I love trying all sorts of great things I find on Pinterest, and this is one that definitely was easy and worthwhile! Since we got our new dachshund puppy, I've been searching for all kinds of great dog treat recipes. I found this page:
http://www.curbly.com/users/capreek/posts/13538-how-to-make-your-own-diy-dog-treats, and the simple 2-item ingredient list made these treats a no-brainer to try!
I don't have the adorable dog bone cookie cutter they used (although that will probably be remedied sooner rather than later), but our 8 week old itty bitty puppy couldn't eat a big old dog bone treat like that anyway, and I wanted something small to start teaching her commands. I bought 2 jars of chicken and rice dinner baby food, and I made sure to check the ingredients for no onions like the other blog mentioned. I had no idea onions were toxic to dogs!
I decided to halve the recipe; itty bitty puppy can't eat that many treats you know! So I just used one jar of the baby food and one cup of whole wheat flour. I tossed them in my food processor with a couple tablespoons of water. I put the water in the baby food jar first and swished it around to get out the extra little bits. Turned on the food processor for a few seconds and voila, instant dough! One a side note, now I need to start pinning some projects for used baby food jars!
It rolled out easily, and I used a knife to cut it into tiny squares (and since I didn't cut all that straightly, some trapezoids and triangles too). I'm glad I decided to only go with a half batch, because those tiny little squares filled up my big flat cookie sheet (as you can see in the photo), and I ended up putting several on an extra sheet. I baked them at the recommended 350 degrees for the lowest recommended time of 20 minutes. The bottom sheet got a little over done so I probably should have checked them sooner, but I got distracted with the kiddos sorting out some new perler beads forgetting to check on them until I heard the timer go off! Oh well, they weren't burnt, and I'm sure the dog will still eat them!
They were flat little pieces going in the oven but puffed up a bit while baking and turned into adorable little training treats. I think our puppy will have some new tricks up her sleeve before too long! Maybe by the time she's actually big enough to get back up on the porch on her own! She seems to like these more than the store bought treats we have for her, and (don't judge!) the kids liked them too! They wanted to pretend to be dogs when they saw I was giving out treats for sitting still! And since it's just baby food and flour, the treats are okay for them to have too!
