Quote: Betty Landercasp

My favorite bait is candy corn. I break them into 2 pieces. They last forever if you don't get them wet.
My dog thinks sugar is as good as meat. I rationalize that he's burning off the sugar while we are training.

Sadly, I too love those.

I don't break them in two, either.

My two high-value treat standbys are hot-dog-jerkey (diced hot dogs, microwaved until they are leather)...and cat food kibble.

I suppose you could do the chicken breast or any other hunk of boneless meat in the microwave too. The drying/toughening effect of microwave on meat is really distasteful to humans, but dogs don't care, and it makes it less juicy in the bait bag.

The discovery of cat food as a dog treat was by accident (visiting in a home with cats...you know the rest.) Whatever it is they make cat kibble out of, it stinks. I do try to buy a "premium" brand of cat kibble, right now we're working through a bag of Evanger's Whitefish and Pheasant kibbles. They are about the size of a pea and stink to high heaven.

An ancient log of deer sausage given to me as a gift (totally inedible) made a whole winter's worth of training treats.

At our agility class, the teacher uses these godawful cheese puffs that come in a barrel from Sam's Club. My dogs go crazy for them. But I refuse to buy them. I figure if they only get them from her, at class, then she gets to be the wonderful cheese puff lady. Novelty, rarity is most of their value, I think.

I'm totally with Tracy on reserving certain HV rewards for High-Level commands and High-Stress situations.

In my house, warm cooked bacon is reserved for "procedures," like "drops in eyeball," "anything inside the ear," and so on.

The tension may be high, but all dogs, including the patient, focus lovingly on that reward, prominently and odorously displayed, and all dogs get some. The patient is first, of course, with a big piece, but the ones who sat quietly a few feet back get their theirs too.

"I suppose you could do the chicken breast or any other hunk of boneless meat in the microwave too. The drying/toughening effect of microwave on meat is really distasteful to humans, but dogs don't care, and it makes it less juicy in the bait bag. "


This is what I use for FST.

Skinless poultry breast makes a very unmessy product. You can time the microwave for chewy or hard, too.

(The dicing or slicing is done first, of course.)

Microwaving....good idea for a non-cook like me!

Connie, thanks for the addition of slicing first. I'll bet the 1st time I try it, it will be hard as a baseball!!

 Quote: Carol Blumlein

Microwaving....good idea for a non-cook like me!

Connie, thanks for the addition of slicing first. I'll bet the 1st time I try it, it will be hard as a baseball!!

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=17494&page=1#170406

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=24030&page=1#249582

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=19884&page=1#200243

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=30665&page=1#341510

Candy corn? Interesting!

 Quote: Carol Blumlein

Candy corn? Interesting!

Yes, but candy is not safe around me.