Recommendations for healthy treats - Page 1

I feed my dog a raw diet, but need some ideas for obedience treats Thanks!

Lightly baked chicken hearts, healthy and the right size too.

Bake a liver cake ( raw liver cut up fine & mixed with a little flour and egg and some garlic or garlic salt ) on a flat tray in a slow oven, to dry it right out, cut up into tiny cubes, fill your treats pouch; dogs can rarely resist it.

I used to just bake the liver and cut it up. almost all S\L exhibitors did this at the time. never met a dog that didn't love it.

never made a cake, but that sounds interesting also. liver was pretty cheap, haven't bought any in a while though.

Headmutter- is the flour needed? I supposed to bind it. I’m just trying to do it without refined ingredients. Thanks

dogs by nature is scavenger. if dog is healthy and not spoiled by deli food, it should be glad to any treat.
simplest one would be any cheap hot dog wieners cut into small pieces.

Freeze-dried chicken or beef treats. No other ingredients and no additives, preservatives, etc. Purchase or make your own. The pieces can be broken so they're smaller if desired :-) I like PureBites, but there are other brands.

Any lump of raw muscle meat or organ, sliced and diced small (easier if its semi frozen).

Spread on a plate with absorbent paper and place inside a refrigerator on the top shelf and let it dry out, turn the meat over every day, it will take about a week.

Paper plates are best because they'll absorb the juices or use some absorbent paper but change often.

SmokinJoe, as Rik posted you can just cut it up then dry the liver out by baking until it is good and hard; I often did this, dogs love that too and it is crunchy ! But I did find that making it small enough for training purposes and speed, it was too small to crunch; they would just swallow it, sharp edged as it might be. The liver cake idea comes from one of my trainer mates, when I was going to his training club years ago; yes the small amounts of flour and egg bind it together for easier use and handlng, after a somewhat softer bake. Some people don't like using garlic, either, but the dogs seem to love the smell and flavour, and if you don't put a lot in (no need !), you are unlikely to upset their digestion. This was effective because it seemed to be read by the dogs as higher value, and you always want to have something up your sleeve they can't resist.

Dogs WERE scavengers, less then 10% of them would make it on their own if the world stopped existing in its current form and dogs were left on their own and it has nothing to do with being spoiled, it has to do with how they are created today.
I simply use his dog food. His dinner meal becomes his training treats too. Its called existential training where the dog is rewarded with his own food during training. I own a very food motivated puppy and he is very happy to learn new commands with his food.