My Treat Pouch
My Treat Pouch
You know that advert slogan ‘don’t leave home without it?’ That’s how I feel about my treat pouch and I think I can say my partner has come to feel this way too:-) For those of you pet parents who have an easy going dog who loves everything in the world, you may not have this kind of sentiment towards your treat pouch but if you have a fearful, reactive dog, you may have different feels so that’s where my frame of reference comes from.
Here are some of my requirements for a treat pouch:
Easy access, ie I can shove my hand in and quickly pull out a treat without a bunch of fumbling; this may be more essential if you have a fearful or reactive dog and you need to on top of your game to help keep the peace
A few different pockets so I can keep things separate and accessible from poop bags, a bag for treats, maybe a stick of mozzarella, and a handy travel tube which I use to dispense cream cheese
Holds enough volume of treats so gosh forbid I don’t run out and be stuck somewhere with no “ammunition”
Use a waist belt so I can easily shift the pouch to behind my back so doggie eyes won’t be staring at it; a zipper helps keeps XX out of it
Washable
Now, what do I have in my treat pouch? I like to have a range of reinforcements ie low to high value options in order to deal with the situation I find myself in. For example, regular treats that can be used on-going training is the foundation. Then I like to have something that I can use for Find-Its that possibly rolls and or is a color contrast so it can capture See Kao’s attention when I need her to move along. Lastly, I keep a couple of high value treats for certain training or to help us when we need to get out of dodge; one of these high value treats is the travel tube that I mentioned.
Have you ever done a preference test with your dog? You might be surprised what your dog enjoys so I encourage you to try out some different options. For example, we don’t feed kibble so it turns out that Boon LOVES kibble. Some dogs like fruit, veggies, popcorn, crunchy treats or chewy treats. You can set out different options and see which one your dog goes for first; you might want to repeat this process a few times to see if you get consistent results.
Does your dog ignore what is a high value treat in a particular situation? Dogs often stop eating if they are over threshold ie stressed or fearful about a trigger. More on this topic later.
Cheers, Tracy
