As you know, my human, Hsin-Yi, really enjoys doing training with me – which is great because us dogs love having a “job” to do, where we can use our minds and natural skills – and so we don’t go looking for naughty things to do! 
Especially when she is teaching me something new – or when I’m practising something difficult - Hsin-Yi rewards me with yummy treats (as well as the usual praise and cuddles!). And, of course, since we do a lot of clicker training, I always get treats after I hear the CLICK of the clicker…I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE that! 
Some people say that their dogs are “not food-motivated” – that they’re just not interested in treats…well, let me tell you a secret: shhhh – there is no such thing as a “not food-motivated dog”! If the dog is not interested in working for those treats, then – unless he is sick – it is usually because:
1) The treats are not yummy enough! Humans often think that we dogs will do backflips for boring, dried strips of fake meat that they buy in the pet section of the supermarket…
Nah, sorry, uh-uh…not good enough. Yeah, maybe if we’re really hungry and you’re asking us to do something easy then…yeah, we might work for you. But if you’re asking us to do anything difficult or new – or in a place with distractions, then I’m afraid you’ll have to bring out the good stuff.
Humans also like to think that us dogs just live to please them and do things simply out of love for them but that’s really a sort of fairy story which they tell each other to feel better about themselves…actually, us canines are ‘predatory opportunitists’ and we only do things when it’s worth our while. Of course, we do like attention and cuddles from our humans – that’s a sort of treat too – so we will do some things for that. But when you up the stakes, you have to up the rewards too!
I mean, I’ll bet humans wouldn’t go to work everyday just out of love for their boss or if their boss paid them in pizza vouchers instead of real money paper!
So what’s the good stuff? Well, “real” food – stuff that humans keep for themselves, stuff that really tastes and smells good! Of course, every dog is different so if they are not interested in a certain treat, it just means that it’s not the kind they really like. Some health freak pups I know will do anything for bits of carrot or apple; other pups will give it their all for cheese…my personal weakness, I have to admit, is bread (ooohhhh…show me a piece of stale toast and I WILL do backflips!) – but usually, most doggies like anything meaty, with a nice meaty smell. Things like bits of ham, sausage, cooked chicken and liver…(see below for some recipes)
OR
2) The dog is not hungry enough! Yup, I hate to say it but a lot of pups out there are…er, well, too fat. Obese, in fact. I see a lot of waddling coffee tables out on walks. Their humans just can’t resist their googly eyes and feed them way beyond what’s good for their health.
But it’s actually much better for us dogs if we’re not stuffed like balloons – better for our waistlines, better for our health and better for our manners. ‘Coz we’d be a lot keener to pay attention to our humans and do training.
So if a dog is not interested in treats, it could mean that he is being fed too much. It may sound mean but it’s actually good to keep us slightly hungry. Slightly thinner is better than slightly too fat – a healthy weight is when humans can easily feel our ribs when they run their hands over our sides – and they should be able to see the last rib when we’re moving.
And even if we’re not being fed too much, the best time to do training with us is still when we’re hungry – such as in the afternoon/evening – just before our dinner. We will be much more motivated to listen and obey!
OK, I admit, there ARE some doggies out there who aren’t big foodies…but that doesn’t mean that they can’t do training. It just means that their “treat” has to be something different…like a special toy which they really LOVE. For these doggies, the best “treat” is an exciting game with their humans and this special toy. After a short play, their human always puts the toy away in their pocket…so it remains very special and exciting.
(But especially when we’re learning a new skill or command, food treats still often work best because they can be quickly swallowed and our attention goes back to our humans…whereas a game with a toy might distract us and slow down our learning. )
Of course, you’re probably wondering how I keep my trim figure with all these treats I’m eating!
Simple – my human only gives me tiny pieces each time…about the size of a thumbnail for me and probably only about the size of a pea for smaller dogs. Really just enough for a taste (!) and then it’s gone – leaving us wanting more!
Most humans give treats that are waaaaay too big when training. It’s no use giving us dogs big chunks of treats ‘coz then we’d just be busy chewing it and not listening or paying attention to our humans anymore…
So it’s really important that we get treats which are small and easy to swallow – none of that hard, crunchy stuff which takes ages to chew or tough, chewy stuff that sticks to our teeth!
(Another thing humans can do is to use part of our meals as treats, especially if you’re fed commercial dry kibble - but as I said, when you’re practising new or difficult things, dry kibble isn’t very motivating! When we’re training a lot and I’m getting a lot of treats, my human just feeds me slightly less than my normal amount at my meals, to balance things out.)
The other important thing about treats is that they should be easy for humans to carry around in their pockets - not something that ends up all sticky or greasy.
Of course, there are now LOADS of different training treats that you can buy in the pet shops but home-made treats are often better and less expensive. Here are 2 that my human has found to work really well:
Cooked Liver – just get your humans to buy lamb liver (or ox liver) from the supermarket and then stick it in the microwave machine, until it is cooked thoroughly (brown all the way through – no pinkness).
Then cut it up into tiny chunks. It will be nicely firm and dry, with a heavenly smell for us dogs and lovely crumbly texture when we chew on it. You can even freeze some once it is cut up – it defrosts really easily.
Be careful not to overcook it otherwise it will become hard and tough. Depending on how much liver you’ve got, better to start with 2-4mins in the microwave, then check, before cooking some more if needed.
This is so much cheaper and better than the dry, flaky liver treats you buy in pet stores. But remember, liver is awfully rich so – especially if you’ve not had it before – tell your humans to only use a bit at a time, otherwise you may get an upset tummy! Save it for training the extra difficult stuff!
Baked Sausage – cheap, processed sausage makes really good training treats but the problem is that they can get really greasy and oily. So my human found that a great way around this was to cut up the sausages first and then bake them in the oven machine, on a low heat, for 10-20mins. This makes them nice and dry, again, so that they’re easy to hold and put in the pockets!
The Dugallmore Beagles also have a great recipe for liver cake on the sidebar of their blog (scroll down to the bottom, on the right)…do go and check it out!
And here is another website with some great dog treat recipes: http://www.bullwrinkle.com/Assets/Recipes/Recipes.htm
So tell me – what treats do YOU like for training? Are there any home-made treats you have found to be particularly good and would recommend?
A whole post about treats! How wonderful as that is one of my favorite subjects Honey. I will eat almost anything as a treat. At home I will work for kibble but when I am in a new location, and am very distracted, kibble will just not do it.
Some healthy commercial treats I like are Zukes mini naturals and Merricks lamb fillets. A big favorite of mine is string cheese. I also love bits of hot dogs, cut up chicken, roast beast and, my absolute favorite, sausage biscuit (I get that when I track). Barbara also makes us diced roast potatoes. Delish. I will have to post the recipe for that one on my blog.
Enjoy your training and all your delicious treats.
Your friend,
Niamh
Hi Honey -- our personal favourite is cheese, oooh, we'd do anything for a smackerel of cheese! We feel sad when we see overweight doggies -- it's amazing how many of them there are! -- because it means they don't have the energy or inclination to play with us. Actually, JD is more toy oriented and Max is defininately food oriented, but luckily -- where training is involved -- it's paws down for complete obedience to get a bit of cheesey yumminess! Tail wags -- JD and Max.
Hi Honey! Great post about treats for training! I have accepted all the treats that mom buys at the petstore, except canine biscuits. I don´t like that!
Thor xxx
Thank you for posting about the treats Honey. Very helpful info. I've been using turkey sausages for training, but I'm definitely going to try cooking them in the oven like you suggested because they get so gross. Normally Jackal loves cheese, but right now he can't have dairy because of his antibiotics. I'm definitely going to see if I can find some liver too, because those just look so good and clean and easy to use. Thanks again!
What a tasty post!
Now to train my mom!
Tank woo fur sharing!
Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
Hi Honey! I have to use different treats: for Rufus small pieces of his food (little balls) are enough but with Indie I have to use cheese!
Great post!
Kisses
rufus and Indie
Hi, Honey!
Great post!
I don't do training… I don't get treats! Hmmm…..
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza
wOOWOOWOOWOWOOO!!
)))))))
Great post dear Honey!!
Place before that we LOVE eating……
the best for us are……sausage or wurstel!!!!!!!!
We'll do anything for wurstel!!!!!!
and…do you know for what we'll do anything too?????
STONES!!!!!!!
Waawawwawawwwaaaa!!!!!
we can't eat them but if mommy keep one in her hand…..we could do ALL mom wants!!!!!!!!
Only for one stone!!!!
Are we crazy or not????
We love you dear friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sweet kisses and licks!!!!
SMACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think my wife has been using chopped-up dried fish skins lately. The dog loves them, but they smell terrible!
Hey Honey thanks fer this intresting infermashun. I will werk fer ANY kind of treet even dry crunchy Milk Bones but Star needs sumthang reely delishus like reel smelly meet. Mummy has not been happy with the treets she wuz getting cause they are too messy so she is gonna try yer liver advice!! Yay that meens liver fer me too!!
Yer pal Dozer
Hi Honey!!!
We miss you so mutch
For treats kiko love strawberries, cherries and apples (but not many), so you don´t need to cook them.
Trie them, i think she will like.
Them please tell us was you think.
Hugs and kisses from kikos word
Ps. we got a award for you
Hey Honey, Great post. I haven't met a treat yet that I didn't like : ) You are so right, training with treats is a real motivator. Mom has tried about everything she can think of -- and I love them all. Her favorite is string cheese because she likes to put it in her mouth and spit it at me. Good for getting my attention! My favorite is Bil Jac liver treats. They're a commercial product, but I love to chase them when she throws them across the ring. They roll really well.
btw, I saw your video practicing for the new dance routine. Can't wait to see the final product!
Cheers!
Jackson the Great Dane
Dakota was never fussy about treats for training but she has always been our best eater. We usually used tiny tidbits of beef or liver or hot dogs or carrots for her. Thunder was also good with food treats, again usually something liver-related. Now Phantom is a totally different pup. He is not food motivated at all. IN fact, he doesn't even really like to eat. I was never able to train him using food. We tried everything. In the end, I don't really know how we did it but he is a pretty obedient pup. One thing he does love is turkey, so maybe I need to try using that to see how it would work.
Thanks for all the great ideas.
Tail wags, the OP Pack
Honey
Thank you fow telling us youw secwets..I'll ask mommi to make some of those tweats and twy twining me wif them..I am eagew to twy
smoochie kisses
ASTA
Hi Honey,
My humans have tried alsorts of treats but the two things that I work best for are bits of smoked fish (much more yummy than chicken or sausage though my human hates the lingering smell on her fingers) and my all time favourite CHEEZELS -- which are a human snack made of a cruchy corn and rice rings coated in a smelly bright orange cheese flavour (my owner thinks they are less fattening than cubes of cheese). I can't run fast enough to her when I hear the rustle of the of the bag, and then I never know if I am going to get a small part of one or a whole one if I do really well at what she wants me to do.
Other dogs think my human is mad giving her Golden Retriever orange treats, but they don't know what they are missing -- ahh the aroma, the taste and that satisfying crunch!
Riley
Hi Honey,
What a great post!! We are sure our mum will make the Cooked Liver Treats following your recipe for us. She had looked forward to this post since she found you mentioning it in your comment on Jackal's blog. Can't wait to try our new yummy liver treats!!
Great advice Honey!! My favorites are probably cheese and meaty treats like pieces of ham or chicken. I will have to try bread though…I don't eat much of that.
As for doggies being obese…I hear ya and people are always telling me I am a skinny Ridgeback! HMMMPH! They clearly don't know that I am exactly the right weight because they must be used to seeing overweight doggies. My Mom always defends me and says well, Ridgebacks will eat alot if you let them and become overweight but Nala is a healthy weight for her size and breed. 
Plus, I think you and me have nice sleek figures because we are very active girls! 
Good luck on your new dance routine…the practicing below looks great!
Kisses,
Nala
Oooh, Honey, I'm going to make my human try those liver and sausage thingies!
When we go for a walk she has a little treat pouch with liver treats and these other little ball things which she thinks may be a little fattening, but I don't get very many of them. She keeps those in her pouch because they are dry, so they can just live there.
If we're going to do special training, my human uses grated cheese, or 4-legs (which is a brand of fresh meat dog food, already cooked into convenient little balls), but then it has to go into a separate bag, so it's not as handy as the dry stuff.
She's going to love cooking liver for me!
Puppy kisses
Sasha
Hey Honey- As a labradog food motivated does not even begin to describe moose! He will eat and get excited about virtually anything! I was taught clickertraining when I volunteered at a shelter and we used tiny pieces of cut up cheese + hotdogs but I found it pretty messy and stinky and it was hard to always have it handy since it needed to be refrigerated between sessions. So we now use Charlee bears (looks like a little cracker) and moose gets surprisingly excited about them! I also get Natural balance food rolls and cut it up into small cubes for something a bit more enticing (I imagine it is the consistency of the cooked liver you mentioned). I feel very fortunate to have worked with a professional behaviorist who taught me the things you mention about small pieces, the right stuff, keeping them a little hungry and lots of other helpful stuff. I always want to learn more though so love to hear your pointers. I am definitely going to try the liver thing. Moose thanks you!
Moose + Dana
Thanx Honey wonderful advise -- there are way too many doggies that are over weight -- we are about right mommy says and she makes sure we doing flucuate too much
We love CHEESE -- and mommy also makes dried treats from organ meat for us.
Woodrow Sweetie mj
Wow! Great advice! Running to work, but mom uses string cheese for me in tiny pieces like you say and I'm pretty enthused about that, but I bet I'd like liver better! I love the bones, by the way, that you recommended! Totally blissed out on those! Thank you so much for all the great help!
Hugs and Love xo
Sammie
I love cheese! That's my favorite!
Also, my momma sometimes gives me vienna sausages cut up. They come in a can and don't have to be cooked.
Hi Honey
Thanks for the very informative post.
Mom gives us a variety of treats. Cooked chicken or turkey, cut up beef wiener, cooked beef liver, cheese and some packaged dog treats. We are very food motivated.
Love Ruby & Penny
Training? What is training? Treats we understand! We love Temptations! Maybe we should think about this training so we can get more treats….
Yum Honey!
Liver a big favourite of mine, especially chicken liver, which I gets at agility. I likes cooked kidney too.
I will work for anything indoors, except some kinds of commercial treats.
I would be honoured if you would join in with Tricky T-day Honey! It not matter if you can't do it all the time either, I just thought it would be a fun way to know when to look out for other tricksters.
Me and Mum has started working on a dance routine, we so want to do freestyle.
hummmm
I like this post! i´m drooling all over the place already!!!
big licks to you and your mommy!
Pu
We are terrible at cooking , so our usual bribe is yogurt drops. But some of these sound easy enough to try -- thanks for this post, it's a great one!
Hi Honey,
Great post! I like store-bought treats. Mom gives me Purina Chicken Carvers and some bacon flavored treats that I love. I get excited when she brings out the treat cup and gets ready for training. Then I really pay attention.
Teddy
Hi Honey! Sure have missed you! It's nice to be back here and discover my favourite subject -- TREATS! I'm going to get LS to make notes on them!
Hi Honey,
Thank you for telling us about the video of your friend, Winnie the Corgi, doing ring-toss! She is sooo clever!! We want to try that trick sometime ourselves
Mom loves to do clicker training also. She uses it in agility in contact behavior and weawers. But it has it own difficulties. She managed to teach Ressu to like her nose before touching the paw target. Now she is thinking what tricks to teach him becouse he need to get more consentration and body management. She ordered three books from clean run about tricks, agility and clicker.
Here is couple of treats that we have used:
Boiled liver, heart, tongue and chicken.
(liver is boiled with carlig and dryed after couple of hours in oven)
Hi Honey! We love our treats and they definitely help us learn new tricks ( or so we tell our humans so we keep getting treats). LOL! These are some good ideas we'll have to pass along. We have freeze dried livers right now that do the trick -- no pun intended!
Wags,
Pruett and Daphne
Hi Honey
we bassets are really not that interested in doing tricks. But treats we love and you gave our mum quite a few good ideas. We LOVE liver and mum already buys that, cooks it, and uses it for snacks. It is much cheaper and better than the dried stuff.
We are very impressed with your tricks and enjoy watching other dogs do their stuff.
We have told Ludo that we will be watching his tricky t days with interest -- but we dont do any tricks ourselves!
Thanks for the post -- it was very interesting.
love
Martha & Bailey xxx
Stupid Pee-Wee works for "air treats" Just make your hand look like it is giving him a reward. I have to be careful because if we use something that is too high a reward (like liver cake) I get too excited and tend to bounce against momma and not focus.
So those are saved for stupid pee-wee agilities. I just use plain old liver bits that come in a bag from the doggie store.
We have trouble with the clicker because momma is so spastic.
Slobbers,
Mango
Our favourite treats are microwaved hot dog (kind of like your sausage idea) and boiled chicken! We also love green beans and carrots.
Hi Honey,
Our mum made ox liver treats for us yesterday! They are so yummy and smell nice! Mum is so pleased that they are much cheaper than commercial treats. Thank you for sharing that recipe!
Hey Honey,
Thanks for the wonderful advice and the treats recipe. My Missus is going to give it a try and I am looking forward to more yummy treats.
Love,
Homer
Hi again Honey- sorry for the barrage of questions today! I came back to this post to see how your human fixed up the liver treats for you. The ones are the store are either loaded with junk a doggie has no business eating or VERY expensive and we are going through a lot of treats these days. I was wondering about refrigerating the liver or sausages once they are cooked… I like to keep them by my side during the day for capturing things or surprise sessions and would not want them going 'bad' because they are at room temp too long. I am not too worried about them making moose sick since he eats all sorts of stuff off the ground but worried that my handling them would be icky after they have been out too long (say 5 of 6 hrs). I would not do that to regular meat, but wondered if these were cooked so much that they are jerky type texture?
Thanks!
Thanks for the link to this old post, Honey! Mom is afraid the liver smell in the house might be a little too much for her, so we probably won’t try that one, but we will probably try the dried hot dog wieners, at least, for when we need something more than kibble. Like for when she does our nails with the dremel — I don’t mind it at all, but Lily is so scared by the noise, so Mom always gives her the BEST treats when she does that, and then she gives me the same treats just to be fair, which is a great deal for me!
Inside any treat will do for us we love PB on ritz crackers (ABBY the Labby and BELLA the GREAT Dane) . Outside I have tried cut up steak,cheese,pork, toys, etc…I have not found anything to keep their attention. I have tried training separately ,together, waiting till they are hungry for training. I am going to try the liver in the microwave ,and keep my fingers crossed.
Hi Lee -- Thanks for sharing your experiences! Mm--mmm…those all sound delicious! Abby & Bella are lucky pups!
But I agree, it can be hard when you’re out in strange surroundings -- sometimes no treat can compete with the excitement & distractions around! It might help if you try going to somewhere less public first -- or somewhere public at a less busy time and practising focusing for treats then -- and then gradually working up to a busier time. eg, a supermarket carpark late on a Sun evening when it’s quiet, gradually working up to Sat morning shopping peak time! 
And hope your girls don’t find the liver too rich -- maybe start with just a bit to see…Good luck! Hsin-Yi