My Favorite Foods for Dog Training and Enrichment
Dalmatian eating various, colorful fruits
Food is easy and effective to use for dog training and enrichment. I like to use a variety of different foods because I can tailor the reinforcement value to the training task at hand while still maintaining a high level of motivation from my dogs. More importantly it keeps things interesting for my dogs, especially when they’re trying a new food for the first time.
There is a ton of information on the internet and it can be hard to sift through to find exactly what you need in one place. To help with that challenge, I used my bizarre penchant for spreadsheets to create a tracker of foods that are generally safe for dogs, and categorized across a few important criteria:
Estimated value - no value, low, medium, high
Type - natural food, manufactured dog food, manufactured human food
Texture - soft, chewy, crunchy, viscous
and more
Screenshot of the headers of the Foods for Dog Training and Enrichment Tracker
The foods I have listed are based on my personal research, work with fellow dog trainers, and general veterinarian guidance. I’ve only listed foods that I’ve tried with my dogs, but because every dog is different make sure that you consult with your veterinarian or dog nutritionist to determine what is appropriate for your dog taking into account any food allergies and health/weight/nutrition considerations. Remember that your dog is the one that determines whether the food is actually reinforcing. Test out the foods before trying to use them in actual training scenarios that require high value reinforcers.
Food label on Tylee’s Chicken Jerky
You’ll also notice that I don’t list that many manufactured dog foods. That’s because I try to use as much natural food as possible. When I need to use manufactured dog foods for convenience I check the ingredients (contents and where they are sourced), where the product is manufactured, reviews, and the frequency of manufacturing recalls. Once I find a few products I trust I usually rotate between them and stick to the brands I trust. The manufactured dog foods I’ve tested are generally available in the United States.
Please comment on what you found useful about the tracker or what you would like to see changed. I’m always looking to improve on the resources I provide to pet parents. I have several more foods to test and will also be adding nutrition information, so don’t forget to check back here occasionally.
If you’d like to be notified of updates to the tracker, or to download your own copy of this tracker so that you can filter and tailor one to your own dog, please subscribe to the Dogfullife Digest. I will also be releasing a new video soon on the Dogfullife YouTube channel that is all about what, why, and how of food reinforcers so stay tuned!