Acceptible Treats When On A Raw Diet

[XTRAWLD]

So here is my issue. Currently feeding kibble. Will be feeding raw soon, like in a week or two soon.

 

I'm currently going through obedience training with Ryder.

 

In our first class, I used kibble as the food treat. He's very food motivated, however the environment was just too much for him and he didn't give a rat's about me or the reward. That didn't go over as well as expected, so I will have to switch to treats that are yummy gooey and well - bad so to speak. LOL

 

The problem I'm going to have - our class had "other" people giving treats to the dogs. In case you missed my thread regarding his Obedience Training, there was a part of the class involving socialization. The dogs were tethered to the wall and the humans went around the room and stopped in front of each dog to ask for a sit. If they sat they got a reward - a treat. Therefore, other people were feeding treats to my dog, and I was feeding kibble to theirs. While I don't really like the thought of that in general (I really do try to control what they eat), if this kind of training continues, and I'm feeding raw, what do I do?

 

Can I still give regular treats as a reward for training? I'd more than likely just get some dehydrated treats as close to raw as possible for the training purposes, but he will likely be ingesting other kinds of treats from other people.

 

Or, should I just buy the best treats possible from the local store (we buy the grain free, organic good for you blah blah stuff) and not worry about how those treats will be in his belly and if they will conflict with the raw diet? I'm leaning towards this but just wondering since I'm new to the whole raw diet thing.

[seeh2o]

I'm new to raw, too, I've wondered this myself. I try to give my two dehydrated meats as treats, but I don't wig out if someone gives them a dog biscuit or cookie. For training purposes you might try dehydrated liver. I found it recently at Trader Joe's and my dogs go nuts over it, though they are very food motivated and love anything they can swallow. The dehydrated liver comes in sort of odd squares - it looks like they made a liver cream , dehydrated it and cut it into squares as best they could. I should think that would work really well for training since the pieces are small and you can break them up into smaller pieces if needed.

 

Good luck with going raw! So far so good here, mine are still alive and even more frisky after about 5 weeks of it!

[Guest mcsheltie]

As long as food allergies aren't the reason you are going raw, feed him any kind of treat you/he likes. Especially in a class, go with whatever works.

 

If you need/want to limit what he eats, you could bring a bowl and put his treats near him for people to use in the go-around exercises.

[Guest greyhound9797]

I agree with McSheltie. Piper still got an occasional "processed" treat just because I liked to mix it up with crunchy treats (her usual treats were Dogswell dehydrated chicken or duck strips). Nothing physical "interferes" with feeding raw, just the logical interferences of feeding something that is processed. Many people use tiny bits of hot dogs, cheese or dehydrated liver. With the liver you need to be careful that he doesn't eat too much as an overabundance can cause tummy upset. As with any treat, it should be fed in moderation, even during training. I'm sure you already know to feed less on training days when Dante will be getting more treats.

 

Another option is to tell the trainer that you don't want anything other than treats you supply fed to Dante. It's your dog, your money being spent on training so you should be able to speak your mind and dictate what your dog eats.

 

I'm so happy for you (and Dante!) that you'll be switching to raw soon. You will see so many positive changes in him in a short period of time and he will LOVE meal time. Let us know how everything goes!

 

Sandra in FL

[XTRAWLD]

Thanks. I did think the same thing, bring a bowl and leave it out of Ryder's reach for other people to use. However, one gentleman beside me who was the last visitor in the exercise was able to ALMOST coax Ryder into a sit. He had something incredibly yummy in his hand, and Ryder is food motivated. So I guess it goes both ways. He might be sick of whatever treats I want to give him, but wants to please so he can get a treat of a different sort. But yes, I should be able to control what he ingests - however I guess a little of something else isn't the end of the world LOL.

 

To answer mcsheltie - Ryder is not allergic to anything - but Kasey is, which is why we are attempting raw.

[Guest KennelMom]

I'm using a mixture of dehydrated liver, dehydrated chicken and "regular" treats...all are cut down to be roughly pea sized. It's a small portion of their overall calories and my dogs don't have GI issues. Sometimes I even use a little grain-free kibble.

[Batmom]

You can give anything you want. For dogs without sensitivities, slice a hotdog ultra-thin and put the slivers in a little baggie in your pocket. You'll have the entire class following you around.

[XTRAWLD]

Ooo, the cut up hot dog trick. Perfect! Thanks! I'll run out and get some and chop 'em up. Is there a maximum amount I should have? Is 1 whole wiener throughout the hour too much? (I'm talkin' about the cheapie no name small ones.)

[Remolacha]

I mostly use dehydrated liver/chicken/salmon, or home made treats where I can control the ingredients (Fletcher does have IBD).

 

However, I will admit to giving them bacon flavored Pup-a-Ronis He can eat them, all the dogs love them, it's just a treat so why not!

[Guest june]

I buy chicken livers, boil them, cool them, cut them up and put them in the freezer (frost free) and let the freezer "freeze dry" them. I use them as training treats and my dogs LOVE them. A bit of work but much cheaper than buying freeze-dried liver. You could do that with beef liver too, but I like chicken livers too!

june

[Batmom]

No, one hot dog is fine for an hour. If you slice it really thin, you probably won't use the whole thing unless people borrow from you .

[XTRAWLD]

No, one hot dog is fine for an hour. If you slice it really thin, you probably won't use the whole thing unless people borrow from you .

 

Or unless I get hungry too LOL

[Guest KennelMom]

I buy chicken livers, boil them, cool them, cut them up and put them in the freezer (frost free) and let the freezer "freeze dry" them. I use them as training treats and my dogs LOVE them. A bit of work but much cheaper than buying freeze-dried liver. You could do that with beef liver too, but I like chicken livers too!

june

 

how long do you boil them for? when they come out of the freezer and "defrost" do they get moist or messy?

[Guest Swifthounds]

As long as food allergies aren't the reason you are going raw, feed him any kind of treat you/he likes. Especially in a class, go with whatever works.

 

If you need/want to limit what he eats, you could bring a bowl and put his treats near him for people to use in the go-around exercises.

 

This.

 

None of my hounds have specific food allergies, though Blitzen will be gassy after a biscuit type treat (though not Donna Weeks' liver treats, which do have grains in them as well). My girls basically refuse the biscuit types (sometimes they'll take it from a nice greyhound person at an event and drop it on the ground ). Trojan would eat anything - he eats his supplement pills. Unless it causes your hound gastric or other distress, whatever is sufficiently tasty to be motivating to him is fine in treat amounts.

 

I've used hot dogs in the past. Not bad in small amounts, but not so much something anyone really should deliberately eat in quantity. If they work, you might go with the kosher beef franks. They have less "other" stuff and they have more of a beef smell, which my dogs liked. I don't use them because they weren't wildly more popular than some of the treats that are better for them, but they aren't the toxin some folks make them out to be.

 

Some of the things Ive used:

- freeze dried beef or chicken liver

- Donna's liver treats

- Zukes Mini Naturals - very popular here - come in a variety of flavors and are wheat-free, corn-free and soy-free

- dried chicken, duck, fish

- dehydrated liver or meat (you can use a dehydrator, or you can use an oven on low heat)

[Guest annieshounds]

We feed raw and I use homemade liver treats for training

 

Get some defrosted chicken livers and whizz them in the blender then mix with porridge oats/oatmeal until you get a thick consistency (doesn't drop off a spoon) add garlic if you like, mix well and spread on a shallow baking tin to about half inch then bake in oven for approx 20mins. Cut while still slightly warm. Make in bulk and it freezes brilliantly

[Guest manawatugal]

I like that last recipe from annieshounds and I was going to say if dried liver is expensive? maybe make your own? I make my own beef jerky (for human consumption) so I don't suppose doing the liver thing would be much different. Maybe slice sheep/beef liver up thinly if possible then lay on trays and in a low oven with door open dry for 4 hours or so

[RobinM]

We give dehydrated chicken and duck strips to everyone.

[Guest missecho]

Molly was trained at the track NEVER to take treats from strangers--what a good thing! I think it is irresponsible of a dog trainer to encourage dogs to take food from other than their owners. I would suggest to the trainer that this practice be stopped. Here's an example of why, from a recent email from Arizona Greyhound Rescue:

 

 

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! For those of you who take your greys to the dog park, beware of strangers passing out treats to your dog(s). We've had a report from the "Rescue A Golden of AZ" group that several dogs have gotten extremely ill from treats given to them by a "nice-looking man" who quickly gives the dog a treat without asking permission.

[XTRAWLD]

missecho - Regarding the "treats from strangers". Years ago we had issues in Toronto with someone spiking hotdogs full of antifreeze and leaving them in parks for dogs to eat. The dogs were offleash in an area (I cannot recall if it was a dog park or just a grassy area where dogs technically shouldn't have been let loose anyway). The loser doing this obviously wasn't a dog person. Some people are crazy, the guy in the park you mention could have been a little loopy and loopy people are everywhere. To train a dog to refuse to eat ANYTHING offered by ANYONE would be quite the feat. I was however able to train my Pomeranian to only accept treats given by the right hand and not the left. But try to get a dog away from a piece of food left on the ground. The guy could have just left food on the ground a little here and a little over there and then what can you do? It would be gobbled down before you could get to the dog, I guarantee.

 

The reason why the trainer did this exercise is for the dogs to be able to sit for anyone. They shouldn't jump up to greet someone, they shouldn't be standing there wagging and getting in your way. If anyone approaches a dog, the dog should sit, and this is done via treats because it is the easiest form of training. Eventually we will get the same response when asking for other "tricks" using clickers, or even toys and attention/praise as rewards.

 

I would like to hope that by going to a training facility, that everyone AT the facility is there for the greater common good of having a relationship with their animals, and that they wouldn't be intentionally feeding harmful food to other dogs. Likely, people there are animal/dog people. I am of course hesitant about my boy getting "sick" from whatever else people are feeding (and how very little they are giving him I might add), but what he gains out of the socialization, outweighs a little bit of farting or a bit of D.

 

I used hotdogs on Thursday and it worked incredibly well. He wasn't feeling fantastic the next morning though (I ended up going through almost 2 weiners) because we were encouraging something completely new, and he needed a lot of positive reinforcement. I think I'll be breaking up some dehydrated livers/lung that I got a hold of for next week to use instead.

 

Thank you all for your suggestions.

[Guest mcsheltie]

Had the same thing happen in clicker class. Two wieners can do them in. I started to bring an assortment. One thing you can feed a lot of- nuke or bake a chicken breast with some garlic powder on it. Refrigerate it and once cold, cut it into tiny treats.

 

My dogs go nuts for Pup-Peroni. You can cut those up really small.

[Guest BlackandBrindle]

My guys could eat any treats when on raw and it didn't upset their stomachs.

 

 

Might I suggest Zuke's minis. They are great training treats, soft and stinky and grain free I believe. I know they are wheat, corn, and soy free.

[Guest RaznNik]

Hi Xtrawld, I feed raw and only use dehydrated treats from Quietstorm - close to pick up. With the dehydrated liver, you can really break into very small pieces.

[Guest BigTurtle]

I would try any wheat, corn or soy free treats such as dried meat, chicken or fish.

Dried liver is always a hit too!

[kjw]

You can definitely use the treats you bought with this last order, likely the lung would be safest if you're feeding a lot of it and he likes it - as I recall he did lol. If he likes the liver better, then use that, but you can effect the stool with liver if you give too much. You want to stick to about 5% of the diet overall with liver - and if it's dehydrated, it's triple what it would be raw (1 oz. raw dehydrated= 3 oz raw. hydrated), so lung would be better if he loves it. Just break it up into tiny pieces, they are just as happy with a tiny piece as they are with a big piece.

 

I remember seeing a video a while back of a little **zhu, her Mom was giving her little bits of treats and she was in paroxysms of joy every time she got one. Then she got an air treat, and she still had a paroxysm of joy

Edited April 4, 2011 by kjw

[Guest Cris_M]

It's a treat. It's not the main part of the diet. Think of it as a bowl of ice cream every once in a while. If your dog's not allergic, give him anything he wants.

 

Since you are using treats in training, I'd use something small and dry. I am not good with managing gooey, wet things. Duncan likes Whiskas Temptations (cat treats). They are about the size of a communion wafer, have 2 calories each, and cost a bit over $2. You can carry dozens of them in a small pouch, and you don't have to worry about your pup filling up on them. Might be worth a try.