Home The Best Puppy Training Treats for Your Dog

The Best Puppy Training Treats for Your Dog

May 23, 2022 JOLLYES TEAM

Questions

What is Positive Reinforcement?
How to Use Treat Training Effectively
What are High-Value Dog Treats?
What are Medium-Value Treats?
What are Low-Value Treats?
How to Choose the Best Puppy Training Treats
The Best Puppy Training Treats

Bringing your new fluffy bundle of joy home is an exciting time for all the family. They’re just beginning to learn all about the crazy world they’ve entered and for dog owners, it’s important to introduce good behaviours when they’re young.

Teaching your energetic pup different commands can be tricky at first but with puppy training treats, you’ll be starting on the right paw. Finding the perfect treat can feel overwhelming with so many options to choose from, but with our handy guide you’ll be clued up in no time!

Although it’s a good idea to choose treats you know your puppy enjoys, it’s also important to offer a variety of treats to enhance your puppy training, as this can help to:

Quickly achieve positive behavioural results
Gain the puppy's focus, even amid several distractions.
Improve the management of calorie consumption.
Ensure they won't get bored of one treat.
Gradually eliminate the use of treats in future training

What is Positive Reinforcement?

Treats are a must-have for reward-based training and a perfect supplement for your growing puppy's nutrition, but is every treat useful for dog training?

According to dog specialists, the best dog training strategy is through positive reinforcement – a training method where you give your pup something they like, to encourage them to act in the way you want. These can be key commands such as understanding dog walking etiquette when they’re ready to explore their local park.

If this sounds like the right training strategy for you and your pet, then finding the best, tastiest treats is essential.

How to Use Treat Training Effectively

When training your pooch to learn different commands such as sit, stay, and paw, puppy training treats are more than just a reward. You may have heard your dog trainer mention the use of high-value against low-value training treats. This isn't referring to how much you spent on them, but instead the value attached to every treat by your dog.

You’ll need to find out how your puppy values one treat over another through trial and error!

What are High-Value Dog Treats?

High-value dog treats generally have a pungent smell, are soggy or freeze-dried, and something your puppy doesn't get too often outside training periods.

Examples include dried meat, little bits of chicken, or even peanut butter spread on a spoon. However, for the peanut butter, ensure its xylitol-free, as xylitol is extremely toxic to dogs.

What are Medium-Value Treats?

Medium-value treats are typically dry or semi-moist treats made from ingredients that are usually absent in a puppy’s diet. Pups are rewarded regularly with medium value treats during training and daily routines, but they should be reserved for exceptional behaviour! There are certain conditions where you should use medium-value treats, including:

During training in environments with wild distractions
For good training behaviour all day
As a part of a standard improvement exercise
When they maintained an existing learned command or behaviour

What are Low-Value Treats?

Low-value dog treats are incredible to work into your puppy training as they’re generally lower in calories than high and medium-value puppy treats. These are normally dry and crunchy like dog biscuits and can easily be placed in owners’ pockets for on the go training! Puppy food is a great alternative to use instead and is often used by training experts and many dog owners! Low-value treats are a must-have to gradually fade out treats in puppy training, as well as for:

Training puppies in an area with low or no distractions
Inspiring your puppy for good behaviour throughout the day

It’s recommended you avoid treats high in fat, such as sausage and bacon, to keep your puppy from developing pancreatitis or stomach upset!

How to Choose the Best Puppy Training Treats

Having a taste test session can be extremely helpful to understand what type of training treats your dog will enjoy and react to in the best way. To set up the taste test, choose a couple of treats for your little friend based on these three main pointers:

Texture: Pick a variety of treats based on their textures, such as dry, wet, semi-moist, jerky, or freeze-dried
Type of protein: Have an assortment of fish, pork, poultry, beef, and lamb. You can also include non-meat-based treats, like peanut butter
Delivery ease: When choosing treats, you should ensure you're picking those you can easily give to your puppy during training

To begin the taste test, give your dog the option to choose between the various treats. Start by putting one treat type in one hand and an alternate kind in the other hand, and close both hands to make a fist. Get your dog to sniff your two hands to identify which one they’re most interested in and give them the one they sniff, lick, or paw at the most!

Change the various treats and switch the ones you've just attempted with other options to determine your dog's high, medium, and low-value treats.

The Best Puppy Training Treats

Once you’ve found their ideal type of value treat, it’s time to explore the variety of training treats for puppies. It can feel overwhelming trying to find the best ones that cover the nutritional value they need more, but fear not, we’ve put together the best training treats to help with their training.

The Wagg Puppy/Junior Treats, Chicken & Yoghurt biscuits are loved by many small friends. Rich in vitamins and minerals, including calcium to strengthen their teeth and bones at a young age, they’re the ideal treat for them to perfect the fan favourite paw command! For the ultimate real meat, training treat, Nature's Menu Real Meaty Treats or Pedigree Puppy DentaTubos are must-haves! Made with natural proteins such as chicken and pork, your pup will be excelling in their training in no time!

If you find they’re more motivated with a dog toy, the Nylabone Chicken Puppy Dinosaur Chew is an ideal choice. The chicken flavour chew will not only help with their training, but they’re also great for killing boredom and maintaining the dental health – an overall win for both your pooch and you!

Training a new doggy can be exciting and nerve-wracking all at once, but with a few treat incentives they will perfect their training in no time! Find everything else you need for your new canine in our dog and puppy range.