My dog loves ice. Living in Texas I give him ice on a fairly frequent basis to cool him off.

thanks for the replies, my dog appreciates it! (she wags her tail more when she's chewing on some ice than when she's eating)

Deer,elk heart, liver and lungs. I dehydrate and freeze most of them. Take them out as I need them. Some times I run out and improvise.

I stay away from hot dogs at all costs. I think the nitrates in hot dogs gives dog cancer a lot faster then it does us.

Steve

Just a word of caution to those not used to training with treats - if you are doing lots of treat training - you might want to cut down on your dog's regular meal - and watch for soft or runny stools when using a lot of rich training treat...*s*

 Quote:

..........I stay away from hot dogs at all costs. I think the nitrates in hot dogs gives dog cancer a lot faster then it does us.

Steve

So do I, Steve. There is more than one theory about nitrates and nitrites and dogs, such as dogs' relatively smaller size, and also their smaller ingestion of vitamin C. (They can manufacture it, unlike us, but it probably takes extra C to neutralize free radicals.) Hot dogs, bacon, cold cuts -- these contain nitrites, preservatives to combat botulism. Nitrites combine with amines in meat to form N-nitroso compounds when cooked. These are known carcinogens.

We have refrigeration now, and sodium nitrites these days are used more for the reddish color they produce. Nitrite-free hot dogs taste the same but have a browner color that people aren't used to.

Sometimes they're frozen, but they can also be found at the butcher counter.

They are not expensive. They don't keep as long as cured hot dogs, but they freeze fine. You treat them like fresh instead of cured meat.

JMO!

I figure it's worth it to get them instead of cured hot dogs when you want that hot dog taste that dogs really do seem to love.

I like those dehydrated things a lot. Besides lungs and liver, there are chunks and strips of straight chicken breast, which are kind of big but break up fine for training treats.

 Quote: jason shipley

My dog works for me not for food.

I'm with you on this. I never carry treats and never did.

This might sound a little off the wall to most, but this is how it goes in my home. I feed "BARF" 100%. The only thing store bought as far as "dog" food is.. dried Lamb Lungs by "Old West". They are 70% protein with no chemicals and 4% fat.

I live off a farm, eat my own chickens, beef, pigs, veggies, milk etc. I have a smoke house for jerky and can by the hundreds every other year. I love to cook..food is the heart of it all here and the dogs growing up to appreciate this.

My dog and previous trained dogs all stayed in my house and ate in the kitchen. 3 full meals plus snacks hand fed all day. It's at the point now where if I had to pick a favorite treat it would be cold milk. The only time they get cold milk is after training. Cold milk is a great tool in dog training I find.
It's refreshing after serious workouts. And a way to use up all my cows milk.

When the dogs are out with the cattle, I yank the dinner bell and they are forsure headed home. For milk, no doubt. (now when I do this it's for training purposes, so the dinner bell is hollard 5-7 times an hour) And if they don't return in a few minutes I know something is very very wrong. This happens when the yotes came down the mountain.

I think dogs need to know a place in the home "the heart of it all" ... and that should be the kitchen where the master rules. Then Whaaahlaa! You have a serious working dog "at heart", that always comes home.

And of course doesn't like men. Will never let a soul enter the back door. And when they go back to their owners in a year ... I know they miss me, my son and my home.

That's what it's all about to me.

Sorry if I got runny @ the lips.. it happens sometimes. :mrgreen:

 Quote: melissacato

..... My dog and previous trained dogs all stayed in my house and ate in the kitchen. 3 full meals plus snacks hand fed all day. ....

I don't get it. "My dogs work for me and not for food" and "I never carry treats," but they have "snacks hand fed all day."

What am I missing?

I dunno... what ever works. (edited)~ I thought you people were talking about the training field, what I should have said was food/treats never leave the house. Sorry.

 Quote: MelissaCato

I dunno... what ever works. (edited)~ I thought you people were talking about the training field, what I should have said was food/treats never leave the house. Sorry.

Oh! I getcha now.

Ha ha the retriever guy cracked me up. Wolters is a good book if you want to learn how to teach a retrieve and learn about how they taught dogs back in the day. I am a retriever trainer and you would be setting yourself back to train your dog by Wolters methods to this day. There is much better advice nowadays and treats are a big advantage in teaching dogs new things. If you're not using treats to teach new things you are missing out on a very quick and easy method to progress your training. As far as treats go..... Hot dogs are meat so they are my main source of training treat. Easy to buy, easy to prepare. I don't feed my clients dogs thousands of packages of hot dogs so I don't worry about some of the above comments on carcinogens and such but I do look for low sodium hot dogs. Anyway, use treats for training but learn quickly when you need to start weining off the treats and start correcting for disobedience.