# Best treats to use for training?



## ghostrunner (Mar 24, 2010)

Hi Everyone,

I'm curious what the group's opinion is regarding the best treats to use for training. I recognize that every dog is different, but I'm interested in what the collective experience has been.

Related, I've had at least two people tell me that hot dogs are a bad choice for a variety of reasons. Any vets out there care to comment?

Thanks!


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## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

ghostrunner said:


> Hi Everyone,
> 
> I'm curious what the group's opinion is regarding the best treats to use for training. I recognize that every dog is different, but I'm interested in what the collective experience has been.
> 
> ...



Well, first of all, a vet won't know anything about the nutritional value of anything. Hot Dogs are made up of all of the extra parts in animals, all of which dogs can eat without a problem, all of which are probably healthy for dogs to eat.

Personally, however, my dogs don't much care for the hot dogs. Well, Ryou will take anything he can get his hands on, but Amaya is picky.

As per good treats, I've been recommended dehydrated liver. I got regular liver treats the other day for my dogs, and of course Ryou loves them, but Amaya seems to be responding to them a lot more than some of her other treats.​


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## Sir (Feb 4, 2010)

Hot Dogs and Nitrites

Pets and people should not eat nitrate/nitrite foods very often, if at all. Link


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

ghostrunner said:


> Hi Everyone,
> 
> I'm curious what the group's opinion is regarding the best treats to use for training.


I like Authority brand Little Liver treats or BilJack Liver Treats. They are small. About the size of a kibble and soft. I break off TINY TINY little pieces for a treat. One kibble size nugget makes about 15 to 20 treats. Size of treats is unimportant to the dog and you want small ones that the dog doesn't have to take time to chew. Also you don't want to fill the dog up on treats.



> Related, I've had at least two people tell me that hot dogs are a bad choice for a variety of reasons. Any vets out there care to comment?


Hot Dogs are great training treats. I prefer the diet ones or the turkey dogs because they are drier and not so messy to fool with. One hot dog should make about 60 to 80 treats.


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## BabyHusky (Jul 21, 2008)

yep i use the liver treats too but if i have a pack of hot dogs lying around, thats what im using haha. plus, hot dogs are cheaper! =)


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## ghostrunner (Mar 24, 2010)

Thanks everyone! Yes, the nitrite issue was my main concern with using hot dogs. But, so far as I can tell, in moderation, they may not be so bad. And they are definitely cheaper! I'll also try the BilJack liver treats that RawFed mentions.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

How ironic, I just got done with a training session. lol. 
I am actually a big fan of hot dogs as treats. I like that I can cut them up in tiny itty bitty pieces, and one hot dog goes a long way. In fact one just lasted me a two hour training session with my cocker puppy. (I know, crazy long for a puppy, but her attention span was amazing, so I took advantage!)
I also have some ground beef that I was going to use for dinner last night, but had taco bell instead (yeah... thanks Rachel for that craving! lol) and am probably just going to cook it up (for the sake of it staying decent longer) and use that as well.

I'm not a huge fan of most commercial treats because a lot of them are harder to break up into pieces as small as I like to use. I also don't like to use crunchy treats for training because by the time they've eaten it they forgot what it was for! I like super quick to eat treats, and most of the soft ones on the market are full of sugar, which is really off putting to me.


Now, I'm not about to fed hot dogs as a meal to my dogs, but in small amounts for training, to me they're pretty ideal.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

ghostrunner said:


> I'll also try the BilJack liver treats that RawFed mentions.


The last time I bought those, they came in a container that looked like a small milk carton.


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## malluver1005 (Nov 15, 2009)

ghostrunner said:


> Hi Everyone,
> 
> I'm curious what the group's opinion is regarding the best treats to use for training. I recognize that every dog is different, but I'm interested in what the collective experience has been.


I use the Healthy Omega's salmon or chicken treats. I will cut up one treat and make it into four or five, which leaves me with about ~1000 treats at the end altogether. Aspen goes crazy for these treats!


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## 1605 (May 27, 2009)

We use the Jennie-O turkey hotdogs because I found they are the lowest in sodium. I nuke them for 1-1 1/2 min, cool, cut up & pop in a ziplock for training class.

Zio also responds well to Old Mother Hubbard biscuits (Assorted pack), which will break up into smaller pieces very neatly. They seem to have a taste & texture that he enjoys.

Have fun training your dog! :biggrin:


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

Just wanted to add, last night I cut up a hot dog for treats for chesney for our weekend trip so we could still work on training. For the heck of it, I counted them. One hot dog made 194 actually decent sized little training nibs. So an 8 pack of hot dogs for less than $2 makes over 1500 Treats.


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## malluver1005 (Nov 15, 2009)

^^^^I wish I could get an 8 pack for less than 2 bucks. :frown:


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## ghostrunner (Mar 24, 2010)

Thanks, everyone. My sense is similar -- that hot dogs, used sparingly, are probably not so bad. I have seen nitrate-free hot dogs in certain grocery stores, too.


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## Khan (Jan 17, 2010)

Another treat the dogs flip over is cheese. If you buy the packages of string cheese of cheddar cheese that come in sticks, you can give them teeny tiny pieces really easy. I don't think I even use an entire stick during our hour class. Just be careful, cause if you try to eat one, and the dogs hear you open it, you may be sharing!! :biggrin:


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## wags (Jan 31, 2009)

I am right now dehydrating chicken breasts strips. I will break them up and use these and I also will do beef liver later. I have a dehydrator and I have the chicken in the oven this time (put on 180* for 3 hours) trying this and I will put the dehydrator outside for the beef liver. That is just a smell no one can handle in the house!
Also I use the small bil Jack treats which probably aren't that great for them but they do love those squishy things and they are so little and convenient! Also I do string cheese which my one dog I can teach about anything with this treat he loves this! And you can really get a lot from that! Hot dogs I have used but not lately! I use turkey lower salt and fat content! Oh I have used the low fate treats gosh I cant think what they are called but they are in bags yellow and My dogs are not to fond of them they sniff them and well if theirs nothing else they will eventually eat them but they really don't like them! But the dehydrated chicken breast or liver beef chicken they do love. Its the drying time that is so consuming but well worth it!


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## StdPoo Dad (Jun 7, 2009)

Seamus is on a bunch of pills/daily. Most of them I throw down his throat with a crunchy treat chaser, but a couple small ones I put in tiny hot dog chunks. 

I use John Morrell Bistro Naturals. Gluten free, no added nitrites or nitrates, uncured and not preserved. (I freeze what I am not going to use in a few days. Otherwise they go bad) 

They're not cheap, but like RWF said, a hot dog goes a *long* way. 





ghostrunner said:


> I have seen nitrate-free hot dogs in certain grocery stores, too.


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## StdPoo Dad (Jun 7, 2009)

For training I like Zuke's minis. Tiny little soft treats. Or cut up hot dogs. I don't like liver, I'd just as soon not give my dog something that's used to screen toxins in the body.
I did give him liver once, gave him diarheaa



ghostrunner said:


> Hi Everyone,
> 
> I'm curious what the group's opinion is regarding the best treats to use for training. I recognize that every dog is different, but I'm interested in what the collective experience has been.
> 
> ...


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## Samba (Mar 29, 2010)

I use the dehydrator and the oven a lot to dry out meats for training. 

There are some hot dogs that are better than others but none seem very high value to my dogs. 

I make liver treats and salmon treats sometimes buy mixing eggs, dry ingredients and baking them. Different cheeses are popular also.

Mine like the Natural Balance rolls. They have to be refrigerated after opening. You can cut them up into just the right size treats.

Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance® Dog Food Rolls

I think it is important to have a variety of treats if you can. It keeps the dog interested in what might be next reward!


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

Samba said:


> Mine like the Natural Balance rolls. They have to be refrigerated after opening. You can cut them up into just the right size treats.
> 
> Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance® Dog Food Rolls


I used to use these, and I'm not sure if the formula changed, of it I was just oblivious to them before, but I don't like that wheat and sugar are both in the fop five ingredients.


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## Samba (Mar 29, 2010)

Yes, they have wheat and sugar in them. Unfortunately many prepared treats have wheat, sugar, high fructose corn syrup etc in them.


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