The dog treats that dog walkers use and recommend

Recently another dog walker sent me a question about what dog treats they should use.

I explained to them that the ‘number one’  training dog treat in the world is beef liver, and it is also one of the cheapest.   But more importantly, it is very nutritious a 100% offal product.  The reason it’s used for dog training is that it usually comes in flat sheets that are easy to break off into very small pieces so that you don’t have to use a lot to train a dog, and as a dog walker you can feed a whole pack very easily.

The other bonus besides its high health value (and an invariably part of a raw dog diet) is that it is a very odorous treat. Dogs primary sense is their sense of smell, so having a treat that has such a strong and long lasting smell is an ideal reward for a dog in training.

You will find it here under the beef bulk treats page.

I also told them that I hand out the small pre-packed treats to clients for holidays and Christmas as a thank you – but dog owners often go for the large Kg packs and ration it out.  As long as you treat a dog treat as good as you would a human treat – temperature and light controlled in the pantry, it will last a long time.

People can use any treat they like for training, but usually its down to the cost of the treat and how easy it is to break up for the dog.  People usually like the treat to be very fast eating, so the dog doesn’t get distracted for too long.

However, there is a counter argument for solo training of dogs.

Dogs are believed to have about a 2-3 second delay in working things out, so giving them a beef liver treat that takes a fraction of second to chew or swallow often means the dog chomps it and runs away (when recall training) before it has had time to think about why it was rewarded.

In this case, it might actually be better to give a treat that is smelly, meat based (for nutrition) and very rewarding that takes a little longer to eat.

Hence, other treats suitable for dogs on the go are the meatball range. They are great because they are already around the right size (next step up on the beef liver range).  We have small and bulk packs of beef liver balls, Chicken meatballs, and roo meatballs.  They take a few extra chomps for a dog to eat,  which you may actually like as a dog walker to keep them focused on you, and you get a lot of balls in the bulk packs.

The best thing about the meatball range is that they are 45% meat (in 2021) instead of the 20-30% of meat you get in most dog food or less in other treats.  That way your clients will know you really care for their dogs!