When puppy Gyp joined the Driving with Dogs team last year we weren't prepared for a youngster with so much energy, naughtiness and a massive sense of entitlement.  Long story short, we'd homed a landshark with the sharpest teeth, the cutest eyes and a passion for food.    And this is all about the treats. Specifically - how to reward an over-excited and very competitive pup without losing the end of your fingers.

Thanks in advance to all you trainers out there who will advise turning the hand around to prevent nips, holding the treat between your fingers, and all the other solutions to save my fingers. You're right and this has worked beautifully with all Gyp's predecessors.  But Gyp needed something more robust.

Fellow sufferers, I give you this simple, cheap and foolproof solution called a Poochbutter Pal.  It's designed to dispense doggie peanut butter, but works equally beautifully with dog treats of meat paste, fish paste, Primula, banana and whatever your dog enjoys working for.  And the genius of this is that the dispenser saves your fingers from doggie teeth, and also acts a bit like a Lickimat and actually calms the dog down too.  

I bought one each for Effi and Gyp. Effi loves her agility classes but is quite shy with other dogs. Between turns she stays calm and relaxed by licking the end of the dispenser. Gyp too gets much less distracted when he can focus on getting at liver pate by learning good manners and exercising some restraint.

After use, just pull it apart and put it in the dishwasher.  And then it's ready to go again.

Filling the Poochbutter Pal can be a bit messy to start with.  I've found the easiest way is to use the lid as a stand for the dispenser, and then cut just a tiny bit from the end of a tube of dog pate and squeeze it in like toothpaste. With a bit of practice you can fill it in seconds.  Use the same technique to fill with banana or peanut butter but with an old piping bag or the corner of a plastic bag.

We bought Poochbutter for using in dog cake recipes and the Poochbutter dispenser from Nuts for Pets.  They are based in Edinburgh and stock pots of Pooch Butter in different sizes and the Dispensers in either Blue or Pink.

The nice people at Nuts for Pets are offering Driving with Dogs members a 15% discount. You can use the code just once and you'll need to be signed in to your Driving with Dogs membership to be able to see the code.