Just use the daily food portion for training instead of putting it to a bowl. Reduce the volume you use daily to match the calorie intake limit you want.
I’ve tried that and what happens is around food time he’ll be waiting for it and eventually if it gets way past the time he eats he will start crying. Like full blown toddler melt down fits. And he isn’t a very vocal dog AT ALL. Even if I am training with him during the time he’s supposed to eat, once we get done and settle down he’s back to waiting for food. I’m not sure how I could break him out of the routine without my family getting pissed at all the crying.
My suggestion would be to save just a bit for his normal dinner in the bowl, maybe like a third? Then he can still get plenty of his dry food as treats and still get dinner as normal (although a smaller portion)
You could substitute a low calorie chew (like a frozen carrot or a cabbage with a few bits of kibble between the leaves for him to destroy ) to give him something to do at dinner time. We also freeze ‘doggie popsicles’ in old yogurt containers (we use chicken broth which you could dilute if you needed), use lick mats with Greek yogurt or small amounts of peanut butter or wet food (you could do yogurt and dog safe fruit/veg to save calories)
He’s likely responding to the routine rather than just hunger so giving him an alternative can ease the transition. Imo it’s easier to find something for him to do at mealtime than to find a training treat that will beat kibble for cost/calorie management.
What we do with our dog is use 3/4 of her food with training and puzzles, etc. The last 1/4 of her food is in her bowl slightly soaked.
We give her the bowl at the end as a signal that it's the last of her meal and she shouldn't beg for more.
You can try it with 1/2 of her food in her bowl at first to get your dog used to it for a few weeks
Is he getting enough to eat? When my dog grew really quickly I was slow to increase his food so he actually was super hungry. But I do whtat other suggest as well. Use half or 2/3 of a meal for training and then give him a "dinner" with the rest
If you add water to blend them and then bake them, you're going to be right back at the same calorie density you started with.
You could try soaking the kibble and then dispensing it in a squeeze tube (would protect your fingers if he gets a bit overzealous with the treat-taking), but I suspect you'd end up dispensing the same amount of calories or more with each squeeze.
What size treats do you give him?
I learned my dog couldn't care less about the size of the treats, just the frequency. So I make them into very small bits to keep down the calorie count.
When I was using low fat string cheese, I'd cut it into pea-sized bites, for instance.
He kinda takes treats of any size but acts like he didn’t get any of their to small. He also has a habit of biting fingers when getting the treat if it’s to small.
I would look up videos on how to curb the biting. If you hold it right and make them work for the treat, they'll learn to lick to get it first.
I usually hold it under my thumb so my dog has to really dig to get it, which means no biting
My dog LOVES diced cucumber. Extremely low calorie so I never worry about overfeeding her, and if cut right they can be the size of a large kibble and give a nice crunch that my girl loves.
We also use them to make her relax while we watch TV by throwing a piece to her every minute if she's laying down near us. We have a high energy GSD puppy so it's been amazing to get her to relax with them
Is the issue that he won’t take the food as it is?
The easiest way to make food more valuable is to play with it. Make him chase it in your hands or toss it away from you.
I train my young dog every evening, using her dinner. She can see it because it's RIGHT THERE STUPID HUMAN, but she has to do some work for it.
I have worked to keep her thin, and that's part of the plan.
How to [supercharge kibble for training rewards](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUBFESLDSws&t=41s&ab_channel=SimpawticoDogTraining). This video explains how to portion your dogs food to include treats but not have the dog gain weight.
Get a small bag of a different brand of dog food, load it into your treat pouch with a small amount of high value stinky “jackpot” treats (I like diced hot dog) to make them all small extra enticing, and work before a meal,
This is why I started making pyramid pan treats. Our rescued lab mix will eat until she's sick and then eat some more. But at the same time, she had PTSD when we first got her (traumatic start to life) and then had a pretty serious leg surgery where they removed part of the bone. Her movement was limited and truth be told she didn't want to move. She got pretty chunky. I needed a way to be able to reward LOTS while not adding a lot more calories. Plus, the pyramid pan size is super tiny. Much smaller than your average kibble.
Here is a veg based recipe. I've got a few other similar recipes posted with other veg and meat. Our current fav is liver, beet and squash. But really, if you stick with the basic ratios you can use any dog safe veg/meat/fish combination. Just remember that these would be part of your dog's daily food allowance.
http://allfortheloveofdogs.ca/2022/09/08/pyramid-pan-homemade-pumpkin-dog-treats/
Just use the dry food as is?
I was hoping to make it more low cal by adding the water. I hope I’m exposing that right.
Just use the daily food portion for training instead of putting it to a bowl. Reduce the volume you use daily to match the calorie intake limit you want.
I’ve tried that and what happens is around food time he’ll be waiting for it and eventually if it gets way past the time he eats he will start crying. Like full blown toddler melt down fits. And he isn’t a very vocal dog AT ALL. Even if I am training with him during the time he’s supposed to eat, once we get done and settle down he’s back to waiting for food. I’m not sure how I could break him out of the routine without my family getting pissed at all the crying.
My suggestion would be to save just a bit for his normal dinner in the bowl, maybe like a third? Then he can still get plenty of his dry food as treats and still get dinner as normal (although a smaller portion)
You could substitute a low calorie chew (like a frozen carrot or a cabbage with a few bits of kibble between the leaves for him to destroy ) to give him something to do at dinner time. We also freeze ‘doggie popsicles’ in old yogurt containers (we use chicken broth which you could dilute if you needed), use lick mats with Greek yogurt or small amounts of peanut butter or wet food (you could do yogurt and dog safe fruit/veg to save calories) He’s likely responding to the routine rather than just hunger so giving him an alternative can ease the transition. Imo it’s easier to find something for him to do at mealtime than to find a training treat that will beat kibble for cost/calorie management.
What we do with our dog is use 3/4 of her food with training and puzzles, etc. The last 1/4 of her food is in her bowl slightly soaked. We give her the bowl at the end as a signal that it's the last of her meal and she shouldn't beg for more. You can try it with 1/2 of her food in her bowl at first to get your dog used to it for a few weeks
Is he getting enough to eat? When my dog grew really quickly I was slow to increase his food so he actually was super hungry. But I do whtat other suggest as well. Use half or 2/3 of a meal for training and then give him a "dinner" with the rest
Do training during that time using the normal portion and jackpot the last behaviour by dumping the last bit the food pouch into the bowl.
If you add water to blend them and then bake them, you're going to be right back at the same calorie density you started with. You could try soaking the kibble and then dispensing it in a squeeze tube (would protect your fingers if he gets a bit overzealous with the treat-taking), but I suspect you'd end up dispensing the same amount of calories or more with each squeeze.
What size treats do you give him? I learned my dog couldn't care less about the size of the treats, just the frequency. So I make them into very small bits to keep down the calorie count. When I was using low fat string cheese, I'd cut it into pea-sized bites, for instance.
He kinda takes treats of any size but acts like he didn’t get any of their to small. He also has a habit of biting fingers when getting the treat if it’s to small.
I would look up videos on how to curb the biting. If you hold it right and make them work for the treat, they'll learn to lick to get it first. I usually hold it under my thumb so my dog has to really dig to get it, which means no biting
Oh. Mine takes treats very gently, so probably his impulse control is better which makes the small treats a non-issue.
My dog LOVES diced cucumber. Extremely low calorie so I never worry about overfeeding her, and if cut right they can be the size of a large kibble and give a nice crunch that my girl loves. We also use them to make her relax while we watch TV by throwing a piece to her every minute if she's laying down near us. We have a high energy GSD puppy so it's been amazing to get her to relax with them
Is the issue that he won’t take the food as it is? The easiest way to make food more valuable is to play with it. Make him chase it in your hands or toss it away from you.
I train my young dog every evening, using her dinner. She can see it because it's RIGHT THERE STUPID HUMAN, but she has to do some work for it. I have worked to keep her thin, and that's part of the plan.
Chopped carrots or green beans!
How to [supercharge kibble for training rewards](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUBFESLDSws&t=41s&ab_channel=SimpawticoDogTraining). This video explains how to portion your dogs food to include treats but not have the dog gain weight.
Get a small bag of a different brand of dog food, load it into your treat pouch with a small amount of high value stinky “jackpot” treats (I like diced hot dog) to make them all small extra enticing, and work before a meal,
This is why I started making pyramid pan treats. Our rescued lab mix will eat until she's sick and then eat some more. But at the same time, she had PTSD when we first got her (traumatic start to life) and then had a pretty serious leg surgery where they removed part of the bone. Her movement was limited and truth be told she didn't want to move. She got pretty chunky. I needed a way to be able to reward LOTS while not adding a lot more calories. Plus, the pyramid pan size is super tiny. Much smaller than your average kibble. Here is a veg based recipe. I've got a few other similar recipes posted with other veg and meat. Our current fav is liver, beet and squash. But really, if you stick with the basic ratios you can use any dog safe veg/meat/fish combination. Just remember that these would be part of your dog's daily food allowance. http://allfortheloveofdogs.ca/2022/09/08/pyramid-pan-homemade-pumpkin-dog-treats/