I have a 16 week old Border Terrier pup, shortly I will be taking her to ringcraft classes as I intend to show her. What are the best treats for training.

I find it varies according to each dog. just test & try and see what works best for your pup.

Although I'm not taking my 16 week girl to ringcraft we are going to training classes and I would suggest that you use whatever your pup is used to as part of the regular daily diet for now.

I made a big boo boo last week and left my treat bag on the kitchen work top so I 'borrowed' some treats from the 'teacher', pieces of hot dog sausage although relished and gave good results in class then gave horrendous results the following day in the poo department at home!!

I usually just take some of my puppy kibble and will in time try other things like maybe cheese and tiny tiny pieces of well cooked lambs liver

Forget treats made FOR dogs -they are all too boring. It's like being paid pennies for the work you do -not worth the effort. I use sausages, hot dogs, liver, chicken, ham, cheese and similar. These good treats ONLY come out at training class, and for pups they come out as soon as we enter the hall the first time, with the explanation "This is one of these special places where you get extra nice treats!" Then the same thing happens at shows, so the pup soon learns it's very worthwhile to be there.

Thanks Goldmali. Thats the ones, Im looking for something that gets pups full attention all the doggy ones Ive tried seem boring and the pups get board easy.
I think if you can keep a pups attention for say 3 to 5 mins a couple of times a day makes training allot easier and more pleasurable.

I agree 110% with Goldmali. My boy is or at least was a real naughty boy! I gave up with the commercial treats as they were a total waste of time & money. I could never get his attention with them. He ate them when it suited him.
Buy or make the smelliest stuff you can find and the pups like and only use these for training classes.
My boy does have the odd hiccup but he has come such a long, long way to what he used to be like.

When training I always make up a box of different variety treats as I like the dog to not know what is coming next.  I do stick a few normal dry biscuits in as well but add cheese, ham, garlic sausage, liver cake, as well as a few of the commercial dog treats such as salami type sausage from pets at home.  I find that the smelly foods impregnate the more boring ones so it all becomes more interesting, a clove of garlic works well too just to add some flavour.

This means that I can make the treats go further but it has the added benefit of reducing the 'richness' thereby reducing the chances of my travel sick pup delivering it all back on the way home.  He soon grew out of that phase but cheese and liver were particularly unpleasant when viewed for a second time...

Even years after stopping their regular weekly training classes my dogs still rush from all four corners of our plot if they hear me taking the lid off a tupperware box and one of them can hear ham from a 1000 yards!  :)

my dogs still rush from all four corners of our plot if they hear me taking the lid off a tupperware box

I have several ceramic jars with lids in my kitchen but how on earth do they know the difference when i rattle the dogs cookie jar lid! When i refill it, it's a delicate operation to remove the lid without knocking it otherwise i find myself in deep trouble! :-)

I keep my training treats in a bag - quieter and easier to juggle.  However one night after training my dog was having a bit of a bounce about on the field with one or two of the trainers dogs.  She located one of the sealed "treat pots", and disappeared into a corner to work on removing the lid and scoffing the contents!

I agree with using special treats for training or showing but recently my girl had been unsettled and jiffling around trying to get the bait so we have had to go back to normal dog treats that she likes but isn't desperate to snatch them! we still use one piece of something really good for after the judge has gone over her so she knows that if she lets this stranger look in her mouth and fiddle with her ears/legs/tail etc she will get a huge reward :-) It could be cheese. garlic sausage or wotsits!
Paula

> When training I always make up a box of different variety treats as I like the dog to not know what is coming next.

Thank you such a good idea, Lucas turns up to training on a Thursday & thinks of it as picnic hour all those lovely treats that other people give him!

> Even years after stopping their regular weekly training classes my dogs still rush from all four corners of our plot if they hear me taking the lid off a tupperware box

Wherever they are, they always know when my hand is heading for the biscuit jar.