Choosing a Treat for your Training Session
Our dogs don’t speak English and they have a rocky understanding of capitalism at best, so we have limited options when it comes to communicating that we like what they’ve done and incentivising good behaviour. Don’t worry, we won’t need to have pockets or treat pouches full of kibble and chicken forever, but a quality collection of rewards can be the key to a smooth training process. Choosing the right treats for your training session is fairly simple, but depends on your dog’s level of food motivation.
Think in terms of human money. Imagine that one treat your dog smells and absolutely loses it for. They can’t think, they’re throwing every trick they know at you. This is going to be the highest value treat on the spectrum. For some dogs, this might be kibble and anything else that fits in their mouth. For others, this might be cooked meat or freeze dried liver. You might not need this level of treat for the every day training session, but it’s a good one to have on hand as a reward in situations where your dog might normally be anxious or reactive. For the average teaching session inside the house, you should be able to train with your dog’s kibble or maybe some training treats. If you can’t, we can talk about building food drive. For the extra challenging environments though, you might want to bring out the big guns, so here are some of the foods that I use during training and how they typically rate for the average dog. Keep in mind that you don’t have to stick to one treat during your training session, I typically mix kibble or a low value reward with some high value rewards to keep my dog guessing and use my dog’s meals for most of their training.
When in doubt, sniff it out! Does the treat smell fishy and terrible? Probably a good one. Does it smell bland and feel like it would break a tooth if you bit into it? Probably one to leave at home.
Kibble
Ideally, your dog should be willing to train for their kibble. It might sound harsh initially, but think about it, if we’re hungry, we have to walk to the fridge and grab some food. Open up our phone and order Doordash. Make a sandwich.
A basic training session practicing sit, down, place, stay, and basic tricks in the house shouldn’t require bonus pay for the average dog. If your dog is healthy, it’s absolutely okay to train for your dog’s meals and skip a meal or two if they aren’t hungry enough to work. In fact, it’s ideal that dogs, as opportunistic scavengers, are rarely too full to turn up food.
Training Treats
Most training treats hold about the same value or just a bit more than kibble for the average dog. The benefit of a good training treat when out and about is that they’re typically soft and easy to chew quickly. They can be pricey and full of unnecessary calories for the amount that you’ll use during a session though. You won’t often find them in my treat pouch, but if you do, they’ll be mixed in with kibble or other treats rather than used independently. Brands that I recommend are Zukes Minis and BilJac training treats. These are typically gentle on the stomach, economically friendly, and tend to hold the most value for dogs in my experience..
Lunch Meat and Cheese
Cheaper per pound than training treats and an absolute hit for the picky pups, lunch meat and cheese are frequent flyers in my treat pouch. If your dog has a sensitive stomach, chicken or turkey can be great options. Cheese tends to be even more popular, but start slow and make sure your dog doesn’t have any major stomach sensitivities before using it regularly. Meat is fine to use in larger quantities if it doesn’t have added sodium, but mix cheese with kibble and use sparingly (especially with smaller dogs) to avoid stomach issues from high fat content.
Cooked Meat
My go to, using cooked meat can be cost effective and ensures that your dog isn’t getting any added sodium or seasoning. You can also cut into large chunks and break apart during training sessions. Chicken and turkey are easy go tos, low in calories and high in protein to avoid extra weight gain during training. Most dogs will happily work through even the highest distractions if they know there’s a chance that they might earn some chicken for great behaviour!
Freeze Dried Treats
If you’re on the go or you have a picky dog, the right freeze dried treat can be even more valuable than cooked meat. I recommend Stella and Chewy’s patties, Primal Freeze Dried Raw, and Rawternative as great options. These treats expire quickly, so keep an eye out for clearance to save some money.
