#3 Essential Dog Item - Treat Pouch

Use a marker word like “yes!” or “good!”

A treat pouch is a little bag that clips onto your waistband or belt, or even clips around your waist as a fanny pack. If you are bringing a dog to live with you, you absolutely must have this. (They should come free with all adoptions and breeder purchases, in my opinion!) After you have established relationship and basic training, you will not need the treat pouch as much. But, you should have one anyway. There will always be new situations that you will need to teach your dog how to behave in, especially in a place like the Bay Area, where there are so many outdoor and different things to do (like the Golden Gate Park Pet Pride Day!) A lot of dogs also like to push boundaries during their teenage years, and even their whole lives! Bully breed dogs are stubborn, determined, and strong, and most of them (especially French bulldogs), will test you to see if you really mean it… every day. Having a pouch of yummies on your hip is going to help your cause immensely!

Treats do not need to be given for every single correct behavior and obeyed command. (Which reminds me to remind you - treat your dog when she does something right! Too many people forget to reward good behavior when it happens!) It’s good to mix it up, and use voice or touch praise as well. This ensures the dog doesn’t get so accustomed to getting a treat all the time, and relax and get lazy. Not giving your dog a treat every time he sits or comes back or leaves the nasty ice cream wrapper alone, makes them keep hoping and working to see if this time they get a treat!

If you are worried about your dog getting chubby, or need to slim her down already, or have a dog that really needs a lot of training and behavior modification, you can use her regular meal kibble as treats, or at least put some of them in the mix, so that the dog will never know if they are going to get the awesome piece of hot dog, or their usual dinner. This also keeps them on their toes and working.

You can find a ton of different styles of treat pouches, ranging from about $5 on. I recommend Noe Valley Pet Co. or other independent pet stores in San Francisco that will help you figure out what style you want.