# Treat for training



## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

I'm running out of ideas for training treats for Babykins......we have to keep the food low fat and high fibre because she has ulcerative colitis. Plus she is a minipoo so I need to keep the calories reasonable.

At home I use her home made turkey/potato/carrot mix and she loves that along with some chunks of turkey and dry Rx kibble for tossing

I was using Zuke's Mini Naturals Roasted Chicken Recipe Dog Treats, but last week in our class she had no interest in them whatsoever even though she should have been hungry since this was close in time to when I feed her dinner.

I would bring her home made wet food but it's crumbly so it's awkward to use. Her dry kibble is large which means she has to stop to chew it. I've also tried just the turkey and she also lost interest in that.

Any ideas?


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

I found with Asta that eventually no treats worked in training - he is very praise oriented. We had a thread not too long ago about treats vs. praise. Maybe Babykins is one of the more praised oriented pups - try lots of good dogs, etc.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

I've tried a variety of treats for Lucky and he has no interest in a good deal of them. Our trainer said to bring higher value foods to class. I've tried the following.
1. Zuke's salmon 
2. Zuke's peanut butter
3. Fruitable pumpkin treats
4. low sodium canned tuna
5. low sodium maple bacon
6. Several homemade dehydrator recipes
7. Chicken hot dogs cut into tiny pieces

The hot dog was recommended by the assistant trainer and it works the best. I only use the hot dogs for our class. I used the treats in general whenever I'm teaching him a new command and then transition to just praises.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

If she would tolerate it you could try string cheese. When I use it I have it pre-cut in two ways. I will take one half the length of a piece and cut it into little bits that I can give from my mouth. The other half I pull apart into skinny strips that I can use above the dog's head to help get heads up attention. You could also try making a baked homemade treat that would hold its consistency. Little bits of hot dogs are another high value item (but I don't use them since I don't like hot dogs too well).


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Something soft that you could put in a treat tube might work - TreatToob ? Paww Pureed chicken and veg, for example, or low fat cottage cheese. Frozen in ice cube trays, so that you can pop a couple out to defrost in good time.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Asta's Mom said:


> I found with Asta that eventually no treats worked in training - he is very praise oriented. We had a thread not too long ago about treats vs. praise. Maybe Babykins is one of the more praised oriented pups - try lots of good dogs, etc.


I wish Babykins was like that and I did read that thread. But right now she is very food driven no matter how much I praise her. I do use some toys in training but she's really not interested in them either. I have diminished some of the food treats so she has to do more to get a treat in an effort to extinguish some treats - but of course when learning something new we use lots of food.

I don't know if this is because since I got her I have feed all her meals as treats for training. She gets a few leftovers now at the end of training on a plate - well even that is training since we do "leave it" first before she is allowed to eat. When I brought her home from the trainer she refused to eat from a plate and would only eat from my hand so I think her breeders were feeding her from the hand to train her for conformation but I'm not sure.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

snow0160 said:


> I've tried a variety of treats for Lucky and he has no interest in a good deal of them. Our trainer said to bring higher value foods to class. I've tried the following.
> 1. Zuke's salmon
> 2. Zuke's peanut butter
> 3. Fruitable pumpkin treats
> ...


Fruitable pumpkin treats? That sort of strikes me as funny.
I'm going to look into chicken hot dogs. I did use beef hot dogs months ago (my first trainer told me to use hot dog also) and she threw up from the grease - so I'll look for a low fat hot dog. I can also cook the hot dog to render some more fat.

Does anyone have problems with garlic added to hotdogs? I know we are not to feed onions to dogs and garlic is related to onions so I wasn't sure if it was safe?


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

lily cd re said:


> If she would tolerate it you could try string cheese. When I use it I have it pre-cut in two ways. I will take one half the length of a piece and cut it into little bits that I can give from my mouth. The other half I pull apart into skinny strips that I can use above the dog's head to help get heads up attention. You could also try making a baked homemade treat that would hold its consistency. Little bits of hot dogs are another high value item (but I don't use them since I don't like hot dogs too well).


My daughter uses the string cheese too. When we visited she was training Babykins to use some of her agility equipment using the string cheese - clearly a winner - except I'm not sure if Babykins can tolerate it. She had both string cheese and fatty meatballs...........and then she got really sick so I'm not sure which food caused it. I'm going to have to retest her with string cheese because it's easy for me to handle.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

fjm said:


> Something soft that you could put in a treat tube might work - TreatToob ? Paww Pureed chicken and veg, for example, or low fat cottage cheese. Frozen in ice cube trays, so that you can pop a couple out to defrost in good time.


I've seen those treattoob's before. Her homemade wet food actually hangs of loosely together so I can cut it up into little cubes - sort of like meatloaf.


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## oshagcj914 (Jun 12, 2016)

I make my own. They're healthier and I know what's in them, place waaaaaay cheaper! I use dehydrated chicken or turkey hearts or gizzards. They're very lean and the hearts are like doggy crack  Too many at one time can cause loose stools if your dog isn't used to them. I also use bits of cheese if your girl can tolerate that.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

oshagcj914 said:


> I make my own. They're healthier and I know what's in them, place waaaaaay cheaper! I use dehydrated chicken or turkey hearts or gizzards. They're very lean and the hearts are like doggy crack  Too many at one time can cause loose stools if your dog isn't used to them. I also use bits of cheese if your girl can tolerate that.


Are you cutting up the food and dehydrating it yourself? I tried that with chicken breast using my oven (I don't have a dehydrator) but it ended up too dry. Maybe I should give it another try and watch it more closely using chicken livers. 

Babykins has colitis, maybe ulcerative colitis - so I avoid anything that can cause loose stools.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I think I've posted this in other places, but I make homemade treats too. I call them turkey brownies (but if your dog was intolerant of turkey you could use any ground meat that your dog can eat. I know someone who makes a variation of this using salmon).

1 pound ground turkey
1or 2 eggs
bread crumbs (any type)
parmesan cheese (grated)
garlic powder (optional)

Add to the meat the other ingredients in portions to create a meatloaf consistency mixture. Use cooking oil spray to coat a 9 x 13 pan for thin brownies or a 9 x 9 for thicker ones. Bake at 375-400 until the edges just start to pull away from the pan or until a meat thermometer comes to temperature of doneness appropriate for the meat used. Allow it to cool and then cut into tiny bits as appropriate for the size of your dog. You can easily freeze these and thaw them out as needed for a couple of days of working.

You can also easily double the recipe in which case I would use a 9 x 13 pan.

One of the good things about this treat is you can hold it in your mouth. If you can spit well and your dog understands to catch it you can reward directly from your mouth. If you are using it right before you are going into a trial ring you can chew and swallow it yourself rather than risking the dog spitting out bits on the ring floor (which NQs in obedience, rally and agility).


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

lily cd re said:


> I think I've posted this in other places, but I make homemade treats too. I call them turkey brownies (but if your dog was intolerant of turkey you could use any ground meat that your dog can eat. I know someone who makes a variation of this using salmon).
> 
> 1 pound ground turkey
> 1or 2 eggs
> ...


Thanks so much - this looks doable - I can leave out the cheese or maybe substitute nutritional yeast for that umami flavor and I haven't tested eggs yet for her but I can make something like this that should work.

And yes, it is nice having people food - so you feel comfortable holding it in your mouth. 

I haven't used garlic in her food since we changed her diet. I know dogs can't eat onion and since garlic and onions are part of the allium family I wasn't sure garlic was safe.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I've never had any adverse reactions to garlic powder, but I adapted this recipe from the one that was given to me by adding the grated cheese and cutting down on the amount of garlic powder. I am sure you could leave it out entirely if you wanted. And I think as long as the dog isn't sensitive to or intolerant of chicken there shouldn't be an issue with eggs. I don't see a way to leave them out since they are an important part of what makes the firm texture.


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## oshagcj914 (Jun 12, 2016)

Skylar said:


> Are you cutting up the food and dehydrating it yourself? I tried that with chicken breast using my oven (I don't have a dehydrator) but it ended up too dry. Maybe I should give it another try and watch it more closely using chicken livers.
> 
> Babykins has colitis, maybe ulcerative colitis - so I avoid anything that can cause loose stools.


I leave chicken hearts and gizzards whole and cut the turkey hearts in slices. I bought a cheapo food dehydrator specifically for making dog treats, although I also use it for myself sometimes. I either dehydrate them until they're about the consistency of jerky and store them in the fridge or freezer so they don't go bad, or I dehydrate them completely so they are crunchy and shelf stable. You can also use strips of chicken breast, and I think it turns out better in the dehydrator than when I have tried it in the oven. Dehydrated liver is also really popular with my pets, but if you are trying to avoid loose stools, I would choose breast meat or gizzards rather than heart or liver. If I don't feel like getting the dehydrator out I have also fridge-dried my treats. I just cut them in thin slices, spread them in a thin layer on a cookie sheet, and put them in the fridge until there are sort of dried out to a consistency I like. I get turkey hearts for $.75 a pound and chicken gizzards for $.68 a pound, so these are really economical for me.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Catherine, I'm going to try the garlic - I think it will add a good smell which is important when we go to class.

oshagcj914, thanks for the details. I never thought of drying in the freezer as you mentioned.


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## oshagcj914 (Jun 12, 2016)

Skylar said:


> Catherine, I'm going to try the garlic - I think it will add a good smell which is important when we go to class.
> 
> oshagcj914, thanks for the details. I never thought of drying in the freezer as you mentioned.


I think if you put them in the freezer, they'll just get frozen more than dried. If you put them in the fridge they will dry out, but it does take a few days. Also garlic in limited amounts is fine for dogs. Many people use it as a natural flea preventative.


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