Using freeze-dried salmon as a recall reward

Salmon treats for recall training are a simple idea: hold the salmon back for one cue, coming when called, and use something plainer for everything else. Break a piece into small bits before you leave, carry them in a pocket, and count every bit against the allowance the treat budget calculator on our product page shows.

Should you save salmon treats for recall?

That is your call, and this page will not dress it up as a rule. On the store's scorecard salmon gets 4 of 5 for training value and 3 of 5 for crunch, and that 4 of 5 is why the store calls it a high value reward. A scorecard is the store's own rating of its treats against each other. It is not a fact about your dog.

You can keep one reward for a single cue and use it nowhere else. If you choose salmon for that job in your house, the rest of this page covers the practical side: piece size, carrying, and the day's allowance. Session basics, such as how the bits are handed over and when the pouch gets closed, live in our guide to salmon training treats and how to use them.

Here is the shape of one rep:

1. Bits ready in a pocket before the dog is off doing something else.
2. Call once, in the voice you plan to keep using.
3. Reward on arrival, the moment the dog reaches you.
4. Release the dog to go back to whatever it was doing.
5. Reseal the pouch at the end if it came along.
6. Wash your hands when you get home.

How small should a recall reward be?

Small. The listing says the pieces are medium sized and break into small, quick rewards. For recall, do the breaking at home over the open pouch, not on the sidewalk with a leash in one hand. Out on the walk the bits are already the right size and your hands are free.

Crumbs count. If you are using salmon treats for teaching come, the crumbs left from breaking can be a rep's reward as well as a tidy bit can, and they come out of the same allowance.

The salmon is freeze-dried raw, and the bag's hand washing line travels with it. The bag says: "Wash your hands after handling it." Do that after the breaking at home and again when the walk is over.

How do you carry salmon for recall practice outside?

Recall rewards outdoors need a pocket you can reach with one hand, not a bag you have to open with two. The listing says the pouch is lightweight, shelf stable and clean to carry, so the whole pouch can come along, or a few broken bits can ride loose in a jacket pocket. Keep it the way you would keep jumper cables in the trunk: one place, always the same place.

The bag says: "Reseal the pouch once it is open and store it cool and dry." If the pouch itself comes with you, close it after you load your pocket and again before it goes back on the shelf. Longer trips, the car and the trail are covered in our blog on salmon treats for travel.

How many recall reps fit in the treat allowance?

There is no rep count on the bag, and we are not going to invent one. What the label gives is an energy figure: the 1.5 oz pouch runs about 85.6 kcal per ounce. The treat budget calculator on our product page takes the daily calories you type in, starts at 10 percent as its default setting, and shows that share as salmon by weight. It never shows a piece count. Your veterinarian sets the real share and the daily calorie number; the calculator does arithmetic on whatever you give it.

For recall, the practical move is to weigh out the day's bits once, pocket that amount, and stop when the pocket is empty. Saving salmon for recall does not make the allowance bigger. A heavy practice day means fewer salmon rewards at other times that day. The rest of what we have written is on the guides hub.