Today I want to talk about one of my most favorite things in the world. TREATS.
One of the principles of clicker-training is to give lots of clicks fast and furiously. Which means the treats also come fast and furious, as every click means a treat!
The question is what is the best, most convenient treat to use. Regular dog kibble, besides being boring, dry and hard to swallow quickly (need to be ready for the next treat!), is way too big. It doesn't take long to click through an entire meal.
Linda tried experimenting with lots of different things and here are my comments on her attempts:
- Dog kibble, as I said, boring, hard, too big
- Pieces of yellow cheese: easy to cut small, but then they stick to each other and it takes her an age to peel off the piece and give it to me
- A homemade recipe of liver, flour, eggs, peanut butter, and more: Tasty a good potential, but too crumbly in the final judgement. Maybe more experimenting will turn up a decent recipe
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| The liver paste, before and after baking |
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| Cutting the baked product into little treats |
- Roast chicken: nice, but not enough, and the family eats it up
- Cat kibble: nice teeny little bits, but a bit hard and takes time to chew, or else I swallow and sometimes choke
- And the winner is....
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| Cutting up a hot dog. Some of the pieces on the left are actually a bit large, and she later got busy with the knife on them some more. |
That's a lot of training for one hot dog too! Some hot dog brands are very moist, so she spreads them on a pan and puts them into a low oven to dry out a bit (not into leather, mind you!) Then they are stored in the freezer, and handfuls get transferred into the treat cup as needed. Then she throws in a small handful of cat kibble. As it sits with the hot dogs, it picks up some moisture, so there is a bit of a mix and the treats are not boring. Sometimes she adds in little pieces of smelly cheese, especially cheese that is sitting in a sandwich in a backpack for a day (her daughter sometimes doesn't eat her lunch!)
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| The best treat mix! Hot dogs, cat kibble, and old cheese. The cheese is nice and smelly. Yum! |
So there you have it. As you can see, I can eat lots and lots of those bits without ruining my figure.
And now it is time for another short clicker-training session, so I will sign off until tomorrow.
Shabat shalom, and happy Hanukah,
Pepper
Hey Pepper tell your Mom that Liver is wonderful. Take the Liver slices and put them on a bake sheet Bake real slow in a 200 degree oven till there is no more moisture. Turn them a couple of times to really dry out then slice it up real small. (I try to get her to make the bit bigger but she says NO) these are great treats. And I will dance all day to get some.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the idea, Heddy. I will tell her to go buy some liver. It will make a nice change from hotdogs and cat kibble.
ReplyDeleteYou are a cute looking dog. I have never met a border terrier before. I will catch up on some of your posts. What's new lately?
Pepper