Soft, moist training treats made with real chicken. Under 3 calories per treat, perfect for training sessions.
Under 3 calories each
Real chicken first ingredient
Soft texture
No corn, wheat, or soy
Small size
Can crumble in pocket
Strong smell
Quality: 9/10 · Value: 9/10 · Effectiveness: 9/10 · Ingredients: 8/10
These are our own scores for the things that can be judged from the specification, the materials and how the product is built. They are not Amazon's customer rating.
Training works on repetition, and repetition means a lot of treats. A recall session done properly might involve thirty or forty rewards in fifteen minutes.
At three calories a treat, forty rewards is around 120 kcal — a manageable share of a medium dog's day. At twenty calories a treat, the same session is 800 kcal, which for many dogs is most of a day's food.
That arithmetic is the entire argument for a dedicated training treat, and it is why the calorie figure matters more than the ingredient list for this particular product category.
The rule of thumb: keep treats, chews and training rewards under about ten per cent of daily calories, and subtract them from the day's food rather than adding them on top. A dog that trains a lot should have its meals reduced accordingly.
A good training treat is:
Small. Pea-sized or smaller for most dogs. You can always break a treat down; you cannot make it smaller once the dog has swallowed it whole.
Soft. A dog that has to stop and crunch loses the thread of the session. Soft treats are swallowed in a second and the dog is ready for the next repetition.
Smelly. Aroma is most of what makes a treat valuable to a dog.
Non-crumbly. A treat that shatters leaves the dog hoovering the floor instead of watching you.
Hard biscuit treats fail on the second and fourth points, which is why they are poor training rewards however good the ingredients.
Not all rewards should be equal, and this is the thing most owners never do.
Low value — the dog's own kibble. Fine for easy repetitions in a quiet room.
Medium value — a commercial soft training treat. For known behaviours in mildly distracting places.
High value — something the dog rarely gets: cooked chicken, cheese, hot dog, liver. Reserved for recall around other dogs, for vet visits, for fireworks, and for anything genuinely difficult.
Using your best reward for a sit in the kitchen leaves you nothing for the moment the dog is about to chase a squirrel. Save it.
A reward delivered more than a second or two after the behaviour is teaching the dog something other than what you intended.
Mark first, then reward. A clicker or a consistent word ("yes") marks the exact instant, which buys you time to get the treat out.
Reward the position you want, not the dog coming back to you for it. A dog rewarded at your side learns to be at your side; a dog rewarded after it runs to you learns to run to you.
Vary the schedule once a behaviour is known. Rewarding every single time forever makes a behaviour fragile; intermittent reinforcement makes it durable.
The goal is not a dog that only works for food. It is a dog for whom the behaviour is automatic.
Move gradually from every repetition, to most, to occasional and unpredictable. Add real-life rewards — a door opened, a lead clipped on, a ball thrown, permission to go and sniff — which are often more valuable than food in the moment.
Keep occasional food rewards forever. A behaviour that is never reinforced eventually decays.
If you use kitchen food as high-value rewards, know the list:
Xylitol (sometimes labelled birch sugar) — toxic, and present in some sugar-free peanut butters, sweets and baked goods. Check every label.
Chocolate, grapes and raisins, onions, garlic and chives, macadamia nuts, alcohol — all toxic.
Cooked bones — splinter.
Very fatty foods — a pancreatitis trigger in susceptible dogs.
Plain cooked chicken, plain cheese in small amounts, and plain cooked liver in very small amounts are the usual safe high-value choices.
Keep treats, chews and training rewards under about ten per cent of daily calories, and subtract them from the day's food rather than adding them on top. That is why calories per treat matters so much — forty rewards at three calories is manageable; forty at twenty calories is most of a dog's day.
Small, soft, smelly and non-crumbly. Pea-sized or smaller, swallowed in a second so the dog does not lose the thread, aromatic enough to be worth working for, and not shattering into crumbs the dog hoovers off the floor. Hard biscuits fail on softness and crumbliness however good the ingredients.
No — build a hierarchy. The dog's own kibble for easy repetitions at home, a commercial soft treat for known behaviours with mild distraction, and something rare like cooked chicken or cheese for recall around other dogs, vet visits and anything genuinely hard. Save the best for when you need it.
Fade gradually rather than stopping. Move from rewarding every repetition to most, then to occasional and unpredictable, and add real-life rewards — a door opened, a lead clipped on, permission to go and sniff. Keep occasional food rewards forever, because a behaviour that is never reinforced decays.
Xylitol, sometimes labelled birch sugar and found in sugar-free peanut butter and sweets, plus chocolate, grapes and raisins, onions, garlic and chives, macadamia nuts, alcohol and cooked bones. Plain cooked chicken, small amounts of plain cheese and very small amounts of plain cooked liver are the usual safe high-value options.