[UCFWils85]

I have a Beagle mix which means she is VERY attentive to food. I've recently bought a big bag of treats which she loves (liver treats) to train her. I've noticed it's working as she is picking up on things. I'm even getting her to voluntarilly enter her crate.

I'm not sure how this might conflict with her meal schedule, though. I don't want to overfeed her but I want her to get the good Pro Plan food 3 times a day as recommended.

So there's the problem. Training only really works with repetitive treat allowance, but I don't want her eating too much and potentially going to the bathroom too much.

Should I only feed her twice a day instead since her treats somewhat act as another meal?

[Elana55]

The treats for training should be VERY small. I break the tiny dog biscuits into 1/3rds and the other treats I cut up to be the size of 1/2 dime.

When teaching a new behavior you DO use a LOT of treats. when reinforcing a behavior that is becoming established much less so.

If I am using a lot of treats I cut back on the dog food.

So far this has worked well. My dog is 1 year old and is now 60 pounds. I expect her to be no more than 65 pounds. She gets 2.5 cups of Canidae a day (used to be 3 cups but she started to put on a little weight). If I am using a lot of high calorie treats I cut back the Dog food to 2 cups.

An example would be hot dogs.. when training something new or something she doesn't like to do as much, I can go through two hot dogs cut in quarters length wise and the cut cross wise several times to make small treats. When she gets two hot dogs, she gets less dog food!

I like Hot dogs for treats.. cheap and the dog really goes for them!

[Poly]

I agree with Elana. Most of the soft training treats on the market are too big. If you cut them into pieces about half the size of a dime, then you'll be in the right ballpark. You can go through quite a bit of training with treats this size before you are going to impact your puppy's diet.

I prefer semi-soft treats rather than hard ones but if the hard ones work for you, fine.

[Annamarie]

you could do training time right before meal time. also I would start conditioning her to praise with a treat sometimes instead of a treat all the time. she needs to learn that she has to listen even if you're not baiting her with a treat.

[lovemygreys]

As mentioned earlier, most training treats on the market are way too big. I cut soft treats or freeze dried liver treats up to a bout the size of a large pea...or the earlier referenced 1/2 the size of a dime is about right.

Once I have a dog willing to work and if we're doing a lot of training, I'll actually reserve a bit of their kibble for training and mix it up with the "high value" treats like the liver. I also will randomly reward with verbal praise instead of a treat for more routine things that they do willingly and with ease (like sit, down). It is still important to occasionally treat-reward the "easy" behaviors.

[Cheetah]

Along with what everyone else said, I also use my dogs' food as treats.

[Aussiefan]

Originally Posted by Elana55

The treats for training should be VERY small. I break the tiny dog biscuits into 1/3rds and the other treats I cut up to be the size of 1/2 dime.

When teaching a new behavior you DO use a LOT of treats. when reinforcing a behavior that is becoming established much less so.

If I am using a lot of treats I cut back on the dog food.

So far this has worked well. My dog is 1 year old and is now 60 pounds. I expect her to be no more than 65 pounds. She gets 2.5 cups of Canidae a day (used to be 3 cups but she started to put on a little weight). If I am using a lot of high calorie treats I cut back the Dog food to 2 cups.

An example would be hot dogs.. when training something new or something she doesn't like to do as much, I can go through two hot dogs cut in quarters length wise and the cut cross wise several times to make small treats. When she gets two hot dogs, she gets less dog food!

I like Hot dogs for treats.. cheap and the dog really goes for them!

Great post Elana...exactly what i would have suggested also. I too use hot dogs for training treats, and the treats i give my dogs are smaller then my pinky nail. Cheap like Elana said, and soft so the dog doesn't have to sit there and chew for 2 minutes. On Agility class evenings my dogs im training get a little less regular food (I also feed Canidae) The amound of hot dog they are getting isn't enough to cause any problems, but you do want to keep that sort of intake small.