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
The most effective training treats are pea-sized, smelly, and high in protein — your dog should swallow them instantly without breaking focus, and they need to feel more exciting than their regular food. If you're training daily, you'll go through a lot of them, so size and cost both matter. What size is your dog, what are you working on, and are there any dietary restrictions I should know about?
Six-month-old Labrador, male, about 20kg already. We're doing basic obedience — sit, stay, recall. No allergies that I know of. I'm training every day but I'm conscious of cost because I'm getting through treats pretty fast.
inparticular.ai
A 20kg Lab at six months doing daily recall and stay work will eat through treats quickly — that's completely normal at this age when you're reinforcing a lot of repetitions. Before I point you somewhere specific: are you doing short sessions a few times a day, or one longer session? And is he food-motivated in general, or do you find he gets distracted easily?
Very food-motivated, classic Lab. We do two or three short sessions a day, maybe ten minutes each. He's pretty focused when I have food but I've been using bits of his kibble and it's not really cutting it — he loses interest quickly.
inparticular.ai
Kibble rarely works for training because there's no contrast — it smells and tastes identical to what he gets in his bowl twice a day. You need something that registers as genuinely different and better. For a food-motivated Lab doing multiple short sessions daily on a budget, I'd go with Markies Mini Dog Treats by Cesar. They're small enough to use straight from the bag without breaking them up, they have a stronger smell than kibble, dogs reliably love them, and they cost around £3–4 for 500g on Amazon UK — which goes a long way at daily training volume. They're not a raw or premium protein treat, but for basic obedience work with a highly motivated Lab, they do the job well and won't break the bank. Just factor them into his daily food intake so you're not overfeeding.
That sounds ideal honestly. Should I be worried about giving too many during training? He's getting treats maybe 30–40 times across the day.
inparticular.ai
At 30–40 repetitions a day with pea-sized treats, you're looking at maybe 15–20g of treats total — that's manageable if you reduce his kibble portion slightly to compensate. Markies Minis are about 5 calories each, so 40 treats is around 200 calories, which is meaningful for a growing Lab. Just weigh his food portion a little lighter on heavy training days. As he gets more reliable on the basics, you can also start fading the treats — reward every other rep, then randomly — so you're naturally using fewer over time.
Really helpful, thank you. I'll grab a bag and give them a try.
