The short answer for a Border Collie
A Border Collie suits small, soft treats that can be eaten in a second and rewarded again immediately, given frequently in training but measured across the whole day. Cooked chicken, tiny sausage pieces, and soft training bites all keep a Border Collie working without long chewing pauses. Frequency is this breed's special case: a collie in serious training may earn dozens of pieces in a session, which is fine only when the pieces are genuinely small and the day's meals are reduced to match. Big crunchy biscuits suit a Border Collie least, because they slow training and add up fast.
Why speed of eating matters for a Border Collie
A Border Collie learns in rapid sequences, chaining one action to the next, and a treat that takes ten seconds to crunch interrupts the very behaviour being built. Soft pea-sized pieces let a handler reward a glance, a turn, or a paused stalk instantly and move on. Value grading is a Border Collie training tool in itself. Keep low-value pieces, such as part of the normal kibble ration, for easy indoor repetitions, and reserve smelly high-value pieces for recall away from sheep, other dogs, or traffic. Using kibble from the meal ration for the easy work is the simplest way to keep a high-repetition day honest.
How often a Border Collie can have treats
A Border Collie can have treats far more often than a sedentary breed, spread across training sessions, walks, and calm indoor practice, because this breed burns real energy working and thinking. The control is the daily total, not the number of moments. Weigh or measure the day's treat allowance in the morning on heavy training days, and take at least that much out of the bowl at mealtimes. On rest days, when a Border Collie is confined or the weather cancels work, the treat total should fall sharply even though the dog's enthusiasm does not. Young Border Collies in foundation training earn treats constantly, and using part of each meal as training food prevents a puppy quietly eating a second day's ration in rewards. Older collies with stiff joints and lower workloads need the training total cut and softer pieces for comfort.
Treat risks for a working Border Collie
The main treat risk for a Border Collie is timing around exercise. Rich or large rewards immediately before intense running can cause stomach discomfort in a dog that twists and sprints, so keep pre-work treats tiny and give any bigger chew well after the dog has cooled down. A Border Collie that is too lean is the opposite problem: ribs easily felt is healthy for this breed, but prominent hip bones alongside heavy treating suggest the food is going in as treats and missing as balanced meals, which needs correcting at the bowl. Avoid grapes, raisins, chocolate, onions, and xylitol products entirely, and be wary of a Border Collie's habit of earning treats from several handlers at a training field. If a Border Collie shows repeated stomach upsets, loses weight despite good feeding, or becomes obsessive and unsettled around food, a veterinarian should check the dog rather than the owner simply changing treat brands.
Coordinating treats across a Border Collie's handlers
A Border Collie is often trained by more than one person, walked by another, and fed by someone else again, which is exactly how a measured morning pouch becomes three pouches. Agree who is training that day, who holds the treat allowance, and how much of the evening meal has already been spent in the field. Recording the day's training treats and the reduced meal in KinsLe Care Teams keeps every handler of your Border Collie spending from one shared allowance.