Best training treats for Bichon Frise

Training a Bichon in a public park on a lunch break is a real challenge — you've got pigeons, joggers, other dogs, and a 30-minute window all working against you. The most effective training treats for this kind of environment are pea-sized, genuinely smelly, and high in protein — something so exciting it cuts through all that distraction. The dog should eat each one in a single bite without pausing to chew, so you keep the rhythm going. What are you working on with her — recall, loose-lead walking, something else? And does she have any food sensitivities?

That's a classic Bichon move — selective hearing the moment something more interesting appears. For a small dog working on park recall, you need something that smells stronger than whatever she's sniffing at. What are you using at the moment, just out of curiosity?

Kibble is going to lose every time against a squirrel or another dog — it's just not exciting enough to compete. You need a serious upgrade in value. My recommendation is Ziwi Peak Air-Dried Dog Food in the beef variety — you can tear it into tiny pieces, it smells intensely meaty, and it's nutritionally dense so a few small bits won't upset her stomach or add up calorically. It's a single-ingredient meat product, nothing artificial, and the texture means it doesn't crumble in your pocket. A lot of trainers use it specifically as a high-distraction treat because it genuinely registers with dogs as something worth coming back for. Given you're doing this in a busy park with a short window, you want every recall attempt to feel rewarding — this gives you that.

It is a premium product, but because you're using tiny pea-sized pieces for a 5kg dog, a single bag lasts a surprisingly long time. You'd go through far more if you were feeding it as a meal. For recall work in short sessions, you're talking maybe 10–15 tiny pieces per session — a 90g bag will cover weeks of lunch breaks. Worth it for the reliability you'll get.