What Is The Best Food To Use

[Aphrodite]

Greetings,

we have two young puppies that we wish to start to train, we would like to know what is the best food used for a reward for their great efforts.

We have been using the Puppy Pal soft like treats, they have a very strong smell to them.

What is the best to use please.

[sidoney]

Something that they adore, soft generally works better than hard as it goes down better, and you also need to think of how easy or hard it is to use in different places eg. I am using pieces of raw meat at home but this would not travel so well. Some foods work well when cold/cool but get mushy when warm. I'd recommend you experiment.

[Hazz]

I agree with Sidoney, experiment with different types to find what your puppies are most interested in.

We dry our own liver - the dogs just love it, yet don't like 'brought' nearly as much.

[cactus]

My dog will do *anything* for a bit of kabana or hotdog. I cook them in the microwave (I like them to be dry), and cut them up into ity little bits... :cool: This week I also used cooked mince- I fried a very large very flat patty of beef mince till it was well done then I cut it up into ity bits and tossed them back in the pan till they were pretty crispy. I had her undivided attention at training last night! :D Cheese has worked well (but sweats in the daytime) as have cut up dried fish (the little cat treats you buy in bags- my cats hate them but they make the dogs perform)

Edited April 27, 2006 by cactus

[Aphrodite]

Greetings,

thank-you, Iwill try a few things with the babies over the next few weeks.

[Jefe's owners]

Jefe will do anything for a pat and a praise... :p so these days we rarely give him food treats when training. Actually, only when we want him to jump into the ute.. and the last times not even that. We tried a few different types and liver treats seems to be his favourites.... and schmakos bacon flavored as well... but we didn't get as close result with food treats as we do with praise and patting. ;)

[baileykira]

I dont wish this to seem argumentative but there can be a danger in training dogs with TOO many treats , dogs just want you to tell them how proud you are that they have pleased you, i usually only give my dogs treats when their training session is over as the reward and as a release command ie class is over.

that said there are many things dogs respond very well to fresh meat,home made liver,Kabanossa,cheese cubed(vegetarian)there is also a commercial product available at the supermarket it comes in a black bag with heart shaped treats inside its all natural ingriedients with no by products but the name at this time eludes me and so many other things i use chicken necks with older dogs

good luck experimenting with all the various things out there

[cactus]

I dont wish this to seem argumentative but there can be a danger in training dogs with TOO many treats , dogs just want you to tell them how proud you are that they have pleased you, i usually only give my dogs treats when their training session is over as the reward and as a release command ie class is over.

My dog won't heal without treats. I'm still transitioning from luring to rewarding, and we're doing ok at school but suck in public.

I only use treats at school (its compulsory anyway) and when we are out to encourage her to fetch and return with her frisbee and ball or if we are practising our heeling. Everything else just gets praise or an abscence of a correction if its expected as a matter of course (like walking into a room after me and sitting before entering the house/car or crossing a road).

I must say I was wondering the other night how many years it would be before we are treat free :sigh: Probably never- I mean look at the sea lions and dolphins at Seaworld they have to feed those buggers EVERY time they do something! FOREVER!!! Makes me think there's no hope....

It seems its a case of either accept that or go back to check chains. Ugh!! :D

[sidoney]

I'm still transitioning from luring to rewarding

Just solved your own problem. If you lure the dog it has to know that it's there before it does anything, as food is a PART of the behaviour rather than the REWARD. Also you tend to be engaging the nose rather than the brain. Luring is one of the big pitfalls of people who train with food and want to work without having food 100% of the time. If you are going to lure at all, you need to get rid of it as soon as you can - that means after only say 3-6 times luring, and then go to letting the dog offer the behaviour.

[cactus]

I'm still transitioning from luring to rewarding

Luring is one of the big pitfalls of people who train with food and want to work without having food 100% of the time. If you are going to lure at all, you need to get rid of it as soon as you can - that means after only say 3-6 times luring, and then go to letting the dog offer the behaviour.

Yeah, and its one of the pitfalls of attending a club with very strict rules and bossy trainers. lol. Whenever she doesn't perform right without a lure they say where's your treat?? go back to holding the treat! :D

We just finished 1st class and are going to be doing the 3rd lesson in the 2nd class next week. The past two weeks we have trained at different parts of the field, with two different trainers, and with an assortment of new dogs in the group, so its kind of like starting all over again

We had a really good trainer for 1st class- well at least she used to use every minute of class time training us, and we always left feeling more confident than we arrived, but its been all downhill since graduation night. The woman we had grad night is the same trainer we had last week. Talk about utter rudeness! She surely cant know just how rude she is. She insults people's dogs, their ability to train their dogs (duh! Why are we there!) she makes us change all our cues etc from what we've been taught, and has us all standing around with our dogs getting bored and distracted while she assesses us one at a time (the assessment is the actual training- I guess she doesn't believe in practice during class time. far better to stand around listening to her muttering snide remarks).

lol. we'll that was quite a whinge!

I'll give it another shot next week, and if they still haven't got it together, I'm doing what more than half of my graduation class has done- going elsewhere for training. Maybe thats an opportunity to find a club that doesn't rely soley on the use of rewards.

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

We use dried liver and chicken, have own de-hydrater so it makes it easier, they are TREATS so they only get a tiny bit at a time.

[sidoney]

Maybe thats an opportunity to find a club that doesn't rely soley on the use of rewards.

You mean, a club that doesn't rely solely on the use of lures, don't you?

[pogolegs]

have cut up dried fish (the little cat treats you buy in bags- my cats hate them but they make the dogs perform)

Thats the same! I bought them for my cats and they were in this little box thing and Missy sniffed em out and ate them all! At least they didnt go to waste. My cats dont like em' at all.

[Kavik]

I like to use cabanossi and cheese (although neither are so good when it is warm! - still searching for something that doesn't get disgusting in the heat). Because I sometimes 'spit' food when heeling, I like to use people food.

It is really easy to rely on food when luring as Sidoney said. I am guilty of that myself at times, especially with Zoe with her dog aggro problems. Changing habits is much harder than I had anticipated!

[Jacquel83]

Hi i realise that hardly anyone uses snacks bought from supermarkets.. I know they wun help much to the dogs diet but i thought we dun feed them that all the time so once or twice a day should be ok?

I buy Pedigree snacks? and dog bones? any comments?

[cactus]

Hi i realise that hardly anyone uses snacks bought from supermarkets.. I know they wun help much to the dogs diet but i thought we dun feed them that all the time so once or twice a day should be ok?

I buy Pedigree snacks? and dog bones? any comments?

Any little snacks that your dog loves are great for training. Just make sure your dog does something to earn those treats- even if its just a sit or drop If its not for training, then there's no need to give snacks IMO since thats a human concept (that is making most of us fat!)

Bones are great for dogs to gnaw on- meaty bones are the best- make sure you take it into consideration though when portioning the dogs meals :D

ETA: I initially bought comercial dog treats, but they just weren't appealing enough for training- I need something that REALLY gets her attention

Edited April 29, 2006 by cactus

[I Love Lucy]

For supermarket treats, my dog really likes the Natures Gift rewards (they are little soft balls the size of big peas) but she likes the chicken flavour a lot more than the other flavours (I think the others are beef & Liver) but the chicken ones are a lot harder to buy. I can only find them at Bi-Lo, so I stock up when I happen to be there.

I have also tried Devon which worked pretty well, but a bit greasy and yucky to handle. A 1kg roll costs about $2.50 and I chopped it all up to little bits, it made hundreds. Wouldn't be good for long periods in warm weather though.

[sidoney]

If I'm using soft treats in warm or hot weather I keep them in a small esky or a cooler bag, with a cooler block, and take them out as I need them.