The Best Dog Training Essentials | Tested Dog Training Supplies

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This post is about the best, tested dog training supplies. 

Three months ago, my partner and I welcomed a wonderful dog into our life from our local humane society. Ruth was a stray dog in Texas, which means that she came with absolutely no training. From her first day at our house, we began training her on a strict regimen to grow our bond and help her become a wonderful, obedient dog. 

Contrary to popular belief, dog training sessions should be short, and extremely fun for your dog. Training is extremely important for both obedience and mental stimulation. Our dog, Ruth, is a herding breed, which means that she needs ample amounts of physical and mental exercise. Dogs should really be trained throughout their entire life, and much past their “obedience” training phase. 

Training Ruth multiple times a day has become part of our routine. In the time that we’ve had her, we have gone through our fair share of training supplies. In this post, I show you the training tools that we cannot live without, and  I give you a few training tips and tricks along the way. 

Here is 12 dog training essentials, that every dog owner needs to have. 

DOG TRAINING ESSENTIALS

HIGH-QUALITY HARNESS

The Ruffmaster webmaster harness is one of the best on the market. I love how this harness is fully adjustable, allowing for a perfect fit. 

When training your dog, it can be useful to have a harness on them – even when indoors. This is especially true if you have a new dog, and you are introducing your house to them slowly. 

COLLAR WITH ID TAGS

Even if you keep a harness on your dog the majority of the time (which I highly recommend) it’s important to have their identification on them. With our dog, Ruth, we ended up with two identification tags. We keep one on her harness, and her other tags on her collar. 

When training outside, it’s vital that you have identification on your dog. As a backup, make sure that you dog is microchipped and that microchip is up to date, too. 

6-FOOT LEASH 

Along with a harness and collar, a high-quality leash is super important for training your dog. Not only is it safer, since the chances of it breaking are less likely, but the leash itself will last a lot longer. 

This leash is one of my favorites, since it has a secondary handle that’s closer to the dog. I like using this handle when we’re passing people on a sidewalk, to keep Ruth closer and make sure that she is behaving appropriately. 

LONG LEAD

Training a dedicated recall (or making your dog “come” to you) is one of the most important obedience tools that you will teach your dog. Starting to train a recall on a short leash indoors very soon after you get your dog is very helpful for the recall being reliable in the future. When you eventually work up to the point of being able to practice the recall outside, a 15ft long lead like the one pictured above is fantastic. 

I really like that this lead is made out of rope, rather than flat nylon, since it is less likely to tangle and easier to wrap up. As a bonus, the rope is super reflective – perfect for training when it’s dark out! 

If you love this lead, note that it comes in 15, 30, and 50 foot lengths. 

TRAINING TREAT POUCH 

When I saw people using these, I thought that it was a little exravagent. As we started really dedicating time to training our dog, especially outside, I started to realize how useful one might be. When I finally purchased one, I couldn’t believe how useful it was. Being able to have your hands free for all training purposes, and then clipping extras such as a collapsable water bowl and poop bags to the pouch makes these tools a must have for all dedicated dog trainers. 

The treat pouch listed above really does it all – there’s a dedicated area for poop bags, mesh pockets for extras, a zippered pocket for anything valuable, both a belt clip and a strap to wrap it around your waist. This treat pouch is really the Louis Vuitton of treat pouches. 

CLICKER 

I always saw people training their dogs with clickers, and I never understood why they were necessary. 

After a bunch of research, I couldn’t believe that I considered training without a clicker. Essentially, a clicker is used to “mark” a dogs good behavior the second they are doing it. Then, to the dog, the clicker means that they are about to get a reward. 

For example, when teaching our dog Ruth to “sit pretty,” we would click the clicker the second her two front paws left the floor in the “sit” position. Then, we would reward her. This tells Ruth that lifting her front paws off the floor is the trick that I was looking for. 

Clicker training is scientifically proven to train dogs twice as fast compared to using a simple voice marker, such as “yes.” While we still use “yes” as a backup marker, we really prefer to use the clicker. We also find that Ruth responds well to the clicker, compared to when we just use our voices. 

PUPFORD DOG TREATS

I truly cannot say enough good things about Pupford treats. In fact, I find it hard to use other brands of treats after using Pupford’s. 

Pupford only makes “high-value” training treats, which are vital when training your dog. I was so shocked how much faster Ruth would learn tricks when using a high-value, freeze dried treat compared to a typical dog treat.

Pupfords training treats are all small, yet big enough to incentivize your dog, and have a very low calorie count to help keep your pup healthy. Plus, there’s over 475 treats per bag! Considering the price of these treats, that is some insane value. 

On top of the training treats that pupford makes, they also have their “engage” and “reward” lines. From the “reward” line, we have purchsed a bag of both their chicken jerky and salmon jerky. After a long training session or especially good behavior, this is a great way to let Ruth know that she did a fantastic job. From the “engage” line, we have received both a himalayan chew and a split elk antler. Ruth loves antlers, but I just could not stand how expensive they are. The antler that I received from pupford was bigger than her $25 antler, and only $15. I could not believe how much cheaper the Pupford one was, and at such a higher quality! 

We have a medium “ultra” dog pack sent to us every month. We complete a lot of training with Ruth, so we go through a lot of training treats. Another fantastic thing about Pupford is that they give you 15% off auto-ship orders! 

Click the link listed under the picture to receive your 15% off autoship order.

PORTABLE, COLLAPSIBLE WATER BOWL 

Training Ruth on walks is a new environment that we’ve added to our training regimen, and these collapsible water bowls have saved us! We have a herding dog mix, and she gets hot really easily. Bringing some cold water and giving it to Ruth every 20 minutes or so makes a big difference. 

POOP BAGS! 

We live in the city, so poop bags are a necessity! When we started using more and more dog poop bags, we realized how much plastic we were wasting. Now, we switched to more earth friendly bags, pictured above! 

THIS POST SHOWED YOU 9 TRAINING ESSENTIALS THAT EVERY DOG OWNER NEEDS TO HAVE!