Dog Treats

Isn't this picture precious? I love my little babies so much that I decided to make them their own homemade dog treats. Besides, they are getting spayed today, so I thought this was the perfect day to post this since I'm missing them. I'm ridiculous I know.

The website I got this recipe off of (see the original here) claims that pumpkin is good for an upset dog tummy and to relieve their anal glands. I don't know if that's true, but since my children dogs are labs and they get into and eat EVERYTHING, I thought it probably couldn't hurt.

These are easy to make and my children dogs LOVED them. They pretty much love all food, so I don't know if that's a good indicator but still. It made me feel good to make something special for them. I guess this is the reason my family says I need a child...

Ingredients (see picture):
-Cookie Cutters
-1/2 can of Pumpkin (1/2 cup)
- 2 Eggs
- 2 Tbsp. Dried Milk
-1/4 tsp. Sea Salt
-1 tsp. Dried Parsley (optional)
-2 1/2 cups Brown Rice Flour OR Organic Soy Flour**

**TIP: A lot of dogs are allergic to wheat and it's hard on their tummies so definitely don't substitute regular flour for this ingredient. Brown rice flour is the type of flour that the least amount of dogs are allergic to, so it is the best option. Soy Flour is the next best option, as long as it's organic. Soy flour that's not organic is treated with pesticides which is also terrible for dog's tummies. When I bought the ingredients, the store was out of brown rice flour, so I used organic soy flour.

To start off, preheat your oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your eggs and pumpkin until smooth. Next, stir in your dried milk, sea salt, and dried parsley.

Once you have that all mixed together, gradually stir in your flour until you form a dry dough. I used a spoon at first, but eventually just set the spoon aside and mixed it together with my hands. Here is what your dough should look like at this point.

Now it's time to roll out your dough. To do this, place some extra flour on top of your cutting board and on top of your dough as you roll it out (to about 1/4-1/2 inch thick). This will prevent the dough from sticking. I wanted my treats to look real, so I bought some dog shaped cookie cutters. You can get them at Walmart for about $3. If you have small dogs, these might be too big. My children dogs are about 60 lbs each so they were the perfect size.

Once you roll out your dough, use your cookie cutters to cut out your shapes and place them on a cookie sheet.

Keep putting the dough scraps back together and re-rolling them out until you run out of dough. Here is what my dog treats looked like before I put them in the oven.

 

 

As you can see, I added little collars to the dog shaped ones :)

Bake your dog treats for 20 minutes, flip them all over, and bake for an additional 20 minutes. After the first 20 minutes you will swear they look done but make sure you cook them the whole time. The goal is for them to be HARD like normal dog treats are.

Once your treats are done, take them out of the oven and let them cool completely before giving them to your dogs. This waiting period was tough for my girls, but they made it. Here are some pictures of the finished product (sorry they are so dark!).

The cat even liked them:

Happy cooking

& Give your animals an extra hug from me :)