Treats

tammy.toppan · Post by **tammy.toppan** » Sat May 09, 2009 11:40 am

I have been watching VS shows and have purchased her book and every where it says to reward for good behavior during training but can anyone tell me what the best treats are to reward with? I am going to assume that in the beginning they will be getting a ton of treats and I don't want to be feeding them anything that is going to give them alot of weight gain.
thank you
Tammy

spydre · Post by **spydre** » Sat May 09, 2009 7:36 pm

I've used a combination of commercial treats (that I break up smaller for use in training), or hot dogs or cheese with training. I use peanut butter with Dodger's kong. Then we supplement his meal usually with something that we are having with dinner - some ground beef, or chicken breast, (tonight was tenderloin, yum yum).

For separate from meal time or training, we generally at the moment use rawhide chews, large rawhide bones, etc. We are planning on getting him a nylabone and some marrow bones, too.

spydre · Post by **spydre** » Sat May 09, 2009 7:40 pm

Just want to update what I posted - thank goodness hubby is going to have a better job this summer, as Dodger goes through this stuff much more than Loth did - he eats twice as much, and while Loth never really actually ate the rawhide chews (she's chew on it for a bit, and leave them all over the house as her "security chews"), Dodger eats them pretty quickly once he sets his mind to it. About the only thing that Loth ate more of than Dodger would be dog cookies, but we haven't been giving Dodger dog cookies.

Also, I've seen Victoria use chicken, hot dogs, and other things as training treats on her show.

Fundog · Post by **Fundog** » Sat May 09, 2009 8:23 pm

The best treats are the ones your dog is absolutely crazy for. Cut them up into minuscule bits, not only to reduce calories, but also to allow them to be consumed before your dog's attention span runs out, so you can continue the session a bit longer. You can also help prevent weight gain from additional calories by compensating the measured amount of food you normally feed for the amount of treats you plan to give. Usually, though, most training sessions are brief and productive enough, that the amount of treats given does not amount to enough excess to make that much difference. For instance, in a ten minute training session, you might only end up feeding 1/4 the length of a hot dog, if that-- that's how small the bits are-- first slice it up into 1/16 inch slices, then quarter each slice. So theoretically, a hot dog could last you a week! That's not enough extra to make your dog fat.

tammy.toppan · Post by **tammy.toppan** » Sat May 09, 2009 8:56 pm

Thank you for you recommendations.

spydre · Post by **spydre** » Sun May 10, 2009 1:31 am

Haha, I pulled out a different brand of treats today - Dodger knows the difference (obviously) between the two, and he was getting tired of doggie sausage. Since I generally carry treats in my pocket, Dodger (the dog who often forgets that I put them there) has been sniffing at my pocket all evening. Ohhh, it's the other kind, gimme!

Pawzk9 · Post by **Pawzk9** » Sun May 10, 2009 12:30 pm

My current favorite (and I have to work hard to keep them instock because my students buy so many) is the Zukes Z-filets. They are natural, high quality, very stinky - so get the dog's interest, and easy to break into tiny crumbs. Also flat, so if you throw them they don't roll. Other possibilities are hot dog, string cheese, have one student who uses boiled chicken, one who uses roast (I'd work for that!) and several who cook their own treat. Even has one who uses apple slices.

You can also do doggie trail mix, where you mix several kinds of treats together - that way there is more novelty for the dog, plus different value treats - the "to die for" stuff for a great effort, a less interesting treat (cheerio or kibble) for a so-so effort or an accidental click.

Also realize that anything your dog really wants (go for a walk, sniff a bush, meet a person) is a potential reward you can use in training.

Emma&Tess · Post by **Emma&Tess** » Sun May 10, 2009 3:54 pm

Dried liver is really good because you can break it into small bits, it's strong smelling and is not to messy.

spydre · Post by **spydre** » Sun May 10, 2009 5:11 pm

Are bannanas okay for dogs? Dodger seems to be going nuts over them.

Fundog · Post by **Fundog** » Sun May 10, 2009 8:06 pm

Bananas are fine.

Fundog · Post by **Fundog** » Mon May 11, 2009 10:23 am

Oh, and spydre-- bananas are a good "adhesive" for binding other textured treats together in a kong. Just another variety, other than peanut butter. I also like to mash bananas up in the oat custard I make for them.

And for another variety: see if he like dates. Annie absolutely loves them! And you can chop them up into tiny little bits, so he only get a couple of dates per training session. Dates are very high in both fiber and sugar, so you don't really want him to eat very many.

Dates go well with cheese, too, of course, and the cheese can help to counteract the laxative effects of the dates.

Pawzk9 · Post by **Pawzk9** » Mon May 11, 2009 10:55 am

Fundog wrote:Oh, and spydre-- bananas are a good "adhesive" for binding other textured treats together in a kong. Just another variety, other than peanut butter. I also like to mash bananas up in the oat custard I make for them.

And for another variety: see if he like dates. Annie absolutely loves them! And you can chop them up into tiny little bits, so he only get a couple of dates per training session. Dates are very high in both fiber and sugar, so you don't really want him to eat very many. Dates go well with cheese, too, of course, and the cheese can help to counteract the laxative effects of the dates.

While we are talking "fruits" just in case somebody doesn't know NO raisins!

sko68 · Post by **sko68** » Mon May 11, 2009 11:29 am

While potty training we were told use a treat that our puppy will love, so we had some extra steak and we dehydrated and started with that, he loved it, but we ran out and we didnt want to cook another steak for his treat, we dehydrated hot dogs and he loved that even more. When I gave him the first hot dog he ran back out into the yard and try again until he was able to get a little out and he ran back to me for his treat, I had to laugh. So hot dogs where cheaper and it about 2 weeks we had him pretty much potty trained.

spydre · Post by **spydre** » Tue May 12, 2009 11:41 am

sko68 wrote:While potty training we were told use a treat that our puppy will love, so we had some extra steak and we dehydrated and started with that, he loved it, but we ran out and we didnt want to cook another steak for his treat, we dehydrated hot dogs and he loved that even more. When I gave him the first hot dog he ran back out into the yard and try again until he was able to get a little out and he ran back to me for his treat, I had to laugh. So hot dogs where cheaper and it about 2 weeks we had him pretty much potty trained.

Oh my goodness, Dodger LOVES hot dogs. Right now we are using the hot dogs as sort of a high value treat for those exceptionally hard to get his attention training - like someone at the door, walking down the street, or when we are doing outside training, or walk training. He'll pretty much do whatever we want if we have hot dog bits in front of his face.

sko68 · Post by **sko68** » Tue May 12, 2009 12:24 pm

Right now we do not want to use hot dogs for any other reason besides potting outside. When that is done we will use it for other things. But it feels good to see progress with his potty training.