Cheap and Easy Training Treats For Your Dog

IF you are looking for a cheap and easy training treat for your dog, you have come to the right place. I give a treat bag and a container of treats to all of our sitters so they can have treats for the dogs we take care for. We have found Red Barn rolled food, cut up into 1/4 inch cubes work great. 

What Makes A Great Training Treat

When you are training your dog it is best to use lots of small medium to high value treats. In addition treats should be

  • Healthy for your dog – even if they eat a lot!
  • Should be able to replace a meal, if you have a long training session
  • They should be very simple to make
  • Should not take very long to make
  • Keep your dog’s interest though an entire training session
  • Have limited ingredients that are well sourced
  • Be Easy to make and Convient 

I like using a treat that is really just a high-end dog food. This way I can feel good about replacing an entire meal with a training session.

Cutting Up The Treats

Cut the treats into little pea sized portions. The key to a great clicker training treat is to keep the size of the treat small while still having a flavor that is “High Value” to your dog. This will get your dog to work hard for each little nibble. 

You can cut up a whole roll, put them in a snapware container, and keep it in the refrigerator. 

Be Sure To Refigerate

The rolled food must be refrigerated once you open the package. 

I found that refrigerating the treats is a worthwhile trade-off for the good price and healthiness of these treats.

After I thought about it a bit, its a bit weird that almost all pet food is not refrigerated!

Some Treats To Avoid

When I first started learning about training, I bought some treats such as Zukes and Pet Botanics that were marketed as “Training Treats”. 

I found that these brands, and a lot of the shelf stable treats were not so good. They are often very expensive, dogs are not very interested in them (especially if they are a couple weeks old), and they contain lots of extra ingredients that can make dogs sick.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *