Any suggestions for healthy tasty treats for training? I am totally against all the artificial preservatives, eec approved antioxidants and flavours found in many treats and foods (partly because they disagree with my shar pei and partly because it's not natural for a dog!). As a result my dog and new puppy are both on James Wellbeloved, and that's what my puppy gets as training rewards! I suspect that this isn't very interesting for the puppy, but I am reluctant to start filling her with sugars and preservatives. I am starting puppy classes with her in a few weeks, so am looking for something that's not going to be too messy.

Thanks

With my dog when he was a pup I used part of his complete food to start with.  He now gets liver cake, hotdog sausages and cheese :)

Try this link

Thanks, I went out and bought a can of hot dogs today... and they worked a treat! Got her walking to heel, not bad for 11 weeks! However, I'm still not happy with the high salt and preservatives content (i found myself rinsing and soaking the sliced hot dogs before using them!). I think i'll try the same question on the food board.

Thanks again!  :-)

You need something really tasty that's going to get a dogs attention - roast chicken is relatively low fat and 'natural'.  Cheese also goes down well with most dogs (unless they are lactose intolerant).  My dogs are fed Naturediet or Natures Menu, and this will dry out in the oven at a low heat - simply cut it into small cubes (to suit your dog) and dry it in an oven at about 150 degree......

Nothing better than home made liver cake....cheap,easy,and my dogs say irristable!
Archer

Buy your hotdogs from the chiller cabinet rather then in tins.  They are not in salt then and are firmer to handle and cut.  With cheese I find Edam the best as it doesn't crumble in  your pocket.  But liver cake or chicken are my high value treats.

Sandra

:-)

Any recipes for home made liver cake?

Thanks

Ah never mind.. just found your recipe on the food board! Thanks again

Sardine/pilchard Cake is also good - nice and smelly.  Liver cake and Sardine cake can both be dried out in a low oven for a crunchy treat that doesn't require refrigeration or freezing to keep, just an air tight tin :D

Hee hee... not sure i could stomach the smell of sardine/pilchard wafting through my house. I think the dogs will just have to make do with liver! Making them crunchy sounds good, as i'm not too fond of liver either and don't relish the thought of having liver smelling hands :-o

Do you use pilchards in tomato sauce or normal ones ? (I can only ever seem to find the ones in tomato sauce)

The ones in tomato sauce are fine

If you cook it in the microwave the small is much reduced :D I don't do baking in the traditional sense & it takes less than 10 minutes in the mircowave

There's some good recipes on the Willow's Kitchen section of www.itsaspringthing.co.uk -fish, liver etc... :)

Lindsay
X

LOL  The smell of sardine wafted thru my house for longer than anticipated owing to my wanting to make crunchy treats   it was days before the smell left my nostrils :D

As for tomato sauce - why worry? your dog won't - he'll enjoy most flavours :D :D  If he thinks you'll eat it, then that'll do nicely :D :D

He loves his sardines with tomato sauce, he has them with his dinner quite often - I was just wondering if they would cook ok, im going to try it at the weekend :)

Hi there

My dogs love Burns Ocean bites, but I always found they were very big to use for training purposes however, Burns have just brought Aquasnacks, these are perfect for training as they are small sand eels that have been dried out. If you don't mind the smell you could try these. Oh and I think Burns have a special offer on them at the moment.

Alli

I put Ocean bites in Fagans kong - they stink but he loves them, problem is the cats fight him for them :P  I will have to give these other ones a try :)

We use the Burns fish in our training class and all the dogs seem to love them :)
Really stinky :D

Lindsay
X

Burns fish flavour complete is good, but the only thing Morse ever choked on was an Ocean Bite. Ironic when I think of all the dodgy stuff he has swallowed without any ill effects. Biits of Sunday roast work well, just meat crumbs really, and for some reason he has a passion for Rice Krispies....

Natural/healthy treats, sand eels, ocean bites, cooked liver, heart, kidney, meat, tripe bits, any fruit bar grapes, any vegetable,

I use those cheesestrings. I can't stand them but the dogs love them and the best bit is, they don't go crumbly or make a mess. You just bite/break off as much as you need and stuff the rest in your pocket. Genius!

This week I discovered Liver Sizzlers by Webbox.  They don't contain anything you wouldn't put in yourself (wheat, gluten, soya, sugar etc. free)  Nice and crispy, they break easily into smaller treats and my dogs all-aquiver  whenever they come out :D :D
Definately got his attention :D :D :D

I take home made burgers with me and they come back for it every time, I used ocean bites a few times but it had a laxitive effect on my three I have SCWT's Liver cake was favorite until they found burgers won't tell you how but hubby was doing a bbq