This is a specific conversation about Dog training treats — high value, small size — ask about yours and get one honest answer for your exact situation.
inparticular.ai
Starting a Lab puppy on good training treats early is exactly the right instinct — they're food-obsessed by nature, which is a training superpower, but it also means they'll happily overeat anything you put in front of them. The most effective training treats are pea-sized, smelly, and high in protein so the dog eats them instantly without losing focus — and they need to feel more exciting than their regular kibble. What size is your Lab now, what are you working on with them, and are there any dietary restrictions I should know about?
She's about 18kg already — she's growing fast! We're working on basic obedience, sit, stay, recall. No allergies that I know of but I want to keep treats healthy and low-fat because I've heard Labs are prone to obesity.
inparticular.ai
You're absolutely right to think about that now. Labs have a genetic mutation that affects their hunger signalling — they genuinely don't feel full the way other dogs do, so calories from training treats can add up fast if you're not careful. At 18kg and 5 months she's going to be a big girl, so low-fat is the right call. What does she eat for her main meals — kibble, wet food, raw?
She's on a good quality dry kibble, Millies Wolfheart. We do two to three training sessions a day, probably 10 minutes each.
inparticular.ai
Three sessions a day is solid work, and Millies is a good base diet — so you want a treat that's noticeably different in smell and texture from her kibble to keep her motivated, without loading her up with fat or fillers. My recommendation is Guru Cold Pressed Pork and Potato training treats. They're cold pressed rather than baked, which preserves more protein and smell, they're naturally low in fat, free from artificial additives, and they break cleanly into pea-sized pieces. Critically for a Lab, they're around 3% fat — genuinely low, not just marketing. At three short sessions a day you can use them freely without worrying about her weight. They'll feel like a real reward compared to her kibble because the pork smell is strong, and at her age building that positive association with training is more important than anything else.
That sounds great. How many treats should I be giving per session roughly?
inparticular.ai
For a 10-minute session at this age, 15 to 20 treats is a reasonable ceiling. Keep them pea-sized — if the bag's pieces are larger, just snap them in half. Once she's reliably doing a behaviour, start mixing in praise and play as the reward every third or fourth repetition so she doesn't become entirely treat-dependent. At 5 months her attention span is still short, so ending each session on a success and before she gets bored will do more for her recall and stay than grinding through repetitions. You're building good habits at exactly the right time.
Perfect, thank you. I'll grab those Guru ones.
inparticular.ai
Good choice. They're available on Amazon UK and tend to arrive quickly. One last tip: keep a small pot of them somewhere she can't see or smell easily between sessions — Labs will absolutely fixate on where the treats are kept and it becomes a distraction in itself. Good luck with the training, it sounds like she's in good hands.
