Dear Dogs Today Team,
Having experienced excellent results feeding my current adult dog a BARF diet for the past two years, I am keen to start my next puppy on a raw food diet. However, I would like to incorporate the puppies daily food allowance into reward based training and would appreciate advice on how I can do this using raw food.
All the literature I have read regarding reward based training uses kibble which I would rather avoid. I have considered using a combination of ORIJEN (an organic kibble) with raw food for the first year, gradually phasing into a complete raw diet.
Many thanks
Bev Lewis, by email
Friends I know who feed their dogs completely raw (including my HTM trainer) just use cooked, fresh meats, homemade liver/tuna/fishy treats etc - all cooked.
ReplyDeleteI have found that small chunks of chicken make a great reward, even my non-food motivated dog responds.
ReplyDeleteI feed my guys raw, and the youngest being 6 months old. I have found that he isn't keen on eating his offal completely raw so lightly brown it which I can then use as food rewards. Also use freeze dried liver, heart, venison, chicken breast ect. All of these I have found work really well.
ReplyDeleteI don't advise kibble for my reward-based training methods simply because when you are working with distractions you need something more strongly scented. There is no rule about using kibble - just choose something you normally feed your dog that is meaty, or even cheese, in small pieces and use that. I probably wouldn't handle raw meat as treats from a health point of view (mine) but there are lots of alternatives - even fish!
ReplyDeleteRemember that we are activating the dog's nose so the squishier, fresher and smellier the better.