Best training treats?

I've been buying treats for Bess which she likes and will work for, however they aren't cheap, and I find I don't do as much training as I'd be going through the treats like a dose of salts!

What treats do you recommend which are high value, cheap, and won't fill Bess up so she then doesn't eat her food?

(I'm a lazy person so prefer to buy, rather than make)

 

Hotdog is always good and easy to cut up into small pieces or there are several places that sell liver cake - Babycham on here sells it. Primula in a tube is a good one too and really anything smelly (garlic sausage/pancetta/dried tuna).

You can make up a training mix as well using her daily food ration if she is on dry food. Split up her food into portions and put one of those portions in a plastic sandwich bag along with something smelly (garlic sausage is a good choice). Leave it for a bit and the dry food should start to smell and that will make it more high value.

If you want to try making something with the least amount of effort you could bake some liver. Boil it first for about 5 mins and then cut into small pieces and bake in an oven on a low temperature (around 50 degrees) for 3/4 hours. Then it goes hard and is easy to use for multiple training sessions. Plus you can make a week's worth of treats for about 60p.

 

I've heard (from others at ringcraft) that Asdas chipolata sausages are particularly good as they aren't too greasy to handle.

We have a pack of dried sausages that we cut into bits and Henry adores those. You could also maybe get a big block of cheese specifically for Bess and just take off little bits at a time? That would be quite economical and last a while.

 

I often use Spens meals as training treats. Being raw fed his regular food is extremely high value and although it's a bit of a pain to use it as treats (spoon feeding him bits of tripe or minced beef or liver or kidney out of a tub!) it means I don't have to worry about his weight so much. Or the cost of treats

I use pretty much anything as treats though. I'll mix treat sized pieces of raw carrot in with treat sized pieces of garlic sausage, cheese and other highish value treats. I'll use left over green beans or peas as training treats in the house. With the exception of liver cake or tuna cake all the treats I use are things we already have in. Course I do have to cut them into treat sized pieces so there is some effort involved but it's not a lot

Fish4Dogs do some really tiny star shaped treats that both Rupert and Spen have liked and they didn't work out too expensive for me. Can't get them over here :cryin:

 

I use kibble a lot of the time. 400g bags last me ages, got 800g of decent quality kibble (Orijen/Acana type of good but a seemingly new brand) for £3.90 off Zooplus not long ago.

Fish4Dogs Superstars are diddy but really stinky too! But I know Bess doesn't like real fish..?

I don't like hotdog etc!

 

Agree with L/C I mainly use chopped up hotdogs. 50p a tin and I'll get through one whole tin in a training class but that's with constantly dishing them out for a full hour. I usually only need 2-3 chopped up for a walk if I'm not going too heavy on the training. They're also soft so little chance of choking if she's running about.

 

Got a small bag of Orijen - she wouldn't even try one bite! She does like the Fish4Dogs jerky strips, so perhaps the Superstars might work?

Hot dogs seem like the way to go though for cheapness, although I did want something I could put in my jeans pocket.

 

The best treats are always whatever the person next to you has

 

Or what's been dropped on the floor!

 

Ain't this the truth! I can have garlic sausage one me and my dog will be more interested in the gravy bone type treats someone else has :cryin: But if I try using those gravy bone type treats? Forget it, he doesn't like them! :incazzato:

 

I use Ye Olde Oak Premium Hot Dog sausages, tinned in brine. They are 72% chicken and are frequently on offer at Asda at 2 tins for £1. I wash off the brine, dry the sausages, cut them into small pieces and open freeze them so they are loosed/free flow. I then put them into a container and keep in the freezer. When I want some I put a few in a plastic bag, still frozen, and put them in my pocket/bag. They stay frozen for a while and Poppy happily eats them like that. When I get back, any leftover go back into the container in the freezer.

 

Yeah but what do you do when your other half gets jealous and eats the rest of the tin .

Bessie I would have thought any treat if enticing enough is going to be smelly so will need to be in a bag/container of some kind rather than just in your pocket. I pulled out a tissue yesterday to find it smelt very strongly of liver cake .

 

It's the Primula that the OH keeps nicking, manage to seal off a Kong with it when I first get it then it's all gone There's another idea BD - Primula squeezy cheese, you can just squeeze a bit out for her to lick off.

 

I've been using Natures menu treats but they are so expensive for a small bag its just not worth it.

I used to make dried liver treats so might just go back to doing that.

 

Yeah I like chucking things in my pockets so hot dog is a no! Plus its not the kind of thing I like to give Rupert.

Barking Heads the dog food company are making new treats called Bailey Bites. They were at Discover Dogs but are not online for another two weeks, they look really good! Mine love them, peppermint ones, mostly digestive type biscuits but mine are very pleased and like them as long as I mix them up they will come for most things.

 

I've done that before!

I like carrying treats with me (you wouldn't believe the number that have gone through the wash) in case she does a nice stand by herself and I want to reward her for it, or if she does something else I want to encourage. As I've said on another thread, she's very quick to learn the wrong things, so I always want to be able to reward the correct behaviour.

Perhaps I'll buy treats to keep in my pockets, and then use hot dogs/cheese or something for planned training sessions. That could work.

 

Liver cake costs next to nothing
Cheap sausage with a high fat content
Cheese if you can get it on the reduced section
All can be frozen into small batches
I always have a selection so the dog never knows which it is getting. I use tiny pieces about the size of my little finger nail. If I want to reward well for something that has been done particularly well I double or triple treat with the same size, never with one bigger piece. For some things low value treats work better

 

We use all sorts; chopped up cocktail sausages, cheese, my mum's leftover overdone roast :lol:

I think the absolute favourite has to be ox heart (you can buy it cheap at Morrisons) boiled and then chopped up. They go nuts for it.

Like Hawksport we vary we what we use. If we use one thing for too long they start getting bored of it.

 

I buy the cheap packs of chicken roll, for sandwiches, and tear into little bits.
Dres has never refused this, never gotten bored of it, and it gets his attention more than anything else, even cheese. Its about £1 a pack for 26 slices or something, tesco, Morrisons, co-op and Asda all do their own brand of cheap chicken roll.

 

natures menu treats, you can cut them small so a bag will last longer

my lot love the chicken ones and the lamb ones :thumbsup: