Training with treats,,,,what do you like to give your dog?

[boxhitch]

Not sure that it matters with some dogs, they are just glad to get a treat meaning they are making their master happy
enter the 'treats vs praise' debate

[hotload]

Treat training is a wonderful asset to train with. As Adriaticum says, find what your dog ravishes over, doesn't have to be food. Watch videos of many trained dogs in action, K9 police, Retrievers, Agility for example, many use bumpers, squeaky toys, tug toys. What ever your dog is insane over works miracles. In MHO if you have a dog that is an insatiable eater, a regular pig, you got a winner to train. With bond, obedience,praise, and their insatiable appetite used for training purposes you have just found many ways to get your dog to do what you want it to. If it's food, expensive isn't important. I haven't met a dog yet that doesn't snap up the chance to inhale a plain piece of wiener...............................
ROD

[jagen mit DDrs]

Giving treats or favourite toy or using a clicker is marking a desired behaviour...so timing is very important.Whatever yo use isn't important as long as your dog loves it.

Rainer

[Iron Glove]

Over the past 14 years of different types of training with our 2 dogs including obedience, agility, retrieving, tracking and just general nonsense we've pretty well tried everything.
Would say that the top three for us are dried venison, dried wieners and cheese. As everyone says, small amounts.
We recently completed their trick dog title classes which were really quite "attention needed" having 10 active dogs in a small room all doing stunts. Went through a lot of treats in an hour.
Our eldest dog ( 14 ) is recovering from cancer surgery and chemo so we have to be very careful about protein and phosphorous due to her compromised renal system. Veggies ( she will get into our pea garden in the summer, pull pods off the plants, eat the peas and spit out the pods ) and kibble from the renal diet food now.

[Wild one]

Have never used treats praise and a toy seems to work good for me. Just don't like the idea of my dog only listening because I bribed it with food

[Iron Glove]

Have never used treats praise and a toy seems to work good for me. Just don't like the idea of my dog only listening because I bribed it with food

It's whatever works to get, and keep your dog's attention. If something other than treats works, that's great.
A lot depends on the dog and / or the activity involved.
"Praise and a toy" are basically bribes too.

[Big Lew]

Have never used treats praise and a toy seems to work good for me. Just don't like the idea of my dog only listening because I bribed it with food

I think it's important to wean your dog from 'treat dependence' as they progress through training
so that by the time you're actually in the field hunting, praise has taken the place of treats.
Having said that, using treats as you introduce your dog to all the bewildering commands and
controlled atmosphere it's not used to usually is the fastest way while avoiding the common pitfall
of scaring or otherwise negatively impacting it's enthusiasm to do well.

[Fella]

sure, they key is to find the high value prize/treat the dog wants and use it.
I might be a treat, or a ball, or a dirty sock.
you never know.

Tennis balls work well with her

[mastercaster]

Would say that the top three for us are dried venison, dried wieners and cheese. As everyone says, small amounts.

I've been thinking about using a bit of my deer meat, once I get my pup, to use as training treats. I doubt I'll get through three deer this year so I figure I can spare some. I ended up giving some to my son from the three from last season. I've been wondering about using fish skin, too, that's been dried out on the barbecue,,,,or would it be too rich, even if was cut up into small 1/2" squares and used sparingly?

I like the carrot slice idea and I think I've heard about some people using dried apple slices, too. Anyone ever try those?

How did you go about drying your wiener pieces, John? In the oven?

[Iron Glove]

I've been thinking about using a bit of my deer meat, once I get my pup, to use as training treats. I doubt I'll get through three deer this year so I figure I can spare some. I ended up giving some to my son from the three from last season. I've been wondering about using fish skin, too, that's been dried out on the barbecue,,,,or would it be too rich, even if was cut up into small 1/2" squares and used sparingly?

I like the carrot slice idea and I think I've heard about some people using dried apple slices, too. Anyone ever try those?

How did you go about drying your wiener pieces, John? In the oven?

We simply use thin slices of deer scraps, toss 'em in the dehydrater for half a day or so ( the smell drives the mutts nuts ) until they are dry. An oven on a low temp would work too. Wieners tend to make a mess of the dehydrater so they go in the oven on low. Wieners are really oily too so we find that when they are nicely dried you can pop them in your pocket. Try that with a wiener that isn't dried out.
Another thing we do is dry out yam or sweet potato slices in the dehydrater. We've done apples too, never carrots tho', they get those raw.
Never tried fish skin but would imagine the same dehydrater / oven tricks would work. Our dogs get a lot of fish skin, alas it's from the banks of the Coquihalla River and has usually been there for a month or two.
It was funny a few years ago when I took a bag of dried deer to our dog's agility classes as we didn't know what to expect - many dog people shun hunters. I started handing out little baggies to all our class mates and everyone was quite appreciative of it. As I walked back to our dog one of the guys was wolfing down his share instead of saving it for the dog. He just laughed and said "This is too good to waste on a dog." That was probably the best night for well behaving dogs, they loved it.
We found when giving our dogs venison that wasn't dried or cooked that it worked best to start our with small amounts and build up to allow the dog's system to adapt. Some dogs get pretty "crappy" if they eat too much too fast.