Food Question
 

Has anyone heard of giving Yorkies Polly-o string cheese sticks as treats.. At my puppy class tonight the instructor mentioned bring high value yreats to use as treats (hotdogs, cheese, bologna, cheese, etc.) I have never heard of this.. Anyone use any of those foods as training tools?? I have used Cheerios and her treats!!

In fact, that's exactly what I use for Wembley at her training class. she's loves the string cheese, and I also give her small amounts of chicken. Cheese is probably her favorite food, and she only gets it at home when she's brushed, and that's the kraft singles. So, at the training, I give her string cheese, cut into very little pieces, and she works so hard for it. I tried bringing just regular treats to the training, and she wouldn't eat them. When I asked the trainer about it, she said that since dogs know that they get their regular treats at home, the dogs will always choose the exciting new place with lots of fun dogs to play with over working for the treats. For exciting treats, though, they will work. And it's true! :animal-sm

interesting! Mine are pretty picky with treats, they only like the small liver training rewards, small pieces of puperoni, and the new peanut butter doggy bites. At home I give them scrambled egg occasionally, little bites of carrots, little bites of apples, & cottage cheese (which Im sure has virtually the same ingredients as string cheese). Sometimes I make them sweet potatoes too :)

oh another good treat is when you make ground beef and then spread it out on a cookie sheet and bake it at a high temp for like an hour to dry it out. Supposed to have a long shelf life is dried out properly, I havent done that in a while but mine love when I do.

Gucci loves cheese, the pupperonie and liver treats. :)

Wow, thank you for all of your advice and ideas!! I am going to make a run to the supermarket tonight and get some cheese!! How about peanut butter!! I was told to buy her a kong toy and she said fill it with peanut butter.. Can dogs be allergic??

I think Peanut butter is fine :) The best is if you have some sort of hard chew (cows hoof, kong etc.) put some PB on it and freeze it! Also you could just dab a tiny bit and have them lick it off

Thanks Brooke.. I will have to give those ideas a try!!

I use the Baby Goldfish Cheese Crackers for training. They are tiny, easy to pack into your purse or pocket. At home, we still use them for training treats. Maggie's PP treat is a 1/4" tiny, tiny piece of American Cheese, that she gets when she has done her business outside and comes back into the house. She will sit at the refrigerator until she gets that PP treat. She is only 14 weeks old, and smart as a whip.

When Tatum was in obedience school a few weeks ago, I would make a hamburger patty (one of those precooked, all you gotta do is warm it in the microwave ones) and then tear it in little bitty pieces. Since she never gets "people food" at home, she would do anything for that in class! But yes, string cheese was another thing the trainer recommended. Just don't use the same ol' treats that you give at home. And don't feed them dinner either (if your class is at night) before you go to class. Being a little hungry makes them work even harder for that special treat!

My trainer mentioned not to feed her before class.. That means she will be eating way after 9 though.. is that too close to bed time??

I seriously doubt that she would be hungry after class. As little as Tatum is, that trainer had us "treating" so often during class that she would almost eat that entire hamburger patty. She'd be stuffed by the time we left class! Another good reason to use "food" versus treats - they get supper AND something special to entice the learning. Good luck!

I do have to add this that I forgot to mention.... At our first class where it was just the owners and no dogs, the trainer explained to us how the treating process would work and that she wanted us to use something that was super enticing to the dogs - like hamburger patty, dried steak, something like that. Well, I've worked really hard to not give Tatum people food - mostly because my poodle got really overweight at one time because of my grandpa (who lived next door) feeding him off the table. It was really bad for his health to be so fat and he was much better once we got him back to dog food only. Anyway, I know a lot of people here feed your babies all kinds of "people food" but NO table food has worked really well for us. She doesn't even think to beg when we're eating at the table and I can even sit on the couch with her on my lap while I'm eating from a bag of chips and she won't even pay attention. But anyway, back to the trainer... I told her I was not feeding table food but she said that the "treat" had to be something really special to get a quick response and that Tatum wouldn't think she could always have it. She was right - no begging at the table but when we train at home, I make sure she gets something way different than her food or regular treats.

String Cheese
 

Today at our puppy class, the trainer said that small dogs usually LOVE cheese. I had never heard of this before either!

Don't know about all dogs, but Maggie loves cheese. We give her tiny bits of American Cheese, when she does her business outside. Fastest squatter in the West. Upon return to the house, is when she gets her treat. I was using the Baby Goldfish crackers for training treats, but was concerned about all the salt. I found some tiny cheese crackers (they look like tiny oyster soup crackers) at Petsmart yesterday. She loves them and I feel better by not giving her people food.