High-value Treats

[deltoid]

We are taking our puppy to puppy pre-school this week. The trainer has suggested we bring high-value treats (not the regular store bought ones we use) as they will work better when there are lots of distractions around.

At home I've been using Love 'Em Puppy Treats. The trainer suggested something like cheese, sausage or chicken. I had a look at sausages at the shop but all have onion powder in them. I'd prefer not to give him cheese as it is pretty fattening.

So I guess that leaves chicken. Do you just feed them raw chicken?

I'm a little lost here.

[roseava]

We are taking our puppy to puppy pre-school this week. The trainer has suggested we bring high-value treats (not the regular store bought ones we use) as they will work better when there are lots of distractions around.

At home I've been using Love 'Em Puppy Treats. The trainer suggested something like cheese, sausage or chicken. I had a look at sausages at the shop but all have onion powder in them. I'd prefer not to give him cheese as it is pretty fattening.

So I guess that leaves chicken. Do you just feed them raw chicken?

I'm a little lost here.

Personally, I don't like the idea of carrying around raw chicken, not to mention if your pup is not used to raw meat it could upset his/her tummy and create some runny poop. For training my dogs I used a chicken breast, poached it and cut it into 1cm cubes. Your dog will love it and it is protein without too much fat and is easy for you to handle. Just remember to account for the extra protein when you give your pup his feeds.

[huski]

I often boil chicken or chuck steak and chop it into little pieces for something a bit more healthy. I also buy luncheon roll when I'm being lazy. The key is to make sure you chop it up into little pieces, my treats are never bigger than the nail on my little finger.

[Danois]

The amount of cheese you'd give is minimal so I would not worry about it being fattening. Nor would I worry about onion powder in sausages as its such a minimal amount.

I'd never use raw chicken. High value treat is something which smells extra yum - grab a 1/4 BBQ from the shops and shred that or get a cabanossi from the deli and chop it up small. Dried fish (I use the one from Lickables range) is also popular.

I use the 4Legs balls and chop them in half or thirds - and this is for a 60kg dog so they're only little.

Super treat is a Maccas 1/4 pounder pattie while its still warm.

[tlc]

Great advice in all the above posts. My oldest dog was not motivated by food till I tried what the trainer had, boiled liver, and it was all systems go You definatley don't need to feed big pieces for rewards. You would be surprised at the amount of people who come to training with a bag full of food nearly bigger than the puppy itself.

I will sometimes mix it up and have ham and cheese, chick and cheese, liver and cheese and most of what's been mentioned above, although never tried the maccas patti.

It's good to take treats that are soft as puppy can get them in a nd down without to much chewing and they can still concentrate on the job at hand.

One of the puppy schools I went to at the vet clinic supplied the treats and it was boring old dry food, needless to say none of the pups were interested and the next week I took my own!

Have fun with you puppy.

Edited February 9, 2011 by tlc

[dancinbcs]

Steak or Chicken cut into 3cm cubes, cooked in the microwave, then torn into shreds, are my standard training treats and show bait. Drain on paper towels as they cool to avoid it being too wet in your pocket. If we have leftover sausages I use them as well occasionally.

[fuzzy82]

I bought a kabana for when my puppy started basic obedience last week. In puppy class I always just used commercial puppy treats or cat treats. The kabana was a big hit tho, and for just one or two sessions a week I can't imagine it doing any harm.

I have a doog belt with a pouch at the front for treats. For commercial treats that's fine, for the kabana I bought the smallest zip lock bags I could find and just stuck that in the pouch, and threw it away afterwards.

Edited February 9, 2011 by fuzzy82

[Kavik]

I use cheese. The dogs love it and work well for it and I don't like the way my hands smell after using cabanossi etc as treats.

[sas]

We use Devon or Cooked Chicken. It's more about finding what 'your' dog finds valuable.

Edited February 9, 2011 by MEH

[poodlefan]

Cabaossi

Baked Devon (dice into small cubes and bake in the oven for 20 minutes)

Cheese

BBQ Sausage

All cut into pieces no larger than your little finger nail and contained in a wide mouth bag that's easy to get to.

Crumbly fiddly treats you can't easily grab and give aren't going to be helpful. You don't want to be shedding food everywhere either. You also want something the pup doesn't have to take time to chomp.

Make it small, easy to handle and tasty and make sure you can refill your spare hand easily. Give one tiny treat at time unless you are jackpotting behaviour.

Experiement with what your dog likes best and change it around a bit.

Edited February 9, 2011 by poodlefan

[Sandra777]

It's more about finding what 'your' dog finds valuable.

x2

I had one that would work her butt off for dry dog food and hated dried liver, commercial treats, cooked sausage and cooked chicken. She was raw fed though so maybe she thought it was maccas night

Edited February 9, 2011 by Sandra777

[Lowenhart]

Cabaossi

Baked Devon (dice into small cubes and bake in the oven for 20 minutes)

Cheese

BBQ Sausage

I used to make a treat mix, so the dog never knew which one they were getting - cheese, chicken, liver. All in very small pieces.

The activity of training and the tiny size of the pieces offset any worry about getting fat.

You do have to figure out what your dog likes best and save it for the "special" training sessions.

[Leebag]

we stumbled across some ends at our local delicatessen $6 a kilo for premium ends and off cuts. My oliver has fallen in love with them and you get a great variety so they never get board

Edited February 9, 2011 by Leebag

[Red Fox]

You want small, soft, smelly and easy for the dog to swallow

Chicken chunkers/4Legs

Roo sausage (no onion)

small chunks of cooked (or raw) meat

cheese

hot dog

cabinossi

luncheon roll/black pudding

dog roll

bacon bits

I don't like BBQ chook or anything that shreds too easily as I end up dropping it everywhere

It's a good idea to have a treat pouch too - Erny sells awesome ones otherwise try Black Dog or even a cheap bumbag to get you started.

It is NOT a good ide to put treats in your pocket, forget they are there and then put that jumper back in the cupboard when you get home only to pull it out a few days later and wonder why your dog suddenly lurves you so much

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I use those little zip lock snack bags to hold my treats - the gooey ones.

My dog is a bit meh about cheese.

The pieces I use are about half a cm cubes. Ie there shouldn't be enough to be fattening but if you're worried, cut down on the dinner/brekky ration.

So what the others said... and

I do use chicken breast - chopped into 1/2 cm cubes, I freeze the excess for use later.

I've cooked a sheep liver and chopped that up, and frozen the excess - using freezer separator so I can get just enough out for training treats...

Metwurst is a fave with my dog (like german salami) but it's not that healthy

I have also used bits of steak and occasionally I pot roast a bit of cheap top side until its tender (eg slow cook in water or stock for 4 hours or so), chop that all up into tiny cubes... eat some for lunch in sandwiches...

And my dog loves promite on wholemeal bread - so sometimes I just make a sandwich of that and chop that up into little cubes and stuff the snack bag with that. Most dogs love peanut butter too, though with a puppy - I'd start with the smooth stuff.

One of my friends uses the four legs? meat ball things and breaks them up into little pieces for treats.

Our puppy preschool - used cheese and kitten biscuits (dry kitten food has higher fat content so is "yummier") for dog treats and the quantity was around one film container. Although I think I went through 2 or 3 film containers worth of treats. Hadn't learned to "up the criteria" if dog got it right three times in a row. Also hadn't learned the difference between luring (dog follows treat around into position and gets treat) and reward (dog gets position first, then sees and eats treat).

[B-Q]

I work in a restaurant and I often bring home leftover steak, chicken or parmi's and cut them up into treats. I sometimes buy homebrand chicken rolls from coles and use them but they seem pretty unhealthy so I don't like to use them too much.

I also recently bought a dehydrator of ebay for $50 and I'm using it right now for the first time. I boiled some liver, cut it up small and put it in so we'll see how that works out.I also kept some after boiling it and froze it so I'll see how that goes aswell.

I find poached chicken is easiest if if I'm cooking up my own chicken treats.

Edited February 10, 2011 by B-Q

[Ons]

I give Latte some of the Natures Gifts dried chicken bits

However last night at training someone gave her a piece of cabanossi (sadly I gave permission)

coz she won't work for the chicken bits anymore

trouble is if I give her cabanossi it means I have to buy it and I lloovvvvvveeeee cabanossi, by the time training came around there may be be little left

I think I'll get a block of cheese and cut it up as well as a bit of cabanossi and also get some Happy Paws treats as well so she can have a variety..

[mushka]

I'm going to throw out a recommendation for Happy Paws treats. I'm using the "Perfect Puppy" treats at the moment to train my pup. They are small enough that I can put a handful in my pocket and do a 10-minute training session. And pup just takes a couple of seconds to crunch them.

The puppy mix is tiny bits of:

Beef liver, Calf liver, Chicken liver, Lambs fry, Lamb heart, Ox heart, Ox kidney, Ox liver, Ox tongue, Pork heart, Pork kidney, Pork liver, & Sausage

I don't actually know how the treats are processed but I they look dry-roasted.