 Barked: Mon Jun 25, '12 8:51am PST |
 | |  | | What stuff do you have laying around?
I always have tuna, flour, egg, peanut butter, cheese, rice, oil, fresh garlic and an assortment of veggies. If I buy a whole chicken there is a tasty liver inside most of the time or buy a tub at the store although that makes a lot of treats.
Since dogs will eat just about anything go for it. As long as you don't burn it, it doesn't have onions, macadamia nuts, chocolate, grapes, nutmeg or anything else dangerous for dogs and you are mindful of how many treats are fed it is fine. I prefer not to salt or sugar treats, dogs are fine with treats that seem bland to us.
My bread. A can of tuna or 6 ounces or so of liver [a whole pound is a major project!], whirl in blender with an egg and bit of garlic to help with the smell. Dump into a bowl and mix in flour until it isn't taking in more flour. Plan on about 2 cups of flour for that. Turn the mess onto a floured board, scrape everything on it and knead the dough until just like bread dough, smooth a bit bouncy when you press on it and not sticky. Stretch, roll whatever like a pizza on a cookie sheet. I score it into bread sticks and bake at 350*F for 15-20 minutes until it is cooked through. I use it as is for training treats but you can cut it into smaller bits and bake again until crisp. If you want to go the whole 9 yards roll the dough out and cut with a tiny canape cutter and the treats will puff up like oyster crackers when baked. Or of course just cut and separate a bit and they should puff up.
Use the same ingredients and just don't add so much flour, scrape into a pan and bake if you like as well. Just messier to clean up, bread cleans the bowl nicely. I cannot make peanut butter treats as I am so allergic the fumes from baking would bother me but substitute 1/2 cup of PB for the tuna or liver if you like.
For the veggy/liver treats I weighed out and cooked an assortment of low calorie veggies like broccoli, cabbage, zucchini, carrots with an equal weight of liver. Drained it, pureed it with an egg and baked on parchment paper until cooked through. I actually tried this with raw and cooked liver and with and without egg as a binder. All worked just fine so you can see how flexible making doggy treats can be. And don't toss the cooking liquid. Freeze in an ice cube tray for treats or save to add to kibble meals.
I whirled 1/3 cup rice in a coffee mill until it was like corn meal, added an egg and 2 ounces of flavoring, mashed banana, canned oysters and liver were the ones I used but peanut butter, sardines, tuna would taste just fine as well. Bake this one on parchment paper for sure.
For quick training treats I cut a slice of bread in half, put a slice of cheese inside, roll it flat and microwave until the cheese melts. When cooled the bread makes it easy to pinch off bits and keeps the cheese from greasing up your hands.
I rarely did but do try making frosty treats. Mix plain yogurt with whatever you have on hand and freeze in paper cups or an ice cube tray or maybe shallow bowls or ? You can cut the yogurt with lots of water if you don't want your dog to have that much yogurt. |  |  | |  |
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The lady I work with and I make our dogs treats out of just natural, no sugar added peanut butter (I use Krema, its pretty cheap) mixed with oats and water, thats it! Just mash everything together till it holds nicely, and cut them out with a knife or cookie cutter. Then we just keep them in the fridge or freezer and take them along on walks and such. Our dogs go crazy for them!
