Treat Pouch Challenges

I'm one of the few clicker enthusiasts who doesn't like targeting. I use it, yes. Sometimes I teach it. But it's not my favorite thing. My other secret? I don't like treat pouches.

The snap open-close ones? If I leave it open, the treats spill when I run or bend over. If I leave it closed, my fingers get torn up as I stick my hand it to get treats. And the waist belt annoys me.* Do I put it over my sweatshirt or under? Over my coat or under? The little plastic clip is great, I fell in love with my treat pouch when I was able to get it on my back pocket with the clip. I could easily take the pouch off and throw it or leave it somewhere. I could move it depending on what we were training. The few inches lower made it much easier to efficiently get out treats. But they break very easily. I'm probably on my tenth one now.

The small treat pouches with the drawstrings? I'll always remember that 4-H show when Blaze was a puppy. I ran around and all my treats bounced out. I then had to go back around and pick up the treats out of the dirt floor. Blaze helped me with that. It was unfortunate and probably didn't help our score. They don't hold a lot of treats, it's hard to get my hand in there, and that string part always is in the way.

Nail apron types? The sections are great for different types of reinforcers or toys or cameras. The pockets are large. But this also means it's great for the dog to see that "why yes, she does have reinforcers with her today!" and it makes people look at you odd. And they spill. Especially when you take it off to put it in your car. Washability is amazing though.

So, I use my coat pocket and pants pockets and shirt pockets. I try to buy clothing with pockets. Especially large pockets. Small pockets are worthless. You can't fit much in there and it takes forever to get a reinforcer out with two fingers. I just take a lot of stops at my car or other re-fill station. And I'm careful to empty pockets before washing my clothes.

*There has been more than one day where the belt was very useful as a regular belt on a day where I had forgotten to take a belt to work. I was very thankful to have it.