# manners minder / treat & train



## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

Has anyone used a remote treat device? 

I thought it might be a good idea for Tyson as he barks when I leave the house, but was deterred by the price. One of the instructors at camp recommended it for his barking issue and mentioned that the price had dropped almost in half. I was sold, but can't seem to find one for much less than $100. 

Any experience positive or negative? If you've used one, what have you done with it? I'm trying to justify the price by generating a list of training applications.

Thanks!


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## Kyllobernese (Feb 5, 2008)

The Agility trainer I went to had one. I don't know how it would work for when you left your dog as you have to be there to activate it. I think they are usually around $100. She used it to treat the dog on the contact obstacles when she teaches the 2o2o. If they hold it, they get a treat, otherwise they don't and you don't have to be there to give it to them. It is used more to treat them at a distance and you have control over whether the dog gets a treat or not.


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## trainingjunkie (Feb 10, 2010)

I have one. My biggest usage has been from proofing the weaves or starting go-out training. I know people who put them on their crates without the catch tray and use them to remotely reward a dog for quieting in its crate. There is a facebook page that lists 1,000s of usages for them. 2o2o, stays. 

Here is one of the facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/groups/375114559224621/

Mine has gathered dust but it is a neat tool.


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## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

Thanks for the feedback. I was under the impression that there was a remote control with a 100ft range. Not sure I see the point if one needs to be close to activate it; why not just give the treat then?


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## trainingjunkie (Feb 10, 2010)

100 feet is a long ways. It's the distance of an agility course. You can reward a dog in the living room while you're in the kitchen. You can reward a down-stay from across the ring. But yeah, they are limited.

Might not fit what you're looking for.


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## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

trainingjunkie said:


> 100 feet is a long ways. It's the distance of an agility course. You can reward a dog in the living room while you're in the kitchen. You can reward a down-stay from across the ring. But yeah, they are limited.
> 
> Might not fit what you're looking for.


Guess I'm confused by Kyllobernese's comment, "I don't know how it would work for when you left your dog as you have to be there to activate it." versus the Treat & Train description from Clean Run, "Hand-held remote control that can operate on 4 channels and that emits a _signal capable of traveling through walls up to 100 feet_. The remote runs on a 23A-12V battery, which is included."

My plan was to leave Tyson in the kitchen and go out the front door (out of sight), reinforce for quiet, and gradually increase the time I'm out of the house/out of sight. I wouldn't necessarily need to be 100 feet away, just out the front door and around the corner.


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## kadylady (Sep 23, 2010)

I have one on order...and am excited! I've been borrowing my agility instructors and have used it for both contacts and weaves proofing. I also took it home for a bit and was using it for proofing their place commands when people come over. Also using it to proof the place/stay when I'm working with one dog and the other is required to wait their turn. I like it a lot the little bit I have worked with it. It's on Amazon for like $92 or something like that plus if you have prime you can get free shipping. It's also on chewy.com for about the same price. Clean Run had them on sale last march for $75 and I wish I had bought one then. 

Can't comment on the distance thing since I don't have one yet, but sounds like something that would work for you to step into another room or just outside the house. I plan to use mine to reinforce quiet in the crate while I'm teaching...my dogs decided to hold a musical during one of my classes this week...:doh:


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## Hector4 (Sep 16, 2013)

I have the petsafe auto treat dispenser. My dogs don't like it even though they are greedy. My skittish belgian got even more skittish from it and didn't want anymore food from it. It worked for my female cutting her nails, but even then she was startled.


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## moluno (Apr 29, 2009)

I've worked on recall with mine. Stand X feet away, dispense treat, call dog to me, repeat. It's just more predictable than me trying to toss treats away from me in order to get my dog to move, and this way treats don't get lost in the grass etc  It's a nice one-person recall game. 

I also used it for a puppy I had for a short while, that had awful crate anxiety. I didn't get to work with this long enough to see what the long-term effect would have been, but it did keep her quiet while it was dispensing treats. You can have it set to dispense a treat every 5 seconds, 30 seconds, 3 minutes, whatever.... so you don't have to be there using the remote. That setting allowed me to be able to take showers.


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## kadylady (Sep 23, 2010)

Cookieface, thought it would be better to reply to this thread about the Treat N Train, rather than the grooming one.

Didn't get to use it as much as I wanted this weekend since little miss sliced her paw pad open Friday night and has been on minimal activity. I did play with the range a little bit though. I had my sister stay in the house with Luke and listen for it to beep and dispense while I went outside. I went at least 30 yards, possibly closer to 40. The windows of the house were all open but I went to the other side of the neighboring house so there was a house in between the remote and the unit. I didn't go any further than that but it was working fine that far away.

Will be bringing it with me when I teach classes tomorrow night to reinforce quiet in their crates.


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## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

We use them at the shelter for desensitizing fearful or reactive dogs to being on the adoption floor. I always thought they were a cool toy, but i didn't think I'd have much use for it at home.... Wow, has this thread made me really, really want one.


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## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

kadylady said:


> Cookieface, thought it would be better to reply to this thread about the Treat N Train, rather than the grooming one.
> 
> Didn't get to use it as much as I wanted this weekend since little miss sliced her paw pad open Friday night and has been on minimal activity. I did play with the range a little bit though. I had my sister stay in the house with Luke and listen for it to beep and dispense while I went outside. I went at least 30 yards, possibly closer to 40. The windows of the house were all open but I went to the other side of the neighboring house so there was a house in between the remote and the unit. I didn't go any further than that but it was working fine that far away.
> 
> Will be bringing it with me when I teach classes tomorrow night to reinforce quiet in their crates.


Thank you so much!!! Thirty yards would definitely work for alone training - I really only need to be just outside the door - and I can't imagine them needing to be more than that far for any other type of training. I thought of two more uses this morning: reinforcing Katie when she's sitting nicely in the living room (i.e., not barking at the window) and reinforcing Tyson for keeping four on the floor and not counter surfing. 

Can I ask where you got yours? Did you order online? I've seen it for a decent price on Chewy and a few other online places I'm not familiar with.


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## kadylady (Sep 23, 2010)

cookieface said:


> Can I ask where you got yours? Did you order online? I've seen it for a decent price on Chewy and a few other online places I'm not familiar with.


I got mine from Chewy. My friend had a 20% coupon to use for there and so she added it to her order for me. But yeah, Chewy has one of the lower prices plus free shipping I believe. Also amazon has it for a similar price and if you have prime you can get it with the free 2 day shipping. Mine came in about 5 days from Chewy.


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## Kyllobernese (Feb 5, 2008)

There must be different models of them as hers had just one setting and it did not seem to work when she was too far away from it. She did not use it for very long as her dogs kept running to it to see if there was a treat coming down. I can see it working for you if you can set it off from outside though as long as your dog did not try to destroy it to get the treats out of it. Hers was the only one I have seen so did not realize there were better ones.


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## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

Kyllobernese said:


> There must be different models of them as hers had just one setting and it did not seem to work when she was too far away from it. She did not use it for very long as her dogs kept running to it to see if there was a treat coming down. I can see it working for you if you can set it off from outside though as long as your dog did not try to destroy it to get the treats out of it. Hers was the only one I have seen so did not realize there were better ones.


There is a similar, but cheaper, product (Train & Praise, maybe?) that I came across, but it didn't have great reviews (sound was one issue) and didn't seem as flexible as the T&T. There's also the Ready Treat which also seems to have more limited use (although I'm not really sure why). Then there's the Pet Tutor which is significantly more expensive, but seems to have more features.


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## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

kadylady said:


> I got mine from Chewy. My friend had a 20% coupon to use for there and so she added it to her order for me. But yeah, Chewy has one of the lower prices plus free shipping I believe. Also amazon has it for a similar price and if you have prime you can get it with the free 2 day shipping. Mine came in about 5 days from Chewy.


Thanks! We'll probably order from Amazon or Chewy.


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## Hector4 (Sep 16, 2013)

cookieface said:


> There is a similar, but cheaper, product (Train & Praise, maybe?) that I came across, but it didn't have great reviews (sound was one issue) and didn't seem as flexible as the T&T. There's also the Ready Treat which also seems to have more limited use (although I'm not really sure why). Then there's the Pet Tutor which is significantly more expensive, but seems to have more features.


The pet tutor is ridiculously priced at $400-600. At least to me that's ridiculous.


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## kadylady (Sep 23, 2010)

Thought this would be a good place to share some training we did tonight with the TnT. Since little miss priss pants is injured, rather than getting to run around and play while I clean up after classes, they got to work on "place."



I have the TnT out in between the 2 of them and as I was cleaning up would release them one at a time from place to go and get a treat, then send them back to their place. It was hard for a few reasons. 1) they want to go to the TnT so I'm proofing place 2) they see the other dog released to go get a treat and still have to hold the place 3) they have to leave the Tnt and go back to place. I was also sporadically treating on the place with treats on me, or calling them directly to me from the place to mix it up so that they were not focusing entirely on the TnT. Also, the release only came when they were looking at me, not staring at the TnT.

Their sends to their places improved after a couple times, they figured out the faster they got back to the place the faster they would be released. I think this is going to be really good for proofing things with Luke because he really wants to zone in on that TnT, but is picking up pretty quickly that he needs to give me the attention and behaviors and his response time is getting quicker, finally found a good motivator for him! Definitely have to make sure to still treat/reward off my person so that the Tnt doesn't become the focus.

Also had the TnT in Zoey's crate with her during class and was rewarding for quiet while I was teaching. Not a peep out of her through 2 hour long classes.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

How big is the unit? How sturdy for a dog who might want to paw it?

I think I want one of these for Christmas!


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## SDRRanger (May 2, 2013)

elrohwen said:


> How big is the unit? How sturdy for a dog who might want to paw it?
> 
> I think I want one of these for Christmas!


I've been eyeing one for Christmas too lol


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## kadylady (Sep 23, 2010)

elrohwen said:


> How big is the unit? How sturdy for a dog who might want to paw it?
> 
> I think I want one of these for Christmas!


I would guess maybe a foot long by 1/2 a foot tall and wide? Roughly. It's quite sturdy. The flat base is long and wide enough and it's heavy enough that a dog would have to be really going to town on it to tip it over. Zoey wants to paw at it lightly occasionally and I either ignore it, mark it with an ah-ah or call her away from it depending on what I'm doing with it at the time. I'm having a lot of fun with it.


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