Diy Treats?

[Mason_Gibbs]

You can make your own dehydrater all you need is a box with good ventilation holes and a fan, hubby and i make our own jurkey.

[CrazyCresties]

With regards to the liver for treats, what I do is just bake it whole in the oven at about 150 C until it looks done, let it cool and then chop in to small pieces - the same for heart as well. I then bag into small portions and freeze, so always have a stash of it in the freezer. Also dog roll - I cut it into small cubes and roll in corn meal and bake at a low temperature for a while until it looks like its dried out, then bag and freeze.

It's always worth looking at the cat treat section in pet stores as well, you can get bags of tiny fish and small treats that are good for training

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

meat is easier to chop up when it's just frozen.

I also find it easier to chop up when it's cooked. If you're worried about stuff under your nails - get some rubber gloves either the washing up sort or the disposable food handling sort.

I sometimes get a cheap lump of meat from the foodland supermarket and roast that and chop that up into treats.

I also use kitten biscuits for treats.

I use promite on toast chopped into bits. Or bits of roast chicken. Or left over steak - the chewy or fatty bits I don't want to eat.

You can divide your treats into average, good, and better than chasing possums (a grade).

And you can teach your dog to enjoy tugging. There is a food tug cross over toy called a "tuggit", which you can stuff with something smelly and yummy like sardines or metwurst (german salami) and teach your dog to tug on it.

tugs use calories instead of adding them.

The trouble with dry treats - depending what you're training is that dogs sometimes inhale them and hawk them up in the next repeat of your session ie the treats come back to haunt us. I don't think the dog will forget what the treat was for as long as your clicker or "yes" is well timed.

[becks]

I think they meant that slow to eat treats will disrupt the flow of your lesson, but it really depends on what you are training and where (distraction levels)

At club with pups I use boiled chicken

at home I use fish4dogs mini kibble which is exactly the same as their star treats (just without the pointy bits!)

I also use the end of roasts, whatever I have going spare the dogs can have

kidney is another fav as i can never get liver to cook and stay in one peice!

[sheena]

I find that to treat for something really special, like a fast recall, it helps to have a treat that you can take about 30 seconds to finish delivering it. Something that you can break up into little pieces all the time giving praise & the dog is eagily looking up at you salvinating. It's called "silver service treating" as compared to "fast service" & it really sticks in the dog's mind. It doesn't have to be a big treat, just something that you can break up into tiny pieces. ;)