I’ve been using True Chews because they’re easy to break down into smaller pieces, but I’m curious what others use and why. Always looking for good options.
I usually chop up things like cheese, hotdogs, and boiled chicken. They’re cheap, really high value for training, and easy to make tiny pieces from.
Aurelia said:
I usually chop up things like cheese, hotdogs, and boiled chicken. They’re cheap, really high value for training, and easy to make tiny pieces from.
Those are my go-to treats too. Real food treats seem to motivate my dog way more than store-bought treats.
I go with whatever Costco has on sale. Just grabbed a big bag of beef jerky treats for only $5.99.
We usually poach chicken breast, chop it up, and freeze it for treats. Great for training, but if we’re out for a long time, we go with freeze-dried treats like sweet potato or other air-dried snacks. Less messy and no smell. We keep bowls of freeze-dried sweet potato treats around the house since they’re easy to handle and not smelly. Sometimes we do fruits or plain cooked steak or salmon, but those are more of a fun treat since they’re harder to portion for training.
I’ve got a list of treats my dog likes. I cut them all into pea-sized pieces:
- Charlee Bear treats
- Cheerios
- Bil-Jac
- Hot dogs
- Dried blueberries
- Peanut butter
- Freeze-dried chicken
- Dehydrated liver
For a chew treat, sometimes I spread a little peanut butter inside a Kong and freeze it. Also got a bunch of things to chew like Nylabones and some homemade toys.
Recipe for peanut butter concrete:
Heat peanut butter in a pan, then mix in some flour to make it thick. Perfect for stuffing toys.
Mozzarella cheese works great here. It’s affordable, approved by our vet, and my dog goes nuts for it.
I get Stella & Chewy’s dinner patties and break them into small bits. The bag is expensive but lasts forever since I use tiny pieces. I mix up the meat types each time I buy to keep it interesting for my dog.
We bought a baking sheet for homemade treats from Amazon. Makes 200 little training-sized treats.
Recipe:
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- Splash of water to get the right consistency
Bake at 350°F for 9-11 minutes.
Homemade pumpkin, oat, and peanut butter treats:
- 1/2 cup pumpkin
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 to 1 cup ground oats
Roll out the dough and cut into squares. Bake at 300°F for 20 minutes. Sometimes I switch out the pumpkin for banana or sweet potato. My dog loves it.
Dry cat food. My dog can’t usually have it because it’s for the cat, so he thinks it’s special. Plus, it’s really cheap for a treat.
TJ Maxx usually has a good selection of quality treats for a huge discount, so I stock up whenever I’m there.
My dog is super picky but will sometimes take shrimp-flavored cat treats, pepperoni, or Stella and Chewy’s wild weenies. Dehydrated beef lung and heart are also favorites around here.
I use Vita Essentials freeze-dried mini nibs. They’re already tiny, but I still cut them up to stretch them. For training, I sometimes just use her kibble since my Aussie is super motivated with just that.
We do something similar. Our dog has some health issues, so we avoid regular dog food and give her boiled chicken, rice, and veggies for meals. For treats, we chop up carrots, peas, or blueberries.
Usually go for Zuke’s or whatever’s on sale. Found some training treats at Target that are only 3 calories with 3 ingredients. Got them for $1.99 on clearance when they were originally $7.99.
It really depends on the situation…
- Pet Botanics for daily stuff
- Kibble or hot dogs for tracking
- Red Barn or Happy Howie’s for more serious obedience work.
Different treats for different kinds of training seem to work best for my dog.
Regular kibble for day-to-day rewards, and I use dried cheese cubes as a special treat. The cheese is super high value for training.