Coachi Chase & Treat Navy/Coral/Lime

A reward that arrives late is a reward for whatever the dog did next. That is the awkward arithmetic of training at any distance: the moment worth paying for happens twenty paces away, and by the time the dog has come back to your pocket for the treat, you have paid for the coming back instead.

This is Coachi's answer to that. It is a toy you fill with treats and then throw, and the point of it is that it holds the food in while it flies, so the reward can be delivered where the dog is rather than where you are. That makes it a piece of training kit as much as a toy, and Coachi aim it squarely at agility and distance work. They also pitch it at dogs who are not much interested in toys, because a toy with food in it is a different proposition from an empty ball. It comes from the Coachi range, created by Company of Animals.

• Fills with treats and throws without them falling out
• Lets a reward be delivered at distance
• Aimed at agility and distance training
• Coachi list it as suitable for different ages and breeds of dog
• Part of the Coachi range from Company of Animals
• Intended for interactive play rather than being left down

What Coachi have not published. There is no size, no weight, no material and no cleaning instruction for this toy in anything supplied to us, and for something you put food inside that is a real gap - nothing tells you what size of treat will come back out of it, or whether it can go in the dishwasher after a week of liver cake. Coachi's own instruction is that their reward toys are for interactive play only, so this is kit that comes out of a bag for a session and goes back in it, not something to leave with a dog in the kitchen.

Who it's for: anyone training recall, agility or distance control who needs the reward to land where the dog is, and owners of a dog who has never seen the point of a plain ball.