Treats in training 4 agility

I use either cheap sausages - cooked and cut up, primula (if doing sits, stays, downs, recalls etc), and homemade livercake. Occassionally I'll use kibble or cubed cheese.
 
If the dog is very food orientated, not fussy, I would use the dog's normal kibble to start off with, removed from the daily allowance, so he is working for his dinner, also if I then hit problems later I can use something of higher value.

Plus I'm too impatient to cook or bake stuff or remember to buy stuff, I can just about feed myself properly!!
 
I use cooked chicken breast, simple and tasty!
However, what I would say is that if your dog is toy orientated then focus on that rather than treats because toys are very very useful to get them driving forward etc, and you can use them when you are at shows (eg going NFC or on your lead at the end of a round) wheras you're not allowed treats anywhere near!
 
My dog is very ball driven so I do use that but he's also a bin so I use food for the lower-energy/precision stuff - at the event I attended at the weekend a lot of handlers encouraged or allowed their dogs to bite, hold or play with their leads when they were waiting to go in or when listening to the judge at the end....think that would end up costing me a lot of money in leads :p
 
Agility bods seem to like those fleecy plaited leads for that reason, they're fairly cheap. :)

You can combine food and toys, I have a mesh food tuggy bag and various velcro food pouches that can be lobbed, as above these are often preferable to giving treats from the hand in agility training because you're usually wanting the dog to drive on away from you rather than keep coming back in to your hand.

I swap and change between high value chicken/liver cake/cheese and kibble, keeps her on her toes. I've found a noticeable difference between an all kibble training session and on in which every fourth or fifth piece is a hunk of chicken. :p
 
I use cooked chicken/sausage for agility. Now we are progressing more i just use it to help guide the weaves but everything else is voice and hand commands then reward at the end.
 
blackcob said:
I have a mesh food tuggy bag and various velcro food pouches that can be lobbed, as above these are often preferable to giving treats from the hand in agility training because you're usually wanting the dog to drive on away from you rather than keep coming back in to your hand.
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Blackcob can you give a link so i can see what you mean? because i'm having the problem that my dogs are like velcro and i can't get them to move away from me when i have food!
 
Love the first link! Shame its in the US! - I will definitely look into getting one!
I bought a rabbit fur tuff-e-nuff tug for one of mine who is very energetic and loves rabbits - but would never ever engage when i tried to play or entice him with it! One night I left it out by accident and it was shredded by the morning - and is now entirely bald!
 
I always used treats in agility but as a reward not a lure, so it didn't make any difference if the behaviour was near me or send away, i.e. the dog knew that it would get rewarded for doing the behaviour, not lured into the behaviour. I tend to have many different treats with me, some low and some high value, and I also give 'jackpots' of the high value treats when training a new behaviour.
 
Booboos said:
I always used treats in agility but as a reward not a lure, so it didn't make any difference if the behaviour was near me or send away, i.e. the dog knew that it would get rewarded for doing the behaviour, not lured into the behaviour. I tend to have many different treats with me, some low and some high value, and I also give 'jackpots' of the high value treats when training a new behaviour.
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This - and cat biscuits are useful, inexpensive, dry and easy to keep in a pouch or pocket (I used a bum bag) and smell and taste quite strong. Small as well, so the dogs are always keen for more.
 
I also use cat biscuits and if training something new use fish for dogs treats, they will literally do anything for them. I break them down as quite expensive.
 
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