[nikkimara]

Hello! I'm currently having some issues finding good snacks to give my dog when we're training. Yesterday we were working on our recall at the dog park, and I remembered back when we did puppy classes we were told things like cheese and hot dogs were good training treats. He can be difficult to keep the attention of and tends to snub regular treats, especially when we're out in public and there's so many more exciting things to focus on. The treats worked great to get him to follow commands but unfortunately has led to a bout of diarrhea which has resulted in me throwing out two crate blankets and giving him a bath. Anyone have any recommendations for high reward treats that won't upset his stomach? Also, he's allergic to chicken (but I haven't had an issue before with chicken treats in small amounts, he just can't have chicken protein dog food). Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

[Kathyy]

Does his regular food have a matching wet food? One way to go is to buy a can of it, cut into treats and bake until dry enough to be easy to handle. Then reduce the amount of the following meal by the amount of treats given out so you aren't overfeeding the dog. It's possible this is more a case of overfeeding than a sensitive stomach. Reducing the meal by the estimated calories given in training might keep his tummy from a malfunction. I ran into this with Max. He would have frequent increasingly soft stools during agility trials. I simply reduced the size of the treats and measured out how much he got per day and problem solved.

If you want to try real meat and worry about too much chicken try cooked pork loin cut into very thin slices. I much prefer pinching off treats as I will spill and it isn't fun to try to pick up rice sized bits. Pork loin, chicken or turkey breast all are fairly easy to pinch off bits if cut thin enough and aren't greasy.

 

[LeoRose]

Maybe put a handful of his kibble in a baggie, toss in a few pieces of hot dog, and let it "marinate" overnight in the fridge. Makes the kibble smell more like hot dog without actually giving him the hot dogs.

Another alternative is freeze dried, single protein treats, like lamb lung or beef liver.

 

[NadiaK]

One of the treats that the instructor in puppy class used was Spam. I absolutely hate it myself and remember my dad eating it as a kid. But I have to say that my pup went crazy for it and did anything she asked to get that little piece of Spam.

 

[nikkimara]

Does his regular food have a matching wet food? One way to go is to buy a can of it, cut into treats and bake until dry enough to be easy to handle. Then reduce the amount of the following meal by the amount of treats given out so you aren't overfeeding the dog. It's possible this is more a case of overfeeding than a sensitive stomach. Reducing the meal by the estimated calories given in training might keep his tummy from a malfunction. I ran into this with Max. He would have frequent increasingly soft stools during agility trials. I simply reduced the size of the treats and measured out how much he got per day and problem solved.

If you want to try real meat and worry about too much chicken try cooked pork loin cut into very thin slices. I much prefer pinching off treats as I will spill and it isn't fun to try to pick up rice sized bits. Pork loin, chicken or turkey breast all are fairly easy to pinch off bits if cut thin enough and aren't greasy.

I've never thought about the wet food thing! I haven't tried his brand of food's wet food before but I know he does well on Merrick's wet food. Maybe I'll give that a shot.

 

[gingerkid]

First, if your dog has a sensitive stomach, maybe start by only introducing one treat at a time so that you know which one is the problem.

For a sensitive dog, I would also introduce new foods slowly - start by testing it using one or two pieces in a regular training session at home. That way you can give her tummy time to learn to tolerate it instead of being assaulted with a new, probably very rich, food. Heck, even my dogs - who have generally iron clad stomachs - get an upset tummy if I give them too much of a new thing all at once, especially if it is something fatty or high in salt (like hot dogs and cheese). By using "problematic" treats more frequently but in smaller amounts, I have found that they are able to tolerate things that caused issues when initially introduced in large quantities in a session fed too much in one session. For example, the first time my youngest dog got chicken hearts as a treat, she got over a dozen of them and later had diarrhea. She is only 11lbs, so a dozen chicken hearts is a lot! So I started using them in more limited quantities - 1-2 cut up hearts (cut into 4-8 pieces per heart) per training session, a few times a week, and gradually increased the amount. Now she can eat an entire 1/2 cup container full with no deleterious effects.... except maybe getting pudgy, lol. (This is just an illustration that dogs can come to tolerate foods if they are introduced slowly - obviously if your dog is allergic to chicken, don't use chicken hearts!)

Maybe put a handful of his kibble in a baggie, toss in a few pieces of hot dog, and let it "marinate" overnight in the fridge. Makes the kibble smell more like hot dog without actually giving him the hot dogs.

Another alternative is freeze dried, single protein treats, like lamb lung or beef liver.

My dogs have pretty iron-clad stomachs but I've actually found freeze-dried liver to be the one thing that is most likely to give them diarrhea if they have too much, so I have to be very careful with how much I give them.

Similar to the hot dog-soak, I have had excellent success with cutting up a single strip of cooked bacon into tiny pieces, and then tossing them into a container of kibble (about 1.5 cups) and then microwaving it for ~30 seconds. Shake/stir it up when you take it out, and then let cool. I was really shocked when my picky, spits-out-kibble-in-training dog was happy monching down bacon-kibbles during training - in a training class, no less.

I also like to use steak/roast. I buy whatever is on the "last day" sale at the grocery store, trim off the excess fat, cook it up, and cut it into tiny pieces.

 

[laurelsmom]

My trainer uses hot dogs and cheese too. I get it in theory, but I've got a six pound micro-mutt with a lot of food and allergy issues and NO meat at all in my own refrigerator, grocery list, list of favourite comfort foods, and family culture.

This sounds a bit bizarre but another little dog person suggested just buying a sweet potato, cutting it up very fine, and putting it in my food dehydrator.

Dirt cheap DIY, low calorie, and she LOVES them. She'll even work for a mix of sweet potatoes and dehydrated raw (Stella & Chewy's Puppy Patties) at home, our "home parks", and other settings where she doesn't need anything as high value as "big dog junk food" or little dabs of peanut butter out of a baby food jar.

Of course she likes meat but dogs aren't obligate carnivores the way cats are. I've also heard of Chihuahua owners using green beans for training to avoid obesity. Laurel likes blueberries, but I have to cut them in half or she can't eat them. She adores raw carrots if you grate them for her.

Dogs are scavengers and major foodies. They can surprise you and you can have fun with it. Just stay away from chocolate, grapes, raisins, and onions because they're poisonous.

I was going to make carob chip cookies to share with "doggie daughter" but I think too many of the chips I bought found their way into the training treat bag or else I just got too busy with real things for anthropomorphizing and gobbled them all up myself.

 

[gingerkid]

My trainer uses hot dogs and cheese too. I get it in theory, but I've got a six pound micro-mutt with a lot of food and allergy issues and NO meat at all in my own refrigerator, grocery list, list of favourite comfort foods, and family culture.

This sounds a bit bizarre but another little dog person suggested just buying a sweet potato, cutting it up very fine, and putting it in my food dehydrator.

Dirt cheap DIY, low calorie, and she LOVES them. She'll even work for a mix of sweet potatoes and dehydrated raw (Stella & Chewy's Puppy Patties) at home, our "home parks", and other settings where she doesn't need anything as high value as "big dog junk food" or little dabs of peanut butter out of a baby food jar.

Of course she likes meat but dogs aren't obligate carnivores the way cats are. I've also heard of Chihuahua owners using green beans for training to avoid obesity. Laurel likes blueberries, but I have to cut them in half or she can't eat them. She adores raw carrots if you grate them for her.

Dogs are scavengers and major foodies. They can surprise you and you can have fun with it. Just stay away from chocolate, grapes, raisins, and onions because they're poisonous.

I was going to make carob chip cookies to share with "doggie daughter" but I think too many of the chips I bought found their way into the training treat bag or else I just got too busy with real things for anthropomorphizing and gobbled them all up myself.

Dogs aren't obligate carnivores, but they are generalist facultative/opportunistic carnivores; although they don't need meat to survive like cats do, dogs (as a species preferentially seek out meat over other food sources , when it is available. But I don't know how much species dietary classification has to do with individual preferences anyway - one of my cat's favourite things is to chew on is fresh baby grass, and when talking about training, the learner (i.e., dog) is the one who decides what is rewarding, which can even vary across situations, contexts, or environments.