Wohoo! Let’s start preparing for the start of our plans on Monday – here’s your first task:

Make a Training Mix

Rather than introduce lots and lots of treats for our training program, we will use our dogs’ regular, everyday food in our games.
But, no more getting their food for free – this program will encourage your dog to work for each piece!

No matter what you feed your dog you will be able to use this food, rather than in a food bowl, for many of our games over the entire program.

Here’s our video showing you how to use your dog’s regular food for training games: 

Dry food e.g. kibble:

• measure out your dog’s daily rations and place in a lunchbox or bag
  (remove about 5-10% if you go with the higher-cal option below)

Option 1 (low-cal)

• add a chunk of your dog’s favourite such as tripe (dried or frozen), chicken, ham, hotdog or cheese
  (your dog won’t get to eat this treat)

Option 2 (higher-cal)

• add a little of your dog’s favourite treats, chopped up small (third fingernail size)

• seal the bag or lunchbox and mix the contents
• leave in the fridge overnight
• next day, everything will smell yummier!

Wet food e.g. raw, tinned:

• measure out your dog’s meal as normal into a container

 

• if you feed whole organs, cut muscle meat into small pieces or mince the meat

 

• stuff food into a Kong toy or similar – this can be hidden for sniffing games or offered to the dog to lick a bit as a reward during training games

 

• administer wet food on a wooden spoon as a training reward

 

• freeze spoonfuls of wet food in an icecube tray – little frozen nuggets of wet food are great for sniffing games and energising games

If you are worried about handling wet or raw food during training exercises, keep a pair of surgical gloves with your training-mix so that you are always ready to reward desired behaviour.