What is a dog treat pouch?

A dog treat pouch is a small bag or pouch, often worn around the waist, that is used to hold dog treats during training sessions or walks.

(jump to the list of recommended pouches)

Why use a treat pouch for dog training?

A dog training pouch provides convenient and quick access to treats during training sessions. Since you need to reinforce (reward) your dog multiple times during training, when you have a treat pouch on your waist, it’s much easier to reward immediately after the correct behavior happens.

Treat bags can be simple, with just one compartment for treats, or they can have extra pockets or loops for a clicker or high-value treats. More sophisticated bags may have several pockets or compartments, making them ideal for outdoor training as they can also hold poop bags, your phone, small toys, or an extra leash.

Owning a treat bag makes daily training much easier. Simply grab your treat bag when you’re ready to train and you can start right away.

What can I use as a dog treat pouch?

You can find a relatively cheap dog training pouch for less than 10$, so it’s just easier to buy one. But in case you don’t have any you can use a small purse that goes crossbody, an old fanny pack, or just wear a hoody and put treats in the pocket or use zip lock and put it in your pocket of your pants, but unless it’s a very wide pocket, it is not very convenient.

It’s especially not convenient when you need to give lots of rewards in a short period of time (high-rate reinforcement exercises). This will slow down the process and make training sloppy and less efficient.

Can you use a fanny pack or something similar for dog treats?

Yes and no. If you are just starting with training and you have a fanny pack that you don’t really use for anything else, I encourage you not to buy anything right away, just use what you already have.

But when you get more serious with dog training and start training daily and have multiple sessions per day, you realize that the fanny pack has its downsides since it lacks an important feature: easy to open with one hand so you can quickly grab a treat and close the bag again, so when you move around or bend down, no treats fall out.

Fanny packs are preferable for dog walking, but for a formal training session, I prefer a dedicated treat pouch.

How to choose the best treat pouch:

When choosing a treat pouch, there are several features to consider that can enhance your training experience. Here are some things to look for:

Multiple ways to wear it

Recommended: Treat pouches with a clip belt and a strap to wear it around the waist.

A treat pouch usually comes with a belt clip, but unless you are wearing jeans or always wearing a belt, it’s not gonna be practical. A better option is a pouch that comes with a belt clip and a strap. This way you can strap it around your waist or as cross body.

Not recommended: carabiner, or cross-body bag without clip belt.

Some treat pouches come with a carabiner, but that is absolutely not practical. No matter where you clip it, it’s going dangle (annoying!), treats will spill, and access to treats will be not the best.

Another not recommended option is a cross-body treat bag. Great to walk your dog, but not practical for dog training.

One-handed access to treats

Recommended: magnetic opening

My favorite pouches are the ones with magnetic opening. This allows you to quickly open treat pouch with one hand. Magnet allows to the pouch shut so no treats will spill went you bend down or move around.

Watch out! Some low quality pouches have bad magnets, that don’t snap close.

Not recommended: velcro, drawstring or zip

Some pouches have velcro or drawstring closures – this can work too, but they may not be as easy to open with one hand and it will take time to open close them every time. Those are good for when walking your dog, but not practical for a formal training session.

Wide opening and stiff construction

Recommended: round wide opening that is wider than your hand

Treat pouch opening has to be wide enough so you can reach inside of the pouch quick. Your hand has to go in and out without getting stuck. Also your pouch has to be stiff enough, softer ones make it hard to reach inside and grab a treat quick.

Not recommended: small slit opening, thin soft pouches

Round opening is more comfortable than a small flat pouch that have a tiny slit opening. Some cheap pouches would have only one thin layer of fabric, unfortunately those ones are not very practical for training session since you may need to reach into your pouch repeatedly during a single training session.

Capacity & Size

Recommended: approx. 5x5inches (10x10cm), fit 1 cup of kibble

My favorite everyday treat pouch is 5×5 inches when pushed flat and it’s the most convenient size for me. I use kibble or small training treats and I can put a cup in my treat pouch, so I don’t need to refill it during the session and even between the session. I just grab it & go train! 😉

This size will work for most of people, unless you are using gigantic treats for training (which you shouldn’t be).

Treat pouches that are smaller than 4x4in will have too small of the opening and you hand will get stuck every time you reach inside.

If you have more than one dog or if you are traveling and planning to use portion of their meal to reinforce them during dog during the day, look for bigger pouches – i.e. 7×7 inches or more

Construction & Additional Features

Pockets

Small pocket is useful to store clicker, poop bags when training outside or few pieces of extra valuable treats.

Larger pockets on larger treat pouches are good to store tug toys, ball, keep you leash when you dog is off-leash, so you are hands-free when training.

Several compartments

Most treats bags come with just one compartment, but having several can be practical too, so you can store different types of treats since for certain training exercises you might need higher or lower value of treats.

Material

Most pouches are made from nylon, which makes them somewhat washable and quick dry. There are also silicone pouches, they are great for greasy treats (hamburgers, hotdogs etc).

D-ring attachments & webbing

Great to attach keys, carabiners with longline, clicker etc

Recommended Dog Treat Pouches for Everyday Use

Morecoo Dog Treat Pouch

Affiliate Disclosure: Links to some products are affiliate links and help the author of this article earn commissions from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to the buyer. This doesn’t affect the choice of dog-related products or opinion about them.

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