High value rewards/treats?

[NewMeNewUs]

Currently training our 9 month old lab. We use cocktail sausages (cut into quarters) indoors but want something different or even higher value for when we are out waking.

dog trainer suggested some sort of dried up little fish but I absolutely cannot do it 😂

thank you

Cooked liver.

Yep, dry fried cooked liver. Almost dehydrated. I used to do a batch then air the house for about a week freeze it in little bags. If you dehydrated it insteaf and it is dry enough you may not need to freeze it? Not sure.

I then used to mix it with a handful of kibble so it made the kibble smell/taste livery and made the liver last longer.

Or cheese
Or indeed my lab used to go nuts for mini cheddar.

You could make some liver cake too.

Liver or chicken. Both low fat and stinky. Like the idea of mixing with kibble.

Please don’t use cheese.
My in-laws used cheese for their young lab; he has had chronic pancreatitis his entire short life.

IME cheese is fine in moderation. Squeezy cheese from a tube is very clean and easy.

There are various pet pâtés that can be chopped up small.

Primula squeezy cheese. Keep the tube in your pocket, squeeze a bit out and let them lick it straight off the tube. Clean and easy and they love it. Remember to tell the family not to use it when it’s in the fridge though.

Tinned hotdog sausages, chopped up tiny. You can put them in a bag in the freezer and just grab a handful whenever you go out, they thaw in a couple of minutes in your pocket.

Thanks all! Keep them coming x

I think it depends on what rocks your dogs boat the most, and I have most success when there is a variety on offer so they never know when there will be a really good treat. Hot dog sausages, cooked chicken, corned beef, pate in a tube, primula, Treat2Sit4 atomic drops, sprats, smoked dried fish skin, and a pouch of cat food are all things I've used alongside regular treats in the past

www.amazon.co.uk/Barker-Little-Liver-Training-Treat
These are apparently utterly irresistible and very easy to carry around. I’ve tried many things and these seem to be a consistent winner.

Easy to use and store JR Pate.

Cut up into small cubes, can be frozen or used freeze - many flavours so find your dogs favourite.

No nasties and not high in salt.

Also look at food delivery when out and about. Just recalling your dog and giving a piece of food however yummy will not be very reinforcing. However if you throw the food make a game get the dog to chase you for the food it will be more reinforcing.

If you have a roast beef - the grissle/bits of fat, are a fantastic high value treat. And let's be honest...no one is gonna eat it so it's getting binned if it's not given to the dogs!

It depends on what your dog thinks is high value tbh.

I’ve had dogs go nuts for primula, others look at me like it’s not food.

liver cake, hot dogs, smoked sausage, chicken and cheese are usually fairly popular.

My current two - one will do anything for any food, the other only cares about chicken fridge raiders 🤷‍♀️

Be careful of salt content in cocktail sausages

Mine adores cheese.

Cheese
Dried sprats
Pooch and Mutt treats
Roast chicken

Normal dog biscuits mixed in with the above work well too as they pick up the smell.

I buy batches of lambs hearts (you can sometimes get them cheaply from the supermarket - Waitrose and Morrisons seem to be the ones that most often stock them - Butchers counter in Morrisons and freezer section in Waitrose). Just bung them all in a roasting tin covered with a bit of foil, then chop up once cooked and can be frozen in batches (bunging them all into the tin and only handling once cooked removes a lot of the ick factor). I tend to these for my high value regular treats. You can get packs of meatballs (they're £1 a pack) - they're always sold in service stations (Shell/Esso) and I've occasionally seen them in the local Spa, but nowhere else. These for whatever reason are like doggy crack. I've yet to meet a dog that doesn't go crazy for them. The ingredients are questionable to say the least, so I reserve these for us in small quantities, when I really need them

I also make liver cake- liver, some flour and an egg go in a blender (I keep one exclusively for this!) then into a dish and in the oven or the microwave. Much quicker in microwave but comes out drier in the oven so a bit more pleasant to deal with. Cut it up into tiny pieces and freeze and take out a handful at a time. Cheap, healthy, high value and never met a dog that doesn't like it!

You can buy bags of dried sprats - brilliant for high value treats. Also small cubes of Cheddar. The pouches of dog or cat food go down well too and are very portable.

Another vote for JR Pate. It's all I used to train my dog and I still take it out with me on our daily walks. There's lots of different meat flavours to choose from too.

I've never been a fan of using human food as training treats.

Depends on your ddog. No amount of treats beats a manky old tennis ball for my dog

we have a 7month old English bulldog who is very food motivated unless there’s another dog around he just wants to go play no matter what or plonk he 25kg ass down and not move so will defo be trying some of the above!

I buy a 2kg bag of Burns dry dog food (lots of different varieties) and use them as recall treats.

Mine do have great recall 99.9% of the time but occasionally go dead when there is something revolting to roll in!

I decant the food into a small pouch/purse every couple of days.

JR pate
Lilys Kitchen ‘burger treats’ and sausages

My black lab puppy LOVES blueberries & carrots what are excellent for them aswell! (In moderate amounts)