What treats do you use in board and train?

Three things decide what your dog earns during a stay. First, its normal diet, because a training week is the wrong time to change food and unsettle a stomach. Second, its preferences: some dogs work hard for kibble, others only for something soft and smelly, and many rank a toy or a sniff above both. Third, its restrictions, from a prescription diet to a known allergy. Gabriella Pope sorts all three at the consult, before the first session.

Value is then matched to difficulty. Easy, familiar work in a quiet room can run on plain kibble from the ration, while new skills, distractions and recalls away from something exciting earn the best rewards on offer. Spending the good stuff where it makes a difference keeps the calorie count sane. Over the week, non-food rewards such as a game, a chance to sniff or a door opening carry more of the load, and at home they matter even more, for instance on a walk past the gulls on Gloucester's waterfront.

The ingredients most often reported in dogs' food allergies are everyday ones. A 2016 review in BMC Veterinary Research by Mueller, Olivry and Prélaud pooled reports covering 297 dogs with adverse food reactions: beef was implicated in 34 percent, dairy products in 17 percent, chicken in 15 percent and wheat in 13 percent, with lamb at 5 percent. Many commercial training treats are built on exactly those ingredients, so read the label as closely as the food bag.

For an allergic dog, the safest reward is the food it already tolerates. Pack that, or a treat your vet has chosen for the diet, in a separate labeled bag. If you bake your own, leave out xylitol, grapes, raisins, chocolate, onion and garlic, all on the ASPCA's list of foods that harm dogs. The ASPCA notes xylitol turns up in gum, candy, baked goods and toothpaste, so check anything sweet before it goes in the pouch.