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In this article, you’ll find all you need to make DIY dog treats:
Making your own dog treats
Making homemade dog treats can be so much fun for the kids to help out with, or for you to really put the time and effort in that your furry-friend (bestie!) deserves. And the best part? You can enjoy all of these homemade dog treats together! There’s nothing in them that we humans can’t eat, though we may find them slightly unflavored (by our standards.)
Why make DIY dog treats?
Avoid harmful additives
Firstly, you can make sure no harmful additives are getting into your beloved pup’s diet. Just like our food, store-bought items can, at best, contain preservatives to lengthen their shelf-life, and, at worst, conceal any number of chemicals, pesticides, and toxins. Making homemade dog treats helps to eliminate the chance of these toxins making their way into your dog’s body.
Expand their diet
Building on that, you can also control what does go into your dog’s system with homemade dog treats. Maybe she prefers sweet potato to regular potatoes, or prefers salmon to chicken, or finds some treats too big. You can control all of these elements and make it just right for your fur baby.
Experiment with size, shape & texture
This is also a great opportunity to experiment in the kitchen, you know your dog won’t mind (and will love you forever anyway) if you mess something up with a recipe. Use homemade dog treats to get practice in the kitchen and experiment with new methods and flavors.
Avoid spices
And lastly, variety is just as much the spice of life for them as it is for us (but don’t feed them anything spicy!) Mixing it up and eating seasonally makes for a more interesting and varied diet and gives them a chance to try different flavors and their bodies different nutrients.
Recipes for Homemade Dog Treats
Here is our list of the most delicious and super-easy homemade dog treats for you to try right now!
1. Bone-shaped Dog Cookies
(or whatever shaped cookie-cutter you have)
These 4-ingredient delights come from sheknows.com and can be shaped as little doggy bones (as pictured,) or whatever shapes you have available. Let’s be honest, your pup probably wouldn’t mind at all if your dog cookies were simply broken into shapeless chunks. So, if you don’t have a dog bone-shaped cookie cutter
Ingredients:
- 1 cup peanut butter (organic recommended)
- 1 cup skim milk
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 cups whole-wheat flour, plus more for cutting out the dog cookies
Directions:
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Combine the peanut butter and milk in a medium-size mixing bowl. Drizzle the milk in slowly so that you can combine the two more efficiently.
- In another large mixing bowl, combine the baking powder with the whole-wheat flour.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter-milk mixture. Combine everything until completely mixed.
- On a sheet of parchment paper, sprinkle a small amount of wheat flour on the paper and roll out the dough until your desired dog-treat-thickness is reached. Use your selected cookie cutters to cut out the dog cookies and place them onto a greased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
Notes:
Store in your favorite dog treat container, they’ll likely be gone before they go bad!
2. Leftovers Trail Mix
From the professor of pooch himself, Cesar Milan offers this incredibly easy and delicious trail mix recipe, made from practically anything you have lying around!
Ingredients:
- Pieces of meat (make sure to rinse off any seasoning or flavoring)
- Potatoes
- Vegetables (except onions)
- Fruit (except grapes or raisins)
Directions:
- Chop ingredients into ½ inch thick pieces
- Lightly cover with cooking spray
- Place in a 200-degree heated oven or a food dehydrator until dried
Notes:
Dried meat, vegetables, and nuts have a long shelf life and will be long gone before they ever go bad.
3. Salmon and Sweet Potato “Brownies”
With the captivating aromas of salmon and sweet potato, your puppy will go crazy for these “brownies” from kolchakpuggle.com. They’re mouth-wateringly moist which means some thoughtful storage is needed to keep that tail wagging (see the notes at the end of this recipe).
Ingredients:
- 1 can of salmon (or equivalent fresh with bones removed)
- 1 pre-baked medium sweet potato, still in the skin
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- coconut oil, as needed to grease the pan or parchment
Instructions:
- Heat your oven to 350 degrees
- Beat the eggs in a medium bowl until fluffy
- Fold the salmon and coconut flour into the eggs
- Set the mixture aside for 10 minutes while the coconut flour absorbs
- Remove the skin of the sweet potato and mash it until smooth
- Fold the mashed sweet potato into the egg and salmon mixture.
- Grease a 9″ x 9″ cake pan with coconut oil
- Press the mix into your pan
- Bake for 60-70 minutes until the mixture is firm, edges are golden and a tooth pick comes out clean.
- Allow to cool before slicing into squares.
Notes:
Store in the fridge for up to 5 days or keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
4. Watermelon Pups-cicles
We’d love to take credit for the name of this one but that, and this 2-ingredient pupsicle recipe is both from grrfeisty.com and provide a delicious fruity cool-down.
Ingredients:
- 1 quarter of a watermelon (seedless is preferred)
- 1 can of coconut milk
Instructions:
- Scoop out roughly 1/4 of the melon (if it’s summer you’ll likely find some takers for the rest)
- Blend together with the coconut milk (add more watermelon if you want a darker pink color)
- Pour into ice cube tray and wait.\ (bone shaped or otherwise)
Notes:
Keep any leftovers in the freezer until that tongue starts sticking out again! Grrfeisty also has Peanut and Pumpkin Pupsicles for the cooler months.
5. Doggy Donuts
Yes, that’s right, the treat that Santa’s Little Helper would love just as much as Homer, bacon-topped, peanut butter doggy donuts from Laura at Sunnydayfamily.com. You’re gonna need a donut pan for this one to get the authentic look!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup oats
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 2 eggs
For the topping:
- Plain Greek yogurt
- Bacon bits
Instructions:
- Heat oven to 375 degrees and spray a donut pan with cooking spray, then set aside.
- While the oven heats, combine all ingredients (except yogurt and bacon bits) in a large bowl and mix until you form a dough
- Fill each cavity in the donut pan, and press down firmly, ensuring everything sticks together and is tightly packed down (these won’t rise when baking)
- Bake in the oven for about 14 minutes or until cooked completely
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool, then carefully remove the doggy donuts from the pan before you start to decorate
- While the doggy donuts cool, prepare 2 small bowls, one for the yoghurt and one for the bacon bits, then once cooled dip the doggy donuts into the yoghurt and sprinkle with the bacon bits.
- Once decorated, place the doggy donuts in the freezer so that the yoghurt hardens, just a few moments. Then let them have it!
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