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Originally Posted by Britster  Hot dogs aren't ALL that weird to feed to your dog as treats... a lot of professional trainers uses pieces of hot dogs to train. I'm not gonna lie -- I sometimes will use little bits of hot dog but only when training Jackson a new trick. They highly motivate him... much more than dog treats. I use any kind of real meat (whether it be chicken, etc) when teaching him a new trick. He really loves the Wellness jerky treats, as well as Zuke's training treats, and chicken jerky (not made in China!  ) Those are the 3 treats I typically buy him that he loves the most when it comes to dog treats. Once he's perfected and learned the trick, he just gets dog treats for doing it. 
But he just gets *so* much more excited to learn something new when we have a hot dog, cheese, ham, or something else. I'm not claiming it's healthy, but it's never caused any issues for Jackson, and I'm not feeding him hot dog every single day or anything. But I think part of the reason Jackson is so willing to please and learn new tricks is because I try to use real meat... that's what dogs will work for! However, I will say... that in a training class, you're going to be use LOTS of treats so hot dog is probably not the best choice because you don't wanna use too much of it. I also like boiling chicken breast for Jackson and using that as treats. |
It is true that lots of trainers use hot dogs. My dogs will learn new tricks for a piece of baby spinach or a carrot but it is true that meat is more of a motivator in puppy class/obedience school when there are a lot of distractions around. I'd still stick with chicken breast or something that is a natural food and low in fat. If I even *say* the word chicken, I have three
s giving me their paw, rolling over, or waving at me. They are cute little buggers!