Smorgasbord - Treat selection

With rewards being such an important part of trailing, especially for a hound who’s time requires payment. I set out a Smorgasbord with a number of tasty snacks to allow her to choose her favourite. We added a number of food rewards that she normally doesn’t get.

Method

We set up a board with sardines, mackerel, ham, cheese, pâté, quail egg, wrapped sprats, and a small sausage treat. We ran this test twice with all of the items in the same place but rotating the board when we gave it to her to allow us to see what she actually chose.

Taste Test 1

This test came out a little different to how I expected, she started at the fish then moved around the board hitting the meats and cheese, except when she got to the sausage treat she actively avoided this until last. The surprising thing here is it seemed like she was actively choosing which item she wanted.

Taste Test 2

This one went a little more how I had in mind, she hit the thing closest, and moved her way around. The sausage treat seemed to not bother her this time and she ate that in the midst of everything here.

Outcome

I think the outcome is clear, she doesn’t actually care. As long as she gets food as a reward she will be happy. I think we will trial sardines for these as they are food they wont get actively during their day to day as its not something we normally have in the house (we bought these in specially).

Ideally, I would like to attempt to build some toy drive with her to allow the reward and party to continue after the food has finished, but we are not quite there yet and she simply prefers to sniff her way back.