*What is the Carob Plus Bones & Teeth Supplement?*
This daily dietary supplement, designed to help with caring for bones and teeth is produced by the Carob Plus company, a newly established business that creates and manufacturers a small range of supplements for dogs, designed to help with many different things such as the digestive system, mobility, the immune system and relieving stress.

*The product itself*
Grace and Benson are two exceptionally active dogs. They both compete in agility and flyball classes at least three times a week, have a good couple of hours free running exercise daily and lastly, they swim an awful lot- this obviously means there is a lot more pressure being put on their bones than perhaps the average dog would endure. Couple this with the fact they are both large breeds, means I often worry about the impact of their active lifestyle on their bones and what complications it might cause as they grow older.

Grace is still very young, a baby at just 20 months old but Benson on the other hand, is now 4 years old and sadly, seeing as the Bernese Mountain Dog has an average lifespan of just 8 years, this means Benson is now classed as middle aged and now is the time when joint injuries and bone damage can possible rear their ugly head. It'd break my heart to force him to cut back on the exercise, as this is what he lives for, so instead, I've got him on a couple of supplements to help give his bones a helping hand and help keep them in the best possible condition for as long as possible, allowing him to carry on with all the activity he thrives on.

Browsing in Pets At Home recently, I came across this new range of Carob Plus products which are supplements, made from carob, the dog friendly alternative to chocolate, which have been formulated to help with various different complaints in dogs. It was the Bones & Teeth Supplement that caught my eye and after a quick read of the information on the back of the pot, I decided it was a product that could be beneficial, both to Benson to help him as he gets older and also Grace, to help maintain her youthful bones, so I purchased a couple of pots to trial with my two.

The Carob Plus Supplement range has been specially formulated alongside top vets and pet nutritionists to create a selection of easy to administer, high quality and extremely beneficial supplements, designed to help with many common complaints in pet dogs. The Bones & Teeth one that I selected, is, obviously, their product that they offer to help with the care and maintenance of teeth and bones and contains numerous ingredients, active in each tablet:

* Calcium- a highly important component essential in maintaining healthy and strong teeth and bones aswell as being necessary for the normal function of muscles and nerves.
* Phosphorus- essential for bone and teeth formation aswell as helping with kidney function, cell growth, contraction of the heart muscle and also helps to strengthen bone.
* Magnesium- helps with keeping bones strong and maintaining normal muscle and nerve function.
* Boron- the main mineral used for building bones within the body.
* Niacin- helps with DNA repair and is essential for the normal use of calcium.
* B6- needed by more than 100 enzymes within the body.
* B1- needed for energy production in muscles and helps play a part in the prevention of arthritis.
* B2- promotes good vision aswell as being beneficial to fur, skin and claws.
* B12- required for normal brain function
* D3- aids in the absorption of calcium and helps to protect from fractures and osteoporosis.

Aswell as all the benefits to bones and teeth, the supplements are also gluten, wheat and dairy free making them suitable for dogs with most allergies and are more beneficial to dogs aged 1 year and over. Lastly, they contain just 30 calories per tablet, also making them suitable for overweight dogs.

*Packaging*
The Carob Plus Supplements come packaged in small white plastic pots with screw on/off lids and are colour coded according to the variety, the Bones & Teeth one follows a blue colour scheme. On the pot we are told all the information you'd expect to find such as ingredients, details on how the product works, nutritional information, dosage instructions and of course, contact details for Carob Plus. The pots can be recycled once empty.

*Price & Availability*
Carob Plus products are sold exclusively in Pets At Home and can be purchased either from one of their stores, or online from their website.

A pot of the Bones & Teeth Supplement, containing 30 tablets, costs £7.99.

This initially, may sound a little expensive, but this will provide a 1 month, or more, supply for most dogs.

*My opinion*
With so many different supplements and joint care products available, it is a confusing business and a hard decision trying to choose the right one to suit your pet, and it is certainly something I have spent many hours researching, in order to provide the dogs with the best possible products, that provide them will all the extra goodness I want them to have, but without overdosing them on certain things.

Grace, for a change, is pretty easy to cater for! Seeing as she is still very young, she doesn't need much at all in the way of joint care supplements, and up until recently, I never gave her anything. Benson, on the other hand, being that little bit older and being of a breed that is prone to bone and joint defects, he has a small collection of carefully planned out supplements administered to him throughout the week, including Pedigree Joint Care Sticks, Joint Aid Supplement and more recently, these Carob Plus tablets.

Initially, what attracted me to these supplements was the bright and colourful design of the pots and on closer inspection, they seemed to offer an awful lot of benefits for a very reasonable price and I was very keen to try them. I purchased two pots- one for each dog so I could put them both on a one months trial.

The following morning, it was day one of the trial and I gave the dogs a tablet each. Opening up the pot, I was surprised by the appearance of the 'tablets', although they are marketed as tablets, they are actually more of a food like product- they are designed to be fed directly to the dog, and because of the carob flavouring, it should be something a dog enjoys eating. Grace and Benson certainly did however! They both gobbled up their tablet without so much as a second thought. The tablets were reasonably large, around the size of a one pence coin, but very easy for the dogs to eat.

The pot states the daily dosage instructions as half a tablet for small dogs, a whole tablet for medium sized dogs and two tablets for large breeds. However, I decided to go with just one tablet each for Grace and Benson- as I can't be buying four pots per month at £8 each!

Over the course of the month, I continued with the one tablet daily. The dogs never tired of eating them- I'd generally give it to them alongside their breakfast- either fed by hand like a treat or just chucked on top of their kibble and they always got eaten with no fuss whatsoever. Infact, they quite looked forward to their tablet/treat and would wait eagerly with tails wagging every morning when they saw the pot emerge from the cupboard.

At the end of the months trial, I have to say I honestly do think the supplements had done Benson good. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't have any joint problems as such, just being a large and incredibly active dog, he can get a bit stiff sometimes, especially when he wakes up in the morning and after a month of these Carob Plus tablets, it didn't seem to take him so long to get going of a morning.

My best friend has also been using them for Alfie, her Shih Tzu, feeding him half a tablet daily and she has reported back to me that unfortunately, as of yet, she has noticed no improvement in Alfie. This may well be that Alfie is an older dog, with some pretty serious joint problems as it is and these Carob Plus tablets just aren't strong enough for him. I personally think they are better suited to use in young dogs to help maintain strong bones and teeth and supple joints rather than being used in older dogs as a way of resolving problems.

They are certainly something I will be continuing with however. Of course, I don't really know if they are doing the dogs any good, but they have an impressive list of bone friendly ingredients contained within them and the fact they are also good for their teeth and overall wellbeing is a bonus too.

At a cost of almost £16 per month for both of the dogs, they are on the pricey side, but if they do what they claim in helping to maintain Grace's healthy bones and give Benson's slightly older bones a helping hand, then they are worth every penny and are something I'd recommend to all owners with dogs in the same positions as mine.