Days where you feed lots of treats

Cardiparty

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#1
Hey guys!

So, I guess I might be over protective in this department, but I was wondering how you all handled days when your puppies got more treats then maybe they should have.

Did you reduce the amount of kibble that day?

My puppy is in a class right now, and it seemed that between me and the trainer, she ate a million treats last night. I'm sure SHE doesn't have a problem with it, but I want to make sure that she's getting the right nutrition and even though I do feed the healthiest treats I can find, they're not as good for her as her tripe or kibble.

Also, what did you all use for treats? Did you make your own?

I'm down for getting some recipes, but whatever I make *must* be very high value and it has to be special for this particular class - ie can't use it for just regular, every day training.

I know some people suggest using kibble, but our instructor says that won't work. It's just not interesting enough for her and it doesn't hold her attention the way that stinky treats do.

Plus, it's hard to break kibble down into puppy sized pieces, where if a treat is soft you can turn one treat into 10 (which would reduce the amount of treats she got, anyway).
 
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#2
I might suggest Natural Balance rolls or those FreshPet Deli Rolls

That way they are a little more "complete" than just treats but also are softer, smelly and not often given.

And yes, if I do a lot of training in a day they tend to get fed less later on. I also typically use cat kibble or small dog food (Fromm) instead of "treats" because of the frequency of training. But, since mine are fed raw they kinda view kibble as junk food so it works well.
 

MicksMom

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#3
Hey guys!

So, I guess I might be over protective in this department, but I was wondering how you all handled days when your puppies got more treats then maybe they should have.

Did you reduce the amount of kibble that day?...
I ever really worried about it, but it depends on the puppy. Mine have been able to handle the "extra" treats as well as their meals with no problems. Nutrionaly, it's alway balanced- some days there were more treats then others.


...
Also, what did you all use for treats? Did you make your own?

I'm down for getting some recipes, but whatever I make *must* be very high value and it has to be special for this particular class - ie can't use it for just regular, every day training...
Liver Bread has been a big hit with just about every dog I know.

Liver Bread
Mix Jiffy cornbread mix, a pound of raw liver (pureed), an egg and some garlic powder, put in greased pan, bake according to corn bread directions on box, and voila! Dog treats!

For Caleb, I just mix something with oatmeal- bananas, peanutbutter, canned pumpkin, a pouch of salmon, etc, flatten it out on a cookie sheet and bake.

I also use cut up hotdogs, or freeze dried raw, usually chicken, but I also have used rabbit (cat treats actually), salmon or pork.

 

DJEtzel

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#4
Along the lines of what Linds posted, I use these regularly now (I'm always going through phases and finding "new" things that I like more..)

http://freshpet.com/product/freshpetselectroastedmealsdog/

They are preformed little nuggets, a complete meal, and come in about 2 pound bags. I dump them out, sort out all of the chicken/carrot/spinache crumbs, then cut the nuggets in half and store in ziploc bags in the fridge for training. My dogs get about half a cup less usually when they've had a long trianing day; because while they probably ate more than that in treats, they're also doing more and burning more calories, so they still get a little more than they would on a regular day.

These have to be refridgerated, but I can have them on me for most of a day without them starting to go bad. They are very smelly and a little wet; great for training distractable puppies. I use these in my CGC and puppy classes to hand out when the Zuke's, etc. that owner's bring for their dogs just aren't cutting it and recommend them to everyone because while many dogs don't wnat to take treats/pay attention on the first night of class, I've only had one dog every refuse to try these. :)

eta; because I need to photo document everything for people to see as I do...


Fresh Pet Treats by DJetzel, on Flickr

Good luck!
 

Beanie

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#5
I do feed less when they are getting lots of treats. Generally speaking if I'm taking a dog to class, he doesn't eat dinner. I also tell my students not to feed their puppies - it usually helps because they're hungry in class and thus a little more motivated to work for them even in a super exciting environment. Not for all dogs, but for most.

Also, when Payton was a baby, his meals WERE his treats - we did a lot of training around mealtimes and he got his kibble instead of some other kind of treat. In class environments the kibble isn't always interesting enough to keep their attention, or we really want something more high value to reward anyway, but it works for some people!

I've actually started cutting back on Payton's meals routinely in the last few weeks, because he's been getting tons of treats lately since we're working on about a bajillion things. =P
 
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#6
It depends. On days where I know we have a class or I'm planning to practice something specific, I do feed less at their meals. If some training spontaneously breaks out, I don't always unless it ends up being a lot.

I tend to use foods for treats as well. Natural Balance rolls or the freeze dried raw foods like Stella and Chewy's torn into tiny pieces. Then at least I feel like they are getting food instead of pizza and ice cream.
 

Laurelin

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#7
My dogs are 8 lbs and we train a lot. Mia gets fat easy. There isn't much wiggle room.

My two will both work for kibble but we're supposed to bring high value rewards to classes. They work harder for higher value rewards too.

There are many days of the week where all my dogs get are treats through training. It has to be a complete food and high quality.

My go to is Ziwipeak. Nice quality, dogs go nuts for it, complete meal. The one downside is expense but really I would pay $6-10 for a much smaller bag of other brand treats (wellness, zukes, solid gold, etc). So $30 for 2 lbs of really good treats that last a while works too. They last a lot longer for me han if id bought $30 of Zukes. I also use NB rolls sometimes, plain chicken, and sometimes jackpot treats like hotdogs. But the base treat I use is Ziwipeak.
 
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Maxy24

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#8
I also use Fresh Pet nuggets and Natural Balance Rolls, I like the fresh pet ingredients better and Tucker likes the NB rolls better. They can be frozen which is great and are "complete and balanced", but soft and yummy. So I can cut back on meals without having cut out nutrition. I also agree however that days where he gets LOTS of treats usually mean we did something particularly active so he probably burned more calories than usual as well and might not need his meals cut back. It's probably not as big of a deal for a larger dog, but when it's a small dogs those treats do add up fast, it's actually been a pretty big problem for us. Especially when I was working on his barking with lots of treats (and not the treats mentioned above since they had to be stored int he living room, so I used freeze dried meats/organs), I would never be able to just have training sessions with him teaching him new stuff because I had already given him WAY too many treats that day. I mean if three dogs had walked by the house in one day I would have given TONS of treats, way more than a dog of his size probably should have in one day. So to work on any commands I had to just use his meals as rewards.
 

Hillside

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#9
Nico works just fine for kibble in the house and in environments he's used to. Otherwise I use Natural Balance rolls mixed in with kibble when we are out and about. Sometimes I'll use canned food in a squeeze tube. I don't need to cut back on his food because he burns calories so fast and because we reward with toys just as often as food.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#10
Nico works just fine for kibble in the house and in environments he's used to. Otherwise I use Natural Balance rolls mixed in with kibble when we are out and about. Sometimes I'll use canned food in a squeeze tube. I don't need to cut back on his food because he burns calories so fast and because we reward with toys just as often as food.
Samesies.
 

adojrts

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#11
When training new behaviors to puppies or adult dogs, we always have a high rate of reinforcement. I prefer to just use their kibble throughout the day when working in the home or in a low distracting environment. I also don't feed meals, all food comes from me. However I do have high quality homemade rewards for jackpots, rewarding a brilliant response or when working in a distracting place. I will reduce the amount of kibble to balance out the rewards. The reason I make the homemade rewards (liver, beef heart, chicken hearts & gibblets etc) is I don't want to be putting empty calories and fillers into my pup/dog. I rarely use hotdogs and store bought treats and never use anything with dyes in it.

I feed my guys Acana and Fromm, love Fromm because of the tiny kibble pieces, perfect for training.

I have counted out the pieces of kibble that my pup would eat in a day and divide up into how many times I can reward at the highest rate of reinforcement which is 1 kibble every 3 seconds in each 2 minute training session :)
 

DJEtzel

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#12
Oooh, I have to add... I've also been buying sample packs of Orijen kibble to mix with the nuggets from fresh pet that I cut up... because my dogs LOVE the new Orijen kibble and the wet treats soak up into those more so they're all squishy and tasty. And more balanced, maybe? Or it just makes me feel better. :D
 

joce

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#13
We just use the kibble they eat. I occasionally have some treats and will give those instead but since they get the super expensive ones from the fancy pet store they are a rare treat. They have never complained and I might feed just a bit less but probably not even noticeable to them.
 

BostonBanker

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#14
My dogs get so many treats daily that I don't adjust their food down when we train; I adjust it up if we don't. More often than not, they don't need the extra. Gusto in particular gets a lot of training throughout the day, and one or sometimes two focused training sessions. Meg doesn't get as much training, but she's also a pretty easy keeper.

If they do something really active with a relatively low rate of treating (off leash hikes, where they get treated for recalls, but definitely burn off more than they eat), I might give them a bit extra food that night.

My guys get anything and everything for treats. There's almost always leftover meat from dinners in our fridge (I just cut up leftover barbeque chicken for agility tonight); they get cheese and deli meats and hot dogs. I always keep a bag or two of things like Zukes in my training bag, for reasonably high value treats that don't need to be kept cool. We actually just tried the FreshPets the other day, and Gusto loves them, but I was warned to freeze them in smaller portions, because they do go bad pretty fast.
 

Red.Apricot

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#15
My go to is Ziwipeak. Nice quality, dogs go nuts for it, complete meal. The one downside is expense but really I would pay $6-10 for a much smaller bag of other brand treats (wellness, zukes, solid gold, etc). So $30 for 2 lbs of really good treats that last a while works too. They last a lot longer for me han if id bought $30 of Zukes. I also use NB rolls sometimes, plain chicken, and sometimes jackpot treats like hotdogs. But the base treat I use is Ziwipeak.
Elsie really hates ziwipeak treats for some reason. Zobby loves them, but she won't eat them at all.

I don't have to worry about adjusting Elsie's food; she's crazy skinny, but we do for Zobby. His meals ARE his treats most days.
 

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