By Julian Whittle

Last updated at 11:22, Saturday, 21 April 2012

Never mind “give a dog a bone”, now you can “give a dog a cone”.

Biggles with the ice cream

Dobbies Garden Centre at Orton Grange, near Carlisle, is selling an ice cream developed specially for dogs.

Billy & Margot comes in two flavours – strawberry and apple and apple, banana and carrot. It contains no milk, which can be harmful to dogs and no artificial additives, colourings or flavourings.

The manufacturers say it is healthier than many ice creams for humans.

They are promoting it as a warm-weather iced treat for man’s best friend. A 160-gram tub costs £2.99.

We gave a strawberry-and-apple to Biggles, a one-year-old Border Collie from Eldred Street, Carlisle, who wolfed it down in no time.

His owners Holly and Richard Hunter were impressed.

Holly said: “Certainly Biggles seems to approve. He was focused and quite happy to eat the whole lot. I thought at first it was a bit weird, a bit of gimmick. I don’t want to treat my dog as if he were human. But he seems to like it. It’s more like a sorbet than an ice cream.

“If you’re buying a treat for your family why not buy a treat for your dog as well?”

Richard added: “It would be useful on a long journey. You could cool him down if he gets too hot in the car.”

Billy & Margot was developed by Marie Sawle, a nutritional therapist from Hampshire, who named the brand after her own pets. She noticed that her black Labrador, Billy, could not resist ice cream.

She said: “As a nutritionist, I was worried he was eating dairy, artificial sweeteners, artificial additives, colourants and a host of other unhealthy ingredients. I started my company to give dogs a frozen treat that was good for them and just for them. I wanted them to have the option to indulge without ingesting nasty chemicals.”

First published at 08:59, Saturday, 21 April 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk