# Best training treats for teeny tiny pups?



## Summerhouse (Jun 12, 2015)

Have you tired making your own ? I know people who have wanted small treats and have made up a gloopy mix of liver cake, put it in an icing bag and put little dots on baking sheet and baked. It gives you little softish treats that don't break up as mush as if you'd cooked a tray of it then cut into pieces.

Too much liver can give runny bum but recipe works well with tinned tuna, sardines, mackerel in spring water or oil not brine. All of course nice and smelly perfect for getting attention.

The same sort of thing might work with tinned food if you mixed some with egg so it was loose enough to pipe and bake. The egg would help hold it together, just a thought.


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## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

I used Zukes mini's. They are tiny and soft. Misha weighed 3.9 pounds at a year.


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

You could try Purebites. They please even our pickiest eaters. Our dogs get the beef liver and my sis likes to feed hers the chicken. You can break the bigger chunks into small pieces and it won't make a mess.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

I second the pure bites liver (not so much the chicken) the liver is soft and airy - a toothless dog could chew it, it has a scent that even I can detect, so it must be very aromatic for a dog, and most importantly it breaks into itty bitty pieces without disintegrating into crumbs. Seriously I can take one little rectangle of it and break it into 10-15 pieces, and nary a crumb if made!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I have used plain steamed chicken breast, cut into tiny pieces, or any left over non-fatty cooked meat; liver cake cut into small bit and frozen; tuna cake done the same way; just a lick or two of Primula Light cheese in a tube


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

I don't like to feed any processed meats to the dogs, so I boil chicken gizzards for about 30 minutes, cut them into small pieces with kitchen shears (you could cut them into tiny pieces), and store them in a plastic container in the freezer. Just shake enough loose for a training session and pop them in the microwave for ten seconds or so. A pound of gizzards should last a long time for a tpoo.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

I did use fresh proteins for classes and training sessions, but I am a big believer in almost always having treats in your pocket the first year or two, and the pure bites are great for that.


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## spindledreams (Aug 7, 2012)

of course my standards are much larger but Zuke mini's are good and their fillets are easy to tear or cut into tiny pieces. Other options as mentioned already is cooking and cutting your own meat treats into tiny pieces. And more then once we have bought roasted chickens and used small pieces of chicken from them for that days treats... 
Other options to think about however are veggies. Does your pup go crazy over any thing you can cut into fairly firm chunks or slices?


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Kibble! Use a portion of the pup's regular food. They don't know there are better things unless you've already given lots of other stuff. Javelin and even Lily both enthusiastically work for kibble.

Alternatively play rewards.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

lily cd re said:


> Kibble! Use a portion of the pup's regular food. They don't know there are better things unless you've already given lots of other stuff. Javelin and even Lily both enthusiastically work for kibble.
> 
> Alternatively play rewards.



That is great for a big dog, but when you are training a behavior and might treat 40-50 times in a session that is too much food for a little one.


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## Mehpenn (Jan 18, 2010)

I feed dry kibble. It's small kibble but it still takes her a while to chew it. Not very cundusive to training. 

During our training sessions, if it's hard or chewy, she concentrates more on chewing the treat than the exercise to obtain the treat.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

Mehpenn said:


> I feed dry kibble. It's small kibble but it still takes her a while to chew it. Not very cundusive to training.
> 
> During our training sessions, if it's hard or chewy, she concentrates more on chewing the treat than the exercise to obtain the treat.



Really, pure bites liver, you will thank me☺


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Tiny Poodles said:


> That is great for a big dog, but when you are training a behavior and might treat 40-50 times in a session that is too much food for a little one.



I am curious. How many pieces of kibble would you say are in a tpoo pup's daily ration? I would expect the kibble pieces are tiny enough that you wouldn't exceed the day's ration even if you gave 50 pieces. I also think that for very young puppies it is more than ok if everything they eat comes from your hand. It makes them think you are like a god who dispenses the all important food. For about the first month that Javelin was home all his kibble either came from my hand or was in a treat ball to teach him about the virtues of chew toys.


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## aasteapots (Oct 6, 2013)

We use the big roll of meat they sell at petco. Vital I believe its called its like bologna it come in a tube its refrigerated and we cut it into small chunks its soft. you can freeze it so it doesn't go bad if its too much product for you. Also we used real bacon bits. the precooked kind that comes pre shredded. Vida is now 12lbs but she was a tiny puppy she didn't have the jaw strength for bigger foods. Now she rips through anything!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Here's another idea, Ziwi Peak. I haven't used it but Ian Dunbar swears by it and says you can cut it into tiny bits.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

lily cd re said:


> I am curious. How many pieces of kibble would you say are in a tpoo pup's daily ration? I would expect the kibble pieces are tiny enough that you wouldn't exceed the day's ration even if you gave 50 pieces. I also think that for very young puppies it is more than ok if everything they eat comes from your hand. It makes them think you are like a god who dispenses the all important food. For about the first month that Javelin was home all his kibble either came from my hand or was in a treat ball to teach him about the virtues of chew toys.



I don't use much kibble, but depending upon the size of the kibble, I would say 50 may meet or exceed the daily ration for a 3 pounder!


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

aasteapots said:


> We use the big roll of meat they sell at petco. Vital I believe its called its like bologna it come in a tube its refrigerated and we cut it into small chunks its soft. you can freeze it so it doesn't go bad if its too much product for you. Also we used real bacon bits. the precooked kind that comes pre shredded. Vida is now 12lbs but she was a tiny puppy she didn't have the jaw strength for bigger foods. Now she rips through anything!



Ziwi Peak is quality food, one piece may be broken into 3-4 tiny pieces, but smaller than half is so small it is hard to hold and get into their mouth.
Also, two cautions, Ziwi Peak is the most calorie dense food that I have ever seen, so the daily portion would be even smaller than kibble. And it seems to be a food that a significant percent of dogs cannot tolerate - stools can be soft, or worse.

If getting it, I would recommend beef over venison, as all three of mine had soft stools on the venison (and they have no problem with venison in other type of food), so I can't tell you why, but the beef is a safer bet.


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## nifty (Aug 2, 2013)

I would boil a couple of chicken breasts and several chicken livers, cool, then chop up into tiny pieces. These are what I used for my SPOO when she was a puppy (she wasn't very food-motivated and still isn't). These would be tasty and need virtually no chewing. And a little goes a LONG way. I would chop them up and freeze in baggies -- spread the tiny chopped pieces out in the baggie and lay flat int he freezer, then you can crumble them and get pieces out easily later when they are frozen. I never thawed them for training. They are easier to dispense frozen (or semi-frozen as they thaw quickly) and I don't think many dogs care if they are frozen or not.


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## Summerhouse (Jun 12, 2015)

There's this type of thing that's like a roll on deodorant bottle where they just lick for a treat
3 x Trixie Adult Dog Roller Pop Lick Stick Training Treats Chicken Bacon Salmon | eBay

I've also seen these treat toob that you can fill with anything squeezable such as peanut butter cream cheese or anything pureed 
Treat Toob Blue - Soft Treat Dispenser Tube Dogs Treats 89ml Case of 6: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Tiny Poodles said:


> Ziwi Peak is quality food, one piece may be broken into 3-4 tiny pieces, but smaller than half is so small it is hard to hold and get into their mouth.
> Also, two cautions, Ziwi Peak is the most calorie dense food that I have ever seen, so the daily portion would be even smaller than kibble. And it seems to be a food that a significant percent of dogs cannot tolerate - stools can be soft, or worse.
> 
> If getting it, I would recommend beef over venison, as all three of mine had soft stools on the venison (and they have no problem with venison in other type of food), so I can't tell you why, but the beef is a safer bet.


Ian says he cuts Ziwi into 8 or 16 tiny pieces. Since I haven't used it I don't have a picture of what that is size wise.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

lily cd re said:


> Ian says he cuts Ziwi into 8 or 16 tiny pieces. Since I haven't used it I don't have a picture of what that is size wise.



If you took a dime, generously cut off the sides to form a square, that is how big it is. And a bit thinner than a dime.


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## Muggles (Mar 14, 2015)

Tiny Poodles said:


> If you took a dime, generously cut off the sides to form a square, that is how big it is. And a bit thinner than a dime.



Yes the 'daily dog' meal version pieces are pretty small - see pic. But the treat packets have much bigger pieces that are easier to break - I assume that's what Ian is breaking into 8 or more pieces. I only buy the meal one (to use as treats) as the treat packs are tiny - like 85g I think! - and super expensive. At least with the others you can get a kilo and it lasts for ages.


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## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

Actually if you broke those little pieces into eight it would be about the right size to train a toy poodle.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

N2Mischief said:


> Actually if you broke those little pieces into eight it would be about the right size to train a toy poodle.



Broken into four on top of a penny


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## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

Yes, about 1/2 of one of those is about the size I used in Obedience for Misha. Trainer said it just had to be a tiny taste.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

N2Mischief said:


> Yes, about 1/2 of one of those is about the size I used in Obedience for Misha. Trainer said it just had to be a tiny taste.



Gosh, I couldn't hold something that small lol!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Actually Lily and Javelin are just happy for a lick of my fingers that taste like something wonderful. Peeves wants to know he actually got something, but even one Zukes mini makes him happy.


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## peccan (Aug 26, 2014)

Meat-intensive cat treat sticks. Tons of mileage, easy to cut very thin slices since they are soft, and they don't crumble either. Extra yummy.

Though for a puppy you might want straight plain chicken and save the higher value cat treats for teen days.


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## ranniew (Sep 17, 2015)

I also use Zuke's minis, Mia loves them! I used to cut each mini into 16 pieces (lol) so Mia doesn't eat too much over training sessions (I didn't want her to get full on these and not eat her kibbles). Now that she's 17 weeks (at 2.8lb), I'm cutting each mini into 8 pieces for her. They're easy to cut, I cut about 10 in a session (80 in total) and put them into a ziplock bag to retain moisture.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

ranniew, Peeves weighs 95 pounds so cutting Zukes minis up would be pretty silly, but I used to break them up into halves or whatever they broke up to when my dogs were small puppies (with small being relative, Lily and Javelin came home each weighing 8ish pounds and Peeves weighed 15).


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