What non-messy food item do your dogs go ABSOLUTELY NUTS for?

[doberbrat]

My dog will eat anything. But his favorites are bread, cheese, French fries, and peanut butter cookies. As for dog treats, Trader Joe’s has salmon skin treats which are healthy, not messy, and my dog is crazy about them.

I had a dog who raced flyball. He as NOT a natural but after a few years of training, he got it and he raced for either french fries or cheeze-its. Still remember one race day that ran longer and I had to send someone out for french fries! I'd just stand at the end of the lane and shake the whole bag for him

[jent]

For commercially made treats, our dog loves Tricky Trainers and Wellbites. Neither are messy, but since they're soft treats, hands can get a little smelly after holding them awhile.

[mom2binsd]

My friends who have two rescues a lab and pit mix, both said baby carrots.

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[Gracemom]

Both our dogs love Full Moon brand chicken jerky. It’s dry and you can cut it into small pieces. We rescued a 5 year old dog and she was afraid of my dh too. She actually bit him once when he tried to grab her collar. It took a while but now she adores him. Good luck!

[Melaine]

Ice! Our bernedoodle loves it. We recently got her a cup of Chickfila crushed ice and she loved it.

[urquie]

All good things should come from dh - attention, walks, food, toys etc.

if you want less messy hotdogs, you can quarter them and cut into strips and nuke in the microwave.
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At puppy school, the high value treat to learn “come” was hotdogs... quartered the long way, then sliced thin, then microwaved until totallly dried out... they can last a long time after that. They are not messy that way, almost seem freeze dried.

DH should do all the feeding and treats... no vet visits, nail cutting or anything the dog doesn’t like.


Some other thoughts for your DH... avoid eye contact, don’t say the dogs name, just toss treats. He can also lay down on the floor (less threatening) and toss treats.


I really like the Top Chews brand of dog treats, any that are thin disk-like shapes (as opposed to tube/sticks or jerky) they don’t make my hands feel greasy, are easy to break smaller and don’t get too crumbly in the ziplock that is constantly in my pocket.

https://www.costco.com/CatalogSearch...word=Top+chews

Next, we like individually packaged string cheese... it is still good when found in my coat pocket days later. I don’t like cheese... or to touch cheese... so I pinch off a piece from through the packaging and my dog eats it off the end. Or I let him bite off a piece, if I need to distract him from a nemesis dog.


If your dog likes to be near the family when they are eating, begging, let DH share... ideally DH would be the only source of treats. Any messy meat things in the kitchen, have DH come and share.

My dog was afraid of father-in-law... meat treats during family dinners, and after, finally did the trick!

[twowhat?]

So I totally 100% agree that all good things should come from DH, but it has been difficult to put into practice because DH lacks patience. He offered to take the dog on morning walks but I think the walks are a setback because our dog likes to sniff, and DH has no patience to wait for him to sniff all the smells, so then he yells. (He says he doesn't yell but I know his voice...when it is tinged with impatience, it sounds like a yell).

Feeding...DH has been working on feeding the dog but there have been a couple of times where he got irritated that the dog wasn't coming fast enough, so he "yelled" (his perspective: not yelling. My perspective and the dog's perspective: yelling). So...that is super frustrating. DH has NO PATIENCE to feed the dog by hand. Feeding the dog by hand is something I had to do to get him to eat at all the first few days he was with us.

To be honest, if I knew up front that DH would have no patience for a super shy and stubborn dog, then we would not have adopted him. And that makes me sad. We knew the dog was shy when we adopted him but we were a little blindsided by his extreme level of shyness. But we made a commitment and we need to put in the work. So it is frustrating me that DH doesn't have the patience to put in the work the way I think he should (and I know he's also getting irritated that I'm telling him what to do all the time...but I'm the one who has read all the dog behavior books. Not him). Seriously, I would love for Victoria Stilwell to walk in here and shake her finger at us and set us all straight. I often wish it were me that the dog was afraid of...I have so much more patience. Ugh. Sorry for the vent...but this really does make me sad. Oh and I think I forgot to mention that the dog was actually not this afraid of DH the first couple of days we had him (he would come up to DH and ask for pets) but then there was what we call "The Event". DH was letting the dog inside from a potty break and the dog accidentally stepped on DH's foot and DH yelled OUCH really loud. We think that was the event that precipitated all this (and the dog was probably already suspicious of men before this happened...and this just confirmed to the dog that men should be feared haha).

The one thing DH seems to have decent patience for is tossing the dog treats. He doesn't do it quite as often as I think he should, and he needs to STOP STARING AT THE DOG (ugh, I've told him this SO MANY TIMES) but at least he's tossing treats to the dog 75% of the time that I would want him to. In the end, DH WANTS the dog to like him, but he just can't seem to get beyond not taking it personally. It's as if he thinks the dog is a human who is snubbing him. I've told him (many times) that the dog is AFRAID of him. It has nothing to do with liking him or not liking him! He's AFRAID. Uuuugh. DH has also been spoiled by dogs are are rule followers and who would respond to yelling or a mad tone of voice. He feels like he should be able to control the dog and that the dog needs to do what he says. I told him hold your horses, first we need to get to where the dog doesn't RUN AWAY whenever he is near.

Anyway, at Costco today I picked up a couple bags of that horrible Moon Cheese. It's so stinky, and the dog loved it enough that he obeyed a "down" command from me. He knows "sit" and "down" but for some reason he HATES to do "down", so if he doesn't want to do it (which is 90% of the time) he will literally get up and walk away. He is a VERY stubborn dog hahaha! He is so unlike the other dogs we have had who would do almost anything to get that treat or earn affection. Trying to figure out this sweet boy's currency is an ongoing challenge...the kids describe him as almost cat-like.

The hot dogs/microwave trick is interesting and I didn't know you could basically make dried up hot dog treats - that's worth a shot!

[khm]

Cheese. Any type of cheese. She can be on another floor of the house but hear/smell/sense the crackle of a cheese wrapper and be instantly by our side.

[StantonHyde]

This might be one of those times when it is worth it to hire the professional who will tell DH what to do. And find a male professional--that would be even better. Sometimes you need an outside person to do the job!!!