Field Guide · Glossary
High-value treats
EquipmentFood a dog finds worth working for in a situation where something else is competing for their attention.
How it works
Value is decided by the dog, not by the price or the packaging. What is high value for one dog is ordinary for another, and the same food can lose its value the moment a distraction gets big enough. The practical use is matching food to difficulty: everyday food for easy repetitions at home, the strongest food available for the hardest thing the dog is being asked to work through. Spending the best food on easy work leaves nothing in reserve for the moment it is actually needed.
What it looks like
A dog takes dry kibble happily in the kitchen, ignores the same kibble in the front yard, and works readily there for small pieces of chicken. The food did not change between rooms. What it was competing against did.
Commonly confused with
- Jackpot
- A jackpot is a sudden larger quantity of food delivered for an unusually good repetition. High value describes what the food is, not how much of it arrives at once.
Related terms
Gear that helps
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High-value freeze-dried training treats
The paycheck. For reactive work the reward has to beat the trigger, so we keep these tiny, soft, and genuinely exciting, not everyday biscuits.
Treat pouch (clip-on)
You can't reward fast enough digging in a pocket. A pouch you open one-handed changes your timing, and this one has a magnetic close plus a built-in clicker.
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