If you grew up around dogs in India, chances are you have seen this scene at least once: someone opens a packet of biscuits, takes one for themselves and casually passes another one to the dog sitting beside them.
For years, sharing everyday human biscuits with dogs felt completely normal. Parle-G, Marie biscuits, leftover rotis or the occasional piece of bread often doubled up as a “treat.”
Nobody thought too much about it. A treat was simply something your dog enjoyed. But walk into a pet store today or even scroll through a pet-care website and the snack aisle looks completely different. There are chicken jerky treats, dehydrated chews, soft training sticks, fruit-and-chicken combinations and treats formulated around things like skin, coat, joints or calming support.
So, when exactly did dog snacking become this sophisticated?
The answer probably has less to do with dogs changing and much more to do with us changing as pet parents.
We Have Started Asking: “What Exactly Am I Feeding My Dog?”
One of the biggest changes I have noticed is how frequently pet parents now turn a packet around before buying it.
What is the first ingredient?
Is there actual meat in it?
What is the protein source?
What are all these additives?
Can I give this every day?
A few years ago, these questions were largely associated with dog food. Now, people are asking them about treats too.
A 2026 report by Business Standard on changing Indian pet-food buying behaviour highlighted how ingredient transparency, traceability and quality testing are becoming increasingly important to Indian pet parents. In other words, people aren't automatically believing the word “healthy” written on the front of a packet anymore, they want to know why it is healthy.
That awareness is changing the treat market too.
A Treat Is Still a Treat!
Before we make premium dog treats sound like multivitamins in prettier packaging, there is one important point to remember.
Treats aren't supposed to replace your dog's balanced everyday diet.
The World Small Animal Veterinary Association's guidance on feeding dog treats recommends that treats contribute no more than around 10% of an average healthy adult dog's daily calorie intake. VCA Animal Hospitals gives similar guidance: roughly 90% of daily calories should come from a complete and balanced diet, leaving around 10% for treats and snacks.
So upgrading from a household biscuit to a chicken treat doesn't suddenly mean unlimited snacking.
The change is really about making those little 10% moments count.
Why the Humble Human Biscuit Is Losing Its Place
Giving your dog the occasional dog-safe piece of human food isn't the same thing as building their snack routine around food formulated for humans.
Human biscuits were designed for humans, their ingredients, calorie density, flavouring and nutritional purpose aren't based on what dogs need.
More importantly, some foods and ingredients that are perfectly familiar to us can be unsafe for dogs. WSAVA specifically cautions against inappropriate human foods and lists ingredients such as chocolate, grapes, raisins, onions, garlic, xylitol and alcohol among foods dogs should not consume.
That is probably why the conversation has slowly shifted from:
“Can my dog eat this?” to “Is there something actually made for my dog that I could give instead?”
That's a surprisingly important distinction.
Dog Treats Are Becoming More Purposeful
Another interesting change is that we no longer use every treat for the same reason.
Think about your own dog's day. The tiny reward you need during a five-minute training session isn't necessarily the same thing you'd give when you want your dog occupied with a chew.
Soft treats can be broken into smaller portions and quickly eaten during training. Jerky-style snacks can feel more substantial and high-value. Dehydrated products give dogs a completely different chewing experience.
Then there is the rapidly growing category of functional treats, snacks formulated with additional ingredients aimed at specific wellness areas such as mobility, skin and coat, digestion or relaxation.
That doesn't mean a treat should be viewed as medicine, and health conditions should always be discussed with a veterinarian. But it does show how much more intentional pet snacking has become.
Even when browsing newer Indian treat ranges, you can see this diversification clearly. Collections such as Petter World's dog treats range now sit across very different formats, from soft sticks and jerky to dehydrated chicken chews and functional variants, rather than offering one generic biscuit for every occasion.
And that variety tells you something about how people are shopping today.
Ingredients Have Entered the Conversation
a. Chicken and carrot.
b. Chicken and strawberry.
c. Chicken and blueberry.
d. Fish oil.
e. Collagen.
f. Glucosamine.
If you'd told an Indian pet parent a decade ago that these were going to become normal words on treat packets, it might have sounded excessive. Today, not so much. You'll now find products like soft carrot-and-chicken dog treats sitting alongside more traditional protein-led options. Pet parents interested in crunchier, less conventional formats can also find products such as dehydrated chicken feet for dogs.
The point isn't that every dog suddenly needs exotic ingredients.
It is that we finally have enough options to choose treats according to our dog's age, preferences, chewing style, training routine and overall diet instead of reaching for whatever happens to be lying in the kitchen.
From Giving Dogs “Something Nice” to Choosing Something for Them
I don't think the Parle-G era disappeared because people suddenly became obsessed with premium products.
Something more fundamental changed.
We stopped thinking of dogs as animals that happened to live around our homes and increasingly started thinking about them as members of the family whose food, sleep, exercise, comfort and health deserved separate consideration.
And naturally, their treats changed with them. The modern dog snack doesn't necessarily need to be extravagant. It simply needs to make sense for the dog eating it.
So the next time those hopeful eyes appear beside you while you're opening a biscuit packet, maybe that's the real difference between pet ownership then and pet parenting now.
We don't just ask:
“Will my dog eat this?”
We ask:
“What am I actually giving them?”
And that might be one of the healthiest changes happening in Indian pet parenting.