Food rewards are a massive aspect of rewards-based training. Of course, there are many other reward options to choose from – toys, environmental rewards, social rewards, and life rewards, to name a few. But food is the most popular reward choice due to the ease and speed of delivery, portability, and adaptability.
Since food plays such a significant role in training, it’s worth spending time on making sure we are choosing the best treats for the job. The most important part of choosing the right treat is to remember that the ultimate authority on treat choice is your dog. Some dogs would jump off a cliff for a Cheeto, while other dogs couldn’t be bothered to sniff it twice. This article is a guide to help frame your decision making process when considering treats.
Things to Consider When Choosing Treats
- Dietary Restrictions. If your dog has specific dietary requirements, make sure your treats are appropriate. Some ingredients and allergens can be sneaky – double check the ingredients list to make sure you’re in the clear.
- Flavor, texture, size, and scent preferences. Your dog is the ultimate decision maker when it comes to what they find valuable and what they won’t touch.
- Refrigerated vs shelf stable. Refrigerated treats can be higher value than shelf-stable options, but be mindful of storing them (and not forgetting them in your treat pouch, or the car!)
- Homemade vs store-bought. Training treats can get expensive! Making them at home can significantly cut costs. Here’s a recipe and strategy I like!
- Whole food treats. Some of the highest value (and lowest value) training treats out there can be found at your local grocery store!
- Lower value: Cheerios, baby superfood puffs, Goldfish, oyster crackers, cucumbers, carrots
- Higher value: cheese, boneless cooked meats, cured meats in moderation, peanut butter, canned meat
- Balanced meal vs supplemental. Treats should make up no more than 10% of your dog’s daily caloric intake. If you’re doing more training than that, consider swapping in some tasty balanced foods.
- Lower value: your dog’s kibble
- Moderate value: air dried kibble, freeze-dried raw-coated kibble, freeze dried kibble, Honest Kitchen kibble
- Higher value: canned dog food, raw dog food, refrigerated fresh food, moist dog food, rolled dog food
- Training goals. Our goals impact our treat value. Increased treat value means increased arousal levels. When our dogs have higher arousal levels, they’re more likely to push through discomfort in order to get the reward – which is useful to a point.
- Low value treats: settling, calm behaviors, working through fear or anxiety, learning new skills
- Moderate value treats: learning new skills, working through fear or anxiety, proofing
- High value treats: safety skills (recall, leave it, drop it, stay), increasing speed for known skills, proofing, things your dog finds challenging
- Reward placement. Are you feeding your treats directly, placing them in a bowl, throwing them for your dog to find, rolling them for your dog to chase, or scattering them for your dog to sniff out?
- Hard, crunchy treats are louder than soft treats. The clink of a crunchy treat in a bowl is a head-turner for most dogs, but if you’re trying to be sneaky then choose something softer and quieter.
- Tossed treats are easier to chase if your dog can see them. Choose light treats if you’re training on dark surfaces, and vice versa.
- Encourage your dog to use their nose by using quiet, hard to see treats.
- Treat scatters & heavy sniffing is best encouraged by using treats that are already broken up into small pieces, and not too crumbly.
- Odor & scent matters – to both humans and dogs. If you’re training a service dog at a bakery, you may want to leave your whole freeze dried mackerel at home. Similarly, if you’re storing treats in your pockets instead of a treat pouch, you may want something that smells more pleasant than fish or chicken. Fruit-based crunchy treats like Nutro or Fruitables smell good and don’t crumble.
Treats I Love & Recommend
None of the links below are affiliate links. Most lead to Amazon, but many are direct links to the company’s website.
- Ziwi Peak Air Dried Dog Food
- Honest Kitchen Dry Clusters Kibble – larger airy kibbles, make excellent biscuits for training
- Stella & Chewy’s: Freeze-Dried Raw Coated Kibble | Cooked Frozen Dog Food | Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food
- Merrick Freeze-Dried Raw-Coated Kibble
- Red Barn: Air Dried Dog Food | Dog Food Roll – dog food roll is dense & moldable, moist & high value
- Wellness Bowl Boosters Tender Toppers
- Nutro Crunchy Treats (Fruit)
- Fruitables Dog Treats
- Stewart Freeze Dried Treats (Salmon, Beef Liver, Chicken, Chicken Liver)
- Bark Pouch Lickable Squeezable Dog Treats
- Churu Lickable Squeezable Cat Treats
- Vital Essentials Freeze Dried Dog Treats
- Real Meat Company – Air Dried Food & Treats
Classic Training Treats
