How Many Treats?

[Ivushiq]

How many treats do you feed your dogs daily- during the training and the walks? Do you reduce your dog´s meals when you treat your dog? Our lessons are short- 2 to 5 minutes each, but there are many of them daily, so I am wondering how many treats my puppy can eat so he won´t get fat...

 

[southerngirl]

I personally don't reduce my dogs meals and she is not fat at all. I don't keep track of how many treats she gets. To keep your dog from getting fat keep the treats small the dog doesn't care how big it is. Also I would suggest not using store bought treats they usually aren't good for dogs, use homemade treats there is a forum for it here. I use hot dogs because you can get them for just $1 I pick out maybe three and freeze the rest so they don't go bad.

 

[Amateur]

My dogs don't mind if I use their meal kibble as the treat ... so if you just measure out their daily allotment and take your training treats from there it works out great.

 

[tigerlily46514]

Ivushiq, i think you are soooooooooo so so smart to even think about this!! GOOD FOR YOU! It's much easier to prevent a dog from getting fat,
than to cure a dog from being fat!! I once inherited a fat dog, and wow, it's harrrrd to get weight off of a dog!

My dog is 50 lbs. He can get chubby, and i have to worry about that every winter..as soon as i spot an extra pound on my dog, i cut his food portions back, unless it is wintertime, when i do let him carry a few pounds extra for warmth. But every spring, he goes on fitness program to get those 2 or 3 extra pounds back off of him for summer time.

On days when i do use food for his tricks,
i often give about 1/2 cup of treats.

If i use over half a cup of treats i will reduce the size of his dinner.
I'd rather my dog be on the slimmer size, than be too big.
Occasionally, i skip his dinner entirely, as i hear it's not natural for a dog to eat twice a day, eveyr day, and i hear skipping meals helps a dog's metabolism, and it does seem true.

Or, i will use his entire dinner as training treats, and nothing goes into his bowl. I have no problem skipping my dog's meals now and then,
and instead, to prevent Buddy from wondering what is wrong, i just play with him really a lot or take him for extra walks. He then seems oblivious to the fact he got no evening meal.


I usually use this recipe, and i usually use raisen-sized bits of treats. This recipe is easy to make, it's cheap, it's healthy, and dogs love it.
http://www.dogtrickacademy.com/members/forums/threads/liver-cookies.4061/

or I use bits of meat cut up small, or hotdogs. sometimes i save up my almost-empty yogurt cups and he gets to lick the yogurt cup clean for his reward.
I almost nevvvvvvvver use store bought treats, as i think most store bought treats are horrible for dog's health.



sometimes, i use tug-toy play for his prize, which he enjoys --- nice change up, especially for tricks my dog thinks are kind of dull , the tuggie-toy play as his reward adds to the FUN for my dog.


Some ppl here use tennis balls or frisbees for their trick rewards.....a reward does NOT have to be food all the time. You can click and throw a tennis ball, if that is a good reward to YOUR dog.

 

[tigerlily46514]

I also have one special tuggie toy,
that Buddy ONLY sees for tricks training,
and that way, getting to bite and pull on THAT toy, is BIG thrill for *my* dog, cuz it is a NEW toy that he just never gets to play with, so it's like reeeally interesting to my dog.

but my dog also loves tugging his 'every day' toys, too.

 

[madeleine]

I give Dazzle meat, so i have 1.5 freezer only for her meat standing in my house (barf). Next to that i havel LOTS of different training treats AND knibbel treats.

I do keep in mind that when we are training, and it will be a lot, that we use her food for the training. I then cut the meat in very small parts and use that to thain her with.
This way she will get enough to eat, certainly not to much, and she still is high motivated to train (with dried food she'll swith a lot of her "favorite")

 

[Dogster]

I reduce Shivon's meal if she got a lot of treats during the training sessions. Sometimes I use a toy as a reward, but Shivon likes treats more, lol

 

[SD&B]

I reduce their meals to compensate for training treats. As Southerngirl said, keep the treats very small. You like to give a lot of treats during clicker training. When training a new trick, you may be giving them as fast as you can hand them to the dog. I keep them about the size of a raisin. I make my own and use a pizza cutter to cut them to small size.

When we were training for an acting agency test in January, I used a lot of string cheese, which I also broke into the size of raisins, as well as my homemade treats, but we trained so much and I didn't cut back her meals, so that Sundog gained a couple of pounds and I had to put her on a diet. Now she's back to normal.

 

[sara]

I am able to use kibble for my dogs, so I never bother with treats at all. I do use Hot dogs if I'm taking Oliver out in public though, otherwise he doesn't pay alot of attention.

 

[648117]

At home I use Holly's normal dinner kibble for treats mostly. She eats 3/4 of a cup of kibble per day, it gets measured out in the morning into a cup, then she gets about 1/3 of the alloted kibble for breakfast, I usually end up using around 1/3 for training during the day and the last 1/3 is for dinner and for in the kong if she is having one that night (if she's having a different chew then some kibble gets left for the next day), although the kong has stuff other than just kibble in it, and I usually take hotdog on walks (but she doesn't need many treats on walks now - mostly just for recall), so I think most days she probably eats just under a cup of food.
She isn't thin, but she isn't fat, I think she's about right at the moment (although it's hard for me to know exactly how to tell with her because she is a bit pug shaped, her ribs are covered but her tummy tucks up well, but from above she doesn't have as much of a visible waist as guide pictures usually want).

On Saturdays she has obedience class (she gets hotdog in class) so I take away some kibble. And on Thursday evenings she has agility class, the class is at the same time as she has dinner so she just doesn't get dinner that night because she gets hotdog at class so she doesn't really notice.

 

[huntyr]

this was really interesting to read.
I keep wondering the same thing.
I sure dont need a heavy dog if I am going to race him once a month,
but I am feeding alot of treats now that I am trick training him alot.

 

[madeleine]

Now i put the meat for Dazzle through a meat grinder. Saves me the trouble to cut the meat in small peaces and I can give smaller ammounts. What results in more training tricks!!

 

[Lindsey]

Luckily my 2 year old boy is about as fit as can be and gets around two lb a day anyways and doesn't really gain weight on more and my puppy is a growing girl and just keeps shooting up. But because I feed raw I do try and use their food as training treats which typically ends up with my hands smelling like tripe. Which is great fun.

 

[SD&B]

Luckily my 2 year old boy is about as fit as can be and gets around two lb a day anyways and doesn't really gain weight on more and my puppy is a growing girl and just keeps shooting up. But because I feed raw I do try and use their food as training treats which typically ends up with my hands smelling like tripe. Which is great fun.

LOL! I feed raw and sometimes that is tripe. Stinky stuff!