Fancy Making Your Own Dog Treats?

Fancy making your own home-made dog treats?

The good news is it’s easier than you may think. It takes a bit of time, but once you get the hang of it you may wonder why you didn’t do it earlier! Home-made dog treats may be the best thing you ever did for your dog!

A few years ago, we started making and selling our own grain free dog treats. We've spent hours and many a long night mixing up biscuit to make delicious treats. Unfortunately, we've become so busy and they were so popular that we had to stop as we simply couldn't keep up with the demand. One day we may well come back to it! But in the meantime why not have a go yourself? Plus learn from our mistakes and try using one of our tried and tested recipes.

So why make your own treats?

Some dog treats can be packed with ingredients that aren't great for your dog. Even good treats full of good quality ingredients may not be right for your dog. The great thing about making your own treats is you know exactly what's in them and can relax knowing you're doing right by your dog.

It’s fun!

If you enjoy baking, then the chances are you're going to like making treats for your dog and if you have children it's something they can help with.

When it comes to dog treats it can be as confusing as dog food if not more so.

Often, we find people will spend hours and hours searching for the best dog food they can get that will suit their dog perfectly and completely forget about the treats.

One of the key differences with dog treats as opposed to “human” treats is they will often become a habit both for you and the dog. It's all too easy for the treating of your dog to become a thoughtless habit and the "treat" part becomes all too regular. We treat them as they come in from the garden, when they've done something well or just because we've come home.

Now it is important to remember that treating your dog is very important. It helps bond with your dog and is also fantastic for training. But as with everything, there are good and bad treats. What's good is that great dog treats are easy to come by and if you really want to they're easy to make.

So what should you look for when buying a treat or making your own?

The Good

Meat

One of the best types of treats is just pure meat. This can be bought dry or you can even do it at home quite easily. There's a huge amount of little dryers on the market but if you just want to give it a go you can cut the meat nice a thin and lay it on a baking tray with your oven set to as low as it'll go. It will take between 2-4 hours depending on how thin the meat is. You can then put them in an airtight pot and use them as you would any other treat.

Vegetables

These can be given raw in the cases of vegetables like carrots or you can also dry these as well. A very popular dried vegetable is sweet potato and dogs love them. If you have a dog that suffers from itchy skin it may be worth sticking to the meat treats as vegetables can contain a large amount of sugar which can add or sometimes cause itching.

The Bad

Grains & White Potato

As in food, these aren't ideal for most dogs. Often when it comes to treats we're looking for high value too. Something the dog really wants to eat. Can you imagine your dog choosing grains over meat?

This is a small list of some ingredients you should NEVER feed your dog. Some of these are poisonous. Please bear in mind this is by no means an exhaustive list so it’s worth checking out any new ingredient you try if you're unsure.

Chocolate, Macadamia Nuts, Onions, Chives (alliums), Alcohol, Grapes or raisins.

So if you’re inspired to try and make your own dog why not try this recipe and see how you get on.

Coconut & Flax Seed Biscuits

Ingredients

250g Chickpea flour (sometimes known as Gram Flour)

2 Medium Eggs

25g Coconut oil

5g Flaxseeds (with a few extra for sprinkling)

Method

1. Add the eggs and coconut oil together in a large bowl and lightly mix up. The oil won’t mix into the eggs but if it's one big lump then just break it up a bit.
2. Add the flaxseed and mix again. Bit by bit add the flour. At first, you can mix with a knife or spoon but as it turns into dough you're going to have to get your hands dirty.
3. Keep adding the flour a bit at a time until you've made a smooth dough.
4. Roll out the dough until it's around the thickness of a pencil.
5. Get your favourite cookie cutters and cut the biscuits out and place on a lightly oiled baking tray (we use the coconut oil to rub over)
6. When all of the dough is cut out sprinkle the flaxseed over the top and bake at 160c (gas mark 3) for around 25 minutes or until golden brown.

The biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for around 5 days and can also be frozen.

Why not give it a go and let us know how you got on!