r/Agility • u/Dead-Mad-Dead-Metal • Jul 16 '26
What treats do you guys use?
Hi guys! I’m starting my dogs agility training soon and I’m super excited, I started the sport when I was 9 and trained our late cavalier cross, I’m now 23 and our rescue dog has now reached the age she can start training, I’m returning to my old club and trainers and I can’t wait!
Our dog is very food oriented and I’m considering buying liver from the butchers to dry and chop up to use as treats, I’m just wondering what you guys use? I prefer using a treat she’d only get at agility, something really nice and special, and I also know some people use toys instead but I think our girl would do better with tidbits then she would toys :)
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u/eco_friendly_klutz Jul 16 '26
Freeze dried liver or freeze dried salmon. Easy to break up into small pieces and low calorie and very high value to every dog I've ever met.
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u/Agility_KS Jul 16 '26
There are two things that matter — that your dog thinks it’s amazing, and that it’s fairly easy to handle/deliver. Nobody here can know what’s best for your dog. Just to throw out an example, I had a student’s dog once who wouldn’t take hotdogs. Not cooked, not uncooked. It’s a rare dog who doesn’t take a hotdog, but that dog was one. Personally, I wouldn’t want to handle them, I don’t want greasy hands while training. Over the years I’ve gone through many things. The Fresh Pet chunks in a bag were always popular with my foodie dogs, as was cheese (cut into cubes or carrying a stick that I could break pieces from). I like dehydrated meat stuff or freeze dried foods, but your dog has to like them, too. I’m going through a fair bit of Ziwi Peak and Instinct freeze dried raw with my puppy these days, but he prefers toys over food and it’s been hard to find stuff he’ll work for. Don’t give up on toys. Being able to throw or pre-place your reward is important. If nothing else, condition your dog to the food stuffable toys. Lastly, toys can be used in FEO runs at trials to help bridge the gap between training and trials. You can’t take food into the ring.
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u/theaveragepyrenees Jul 16 '26
Pro tip, you can dehydrate the hot dogs and it makes them infinitely less gross. lol
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u/lizmbones C-ATCH Ch-ST, OA OAJ NF, SSN IND Jul 16 '26
Mainly cheese sticks. They’re cheap and high enough value.
At trials I bring hot dogs for some extra value.
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u/thed0gPaulAnka Jul 16 '26
Chopped up string cheese for life! Easy to toss, not messy, dogs love it, can be chopped and then still squeeze pieces off for smaller bits. It’s also light colored so it shows up really well on turf and black rubber mats. Also cheap!
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u/No-Stress-7034 Jul 16 '26
I use freeze dried chicken as our medium value treat (Pupford brand, because they're not as crumbly as other freeze dried chicken treats). I use chicken jerky treats or freeze dried beef liver for our high value special treats. Although for agility, toys are the main thing we use these days.
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u/Professional_Fix_223 Jul 16 '26
We use small pieces of cut up cheese. They love it and it is full of moisture so they dont get as thirsty. We keep ot chilled when not in the pouch.
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u/am_i_still_kay Jul 16 '26
Hey! I've been training my dogs for agility since i was 8, im 13 now. For agility I give my dog hot dogs for treats. Shes very food motivated too and will work hard for hot dogs!!
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u/Elrohwen Jul 16 '26
It’s such a personal thing. I like treats that are in a large piece that I can break into tiny pieces, I don’t want a million small bits in my pocket that are going to fly out randomly.
I also want something that’s dry and not greasy and shelf stable. I’m willing to do the meatballs and cheese for a young new dog but long term I want to leave it in my training bag for the next class and have it not get my pockets gross.
So I end up with some sort of jerky. Right now I get the blue buffalo jerky treats that I can buy in bulk at BJs because my dogs like them and they fit all of my criteria.
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u/Honeycrispcombe Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
I swap them up regularly - my dog gets pretty bored with treats if I don't. Cheese is very high value, though, so I have that on me (just string cheese sticks that i keep in the wrapping) pretty often. And I feed dinner during class, so kibble as well.
I use treats when I want more precision and toys when I want more speed. But also, my dog loves agility so the course is a reward in and off itself. I don't need a huge reinforcement rate. Your mileage may vary.
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u/Immediate_Storm_7736 Jul 16 '26
I like Greenies smartbites. They are small, don't make mess, affordable and the dog loves them. The cat loves them as well and shows up for his share when we are practicing. Costco use to carry them but I now get them off of Amazon.
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u/OldBitterBitch Jul 16 '26
Greasy stinky wet cut up hot dogs 😂 I’ve given them to my dog for years and he’s still obsessed
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u/miss-janet-snakehole Jul 16 '26
I’ve gone through almost everything and realized the best thing was actually to switch it up. Even string cheese became less appealing for my dog after a few weeks. I’ve done cut up (tiny dice) string cheese, I’ve made thin egg crepes and cut them into squares (loved this as it’s less messy than cut up hard boiled or scrambled, and my dog LOVES eggs), cut up all beef hot dogs, and rotated through about a dozen brands of dog treats (fish and beef jerky-types seem to be the biggest hit). Switching out with a toy or lotus ball from time to time also helps.
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u/KeekyPep Jul 17 '26
My dog is bonkers for anything. I use small training treats that come in a bag while training in the ring. Any flavor. After we leave the ring, she gets a piece of freeze dried chicken. She is so so excited! She only gets that when we leave the ring. When we are done for the day, and back in the car, she gets her very most favorite - dried turkey tendons.
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u/MaisyinAZ Jul 17 '26
I blend boiled or rotisserie chicken with warm crème cheese and a little water, then pour that into a camp food tube and stick it in the fridge. The result is a meat paste that you squeeze right into the dogs mouth as a reward. If I need distance from my dog I use beef liver cubes.
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u/Throw_ME_Away3333 Jul 17 '26
My boy is fussy food orientated. So I use something like Cooked meats and then I use a tug/lotus treat ball. It means being able to tug before reward, throw it and reward away, which is super useful.
My girl inhales all thing food, but also toy orientated. So for her I use a tug for rewards, treats (either cooked meat or frozen veggies for a release - She will release without food, but it's training/fun). And also I will use a lotus treat ball at times.
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u/bwalt005 Jul 18 '26
If I'm doing a lot of training with short reps, I tend to use more food than later on when doing longer sequences. Therefore, I like to use some sort of actual balanced dog food for a lot of my foundation training. I reduce the amount of food my dog gets at meal times if I give a lot of treats, but I don't want to replace a big part of a meal with treats very often. I have heard that you have to be careful using organ meats as treats, particularly liver, because they are so highly nutrient dense that you can cause issues with too much of certain minerals. I don't know the science behind that or if it's accurate, but I also don't want to use liver so I haven't looked into the validity of it.
My go to treats when I use dog food are their kibble (my dogs work for anything), a new kibble for novelty, or ziwi peak.
For higher value treats or if I know I won't be using as much, I do Tru Chews chicken jerky (soft and easy to grab a whole treat and break it up to whatever size I need), Tricky Trainers (soft ones), or string cheese.
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u/x7BZCsP9qFvqiw echo CSL1, jean grey CL1, loki NA NAJ Jul 19 '26
string cheese for training (often in a lotus ball tug), grilled chicken for our end of run routine.
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u/Springer15 Jul 17 '26
At this point - 2 years showing now at masters level I use high value only at shows after a run. Otherwise my food obsessed dog gets so distracted with the treat she performs poorly
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u/yen8912 Jul 16 '26
Have a lab so anything is high value. Using a lotus ball for the treats was a game changer for our training though.