First time doing this after a year of just looking.....

I just switched my 1yr old Bouv to raw.... I have a couple of questions that I haven't been able to find in previous posts.

1. What can I feed for training treats without putting raw meat in my pocket and carrying it around???

2. Is it okay to feed him cooked meat as well - scraps left from dinner sort of thing?????? (no bones!!!)

Thanks.......

Cooked bits of skinless white-meat poultry are not only "real food," but they are greaseless, for carrying around.

LB carries MANY excellent teeny training treats, too. I think I have used them all by now. Hard to narrow down my dogs' faves, and, in fact, I like to change 'em up.

I make chicken "jerky" for dog treats, too, by microwaving bits or thin slices of chicken breast until it's as hard (or chewy) as I want. Great for training treats and FST. (I freeze the results, so just in case it has microwaved unevenly, there are no pieces rotting in an unfrozen container.) This takes about 4 or 5 minutes, and then I check every 30 seconds until they're good.

http://leerburg.com/treat.htm

I especially like Zukes Mini, Simon & Huey's, and Grizzly.

I love the bait bag here, too:

http://leerburg.com/baitbag.htm

My favorite is the top left.

I wear it with the pocket snapped open and behind me (out of the dog's sight) once we have begun a session.

These are plastic inside and easily wiped out.

P.S. Another poster here mentioned saving bits of leftovers from people-dinner for treats for training -- BRILLIANT!

I admit that it took me a while, in the olden days, to figure out that I should use only treats that I consider food-worthy. I am not giving bad junk that I feel uncomfortable using generously or that I don't want to be substituting for the dog's real food. I want to consider training treats as part of their food, and a good part.

 Quote: connie sutherland

Hard to narrow down my dogs' faves, and, in fact, I like to change 'em up and add surprised excitement to training sessions.

Ditto! I use what Ed calls a "trail mix" whenever I bring the bait bag out on a walk -works great!

If I'm training in the house I use cheese sometimes, or slightly "messier" things like cold cuts, and these are usually the highest value treats for Oscar. I will take them with me if we go to the vet, or somewhere where I REALLY need to keep Oscar's attention. I also discovered recently that my grocery store re-packages and sells the "ends" from all the sliced meat at the deli counter - it's pretty cheap, and they're already relatively small chunks, so dicing one up into bites is easy.

I don't have any problem feeding my dog plain cooked meat as treats, and consider it one of the more healthy things I can give him, but for meals, raw is that much better for him, so nothing cooked in there.

In terms of real "dog treats", as Connie said, there are plenty of brands out there marketing natural treats made with human grade ingredients, and without a lot of grain or unrecognizable filler. These treats won't clash with the raw diet ethos, but will be a lot cleaner to carry with you than slippery raw chicken bits. A bunch of Oscar's faves:

Liver Biscotti:
http://leerburg.com/1869.htm

Zukes Mini Training Treats:
http://leerburg.com/1078.htm

Simin & Huey:
http://leerburg.com/1141.htm

The softer the treat, the faster it dries out if you don't use it quickly... Oscar can be a little bit of a princess about that and dried out treats lose a lot of value for him (only because he knows I usually have a mix of fresh and a few days old all in one pouch...).

Cheers,
~Natalya

Murphy likes the softer ones too. He'll take and eat everything, but doesn't get too excited about anything crunchy. Like Connie said, the more I mix it up the happier my dog is. Even his favorite treat gets 'boring' if I use it exclusively. Dinner leftovers are da bomb because of the variety, but I mix it all up with LB treats, cold cuts, cheese, lots of cooked chicken, etc. We love the Zukes, Simon and Huey's and especially small pieces from the meat rolls. If somethings a little 'squishy' for comfort, I'll put it in a ziplock inside the bait bag (I have the snap-open one), though the bag is pretty easy to clean.

Hi Karna,

This was a fun thread awhile back that may give you some ideas.

Fun Food Rewards

Katie

Just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for their input..... for some reason I never thought I would have so many options in the treat deparment after switching..... I used to make liver treats(oatmeal,liver and eggs) these should still be okay as well then???

Karna

 Quote:

I used to make liver treats(oatmeal,liver and eggs) these should still be okay as well then???

Of course. The liver biscotti that I linked to earlier is basically just those ingredients, so it sounds perfect to me (not sure I could handle the smell of cooked liver in my own kitchen , so I've never tried to make them myself - but as far as ingredients go for the DOG - YUM! ).

Cheers,
~Natalya