Recall treats for Chow Chows on a budget

Reliable recall is genuinely the most important skill a dog can have — and with a Chow Chow, you're working with a breed that was never bred to please you on command, so the treat has to do a lot of the heavy lifting. The right high-value reward combined with a long line for safe practice is usually the winning combination. To point you in the right direction: how old is your Chow, where does recall currently break down (garden, park, when there's a distraction?), and is budget a concern for the treats you're using?

That look-and-walk-away move is classic Chow. Kibble won't cut it with this breed — they're simply not motivated enough by food they consider ordinary. You need something that registers as genuinely exciting, which usually means real meat with a strong smell. Before I suggest anything: does he have any known allergies or sensitivities, and are you happy to use something like chicken or fish-based treats?

Perfect — then the best value option I'd point you to is Naturo Grain Free Chicken with Vegetables in the small tins. It's wet dog food rather than packaged training treats, but that's exactly why it works so well on a budget. You cut it into pea-sized pieces, freeze it in batches, and it smells intensely of real chicken. Chows respond to it far better than dry treats because the texture and smell are much more stimulating. A multipack costs around £8-10 and will last several weeks of training sessions. It's not marketed as a training treat, which is why most people miss it — but it's one of the best high-value rewards you can use for a fraction of the price of branded treat bags.

Keep sessions to 5-10 minutes maximum and use around 20-30 pea-sized pieces per session — that's roughly a third of a small tin. Subtract that amount from his daily food allowance so his overall intake stays balanced. The key with a Chow is to stop while he's still interested, not when he's bored. Short, high-reward bursts work far better than long sessions with this breed. Also worth pairing with a consistent recall cue word and a long line (a 10-metre training line costs about £8 on Amazon) so he can't self-reward by wandering off while you're building the behaviour.

Good plan. Stick with it consistently for two to three weeks before judging the progress — Chows are slow to buy in but once they decide recall is worth their while, it tends to stick. Start every session in the garden where there's less competition for his attention, then gradually move to busier environments only once he's reliable in low-distraction spaces. You've got the right approach.