Tasty Tuesday | Low Calorie Tasty Treats For Your Dog Ideal For Clicker Training.

Our household is a big believer in positive training. Clicker training is an essential for me and Lottie and we just wouldn't be the same without it!

For our doggy friends who are not familiar with Clicker Training it is a positive reinforcement based system of training. The essential difference between clicker training and other reward-based training is that your dog is told exactly which behavior earned the reward. This information is taught with a distinct and unique sound, a click, which occurs at the same time as the desired behavior. Every time the click is heard a desired reward is given. This can be in the form of food or your dogs favourite toy.

To provide the distinct click we use a doggy clicker, this is our favourite Clicker.

It does however come with one disadvantage, if your dog is a great toy lover and gets a buzz from suddenly getting their favourite toys after each click that is great. However for us, although Lottie does like her toys and loves a good game of fetch or a play with her squeaker. It just doesn't cut it for her for training. This means that once I click the clicker I need to give her a treat every time. Now our training sessions are short at around 10 -15 minutes. As you can imagine you could easily get through a lot of treats in that time! Because I want to teach Lottie useful tricks so she can help me around the house we normally do around 3 sessions a day!

This is where Coachies come in. I basically came across this magic invention by accident. I was searching one of my favourite online pet stores and in the training section saw these Coachies treats. I decided to click the link to check them out as it promoted them as low fat! I was very wary at first as so many treats state this, when in fact they are no different than most others!

Coachies are a small heart shaped tasty treat which are highly palatable and do not break up in our treat bag. They are oven baked and have no artificial colours, flavours or added sugars which make them perfect for reward based training. Even better they are only one calorie a treat! 

They come in three variety's adult, puppy and natural. Each variety comes in two sizes 75g or 200g. From our local Pets at Home store they are really affordable and a 200g is £4. I feel this is really fairly priced. A 200g bag lasts us at least a month! We use the natural variety as they are chicken which Lottie loves.

Please mum may I have some more? 

You should all check these great treats out and be sure to let us know what you think?

Jessica and Lottie 

We're participating in the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop kindly hosted by Sugar The Golden Retriever and Kol's Notes  If you are looking for tasty ideas, take a look at what other dogs are baking and eating!

Tasty Tuesday | Treat Review | Purina Delibakes stars.

A few weeks ago I promised you guys I would do a review of a few new treats I had brought Lottie.

Things have been a bit hectic due to my upcoming surgery. But here is the review of one of those treats.

From our local Pets at Home store I purchased Purina Deli bakes stars although they are available in most pets stores/supermarkets.

They cost £1.29 which is more than I would normally spend, but with the tempting packaging I decided to give them a go.

Once I opened the packet the smell hit me straight away, and they certainly do smell baked. In fact they nearly smelt good enough for me to eat!. Cheese and beef were prominent as stated on the packaging. Inside there were 11 deli baked stars which are about the same size as a 50p piece. For the price I was a little disappointed with the quantity. Lottie would soon get through 11. We do purchase similar treats with double the quantity for half the price. So for me to repeat purchasing them they would need to be good.

Mum do we really need to take all these photo before I try them! 

Lottie was extra keen to try one and could hardly wait she even tried to get into the closed packet! She eat the star in under 1 minute. And seemed highly impressed and gave me a paw to indicate she would like more! They must of tasted extra good as once we had finished the taste test I had to put them away in the cupboard as she just wouldn't leave the them alone.

Yum!

Needless to say Lottie is trying to pursuade me to buy more! All things said and even though Lottie really liked them I think I will be waiting for the stars to be on offer before I purchase them again. The main factor is the price which I just don't feel is appropriate for the quantity of treats. But for a extra special treat or if you don't mind spending a little extra once in a while these will definitely be for you!

Unfortunately this will be my last doggy post for a while. My surgery is going ahead on Thursday and I will be in hospital around 2 weeks. Lottie is looking forward to her extra long sleepover at grandmas which is where she will be staying while I am in hospital. I will be sure to keep you guys updated on Facebook on how everything goes.

Jessica (And Lottie)

https://www.facebook.com/waggytales1

Follow my lead

 Leads.. They are an essential for any dog owner, but with so many different types it can sometimes be tricky to choose! For a wheelchair user this decision is even more difficult. Ok, here I have two options I either buy a standard or a short lead. You would think the short would be the best option, however this gives Lottie no freedom to smell the many different new scents a walk can provide. I opt for the standard length and am left with half the lead wrapped around my hand with my fingers blood supply really feeling the strain by the time we return home. It does now however look like my prays are answered, as I have seen advertised a Grippy dog lead. A normal length lead with a difference, it has 5/6 loops along the lead so you can hold it at whatever length you feel most comfortable. I ordered mine today and me and Lottie can't wait until it's delivered. 

Our weekend has been filled with a visit to our local Pets at Home store. These days it's becoming a weekly visit, I just can't seem to get enough of the place or as my mum tells me "you know the products better than the staff who work there". Luckily for me and my bank balance, this visit was a relatively cheap one. Lottie gained a new purple spotty collar which she seems very impressed with, and some new flavoured biscuits which seemed to go down equally as well, if not better. 

Jessica