Level Up Recommends

If there’s one thing dog trainers are known for, it’s having opinions about things. And oh boy, do we have opinions about things!

Dog Training Products We Love and Use

With the pet products industry growing by leaps and bounds and everyone who has ever owned a dog claiming to be a “master dog trainer,” it’s hard to separate the must-haves from the marketing fluff.

So: We compiled a list of our all-time favorite gear to save you all the trial and error. Our gift to you!

Everything on this list is optional. You don’t need to buy any or all of it to take classes with Level Up, nor is this an exhaustive list of everything we like. (We like a lot of dog gear). But since we’re often recommending the same things over and over again, it makes sense to compile it all into one place and just write it once. We’ve included notes on each item so you can read what it is, why we like it and which situations we recommend it for.

This list is sorted into sections for easier scanning, but in reality, there’s a lot of overlap between the sections.

Disclosure: This page includes affiliate links, which means that Level Up will receive a small commission from Amazon for any purchases. This does not affect the price you pay. The commission is how we cover the cost of trying new gear and curating this list for you.

Basic Dog Training Gear

This list includes our go-to gear for most typical pet households.

We tried to pick our absolute favorite item for each category to keep the list manageable and easy-ish to navigate. There are plenty of other products that we support and use, but as far as we’re concerned, this is the best of the best.

We’re working on the assumption that you already have a leash, a collar and other basic dog care items, so these are specifically products that we use to impact a dog’s behavior and aid training.

1. Doggone Good Rapid Rewards Training Bag

The Rapid Rewards treat pouch by Doggone Good is hands-down the best treat pouch on the market for your money.

If you buy nothing else on this list, please do yourself a favor and buy this. Seriously.

I work with dogs all day long and am wearing a treat pouch during most waking hours due to training projects at home and with clients. I put a LOT of miles on my bait bags. And before this bag, I just took it for granted that none would manage to last me more than about 6 months without breaking. No big deal, most treat pouches are only $15-20, it’s not like it’s breaking the bank. But I was never entirely satisfied with the features of the other bags, so I jumped from brand to brand every time I bought a new one. Until I landed on the Rapid Rewards bag in 2013 and was immediately sold.

Years later, I still have that same treat pouch — if you ever see me wearing a navy bag at our lessons, that’s the same bag! And it was just shy of five years old before it showed the first visible signs of wear: a thinner area on the fabric in one area. Compared to the hinge-style bags which tend to repeatedly stab you in the hand with pieces of metal when they break, this is a laughably small amount of wear.

And did I mention the pockets? So many pockets! A pocket for your clicker, a pocket for your poop bags, a pocket for your cell phone and keys, a pocket for your wonderful trainer’s business cards when strangers stop you on the street to ask how your dog became so very well-behaved — and of course, the two main pockets, one for standard treats and one for extra-special treats for more impressive behaviors. It has everything.

I absolutely cannot recommend this bag enough. Suffice it to say that I have five of them myself and I include them in the training gear package with Level Up’s all-inclusive Superstar Unlimited training program.

Yes, they cost about $2 more than the competitor’s brand on average. They also last ten times longer and are all-around better. Please pay the extra $2 and get this brand.

2. Karen Pryor i-Click Clickers

Clicker training is a type of dog training involving a marker noise, in this case the “click” sound from a small hand-held device. Using a precise marker allows us to precisely capture the exact moment when a dog was correct — not when they were heading in the right direction, not immediately after the correct behavior, but to narrowly pinpoint that THAT moment was what earned you the reward.

And there are about a dozen different styles of clickers, some more practical than others. This is one of my two favorites (the other being the Starmark Clicker, but I have ideological issues with their company and prefer not to send them my business, even though they do make a nice clicker).

The iClick is known for being a quiet, reliable clicker, in comparison to some of the slightly-cheaper models which can have a surprisingly loud noise, especially in indoor areas that tend to echo. If you took my advice above and bought the Rapid Rewards bag (which you should), it comes with a standard box clicker, but I prefer the iClick, especially for more sensitive dogs or dogs who will be training predominantly indoors. I buy them in multi-packs because you can never have too many clickers.

The other major benefit of the iClick is that it’s very easy to push with nearly any part of the body, making it excellent for any “I feel like I need three hands!” training exercises and also very flexible for accommodating people with limited range of motion due to disabilities. You can click with your foot, your hands, your mouth, by leaning against it or with the crook of your arm. I’m sure there are plenty of other options, but those are the ones I find myself using regularly. Clicking with your foot is especially useful for nail trims or grooming tasks when you need both hands occupied with the dog but also want to be able to mark behavior accurately.

3. Classic Kong (your new dog-sitter)

When I was a wee newbie trainer, I scoffed at the idea of Kongs. “What a simplistic toy!” I thought. “My dogs are WAY too advanced for something that simple.” Oh how times have changed!

The Kong is a durable stuffable toy that can be filled with food in all sorts of creative ways. Excavating the food from the toy will keep your dog occupied and out from underfoot for somewhere between ten minutes and two hours depending on the dog and the difficulty of the toy. In particular if you have a young puppy, please buy a Kong. You will thank yourself for the extra hours of peace and quiet (and yes! puppyhood can include peace and quiet!). In most cases, they’re a particularly long-lasting toy.

Kongs are the prime examples of food-dispensing toys. They’re shaped like a snowman and can be stuffed with all sorts of different foods with varying levels of complexity.

For a very easy puzzle, you could put your dog’s regular dry food into the Kong and let them learn to flip it over to get the food out. I start with this step with very inexperienced dogs or dogs who tend to be timid with new objects or tepid about toys in general. The goal is to give them an easy win.

As the dog gets more confident with the toy, you can start adding challenges: dampened food, stuffed more firmly into the toy, then chilled, then frozen solid. A well-stuffed frozen Kong can last my very experienced dogs an hour of blissful chewing, costs me mere pennies, gives my dogs something productive to do with their energy and gives me a much-needed break from being in “mom mode” all the time. Think of it as a coloring book for your dog — “please go play quietly over there, I need a moment.”

Kongs can also be excellent for working on duration settle behaviors such as settling on a mat or relaxing in a crate. And if you get your dog hooked on appropriate toys from a young age, their desire to chew everything else on the planet can be more easily managed by redirecting them onto toys like Kongs instead of the legs of your heirloom furniture.

If you’re able to buy a few (the more, the better), you can fill them in batches and keep several pre-stuffed Kongs in the freezer for short notice. Almost anything a dog can eat can be dispensed via Kong, and the enrichment benefits are enormous.

4. Kong Wobbler

This is another toy made by Kong. It does share the same snowman shape, but it’s very different from the classic Kong in function.

The Kong Wobbler has a weighted bottom, a hollow top and a hole in the side. You fill the hollow space with kibble and dog treats, then screw it back together. The dog has to knock the toy down with their nose or paws, causing a few treats to intermittently drop out of the hole on the side. The weighted bottom then stands the toy back up again for the dog to knock over the next time.

This is a simple and straight-forward puzzle toy that I like for inexperienced dogs. It’s also much more physically active than a classic Kong.

There’s more finesse to the decision than this, but in broad strokes, I use a classic Kong when I want to attach sleepy-happy-warm-fuzzy feelings to something, and I use a Kong Wobbler when I want the dog to be able to drain some physical energy and get a small workout while thinking. Classic Kongs take more thoughtful, careful work (and can encourage the development of thoughtfulness and carefulness in general), whereas Kong Wobblers are more of a “flail at it until it produces food” option. Both have their place.

I like the Kong Wobbler in particular for puppies and adolescents who get fussy in the evenings during the “witching hour” and do zoomies through the house or become play-tyrants, incessantly pestering for attention. Instead of reinforcing that behavior by playing, I just schedule a puzzle toy for roughly the same time of day that my dogs get zoomie, which seems to average roughly 7pm for my clients and a bit later for my own dogs (I suspect because we’re a night owl household). Giving them an appropriate outlet to take all that energy out on can prevent them from rehearsing less desirable behaviors, such as ricocheting off the walls or dropping the tennis ball on your lap for the three thousandth time today.

5. Premier Tug-A-Jug

In my opinion, the Tug A Jug is a more advanced version of the Kong Wobbler. This is not normally a day-one-step-one puzzle toy for me because it does have a bit of a learning curve, unlike Kongs and Wobblers which are pretty beginner-friendly with minor modifications.

The Tug A Jug is a hard plastic bottle with a knotted rope through the neck. The bottom of the bottle unscrews to fill with kibble. The dog has to manipulate the rope to use the knot inside the bottle to pull treats up the neck of the bottle and dispense them to where the dog can get them.

It’s harder than it sounds! My dogs are very, very puzzle-toy savvy and it still takes them about thirty minutes to fully empty a Tug A Jug with larger kibbles (less time with smaller kibbles).

Like the Kong Wobbler, this is a “flail at it until it produces food” type of toy, in that it tends to be an active puzzle. Unlike the Kong Wobbler, there is definitely an element of strategy to the Tug A Jug, and I find it fascinating that different dogs will pick up different methods for manipulating the toy. Some dig at the rope, some hold the rope and kick the bottle, some shove the whole thing across the floor, and so on.

Unlike the Wobbler, this is a thinking toy as well as a physical toy. This is both a blessing and a curse. It’s lovely when you want to drain some energy without encouraging “friendly trampling” as a behavior. But it’s also more mentally taxing than the Wobbler and can be very frustrating for a less experienced dog.

6. Nylabone Chews

Nylabones are almost synonymous with puppy chewing.

These hard plastic bones are flavored with dog-friendly things like roasted chicken or peanut butter to make them more appealing. The hard texture seems to have a satisfying crunch and these toys can take a lot of abuse before being too worn to use, which is why I like them — they last forever.

While the chews themselves are not edible/digestible, they typically flake off in tiny rice-sized pieces of plastic which pass harmlessly through the dog’s system. If your dog is taking off chunks, remove the toy and make a note not to buy more in the future, but in my experience, this is extremely rare, even among “power chewers.” My aussie can out-chew just about anyone and Nylabones are a staple of her chew repertoire.

These come in various sizes, flavors and combinations, so feel free to look around. Make a note of the recommended sizes and ages for the various treats — this is one of the places where you don’t want to buy the wrong age/size for your dog. The puppy-specific Nylabones are really only appropriate for puppy-teeth, which means under 5 months for most dogs.

These are not typically the most appealing chews, but they are durable and generally well-liked — they are a “safe bet” chew, but not mind-blowingly high value for most dogs.

7. PetSafe 3 In 1 Harness

The PetSafe 3 in 1 Harness is one of my favorite harnesses for loose leash walking training. I appreciate its versatility — it can be used as a front attach harness, a typical back attach harness or a car restraint harness with an included seatbelt.

Front attach harnesses are one of the few physical tools that I use in conjunction with leash training, and even then, there are several popular models that I think are less desirable than advertised. This is an exception. Unlike many more popular models, this front attach harness does not go straight across the shoulder joint (lookin’ at you, Easy Walk) and instead meets at the withers, following the natural contours of the dog’s shoulder assembly. This lessens the chance of the harness causing injuries over time and makes it a milder tool, which I appreciate.

As a front attach harness, it gives a mechanical advantage to the human. Instead of pulling in a position where the dog can put their whole weight against the leash and strain, a front attach harness redirects them to the side if they try to bear down on the leash. While no tool eliminates pulling altogether (and anyone who says otherwise is selling you something), this can help comfortably manage your dog’s behavior in the short term while we work together to teach them how to walk on a leash correctly for the long term.

As a back attach harness, it spreads any pressure from the leash broadly across the body rather than pinpointing on any individual spot, making it a safer, lower-impact option. And the included car seatbelt is certainly handy for dogs who can’t ride crated. If you must have your dog loose in the car, a seatbelt is a safer compromise than letting them roam freely — both safer for them in the case of an accident, and safer for you so a sudden dog appearing over your center console doesn’t CAUSE an accident. This is less invasive than many types of dog seatbelts. That said, to my knowledge, it is not crash tested. If I were looking for a seatbelt alone, I would probably look at the SleepyPod brand instead. If I wanted to kill two birds with one stone, I’d get the PetSafe 3-in-1.

A note: I do not typically support PetSafe as a brand because of their continued manufacturing of shock collars. I believe in voting with my dollars and dislike sending business in their direction. That said, I have yet to find a harness that is as easily available as this one with all three features. When I find one from a less problematic, I will happily remove this from my referral list. Until then, the harness itself is a lovely product and it’s a shame that it’s made by a company I disagree with.

8. Ruffwear Front Range Harness

The Ruffwear Front Range Harness is a cult classic — you won’t find it in a local PetSmart, but it has quite a following among trainer folks.

This comfortably-padded harness has plenty of room for free range of motion through the shoulders, a wide chest plate to distribute pressure comfortably across the sternum, a front-attach point and a rear-attach point for versatility as either a no-pull or standard harness, and it’s particularly adjustable for those hard-to-fit sizes.

While this is a bit more expensive than the 3-in-1 harness listed above, it’s more comfortable through the chest for dogs who are likely to hit the end of their leash in a hurry. It also has a wider range of colors: charcoal, blue, green, orange, purple and red, versus just teal, purple and charcoal for the 3-in-1. It does not include the seatbelt feature that the 3-in-1 has.

I like this harness for walks when I will be less strict about my loose leash walking criteria, because I feel more comfortable that if my dogs do reach the end of the leash, this will be more comfortable and less likely to hurt than a narrower fronted harness. Unlike the 3-in-1, it also does not have any moving parts — the 3-in-1 has a small martingale feature on the front attachment point which can catch fur in some very long coated breeds (think collies) and which can fit oddly on narrowly-build dogs with slender chests.

Overall, I don’t have a strong preference between the two harnesses and am happy to work with you using whichever option you’d prefer. This choice is up to you!

9. Coghlan’s Refillable Squeeze Tubes

I had been training for nearly six years before someone recommended food tubes to me.

It was a revelation. The minute I tried them, I demanded of every trainer I knew, “Why didn’t someone tell me sooner?” So it has become my goal to be the person who tells people sooner!

Squeeze tubes are ideal for dispensing soft treats such as wet food, peanut butter, cream cheese, blended foods, pates, baby food, etc. My friend Eileen has a lovely blog post on squeeze tube recipes here. I particularly like using them for clients with fine-motor impairments (it does require hand strength, but less dexterity than dispensing individual treats), reactive or fearful dogs, or teaching loose leash walking with particularly shark-y puppies who want to nom your whole hand while you’re delivering the treats if they’re in a higher state of arousal.

The benefits here are huge. One, it keeps your fingers away from chompy puppy teeth. Two, it allows for continuous dispensing so there’s no inter-treat pause between reinforcers — you can almost plug the tube into the dog’s mouth and just very slowly squeeze for the whole duration of the exposure, which makes it ideal for anything involving counter-conditioning (fearfulness, aggression, reactivity, general unpleasant emotions), especially since some dogs loose finesse with their mouth skills when they are approaching threshold. Three, it pretty much forces you to use high value foods because almost anything you can dispense from a food tube is stinky and moist, which means appetizing to dogs. Four, if you’re interested in saving money on dog treats, you can be surprisingly thrifty with a food tube, a blender and a little bit of time. Plus, they cost about $3 apiece and they’ll last forever if you care for them properly. Use a bottle brush to clean them and make sure you don’t overfill — no more than 2/3 full unless you want to significantly shorten the lifespan of your tubes.

While there are also softer silicone models like the TreatToob (or more economical GoToob, which as best I can tell is absolutely identical to the TreatToob in every way but typically about half the price), I have a few minor drawbacks for those models that lead me to prefer the Coghlan’s tubes. The softer silicon tubes are easier to dispense for clients with limited hand strength, but less appropriate for fearful dogs, especially dogs who are noise sensitive. When you first begin dispensing, the silicone tubes often “fart” a small puff of air with an audible popping or poofing noise right in the dog’s face, which seems to significantly startle about one in four dogs that I work with. They’re also better suited to thinner consistency treats, such as slightly thickened baby food or gravy, whereas the Coghlan’s tubes work best with a toothpaste-y consistency. Neither is wrong and I’m happy to see people using the silicone tubes too, but my money goes to the Coghlan’s.

I find them very easy to load, easy to clean, easy to maneuver, and I like the consistency they dispense. For a pate dog food, I typically only have to mix in about a tablespoon of water per tube of wet food to get the right consistency. The only thing that would make the Coghlan’s tubes better for me would be if they had a flip-open cap.

Important: Neither option works well with chunky foods! Anything with a shredded, chunky, thick-and-thin texture is going to have problems in both types of tubes. Ideally, you want a smooth paste consistency.

If you’ve heard me talking about having to break out the cream cheese, sardines and liverwurst for particularly tough training problems, the Coghlan’s tubes are how I deliver that. (Never let it be said that I don’t love your dogs, because that stuff reeks to high heaven, which is why dogs will move mountains for it).

I also really like Coghlan’s tubes for things like vet visits or anything where the dog is going to be predictably put over threshold and you need to take out good behavior “on credit,” coasting on skills you haven’t earned with training yet. They make an excellent pacifier.

10. 30 Foot Long Line

Sometimes, my clients act as if there are two types of dogs in the world: Those who automatically come when called every time the first time they’re called no matter what, and naughty dogs who have their own priorities and should know better by now.

For those blessed with the former type without extensive training, know that your dog is pretty much a unicorn.

For those with the latter type, that’s why we train! There’s a LOT more to teaching a recall than just letting the dog off leash and seeing what happens.

A long line is exactly what it sounds like — a 30 foot leash so that even if your dog does not respond to your recall, you still have some control. I use these only in open, low-traffic areas (including foot traffic and other animals) where my dogs are functionally alone until the dog’s skills are pretty advanced.

Back in the old days, trainers used to use long lines to reel in a dog who wouldn’t recall to essentially force a recall — either you voluntarily come when I call you or I will physically drag you to me, but either way, you’re coming here. This is (obviously) not how I use long lines and not how I teach recalls. For me, the long line is a seatbelt, not a steering wheel — it’s what keeps your dog out of traffic if training doesn’t. It’s not a substitute for training in the first place and not a direct tool for accomplishing behavior change.

I love to use a long line as a temporary step between leashed walks and off leash walks — although I want to hasten to add that there is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing a long line as a long-term management option and you are perfectly allowed to stay at this level rather than progressing to off leash work if you choose. Two of my own dogs do not get off leash privileges because it does not make sense for their situations. The long line allows me to give them the freedom and flexibility to explore than an off leash dog gets, minus the risk of something catastrophic going wrong.

I like using a shorter long line such as this 15 foot model for a mid-range walk, such as a hike on a trail where I may pass other people but would still like my dog to have plenty of room to sniff. If we’re going to be in the wide-open, we’ll use a 30 foot instead.

I also find these really useful for teaching a loose leash walk, especially for dogs who instantly hit the end of their leash as soon as you take a step. A lot of the time, we have accidentally conditioned dogs that putting pressure on the leash is a prerequisite for walking. Using a gigantic leash where they have plenty of room to move around independently can remove some of that conflict while we teach them to prefer to walk very close to us on the left. Then we can fade down to shorter and short leash lengths, keeping the polite walking skill which was essentially trained “off leash” on the 30 foot leash. (It’s easier than it sounds.)

11. Flirt Pole

It’s okay, go ahead and laugh — I know it has a ridiculous name.

What even IS a flirt pole? If you’ve ever seen those cat toys that look kind of like a fishing pole with a feather or bell on the end, the flirt pole is the dog equivalent. It’s usually a springy pole with a comfortable handle, attached to a sturdy rope, attached to a toy.

These are incredible energy-burners for dogs who just need to turn on the accelerator and run for a little bit. They take very, very little space, so they’re more apartment- and condo-friendly than fetch or frisbee. You can exercise a dog with a flirt pole in a roughly 15×15 foot area without feeling cramped — that’s the size of a large living room (although I suggest playing outside if possible, because dogs tend to be a bit over-zealous with this game, especially if they haven’t done any accompanying impulse control work with toys).

Starting with the dog in a stay, drag the toy across the ground and wiggle it enticingly in front of them. Release the dog from the stay and use the pole to make the toy “run away” from your dog. Most dogs adore this game and you can burn a lot of energy very quickly.

I recommend playing for no more than 10-15 minutes for most dogs in a single session, even very athletic dogs. This is a lot of adrenaline and a lot of sharp turns, so it’s best played in moderation with breaks in between. But for rainy days when you only have a ten minute break before the next storm hits and your dog is climbing the walls with boredom, nothing beats a flirt pole.

These are especially great for reactive dogs who need a non-walk exercise outlet in a smaller, more secure location, or adolescent dogs who need to burn off a lot of energy in a hurry.

I try not to have this as the dog’s only form of exercise, since its intensity can lead to fixation.

12. Snuffle Mat

If a flirt pole is doggy adrenaline, then a snuffle mat is the opposite.

This is a soothing, crossword-puzzle type of enrichment activity that tends to promote thoughtful, quiet, satisfying feelings.

A snuffle mat is basically a section of overgrown shag carpet, typically made out of fleece strips tied into some sort of lattice. A few handfuls of treats are sprinkled into the fleece strips and tousled slightly so they’ll sink closer to the “root” of the mat. The dogs have to use their nose to locate sections with more or less food, then snuffle through the layers of fleece to uncover the individual treats.

Using their nose is super beneficial for dogs and tends to give you a lot of bang for your buck in terms of enrichment. It doesn’t take much energy from you, it promotes calm behavior in your dog, and it’s a lot of mental exercise in a very small package.

These can also be homemade on a small budget, so if you like DIY projects, this is one to try. I will warn you that they take much, much longer to assemble than I expected. The results are worth the time investment and it’s a relatively simple project — it’s something you could conceivably make while watching TV without losing your concentration on either thing.

I love using nosework skills to enhance a dog’s quality of life. Giving them “legal” opportunities to sniff goes a long way toward reducing high-arousal behaviors and encouraging a drowsy, thoughtful, fulfilled, mellow atmosphere.

For some dogs, it only takes a few minutes to empty a well-stocked snuffle mat, while others may work for upward of half an hour to find that last tiny crumb at the bottom. And unlike a flirt pole, a snuffle mat is a set-it-and-forget-it type of enrichment, so you can load the mat and then get to work on cooking dinner without a puppy underfoot in the kitchen, for example.

13. Place Cot

One of the most useful and least appreciated training props is a good old fashioned place cot.

Why? Because it gives your dog a very clearly designated place to be.

Being on place is incompatible with all sorts of nuisance behaviors, such as putting paws on the counter while you are cooking, pestering you while you are changing the baby’s diaper, jumping onto the sofa while you are watching TV, rushing into the other dog’s face while you are trying to train a different dog because OMG training time (no? just my household? okay), and all sorts of other things like that.

Instead of individually teaching your dog not to do all of the above behaviors and constantly monitoring them for compliance, it’s much easier to teach them what TO do — and in this case, laying down calmly in a predictable place is a highly desirable behavior in most households.

It’s also a great way to encourage a portable settle. For example, if you would like to go to a restaurant or park and have your dog settle calmly near your table, you can pack their mat and reward them periodically for resting politely on their mat instead of all of the various types of mischief that they could be getting into.

Place is one of the hardest behaviors to convince people that they need, and one of the most appreciated once you have it — it will change your life. I like to use a variety of props for teaching place, but in particular, I like a raised cot type bed like this Amazon Basics cot (a bit cheaper than the name brand and I feel like the colors match people’s houses better) and a soft rug such as a bath mat that can be easily rolled or folded up to make it more portable.

I start off teaching the skill on the raised platform because it makes it very, very clear to the dog whether they are meeting criteria or not — it is super obvious whether your legs are all at the same height or whether one is on the ground and the rest are on the cot. Once they have the idea, I start to generalize to various other types of mats for portability and convenience. This is also one of the easiest and most reliable ways to teach a stay.

14. Baby Gate

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: the biggest mistake people make in training their dogs is giving them too much freedom too soon, ESPECIALLY with puppies.

Management is not a dirty word and it is perfectly acceptable (and even desirable!) to find management solutions that prevent the problem from happening in the first place. And the champion of management is the good old humble baby gate.

My house literally has more baby gates than actual interior doors. They can be easily propped open or closed, they don’t interrupt line of sight so you can supervise your dog even from the opposite side of a barrier, they allow you to gradually transition your dog to larger and larger chunks of freedom instead of all or nothing Crate versus Total Anarchy juxtapositions, and they make it very easy to temporarily block off areas while your dog is still young and then open up access as your dog’s skills and ability levels match the level of temptation in the environment.

I especially love to see “airlock” setups at doorways with puppies, adolescent dogs and households with young children. That way visitors can come into the house before the dog has a chance to greet them, which allows you to set up calmer, more polite greetings and diminish jumping MUCH faster. The risk of a dog door-dashing outside is drastically lower, and it also gives you and the dog a chance to get your bearings before going on a walk or returning since both of those times can be hotspots for over-arousal behaviors.

The more you’re able to manage the environment, the less you will need to manage your dog and the more smoothly training will go. I am also a big fan of using baby gates to separate animals so that everyone has some time to themselves and no one feels pestered or codependent if avoidable.

This particular model is my favorite out of the five different brands of gates in my house. It opens easily with one hand and closes securely even if a dog jumps against it. By installing mine slightly less tightly than recommended, I’m able to easily open it with my foot as well if I have both of my hands full, which isn’t a feature I would have gone looking for, but it’s been surprisingly convenient.

15. Settle Mat

In the same category as the place cot is the bath mat. I use them for pretty much the same reasons, just in different environments.

I start with the place cot because I think that makes the goal behavior clearer to the dog. What the bath mat lacks in clarity, it makes up for in portability. I use these to clearly define a body target area where I would like my dog to “park” while we are out in public.

If the mat is visible, you should be on the mat. If good things are going to happen to you, they are going to happen to you on the mat. If you would like to be petted by a person, they will come to your mat and pet you there.

Mats and place cots are the ultimate incompatible behavior for almost everything. You can’t jump while laying on a mat, you can’t steal food while laying on a mat, you can’t pester guests while laying on a mat, you can’t crowd the doorway while laying on a mat, you can’t beg for food while laying on a mat, etc.

I don’t have strong feelings about the particular mat in this link. I picked it as a representative sample because it was large, padded, portable and had good ratings.

An actual photo of what I packed for a busy 4-day dog training seminar when my dog Bright was a young puppy. A chewing puppy is a quiet puppy! Pictured: Pet Tutor treat dispenser, Kong knock-offs, Nylabone, himalayan chews, water buffalo horns, Benebone, cheese whiz, rubbery plastic toys, collapsible water bowl. Not pictured: Treat pouch, clicker, settle mat.

Puppyhood Survival Kit

This list includes our go-to gear for most typical pet households.

We’re working on the assumption that you already have a leash, a collar and other basic dog care items, so these are specifically products that we use to impact a dog’s behavior and help with training.

1. Potty Bells

One of the most common things I’m asked to help with is potty training for young puppies.

There are very few things as distressing as a urine-damp sock early in the morning when you stepped on a wet spot on the carpet. Often, the puppies will go outside reliably when their owner remembers to take them and takes the initiative on making sure that they are empty, but if the owner doesn’t ask, the puppy will just go wherever they happen to be when the urge strikes. This is very common.

One of the easier solutions for this is to teach your dog to ring a bell to signal you that they need to go outside. This allows for two-way communication between the dog and the owner — the dog can say “hey man, I gotta go!” and the owner can say “great, outside is where we do that.”

The benefit of using a bell of any type is that it’s very audible even if you aren’t within eyesight of the door (and if your dog is not potty trained yet, why is your dog out of your eyesight? Bad owner!). It allows the dog to train us while we train the dogs, ending in a dog who knows BOTH where to do their business AND how to ask if their needs aren’t being met.

There are all sorts of puppy potty bell options out there, but it doesn’t take anything fancy. I like using the over-the-door-handle models because I feel like they are more versatile for hanging in various places, but I personally prefer to use Command Strips with a hook to hang them directly next to the door rather than hanging them from the door itself because I find the jingling incredibly irritating every time I open my own door for non-dog-potty reasons. Hanging it next to the door still gives me the benefit of proximity so it’s very clear to my dogs that bell = door = potty = reward, but doesn’t drive me nuts with the jingling every time I need to walk to the mailbox or go to my car, etc.

For the DIY types or people who are even more irritated by ringing than I am, windchimes can be substituted for potty bells, although you’ll want to find particularly small ones.

2. Nature’s Miracle

And in case your dog hasn’t quite figured the potty bells out yet, you’ll also want to stock up on a couple of bottles of Nature’s Miracle.

Nature’s Miracle is an enzymatic cleaner which erases the part of urine that makes it smell, which discourages dogs from pottying in the same places repeatedly. While I typically suggest this to puppy clients, it’s also an option for people who are working on housetraining goals with older dogs. There are many many enzymatic cleaners on the market and I’m sure some of them are just as good, but Nature’s Miracle is the name brand for a reason and it works very well.

Even though the goal of potty training is no accidents ever, this is a good thing to have on hand just in case. It does not have a strong perfumed scent and it’s safe to spray.

3. Crate with Divider

As I’ve said before and will say again, the number one mistake that people make with their puppies is giving them too much freedom too soon.

Crates are an excellent tool for setting careful boundaries for your puppy so they aren’t able to make bad decisions. While the imagery of a puppy in a box can have an emotional edge to it, you can think of this as your puppy’s crib. Just like you wouldn’t let a toddler have unimpeded access to the house, you shouldn’t let a puppy wander at will either. A crate will give your dog a pleasant and easily managed place to be during the times when you can’t be in Mom Mode to supervise.

I personally prefer to use a metal crate with a removable divider such as the Amazon Basics crate linked here or the Midwest iCrate. This allows you to make the crate temporarily smaller while your puppy is young to prevent potty accidents, then gradually let the crate grow with the dog rather than having to buy replacement crates as your dog grows or risk potty accidents when they are a puppy. Using the divider to make the space smaller prevents your puppy from being able to designate one side of the crate as the bed side and the other as the potty side — you want to avoid teaching the puppy that pottying in the crate is an option at all costs.

Using a combination of crate training, management and the potty bell system is the trifecta of easy potty training. Your carpets will thank you!

4. Ex Pen

An ex pen (or exercise pen, or x pen) is like a crate’s big brother.

Once upon a time, ex pens were for puppies to potty and/or play in, and crates were used for closer confinement. In modern dog training, ex pens are typically used for longer term confinement rather than as a tiny portable yard. The pen allows the puppy to move around naturally, engage with their toys, be present with the family without being as closely confined and still prevents them from chewing the heirloom furniture or sticking the proverbial fork in the socket.

I like to use ex pens for when I am in the house and supervising-ish, but not actively able to have my eyes on the puppy, such as when I am cooking. The puppy has the freedom to move around and make decisions and I’m able to engage with them, but they’re not able to get into mischief outside of a 4’x4′ fence.

This also tends to help dogs accept their crates more easily, since it removes some of the confinement pressure of the smaller spaces.

5. Puppy Kong

If you can get your puppy hooked on chewing acceptable items from an early age, you can train them to naturally prefer to chew on their own dog toys rather than your heirloom furniture, your kid’s homework or your shoes.

A kong is an excellent preferred chewing option for puppies because it’s pretty much built to automatically teach your dog to chew it.

A Kong is a snowman-shaped hollow rubber toy that can be stuffed with a variety of food treats. I like to begin very easy by just putting a bit of kibble into the hollow area and letting the puppy realize that they can hit the toy and knock it around to make food come out.

Once they are very confident and proficient with that, I start to gradually raise the challenge level. First I will fill it with dry kibble, then loosely cap it with a teaspoon of peanut butter at the opening so the dog has to lick through a squeezable treat to get to the easy part.

When that’s no problem for them, I will start to dampen the dry kibble in the main body of the Kong, then cap it with more of a wet food so they have to lick through that to get to the dampened food, which sticks a bit to the inside of the Kong and requires more effort to get it out. Then dampened food packed down so the dog has to use their mouth to get every last bit out of the bottom. Then dampened and lightly frozen (not frozen solid, just frosty). Then dampened and frozen solid. Then dampened, packed down and frozen solid, and so on.

This kills a LOT of birds with one stone. It seems like a novelty toy and in reality it is an enormously useful training tool. You can use a Kong to help a hyperactive puppy settle, help a teething puppy chew on appropriate items instead of rampaging through the house like a land-shark, teach a puppy to tolerate being left alone if that worries them (which is developmentally normal for puppies but alarming for owners), teach a puppy to ride comfortably in a car, teach a puppy to settle calmly on their mat, occupy a puppy while their nails are trimmed, keep a puppy from causing chaos in the waiting room at the vet’s office, and generally attach warm-fuzzy-calm-happy feelings to all sorts of things later in life.

The puppy ones are softer rubber and made for puppy teeth. If your puppy is over 4-5 months old, you’ll want to get the regular Kongs (red) or the extreme Kongs (black) instead of the puppy Kongs (pastels).

6. Puppy Nylabones

Nylabones are a brand of long-lasting puppy chews in a variety of textures, flavors and densities.

These are excellent for teething puppies all the way up to adult dogs and they are one of the safer toys to leave with your puppy when not supervising, since the risks of them breaking teeth or tearing off a chunk are comparatively really low compared to other similar toys.

Kongs are better when you have the time to stuff them and have them prepared, but I keep a handful of Nylabones scattered around the house (if there are no resource-guarders in the house) for opportunistic chewing. If my puppy gets a sudden hankering to chew in the middle of the kitchen, I want there to be an appropriate chew target in sight before they start to have thoughts about how delicious my breakfast room table’s legs look, you know?

There are plenty of Nylabone options available, but I like this bundle for the sake of variety. There are five different items with four different textures at a bargain price, so it’s a convenient way to figure out your puppy’s preferences before you invest in a lot of chews.

7. Snuggle Buddy

The Snuggle Buddy is a soft stuffed toy made for puppies just coming home from the litter.

Developmentally, it is normal for puppies to want to be with someone all the time — they are infants, after all. Even though puppy-infants are much more mobile and developed than human infants of a similar age, they are still biologically programmed to stick close to their littermates and moms until they’re upward of 12-16 weeks old. Since we typically bring home new puppies in the 8-10 week range, that means that we are taking them away from the moms and littermates before biology has prepared them to deal with being alone, which can make the first few days of transition really rough on a new pup.

The Snuggle Buddy is one way to mitigate that. This stuffed toy has a realistic sounding heartbeat and a safe heat-pack for “body heat” to mimic the comforting presence of another animal so your puppy doesn’t feel quite so alone in their big new world. This can help accelerate the crate training process so that your dog is less likely to experience an initial panic at the confinement of the crate, since it can separate the confinement from the isolation.

Note: This is one of the only items on this list that I have not used myself, but I feel comfortable recommending it after talking to colleagues who have.

8. No-Flip Water Bowls

Puppies are messy and there’s no other way to say it. Between the peeing, pooping, chewing, shedding, shredding, mud-tracking, digging and general puppy chaos — they’re a lot to clean up after.

A lot of that is just the nature of the beast and it will get better as their puppy-brains develop into dog-brains with a bit more sense. But some of it can be easily managed around to prevent problems before they start!

In particular, water bowl flipping is a common pass-time of puppies who enjoy the “hey, what does THIS button do” aspect of experimenting with their environment, to the detriment of your floors. These volcano-shaped bowls are much harder for clumsy (or intentional) puppy paws to flip since they have a broader base than a typical dog bowl. This particular brand also has a no-skid edge to keep puppies from playing bumper-cars with their water dish on tile or linoleum floors.

For more extreme bowl flippers, you may want to try these no-spill bowls with a donut rim or these jugs with a water bowl inset into the jug, both of which are even harder to flip (but also harder to clean, which is why my default setting is the volcano-shaped bowls). I particularly like these for puppies who want access to water in their crate overnight so they don’t dump the bowl and wake up to wet bedding and a cold soggy unhappy puppy.

Fortunately, puppies who don’t get reinforced for bowl-flipping from an early age typically grow out of it by 4-5 months except in extreme cases.

9. Baby Monitors

I use baby monitors for puppies in exactly the same situations that I would use them in for infants or toddlers.

If you are in the process of potty training your puppy, the ideal scenario is that you have alarms set during the night at regularly scheduled intervals (usually starting at 2-3 times per night), which means that YOU are waking you puppy up instead of the other way around. And in a perfect world, your puppy’s crate would be in your bedroom overnight for at least the first two weeks that they’re home.

But, as one of my favorite dog training mentors loves to say, “We don’t live in Perfect,” and sometimes that’s not how the world works. Sometimes the puppy wakes up halfway between alarms with a full bladder and strong feelings of Get Me Outta Here.

I like to use a baby monitor positioned near my dog’s crate or pen so I can hear the early stages of fussing before they have a chance to work themselves up to a full-blown potty meltdown, which can prevent some crate-screaming, some negative associations with the crate itself and some sore feelings on the part of the owners who have been unceremoniously woken up in the middle of the night and now screamed at by a pint-sized puppy with a bladder the size of a pea.

If you’re able to get to the puppy and let them out to potty when they’re still at the lower-level fussing and whimpering stage before it has a chance to escalate to a full blown tantrum, everyone involved can be less stressed out and get a better night’s sleep.

Did someone say treats?

Our Favorite Dog Treats

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1. Happy Howie’s Dog Food Roll (Turkey)

If you’ve ever asked me what I have chopped up in my treat pouch that’s making your dog go bananas, the answer is probably a Happy Howie’s dog food roll.

Since I work with a wide range of dogs from gigantic mastiffs to tiny yorkies and with every size appetite in between, it’s hard to find a treat that matches well to whatever dog I happen to be working with on a given day. Happy Howie’s treats are the ticket.

They come in large rolls kind of like a sausage and you cut off pieces and chop to whatever size you want. I like them to be roughly the size of an M&M or a pea for most dogs, although I’ll occasionally go bigger or smaller as needed. Since you’re doing the chopping, you can pick what works best for your dog.Each dog I work with will have slightly different treat preferences, but the Happy Howie’s rolls are my go-to for fussy dogs because it’s high value for almost everyone. They make them in turkey, beef and lamb. After testing all three for several months, the clear winner is turkey — a few dogs prefer lamb, very few prefer beef, but the turkey is by far the best bet.

There are other brands of treats that come in the roll shape. Until I tried Happy Howie’s myself, I happily recommended those alongside it. Now that I’ve chopped both types, there’s no comparison. Get this specific brand. It’s not carried locally and the difference is worth waiting for it to be shipped. Every other equivalent brand I’ve tried is either ridiculously crumbly (as in you lose about 1/4 of the roll to crumbs by the time it’s chopped, and I wish that was an exaggeration) or it turns into this really weird, kind of gross meat play-dough consistency at the bottom of your treat pouch by the end of the day. The prices are pretty similar from brand to brand, but nothing else on the market comes close to the consistency in Happy Howie’s. It’s easy to chop with almost zero crumbs and it holds its shape really well. This is what the other dog food rolls are trying to be.

A tip courtesy of our friends at Spring Forth Dog Academy: You can use a normal kitchen onion chopper to quickly cut the Happy Howie’s rounds into evenly sized pieces. It works like a charm! (Do not try this with other brands of meat roll or you’ll end up with meat-gunk smashed into your onion chopper, but it works great with HH).

The cons to this treat are that it does need to be refrigerated after opening, it’s not carried locally and you have to chop it yourself. But it’s the number one treat on my list for a reason, and I can whole-heartedly recommend it.It comes in 2-pound rolls and cases of six 2-pound rolls. I budget out a roll every week or two if I’m doing a lot of training, so I buy them in the six-roll bulk packages when I have a trainee in the house, which is what I’ve linked to here. The individual rolls are linked above where it says turkey, beef and lamb.

2. Zuke’s Mini Naturals

If I’m training out in town and need to grab treats quickly, Zuke’s Minis are what I look for on the shelf.

These are pea-sized pre-sliced training treats in just the right size for training tidbits, and they can be broken into two or three pieces if you need to stretch them a bit further. They come in about a dozen flavors and two different bag sizes. My defaults are the peanut butter, the chicken or the salmon in the large sized bags, and I haven’t noticed a strong overall preference for the dogs I’ve worked with. I will say that the peanut butter seems to be more polarizing than most: either they really love it or they really don’t. The link here is a sampler pack for six different flavors if you want to taste-test to see which your dog prefers.If you’re able to find the Zuke’s Tinies locally, I like those even better for toy-sized dogs under about 20 pounds. The Tinies are REALLY tiny, though, so only go for those if you have a dog with an itty bitty belly.

Once upon a time, Zuke’s was a beloved mid-sized independent brand, but it was bought out by Purina in roughly 2012. Trainers worried that the ingredients might change (because Purina), but as of 2018, it’s still the same list we’ve known and loved. The major benefits to Zuke’s are that they’re available just about everywhere, the ingredients list is decent, they don’t need to be refrigerated and you can get a lot of pre-cut treats for a fair price. Pound for pound, Happy Howie’s rolls are cheaper, but sometimes you just want something pre-chopped.Similar brands to price-check per pound: Merrick Power Bites and Pet Botanics Mini Rewards.

3. Beef Lung

Dehydrated meat treats in general are going to be a hit for most dogs.I like these beef lung treats in particular because they’re super high value compared to the price and I can break them into small pieces easily with my hands (versus the liver treats below, which I have a harder time breaking apart). Most dogs are really into these treats, so I generally use them as a jackpot rather than the primary treat for a training session — something a little higher value than their day-to-day fare. They’re also really easy to deliver for people with limited dexterity since the pieces are usually bigger than my other go-to dog treats and easier to hold onto because of the uneven shape.

I like these a lot for counter-conditioning fear, reactivity or aggression-based behaviors because they tend to make a big impression on the dogs without being super expensive or needing to be prepared ahead of time or refrigerated.

I will say that these tend to be pretty rich, so if your dog’s stomach is sensitive, this is a slow introduction treat. My own sensitive-stomach kids handle them fine, but I’ve worked with a few dogs who couldn’t handle how rich they were.

4. Freeze Dried Liver Treats

Back in the day, freeze dried liver was the go-to training treat — it was what EVERYONE used.There’s a reason for that: Most dogs are nuts for liver, like most other stinky, meaty treats. Now that we have a much wider range of dog treats on the market, liver treats aren’t quite as common, but they’re still very high value for most dogs. They have fallen out of favor a bit due to the price compared to the size, but if you need something high value and shelf-stable (non-refrigerated), these are usually a good option to have on the list. And because they have a stronger smell than many treats, they work well in “trail mixes” of multiple treats, so you can use them to raise the value of less-stinky mid-value treats.

These tubs are pre-cut, although I’ve usually found the pieces too big for my liking and I tend to break them apart even further to get them down to the sizes that I like. They don’t need to be refrigerated after opening and they’re easy to handle.

The downfalls are that these tend to be pretty crumbly and it’s normal to have a couple tablespoons of liver-dust at the bottom of the container when you’re done. (Fortunately, dogs love liver-dust every bit as much as they love liver itself, so sprinkle it over their food when you reach the end of the tub and call it a treat).

5. Freeze Dried Chicken Treats

Dehydrated chicken is another staple go-to dehydrated meat.It’s a little easier on the stomach that the liver or beef lung options above and tends to be on the cheaper side as well, pound for pound. I also like it because I can shred off itty bitty tiny pieces for very small puppies. It’s a little less prone to becoming meat-dust than liver and a little less likely to upset stomachs than beef lung, but also usually lower value than both. I don’t have strong feelings about dehydrated chicken in either direction, but it’s a good option for a non-refrigerated high-value treat for most dogs.

6. Kong Stuff’n

Kong Stuff’n is basically doggy cheese whiz.

It comes in a spray can in two different sizes and six or seven different flavors. You can find it at any PetSmart near the Kongs (not near the treats). The Puppy flavor and the Peanut Butter flavor have been the winners for me, but your mileage may vary on flavors. I haven’t tested a few of the flavor options, so my experience on that is limited.

I like using spray-type treats for several things in particular.

First, the intended purpose: It’s great for spraying into a Kong to make a sticky liner. I like to lightly coat the inside of the Kong with the Stuff’n, then pack a dry food on top of it so it sticks to the stuff’n and clings to the inside of the Kong. Trying to get to the last little bit of cheese whiz at the bottom of a Kong can keep a dog occupied for a surprisingly long time. For dogs who are just learning how to operate their Kongs, I also like to cap the larger end of the Kong with a dollop of Stuff’n to get them interested in the toy in the first place and to give them a quick success when they first start experimenting with getting the treats out.

Second, I like this for teaching the beginning steps of heeling. Back in the day, we used to teach with the “peanut butter spoon method.” You’d dip a big wooden spoon in the peanut butter jar and walk around with it in your left hand. When the dog was in heel position, you’d lower your arm so the dog could lick the peanut butter off the spoon. When the dog left heel position, you’d raise the peanut butter spoon out of their reach. The dog learned to stay glued to your left leg in hopes that the peanut butter spoon would drop down from the sky, and that would get us started on teaching a heel position before we faded the peanut butter spoon out of the picture. It was silly, but it worked. Kong Stuff’n fills a similar purpose in that it’s easy to turn on the “faucet” and then turn it off, so it works great for any continuous dispensing tasks.

Third, I like this a lot for counter-conditioning. It doesn’t need to be refrigerated and I can easily store it on top of a bookshelf, etc, so it’s within reach. When the trigger happens, it only takes a second to grab the Stuff’n and insert it into the dog’s mouth — no fumbling for treats in a pocket, no clue ahead of time that the trigger is about to happen because mom is wearing her treat pouch today, etc. In my house, I have a storm-phobic dog and this is the Thunder Cheese. (Don’t laugh, it works great.)

Fourth, I occasionally use this as a pacifier in situations where I’m asking the dog to temporarily exceed their actual abilities, such as if I have to take a very scared or reactive dog to the vet and I need them to be more docile in the waiting room than their current level of training. I can dispense a teeny tiny amount of Stuff’n at a slow steady rate to keep the dog focused on me instead of worrying about what is going on in the world around them.

7. Wellness Well-Bites

These squares are soft and flexible, similar to a chewy brownie consistency.They’re easy to cut into very small pieces and most dogs are willing to work for a tiny amount of these. I typically cut/break each square into nine or sixteen pieces depending on the size of the dog I’m working with. The lamb/salmon has been the biggest hit with my dogs, but any of the flavors I’ve tried have been well-received. I like rotating between the various flavors to keep my dogs from getting bored with the same old, same old. Unlike a lot of the softer chewy treat brands, these don’t seem particularly prone to drying out, although they’re easiest to cut when they’re fresh out of the bag.

These do tend to crumble or flake, which is both a benefit and a drawback — it makes it easy to break off small pieces, but also likely that you’ll have some crumbs in the bottom of your treat pouch after a training session.

8. Bil-Jac Little Jacs

Bil-Jac is an affordable treat that is easy to break into small pieces.

Remember when I mentioned “meat play-dough” above in the food roll section? Bil-Jac has a similar consistency, although it holds its shape a bit better than some of the non-Happy-Howies food rolls. The nice thing about it is that you can pinch off whatever size treat you need and easily make treats larger or smaller depending on what you’re working on. The downside is that it can be crumbly or glom together.

It’s a very smooth, malleable treat, so it works well as a cheaper alternative to a Pill Pocket if you have a dog who needs daily medication. It’s also easy to swallow for some dogs who swallow treats without chewing and gag.

Personally, I tend to go with either the Little Jacs or the YappleNana flavors in most cases. These are a mid-value treat for most of the dogs I work with — good, but not worth doing backflips over. However, for the price per pound, they’re worth a spot on your list of treat options.

9. Instinct Freeze Dried Raw Bites

If my dogs wrote the recommendations list, this would be number one or possibly tied with Happy Howies.

These freeze-dried meat bites are a huge hit for almost every dog I work with. There are very few things that are predictably high value for everybody, but this is one of them — almost every dog I work with will happily sell me their soul for a few pieces of freeze dried lamb. The size is great for training and the shape is just right.

The downfalls are that like almost all freeze-dried treats, the Instinct raw bites tend to be crumbly in a treat pouch and they’re on the higher end of the price range. I tend to use them in “trail mixes” of treats so I can stretch them a bit further.

Similar brand for price comparisons: Orijin freeze dried dog treats

10. ZiwiPeak Dog Food

Ziwi Peak treats are actually a super high value dog food.

These tiny flat squares about the size of a thumbnail have a kind of leathery jerky consistency and they are absolutely packed with meat. I like them because the per-pound price for Ziwi Peak is comparable to most of the treats above, but since this is formulated as a food, I’m less concerned about throwing off a dog’s dietary needs if I use a higher proportion of these “treats” in training than the recommended maximum 10% treats daily that AAFCO recommends. This is a premium dog food brand, so I feel good about using it as a training treat.

The Tripe and Lamb formula in particular is usually a huge hit. It’s not quite as strong smelling as many tripe products (thankfully), but the dogs still go nuts for it. It’s also easy to break into smaller pieces, similar to the Wellness Well Bites above.

11. The Honest Kitchen

The Honest Kitchen is a just-add-water dehydrated dog food.

It arrives in a powder form and can be reconstituted with warm water. If you make it as directed, it makes a soupy consistency, so I tend to use a little less water than the box calls for in most cases.

I like to use this as a Kong stuffing or a binder to hold dry food into a Kong (basically turning a cheap dry kibble into an imitation “wet food”). It also works well in the Coghlan’s squeeze tubes recommended earlier on the page, minus the occasional clot. Getting the consistency right for the squeeze tubes can have a bit of a learning curve but once you’ve got it, it’s a very convenient option for on-the-go since it’s shelf-stable until you add the water.

I like that this is made from entirely human-grade ingredients, and it’s a regular staple in the Kong recipes at my house — a nice balance between high value for my dogs, affordable and quick to prepare without needing to get out the blender. We usually do the turkey or the chicken flavors because those have been the preferred flavors in the past.

12. Baby Food

Wait, human baby food?

Yep, your standard Gerber (etc) baby food can make a surprisingly good dog treat, especially if you’re using a softer silicone squeeze tube like a GoToob. It works best if you thicken it slightly with corn starch, flour or tapioca flour before putting it into the squeeze tubes, but if you’re using it as a Kong stuffing ingredient, you can use baby food as-is. Baby foods that already come in a squeeze tube can be even more convenient for on-the-go dog training.

Remember to check that there are no ingredients in the baby food which are harmful to dogs. In particular, be on the lookout for onions, garlic, grapes, raisins and anything with the sweetener xylitol.

13. Canned Pumpkin

This one is a bit of an oddity on the list, because I rarely use it as a treat alone.

Canned pumpkin is a home remedy for an upset stomach. Since pumpkin is very high in fiber, most types of digestive upset in dogs can benefit from a tablespoon or two of canned pumpkin to help get things moving regularly again. I keep a can or two on hand in the pantry year round as a just-in-case, and if anyone’s stomach is acting funny, they get a scoop of pumpkin with the next two or three meals. Usually it’s cleared up within a day.

When I worked at a dog daycare and boarding facility, we froze ice cube trays full of canned pumpkin so we had pumpkin-cubes. This works great if you rarely use the pumpkin but want to make sure you have some on hand without wasting a whole can each time your dog’s stomach is upset — give them a scoop the day you open the can, then freeze the rest into pumpkin-cubes and keep them in the freezer for a while.

This also works well as a binder for Kong recipes, so I do give it to my dogs when their stomachs aren’t upset too, and it pairs pretty well with cream cheese for a squeeze tube recipe with the right consistency for Coghlan’s tubes. But mostly, we use it when someone’s belly is off.

Coming Soon: Even More Opinions!

You didn’t think you were getting away that easily, did you? We have even more opinions than this.

Soon, we’ll be adding sections for our recommended dog training books, video tutorials (because YouTube dog training advice can get scary fast), service dog gear and more!