on the quantity required. My modus operandi is normally to pop a tea bag in a measuring jug, pour boiling water to the top; and allow to brew for 15 minutes. Once cooled, I then decant into a glass bottle, store in the fridge and use within 3 days for freshness. However, that said, my Scottie is a seasoned herbal tea drinker and therefore strengths and quantity do tend to lean towards the higher end; however, for first-time dabblers I would proceed with a light touch to massage the odds in favour of welcome acceptance, especially if your Scottie’s diet up until now has lacked any floral notes!

Tips for developing (or not) the tea-buff in your Scottie:

If your Scottie is allergic to chamomile, or any of its plant relatives e.g. has a ‘daisy’ allergy, this won’t be the herbal tea for them. To check for any sensitivity, allow a cup of chamomile tea to steep and then apply a small, cooled amount to your Scottie’s skin (e.g. stomach area, where there will be less hair) and monitor for any adverse reaction like redness, rashes or itchiness. The herb is not suitable for dogs that have asthma, diabetes or upcoming surgery within 2 weeks; and, as is applicable to a lot of herbs, it is not suitable for feeding to your dog if pregnant or nursing.

If none of the above apply, start offering your tea in small quantities and mild strength; for instance, initially steeping the tea bag for only a couple of minutes – as opposed to the often cited 5-15 minutes – and then mix a little of the cooled preparation into your Scottie’s meal. It doesn’t matter what the basis of your Scottie’s diet e.g. kibble, cooked or raw, the tea will complement all meal types; and if the brew is slightly warm on serving it will additionally enhance the flavours and aromas of your Scottie’s meal. The key for most dogs is to start with small and weak preparations and then build up slowly; some dogs may only ever like weaker preparations, whereas others will be happy to build up to a full strength tea.

As with most things in life, do everything in balance. Chamomile tea should be rotated with other hydrating culinary options, unless you are feeding for a specific purpose e.g. gastro upset or anxiety.  A bottle of chamomile tea is normally prepared once a month for my Scottie and offered for 3 consecutive days in meals; I then use other herbal teas, bone broth, vegetables and fruits for the rest of the month in rotation to complement and further hydrate the diet.

In my next blog – Give the dog a tea?! – PART TWO –  I will delve into a few other teas you may like to give  a try; however, in the meantime, why don’t’ you put your feet up, brew yourself a nice cup of chamomile, and maybe share a little?!

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