A training treat has exactly one job: be eaten in under a second so the next repetition can start. Anything the dog has to chew breaks the rhythm, the dog stops offering behaviour, and a session that should have been twenty clean repetitions becomes six and a lot of sniffing the floor.
The three properties that matter
- Size: pea-sized or smaller, even for a large dog. You are paying for information, not for dinner.
- Smell: strong. The dog needs to know the reward has arrived without hunting for it.
- Texture: soft or brittle. Nothing that requires a chew.
Build a value ladder
Not every repetition deserves the best thing you own. Use kibble from the daily ration for easy indoor work, a mid-value soft treat for known behaviours in a mildly distracting place, and save freeze-dried liver or cheese for recall in a field with other dogs in it. If the highest-value reward is used for sitting in the kitchen, you have nothing left for the hard job.
Counting the calories
Treats should stay under roughly a tenth of daily intake. On a heavy training day take a matching scoop out of dinner rather than adding the treats on top. Weight gain during a training block is common, avoidable and, in a young dog with growing joints, worth taking seriously.
Three minutes, twenty repetitions, finish while the dog still wants more.
Tom Ryan, Wexfur
Session length
Short and frequent beats long and occasional. Three minutes, several times a day, ending on something the dog gets right, will out-teach a twenty-minute session every time. Put the treats away in the same drawer afterwards so they stay a signal that work is starting rather than background furniture.
Before you act on this
Feeding guidance here is general and assumes a healthy adult animal. Diet changes for pets with diagnosed conditions, or on prescription food, must be agreed with your vet first.
