Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

Rewards: favorite commercial dog training treats

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You read earlier this week about how I’m trying to switch off more between food, toy, activity, and praise rewards during dog training. Here are some more details about the food treats I’m using.

I’ve mentioned before that I usually prefer to use “people food” for my dog training treats. I am still using cut-up string cheese, SPAM, and frozen meatballs. But on really hot days, it’s nice to have something that doesn’t melt, squish, or disintegrate in your pocket. Sorry, once again I do not mean to gross you out!

The dogs have three favorite low-calorie natural commercial treats, and I’m currently using two of them for training. I reviewed the third type, Pet Botanics Healthy Omega treats earlier this year. Although they are still a favorite, I’m not using them for training right now simply because they are chewier and harder to break into smaller pieces, making them less suitable for rapid delivery of treats for some of the things we’re doing right now.

I have given up trying to keep Oliver Kittyweiler out of any dog treat home photo shoots. At least he adds some perspective, so you can see the small size of the treats.
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Follow-up: Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats

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You might remember that Freya and Axel got the opportunity to taste-test Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats last month, courtesy of Cardinal Laboratories. The Duck flavor treats were very well-received.

Unfortunately, the two pet-supply stores that I usually shop at do not carry these treats, and I haven’t yet taken the time to speak to a manager to request them. Yesterday’s errands took me to a store that is right next to a PetSmart, so I stopped in to pick up a few items. This PetSmart carries two flavors of the Healthy Omega Treats: Salmon and Chicken.

The Chicken flavor was as well-received as the Duck flavor in our original taste test. But the Salmon flavor was an even bigger hit. Who knew Rottweilers would like fish so much?

Freya and Axe are hoping for more taste-testing opportunities in the future, so if you have a favorite dog treat for them to review, please do tell!

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 9 of 30)

Review: Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats

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Although I mainly use “people food” for dog training treats, I am always on the lookout for high-quality and healthy commercial treat options as well. So I was delighted to have the opportunity to test and review Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats, thanks to manufacturer Cardinal Laboratories.

Rottweilers are generally chow hounds that will eat anything, so you may be wondering why treat selection is even a question in our household. We do have a few special issues here. Freya has a very mild case of IBS. She does not require a prescription diet and suffers only a few flare-ups each year, but we still have to be selective about what she consumes. Natural foods and treats with a limited number of ingredients are usually the most successful. Also, Freya gains weight a little too easily, but Axel has to be watched pretty closely to make sure he doesn’t run too much weight off. So calorie count of food and treats can be important.

With a short list of eight ingredients (NO grains are included, a good thing), and the low calorie, low fat designation (9 calories), Healthy Omega Treats looked to be a good fit to our needs. Main ingredient is meat (our sample was Duck, and the other available flavors are Chicken, Salmon, and Tuna), followed by sweet potato and cod. “Omega” refers to the Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, which are beneficial to dogs’ skin and coats.

Assistant reviewer Oliver Kittyweiler helps display the unique layered look of these bite-sized treats.

As for taste, reviewers Freya and Axel both gave these treats a big “paws up.” These are definitely a high-value treat to them. The high value, small size, and low calorie count make them almost ideal as rewards during training. I say “almost” because my personal preference is for an even smaller and softer treat during training. It was easy enough to break these in half for our training sessions, though.

Freya was able to fully enjoy the Healthy Omega Treats with no bad effects despite her mild IBS, so we can now add this to our list of Freya-friendly treats.

We’ll definitely be checking our local retailers for these treats and are looking forward to trying the fish flavors in particular. They are also available for online purchase:
Crazy Pet Shop
Amazon.com

Cardinal Laboratories provided a free 6-oz. package of Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats, Duck flavor, for us to sample. I thank them for the opportunity to test and review this product.

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 24 of 31)

Something to do with leftovers

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Something for people: Fried Rice

I am of Japanese ancestry, so there is always rice here. I used to make fried rice from leftovers quite often, especially during my younger and leaner years. The ingredients change depending upon what leftovers are available. The only constants are rice, egg, and soy sauce. The rice absolutely has to be leftover cold rice. If you are making a new pot of rice just for frying, sorry. You are not having fried rice until tomorrow! Freshly cooked rice is too moist and sticky to fry.

I had a taste for fried rice the other day. There were some shredded carrots left over from a pasta salad, some green onion stalks left over from Korean short ribs made earlier in the week, and some of those Korean short ribs. Perfect. The shredded carrots were a bit longer than I prefer, so I took a large handful and chopped them up a little more. I chopped up one green onion stalk, using both green and white portions. Then I chopped up the short rib meat. I didn’t use very much meat, maybe 1/4-1/3 cup. This all went into a frying pan to cook until the carrots and onions were soft and everything was hot. Short rib meat has enough grease, but if I’d used a leaner meat, I would have added a tiny bit of oil to the pan. Then the rice went in (I had about 2 cups) and everything stirred around until the rice was warm and the meat and vegetables were distributed evenly throughout. One raw beaten egg and some soy sauce to taste went in next, and stirred and tossed until the egg was cooked. If I had oyster sauce, I would have used some of that instead.

Yum 🙂

Something for dogs: Training Treats

The short ribs were a little too greasy to use for this, but any leaner leftover beef will work just fine. Cut it into small dice, spread them out on a paper plate, cover with waxed paper and microwave for 1-2 minutes, until they are somewhat dried out. Allow to cool completely before storing. They will last a few days in the refrigerator and a very long time in the freezer. I put just enough for a training class into each zip-lock baggie so I can just grab a baggie out of the freezer before heading to class. The treats thaw out on the way, and my dogs seem to consider them a high-value reward.

(NaBloPoMo | June ‘09: 15 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 142 of 274)

Freya’s weigh-in (25 of 30/91 of 274)

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As promised, today we stopped at the vet after obedience class for a weigh-in for Freya. I was quite relieved to learn that she had in fact lost weight during the six weeks since her annual check-up. Not quite so happy that it was just two pounds when she should have lost somewhere between 4-6 pounds, but at least she didn’t gain weight!

Seriously, this just underscores what I mentioned in Thursday’s post. In addition to switching to the low-fat formulation of her current food and monitoring calorie count of her regular meals, I really need to also be more careful about monitoring her treats.

I found quite a bit of helpful information at the Assocation for Pet Obesity Prevention website, including a list of calorie counts for many popular pet treats. Unfortunately, calorie counts for some of Freya’s favorite Wellness treats aren’t included, nor are they given on the Wellness website. I’ll try emailing them for the information, though.

I haven’t done well at increasing exercise, so that will be a greater priority as well. Masha left a good training suggestion in the last post’s comments: using a toy instead of treats as a motivator. I’m going to test it out in our next training session. I’ve had a few dogs who just got way too amped up with a toy as a reward, but it’s definitely worth a try.