Dog training
Best Dog Training Treats
By PawPicks Research ยท Updated
Quick answer
Zuke's Mini Naturals are the best all-around training treats: soft, pea-sized, about 3 calories each, and led by a real meat ingredient, which is why they're the default in so many trainers' pouches. Keep a bag of those for everyday reps, and add a high-value option like Stewart Pro-Treat freeze-dried liver for recall and work around distractions. The two-treat system beats any single bag.
Training treats are a different product from regular dog treats, and the difference is math. A useful session burns through 30 to 100 rewards, so each one has to be tiny, quick to swallow, and low-calorie enough that fifty of them don't wreck the day's diet. A biscuit your dog stops to crunch for ten seconds kills the pace that makes training work.
The other thing no single bag can do is cover both ends of the value scale. Dogs work for what they care about, and a treat that's exciting on your kitchen floor is wallpaper at the dog park. So this list is built the way trainers build their pouch: cheap low-value treats for easy reps at home, and high-value freeze-dried meat or fish for recall, leash work near other dogs, and anything else where you're competing with the environment.
Every pick below is judged on the things that matter in a real session: calories per treat, texture and speed, first ingredient, and cost per rep. No fabricated taste tests, just labels, math, and the patterns in thousands of owner and trainer reviews.
Our picks at a glance
| Pick | Product | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall | Zuke's Mini Naturals Chicken Recipe | about $11 for a 16-oz bag | The everyday pouch treat for most dogs and most sessions |
| High-value pick | Stewart Pro-Treat Freeze-Dried Raw Beef Liver | about $14 for a 4-oz tub | Recall, distraction-heavy environments, and dogs on limited-ingredient diets |
| Best budget | Charlee Bear Original Crunch Liver Recipe | about $7 for a 16-oz bag | High-volume home practice and owners who reward all day long |
| Softest treat | Blue Buffalo Blue Bits Soft-Moist Training Treats | about $8 for a 9-oz bag | Puppies and dogs that need a treat gone in under a second |
| Best count per bag | Pet Botanics Training Reward Bacon Flavor | about $11 for a 20-oz bag | Group classes, puppy socialization, and marathon practice weeks |
| Single-ingredient fish | Vital Essentials Freeze-Dried Raw Minnows | about $15 for a 2.5-oz bag | Fish-crazy dogs and a jackpot reward that stays special |
Zuke's Mini Naturals Chicken Recipe
about $11 for a 16-oz bag
- Calories
- About 3 per treat
- First ingredient
- Chicken
- Texture
- Soft, semi-moist
- Size
- Pea-sized
If you peek into working trainers' treat pouches, this is the bag you'll see most, and the label explains why. Each treat is about 3 calories, so a 50-rep session costs a medium dog roughly what one biscuit would. They're soft enough to swallow in a second, small enough that you don't need to break them, and chicken leads the ingredient list with no corn, wheat, or soy. They also come in peanut butter, salmon, rabbit, and duck, which helps when you need a novelty bump without changing brands.
Pros
- About 3 calories per treat, so high-rep sessions stay within the daily budget
- Soft and fast to eat, which keeps training pace up
- Real meat first, no corn, wheat, or soy
- Several flavors for rotating without switching products
Cons
- Semi-moist treats dry out and harden once the bag's been open a while
- Middling excitement value, so they won't hold attention around big distractions
Best for: The everyday pouch treat for most dogs and most sessions
Check price on ChewyStewart Pro-Treat Freeze-Dried Raw Beef Liver
about $14 for a 4-oz tub
- Ingredients
- Beef liver, nothing else
- Process
- Freeze-dried raw
- Value level
- High
- Made in
- USA
Freeze-dried liver is the classic high-value training treat, and Stewart has been selling this exact orange tub since before clicker training went mainstream. The ingredient list is one item long, which makes it safe for dogs with allergies and food sensitivities, and the pieces break into whatever size you need. This is the treat you bring out for recall practice, vet-visit counter-conditioning, and leash work past other dogs, precisely because your dog doesn't get it any other time. Feed it sparingly: liver is rich, and too much in one session can loosen stools.
Pros
- Single ingredient, so it works for almost every allergy dog
- About as exciting as a shelf-stable treat gets for most dogs
- Breaks into pieces, so one tub lasts longer than it looks
Cons
- Expensive per ounce compared with everything else here
- Rich enough to cause soft stools if you overdo it in one session
Best for: Recall, distraction-heavy environments, and dogs on limited-ingredient diets
Check price on ChewyCharlee Bear Original Crunch Liver Recipe
about $7 for a 16-oz bag
- Calories
- About 3 per treat
- Texture
- Dry, crunchy
- Ingredients
- Three main ones
- Pocket friendly
- Yes, no grease
Charlee Bears are the cheapest credible training treat on Chewy, and they fix the problem every soft treat has: grease. They're dry little crackers with liver baked in, so you can fill a jacket pocket without a treat pouch and without laundering the evidence. At about 3 calories each and a three-item ingredient list, they're an easy conscience-free reward for dogs that get lots of them. The trade-off is that they're crunchy, so reps run slightly slower, and dry crackers sit low on most dogs' value scale.
Pros
- Cheapest per treat of anything on this list
- Dry and grease-free, so pockets work as well as a pouch
- Short, simple ingredient list at about 3 calories each
Cons
- Crunchy texture slows down rapid-fire reps
- Low value for picky or distracted dogs
Best for: High-volume home practice and owners who reward all day long
Check price on ChewyBlue Buffalo Blue Bits Soft-Moist Training Treats
about $8 for a 9-oz bag
- First ingredient
- Real meat (beef or chicken)
- Texture
- Very soft
- Extras
- DHA added
- Grain
- No corn, wheat, or soy
Blue Bits are the softest mainstream training treat, and softness is a real feature: a treat that mashes instantly means the dog's eyes come back to you faster, and it can be smeared apart for tiny dogs and young puppies. Meat is the first ingredient, there's no corn, wheat, or soy, and the added DHA is a sensible touch for puppy formulas even if it won't change your training results. They're a bit bigger and richer than Zuke's, so break them in half for small dogs and count them toward the calorie budget honestly.
Pros
- Softest texture here, ideal for puppies and fast rep chains
- Real meat first with no corn, wheat, or soy
- Easy to tear into smaller pieces for little mouths
Cons
- Larger and more caloric per piece than Zuke's, so portioning matters more
- Soft-moist crumbs make a mess in pouches and pockets
Best for: Puppies and dogs that need a treat gone in under a second
Check price on ChewyPet Botanics Training Reward Bacon Flavor
about $11 for a 20-oz bag
- Count
- Hundreds per bag
- Calories
- Very low per treat
- First ingredient
- Pork liver
- Texture
- Soft
This is the volume play: a big bag of small, soft, pork-liver-based morsels that works out to hundreds of rewards for around the price of a fast-food lunch. Group-class instructors like these because a puppy kindergarten hour can eat 150 treats, and at this size and calorie count that's still a rounding error in the day's food. Pork liver leads the ingredient list, which puts the value level a notch above a plain biscuit even though these are firmly an everyday treat, not a recall treat.
Pros
- The best cost per rep of any soft treat on Chewy
- Small and low-calorie enough for very long sessions
- Pork liver first, which most dogs find worth working for
Cons
- Longer additive and preservative list than the simpler treats here
- The moist morsels can clump together in the bag over time
Best for: Group classes, puppy socialization, and marathon practice weeks
Check price on ChewyVital Essentials Freeze-Dried Raw Minnows
about $15 for a 2.5-oz bag
- Ingredients
- Whole minnows, nothing else
- Process
- Freeze-dried raw
- Value level
- Very high for fish dogs
- Species
- Dogs and cats
Whole freeze-dried minnows sound extreme until you meet a dog that loses its mind for fish, and there are a lot of those dogs. Like the Stewart liver, the ingredient list is one item, which makes these another safe high-value option for allergy dogs, and they're light enough that a pocketful weighs nothing on a hike. They're also a genuinely novel smell and texture, which is exactly what you want when liver has gone stale as a jackpot reward. The obvious cons: fish smell on your hands, and squeamish owners should look at pick 2 instead.
Pros
- One ingredient, so allergy dogs can have them
- Novel enough to work when other high-value treats have gone stale
- Feather-light for hikes and long walks
Cons
- Strong fish smell on hands and in pouches
- Small bag for the price next to the liver tub
Best for: Fish-crazy dogs and a jackpot reward that stays special
Check price on ChewyLow-value and high-value treats: the split that makes training work
Dogs rank rewards, and smart training uses that ranking instead of fighting it. Low-value treats, like Charlee Bears or Zuke's, are for easy reps in boring places: sits in the kitchen, mat work in the living room, loose-leash steps in the yard. Using filet mignon for kitchen sits wastes your best card and teaches the dog that boring places pay the same as hard ones.
High-value treats, which for most dogs means freeze-dried liver, fish, or bits of real cooked meat, are reserved for the hard asks: coming when called away from a squirrel, staying calm while another dog passes, holding it together at the vet. The rule that keeps a treat high-value is scarcity. If the minnows show up every day, they're kibble; if they only appear when your dog turns away from something fun, they're magic. Build your pouch around one bag from each tier and you've covered ninety percent of training situations.
The calorie math nobody does
Vets recommend keeping treats under about 10% of a dog's daily calories, and training is where that budget quietly explodes. A 30-pound dog eats somewhere around 700 to 900 calories a day, which leaves roughly 70 to 90 for treats. With a 3-calorie treat like Zuke's or Charlee Bears, that's 25 to 30 rewards a day with room to spare; with a 25-calorie biscuit, it's three. That single number is why dedicated training treats exist.
Two ways to stretch the budget further: break treats in half, since dogs respond to the number of rewards far more than their size, and on heavy training days, scoop out some of the dinner kibble to compensate. If you're doing daily sessions, the treat calories are part of the diet, not extra.
Texture, size, and the pouch test
Speed is the underrated spec. In a good session, the reward should be delivered and gone in about a second so the dog's attention snaps back to you; soft treats win here, which is why trainers default to them, while crunchy treats slow the loop as the dog stops to chew and hoover up crumbs. Size should be pea-sized or smaller for any dog, and closer to a half-pea for small breeds and puppies.
Then there's the practical test: can it live in a pouch or a pocket? Greasy treats stain, moist ones clump and mold if forgotten, and crumbly ones turn to dust. Dry treats like Charlee Bears survive weeks in a jacket pocket; semi-moist ones like Zuke's are fine in a pouch that gets emptied; freeze-dried treats are light and clean but crumble under pressure. None of that changes how your dog learns, but it changes whether the treats are actually on you when a training moment happens, and that decides more than the brand does.
Frequently asked questions
What treats do dog trainers use?
Most professional trainers carry a mix: a cheap soft treat like Zuke's Mini Naturals or Pet Botanics Training Reward for everyday reps, and a high-value one like freeze-dried liver or real cooked chicken for recall and distraction work. The common threads are pea size, soft texture, and around 3 calories each, so a session can include dozens of rewards without slowing the pace or blowing the dog's diet.
How many treats can I give my puppy during training?
Keep all treats under about 10% of your puppy's daily calories, which the treat size decides more than any fixed number. With 2-to-3-calorie treats broken in half, most puppies can handle 30 to 50 rewards a day inside that budget. For heavy training weeks, use part of the puppy's regular kibble ration as low-value rewards and save the bought treats for the harder wins, and trim meals slightly on big session days.
What are high-value treats for dogs?
High-value treats are the ones your dog will work hardest for, and for most dogs that means strong-smelling real meat or fish: freeze-dried liver, freeze-dried minnows, bits of cooked chicken, cheese, or hot dog. Value is set by the dog and by scarcity, not the price tag, so the real definition is anything your dog rarely gets and visibly loves. Save them for recall, leash reactivity work, and scary situations like the vet, and they'll keep their power.
Can I use kibble as training treats?
Yes, and for easy reps at home it's the smartest option, because it costs nothing extra and can't unbalance the diet. Many trainers portion out breakfast and have the dog earn it through the day. Kibble's limit is value: it won't compete with squirrels, other dogs, or a busy park. Use kibble for low-distraction practice and bring real treats, like freeze-dried liver, for anything hard.
Are soft or crunchy treats better for training?
Soft treats are better for actual training sessions. The reward should be swallowed in about a second so the dog re-engages immediately, and soft treats disappear fast while crunchy ones make the dog stop, chew, and vacuum crumbs off the floor. Crunchy treats like Charlee Bears still earn their place for casual all-day rewarding and pocket carry, but when you're chaining fast reps, soft wins.
What training treats are best for dogs with allergies?
Single-ingredient freeze-dried treats are the safest bet, because there's nothing hidden in them: Stewart Pro-Treat is only beef liver, and Vital Essentials minnows are only fish. Match the protein to whatever your dog already tolerates, or use a novel one your dog has never eaten if you're mid-elimination-diet. Skip multi-ingredient soft treats during any food trial, since one mystery binder can invalidate weeks of careful feeding.
Keep reading
Ready to try our top pick?
Zuke's Mini Naturals Chicken Recipe - the everyday pouch treat for most dogs and most sessions
See it on Chewy