What is Reddit's opinion of Natural Balance Dog Food Roll, Beef Formula, 1 Pound Roll?

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> If I’m going to reward her during training and to reinforce good behavior how do I make sure I’m not giving her too many calories?

It depends on the training style and what behaviors you're trying to teach. For obedience training, I do mostly lure training, which works best with lower value treats, so I just use kibble for training and feed the dog that much less at meal time. , For other kinds of training, super smelly, high-fat treats might be needed, and then you do have to worry about it. Natural Balance food rolls are formulated for complete and balanced nutrition, so with them you can break the 90% dog food/10% treats rule, but keep in mind that stuff has a lot of calories, so you might have to cut your dog's meals way down to compensate.

About introducing your new dog to your cat, here's some super cautious advice from a book called Competability: Solving Behavior Problems In Your Cat-Dog Household by Amy Shojai. You probably won't need to do all of this, but I recommend starting out over-cautious and then see how things go.

FOR BOTH

• Spay or neuter the newcomer BEFORE introductions. Fixed dogs and cats aren’t as great a threat to the status quo.
• Sequester the new pet in a single room with all the necessary kitty or doggy accoutrements. If a new pet came with a favorite bed or toy, be sure to include this in his room so that the old, familiar smells help keep him calm.
• Choose a room with a door that shuts completely such as second bedroom. Isolating the new pet tells your resident pet that only a small portion of the house has been invaded, not all the territory.
• Expect cats to posture or hiss and dogs to sniff, whine, growl or bark whether they’re new pets or current residents. Feel encouraged once the barking and hissing fade, especially if the canine “play-bows” at the door or the pair play patty-cake-paws under the door.
• After the new pet has been in the room alone for a few days, and the hisses or growls have faded, bring out something the new pet has scented, such as a plate of food where she just ate, and allow your resident dog or cat to smell it.

INTRODUCING NEW DOG TO A RESIDENT CAT:

• Ask a friend to bring the new dog into the house out of sight of the resident cat so kitty won’t associate you with the “scary” critter.
• Keep the isolation room door shut for at least the first week, and longer if necessary. Resident cats become upset at the sight of a stranger but may be curious about the smell or sound.
• Isolating Rex allows the resident cats to feel less threatened while learning to accept the new smells and sounds of that dog-behind-the-door.
• Schedule Rex’s potty breaks to keep them from seeing each other too soon. Put Sheba in your bedroom during the dog’s travels to and from the back yard.
• Offer Sheba the opportunity to check out the “safe room” while the dog is outside, to become more familiar with the dog’s smells. Just leave the door open and she’ll explore at her leisure, but don’t force her into the room. Let it be the cat’s idea.
• Next, replace the isolation room door with a baby gate so the pets can see each other, and sniff or paw pat through the opening while they’re safely separated. Your cat can control the interaction by jumping over or winding through the baby gate, if she really feels the urge to check out Rex.
• If you don’t have a baby gate, and the dog is small enough, you can place Rex inside a crate or pet carrier for the cat to approach in a safe, controlled way. Watch both pets’ reactions closely and delay taking the next step until you are satisfied they feel comfortable.
• Put Rex on a leash before removing the baby gate, so he and the cat can finally meet. Remember, these initial introductions should be between the new pet and only ONE of your resident animals, not everybody at once.
• Keep Rex under leash control but give him some wiggle room or a tight leash can make him feel tense.
• Make initial meetings as pleasant as possible. If your cat feels proprietary toward you, engage her in a fishing pole game while another family member handles Rex, so that the cat associates the dog with good things for her. You can also give each animal a plate of food on opposite ends of a room, to distract them and reward the fact they ignore each other.
• Use a dab of vanilla extract—or your favorite perfume or cologne—and dab just a bit on the back at the base of the tail, and on the back of the neck of both pets to make them smell alike. Making the new dog smell like the cat goes a long way toward encouraging Sheba to accept him as a family member.
• Whenever possible make initial meetings in an open room with lots of space, and lots of cat second-story perches available. That way, Sheba can check out the dog from her cat tree, well beyond nose-sniffing range, and feel more comfortable.
• Keep first nose-to-nose meetings to only five or ten minutes, and then give everyone a break and return the dog to his room.
• When the dog and cat willingly nose sniff, the cat cheek rubs the dog, and/or Rex play-bows an invitation to a game, that’s great! Allow play for a few minutes at a time, but interrupt before either pet becomes overexcited.
• Continue to offer planned meetings for another week, monitoring the dog until he can control himself and respects the cat even when off leash.
• Segregate the new pet alone in his “safe room” whenever you are not able to directly supervise, until you are satisfied that the cat and dog get along well, and both have “safe places” they can retreat when necessary.

CUTTING THE CHASE

Some dogs can’t resist chasing the cat, but Sheba doesn’t appreciate being turned into a windup toy for the dog’s amusement. Teaching Rex to refrain from the chase not only enforces good manners, but also becomes a safety issue.

You can train better doggy manners with a very confident cat by placing the cat in a protective carrier, and then giving the dog treats for behaving calmly. Ask the dog to sit, heel, stay, or other obedience commands, and offer the BEST treats (a bonanza of a whole handful!) for moving away from the cat. Be aware, though, that such a situation can be highly traumatic for shy cats even if you treat Sheba as well.

A better technique for most cats uses classical conditioning. Just as Pavlov conditioned dogs to salivate when they heard a bell, you teach your dog to respond to the cat’s presence in an acceptable manner. You’ll need a leash, treats, the cat and dog, and lots of patience.

• Ensure the cat’s safety by keeping your dog under leash control. Prevent ANY chase from taking place, because the activity feels so good to your dog he’ll gladly ignore or give up any other type of reward. Even if the cat instigates the session (some cats tease dogs unmercifully), don’t allow any chase or tag games until after the dog has learned proper manners.
• Have plenty of smelly, tasty treats handy, ready to reinforce your dog at the drop of a hat—or presence of a cat.
• Every time (and I mean EVERY time) the cat makes an appearance, give the dog a treat. Offer this reward whether he acts calm, excited, looks at the cat, barks, or anything else. The equation should be: CAT’S PRESENCE = DOG TREAT. Use the leash only to keep him a safe distance from the kitty, not to force his attention or behavior into what you want him to do. Let his brain process the equation on its own time. Some dogs “get it” right away and others take longer.
• Within a few sessions, nearly every dog will start to look to you for a treat each time the cat appears. Rather than lunging and chasing instinctively, you’ve conditioned a new response: to expect a reward.
• Continue to reinforce this behavior for at least a week or two. Brush up with more training sessions as needed—for some dogs, that might be every month. Make sure the dog stays leashed and the pets separated when not supervised, until confident the new canine response has become ingrained.