[TheAdventureK9]

I'm curious to what you guys have figured out as your dogs highest value treats are. I have Aayla in classes but only takes treats 60% of the time. The rest of the time she spits them out. This is the only place she does not take them, on our walks and hikes she takes them almost 95% of the time. While at our class she still listens, though while a little distracted. She gets all excited for the marker and then takes the treat, only to spit it out on the ground.

The things that have worked the best:
Her own kibble
Freeze Dried Raw
Freeze Dried meat (sojos)

Even with those she will spit out about half way through our night. I always make sure she hasn't eaten before class, I have a variety of different treats in my treat bag that I give out.

Things she was not crazy about:
Zukes Minis
'Real Meat' Jerky
Plato Small Bites (actually I have tried about everything from Plato)
Cut up boar's hearts

Things that cause major stomach upset:
Cheese
Hot Dogs

I'm debating trying to cook some chicken or ground beef or something. (She does get raw but I don't want to be handling raw in a treat bag) It gets frustrating at training when I have a pup that is only 1/2 interested. She listens because that is what I've taught her but I can tell she isn't as enthused about it, I want her to be thrilled.

I've started working on tug for reward, cause when she looses food interest sometimes that works but that is only 50/50.

 

[seashoreduck]

Can you get a different flavor or flavors of her kibble brand? I've often found this got the most bang for the buck without stomach upset.

Also, just in general...a focused human has bloodflow to the brain and snack redirect some bloodflow to the stomach. While for 99% of people this can be done at the same time, for some people they can't snack and work or learn. You may want to consider that learning and eating may simply be too much for her.

 

[traciek88]

Usually we use cheese for a high value treat. I might try hot dogs again too, but I guess it's just easy to get the cheese sticks and pick off parts rather than hot dogs I have to chop up. Little bits of chicken can work for some people too.

 

[PoppyKenna]

Meat! Cooked chicken or beef, hot dogs (the cheap ones are the easiest to it up), and the FreshPet bites have all been hits here.

Chisum will learn for really anything - he'll even perform for shaved ice. But I learned pretty quickly that in the really intense situations it has to be super high value and for him, that's meat.

 

[TheAdventureK9]

@seashoreduck I hadn't really thought about that. I do work at a petstore and we actually get tons of samples. I could snag a few of different brands and flavors. (she seems to do fine with changing foods...I already vary it a lot)
@traciek88 - Yeah the cheese is a no go for her. She got a slice once that fell onto the floor and had explosive diarrhea for two days. She seemed very motivated for it though!
@PoppyKenna - Last time I tried hotdog she had the runs too. Not as ad with cheese but still not good. I'm really thinking I'll have to do boiled chicken or something and only give it during our classes.

It is only there that she has been spitting out treats. Everywhere else she will take them almost all the time. It is a bit frustrating when she does so well but I feel like I can't show off how wonderful she is! haha.

 

[jclark343]

I got pretty lucky with my dogs. Cheese is the best high value reward for them. It causes a little bit of a tummy ache with them, but honestly, it's worth it to me for how hard they work (And they really only get the tummy ache if we do a LOT of training with the cheese multiple days in a row).

I would try the boiled chicken or ground beef. Also there use to be a recipe on this site for 'Salmon crack' I think it what it was called. A few of the people who trained SWORE by it. That any dog would take this stuff. I never tried it (there is not a chance in h*ll my husband would let me bake canned salmon in our house. He HATES the smell of fish) but it is definitely something that is worth looking into.

 

[Shandula]

Cheese, and cooked chicken breast. Both of my guys are workers for the sake of working (Heidi more so than Levi), but they both LOVE real meat.

 

[jclark343]

Found them!
Homemade Salmon Dog Treat Recipe: Yummy Treats for Focus During Dog Training

And here's the thread talking about them
http://www.dogforum.com/dog-food-recipes/salmon-treat-recipe-focus-during-training-30793/

 

[Shandula]

Found them!
Homemade Salmon Dog Treat Recipe: Yummy Treats for Focus During Dog Training

And here's the thread talking about them
http://www.dogforum.com/dog-food-recipes/salmon-treat-recipe-focus-during-training-30793/

The trainers at my school use salmon and, while it stinks to high heaven, the dogs all go CRAZY for it!

 

[jclark343]

The only time I've considered making it and using it is when I was going to trial, but like I said, my husband would kill me if I came home smelling like fish.

 

[Gnostic Dog]

Freeze dried raw, especially bison heart, but lamb's lung is also popular. Cheese, salmon skins, any cooked meat, also loves green beans and snow peas. He has never had kibble so I have no idea if he would like it, but my guess is probably. He was very happy to take milk bones from the UPS lady in our old house!

I have a very food motivated dog who isn' that discerning.

 

[kmes]

Meat
Cooked chicken and beef is likely at the top.
Right below would be deli meats and freshpet (I use the both the meatballs for dogs and the smaller ones for cats for training, and chop up the dog joy sausages).
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Thisisme19]

Anything that is actual meat is a big seller for my pup. I usually use something that is different from what he gets at home, or at least hasn't gotten in a long time. I've found anything that really smells works well, and something that breaks apart but doesn't crumble is very useful. These days I'll usually grab one of those dog food rolls and cut it up into pieces to use.

 

[TruckersMom]

McDonald's Chicken Nuggets (probably not the healthiest but Trucker will eat them even when he is super scared)

 

[Dawnben]

Have you tried the pure bites. Real meat and only meat nothing else added. Lots of different meats to keep a dog interested.
PureBites® Products For Dogs | Purebites.com

 

[Rileysaur]

Cheese works for us too! I find it super convenient and Riley loves it! We mostly use it for CC-ing because he'lol pretty much work for anything. When I switched to raw, instructor also suggested cooked chicken breasts.

 

[BIteWorkHeeler]

Have you tried training her with a toy instead of food?

When i am working my dogs i use a toy half the time and food half the time. I do not have picky eaters, so they just get whatever I have - Usually hot dogs or anything leftover from dinner that week that the humans aren't going to get to.

At our schutzhund club, we have some dogs who just don't respond as well to food (Displaying behaviors like spitting it out,) or alternatively are too rough on the hands for treat rewards (Powerful dogs, you know...) And for those dogs we use their ball of bite tug. as their reward.

If your dog will not work with a toy, here are some other treats I have seen people use.

Sweet potatoes
hard cheese (Not sure what kind of cheese you used before, but using a hard cheese might not upset the stomach as much as a processed or string cheese would)
Bacon
Sausage
Sardines
Chicken
LIVER (This is the highest value to my dogs, they get it ONLY after they successfully trial, and never any other time)

I had a dog once as well that actually worked really well with a meat bone. Kinda gross to hold onto, but if it was in your hand she was all attention. I would let her just get a lick of that every time she did something right and that seemed to satisfy her.

Here's this as well.
Leerburg | Using Treats in Your Dog Training

 

[KayWilson]

I second the salmon crack! OMG that stuff works. Aside from that I'm pretty lucky. Very few things give Tessa tummy upset and she would focus for a piece of drywall if I offered it to her as a treat - I wouldn't but she LURVES food of all kinds.

I also use Salmon pepperoni sticks Pet Treats from Alaska Salmon, Orijen freeze dried (not so awesome for tiny treats), homemade jerky, Primal dried treats, Rollover tube, Petkind Trip treats, and Sojos freeze dried treats https://www.sojos.com/products/sojos-simply-wild-salmon

 

[Rain]

I use Tuna Fudge, Zody loves it and has to be pretty stressed before he won't take it. It's very easy to make and so far his stomach has handled it well.

Super high value to him is cheese, and real meat especially chicken. Unfortunately cheese and chicken both upset his tummy if he gets to much of them so I can only use it sparingly.

In the house he works well for his kibble mixed with whatever store bought treat I have on hand. Outside the house he'll take Wellness Puppy Bites so long as the distractions aren't to great and he's not overly stressed.

 

[TheAdventureK9]

Thank you everyone, I have a lot to try with her. Though I think the first thing is going to be the salmon crack, and maybe some cooked chicken as well. I'll have to report back after next Thursday. Part of it I feel like is her being a puppy, when we are not in a super distracting environment she will take just about anything. Dino used to be so so on liking treats too until he got used to training and got better focus.
@BIteWorkHeeler - It was a slice of hard cheddar I was about to put on my sandwich that she got a hold of. I almost took her to the vet because I had been worried about dehydration with the amount of water she lost.