Good training treats????

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Chewiesmom

Forums Regular
I'm not sure where to post this. Chewie is going into his 4th week of puppy training. At home when I'm working with him he responds well to milk bone minis...but when we are in class I can't get his attention! There are 2 other puppies in the class and he just wants to bark at them. He will respond to the trainers because they give him Pupperoni treats (which I HATE). They give him soft poop...I think it upsets his stomach. Any ideas on healthy but fragrant training treats? I need to be able to get his attention in public!!!
 
I try not to be super black and white as there are a lot of opinions out there--but I think Milk Bones are just awful treats. The ingredients aren't great, plus they are dry and really low-value for most dogs. I also prefer not to feed anything like Pupperoni or Beggin' Strips for the same reason--bad ingredients.

For training treats, I find that moist treats are usually higher value.

Currently my favorite are the Zuke's Mini Naturals. They're small, easy to break into two with my fingernails, are fairly low calorie, come in a lot of flavors, and the ingredients are good.

One caveat is that they were very recently purchased by Nestle. They have promised to not change their sourcing or their formula, but many of us Zuke's-lovers are skeptical, and I for one have started stocking up!

You can also use hot dogs, deli meat, chicken, or make your own. If you look in the recipe section there is a recipe for liver treats and tuna treats--both HUGE favorites at our house. The dogs will do ANYTHING for them.
 
I used to use hot dogs, cut into tiny pieces, stored in a baggie in my pocket. The reasoning was they were delicious to the dog, and if I needed to store a treat in my mouth to encourage "look at me", I could without being grossed out. I haven't started hot dogs with my new puppy.

We have wellness just for puppy treats, which can each be broken into 4 that he goes nuts over. They are fragrent and might be more value to the dog than milkbone, yet not as gross as a pupperoni. We also use low-sugar cheerios, which when you consider how many there are in a box, are the cheepest way to go. He will also do almost anything for a cheerio.
 
Tiny hot dog bites (like a slice and then 1/8th). Dry treats for dog class do not work as they crumble and that fouls up others walking around as the dogs go for the crumbs. I found some really small training treats (might even be Zuke's as mentioned below) that were like 1-2 calories per. Small, soft, easily swallowed, smell great.

You need really interesting stuff so the dog finds your treat more interesting than anything in the room.
 
I use Zukes as well Milo (our Eskie) will do anything for them. I'm also stocking up on them.
 
You could take hot dogs, cut them into small pieces and dry them out a bit in the oven or in a food dehydrator. But make sure the hot dogs are all-meat with no added sugars or starchy fillers!
 
I like Zukes, Bil-Jac little-jacs, and Train-Me! treats. All of those are available at Petco. I don't think Train-Me! treats are at Petsmart, but the others are. All of those are small, soft, and smelly. Even though they're already pretty small, I usually break them up into even smaller pieces to make them last. We go through a lot in flyball and agility!

For puppy class I've also used turkey hot dogs and as a last resort, string cheese. I only use string cheese as a last resort because my dog LOVES cheese and she gets too excited about getting it and then you can't get any work out of her. She's very food motivated. I've also recently started making my own treats using a recipe called tuna fudge or fishy fudge. Some people also call it puppy crack, but I'm not a fan of that name lol. My dog likes it, but it can be a little crumbly.
 
We like Max & Ruffy's Five-Star Blueberry Mini Bites. They are dry but Olive *really* likes them and they don't crumble. We got them in a sample bag at a local dog festival (they're also made in the DC Metro area.) You can get them on Chewy's
 
Chewiesmom said:
... He will respond to the trainers because they give him Pupperoni treats (which I HATE). They give him soft poop...I think it upsets his stomach...
Click to expand...

I don't have any treat suggestions, but I'm a bit surprised that no-one reacted to this part of the OP's comment. I've never ran into this problem myself, however, I would have a big problem if a trainer gave anything to my pup that I did not approve of (for any reason). If some sort of alternative could not be worked out, perhaps that class would not be the best fit for me and my dog.
 
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