PawsGo Baking Healthy Treats for Your Dog

The holidays are upon us, so don't forget your best friend!  What better way to treat your dog than with homemade treats?  And what a thoughtful gift for the dogs of your friends, co-workers and neighbors!  Making your own dog treats is easy, inexpensive and fun!  Do it on your own, or make it a party like we did!

My dogs love treats, and truthfully, I give them more than I should.  Treats are rewards, treats are expected, and treats can quickly diffuse an annoying situation.  Treats are a part of our day.  But are treats healthy?  Maybe, but probably not in the volume that my dogs coerce me into giving them. And, they get expensive.

So, PawsGo set out to create healthy treats that we could make at home.  With the help of Kari Faherty, of True Health and Wholeness
http://true-hw.com/ in Arlington, Virginia, we hosted a dog treat cooking class (party). The idea was to create treats to share with dogs and their friends.

Kari developed two very easy recipes.  One with peanut butter, the other with parsley (because who can't use a little breath freshener).  All ingredients were found at our local grocery story and cost $11.73 -- what a deal!  The end result can be consumed by both humans and dogs.  All ingredients and steps are outlined below -- thank you Kari!  (and yes, we served wine)

 

 

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

 

Breath Freshener   Ingredients: õ  1 Banana õ  3 tablespoons peanut butter õ  1 egg õ  1 cup oat flour õ  2/3 cup rolled oats õ  1 - 1½ cup chopped fresh parsley and/or mint   Recipe: 1.     In a large bowl, mash the banana 2.     Add the peanut butter and egg. 3.     Add the oat flour and rolled oats.  Allow the dough to sit. 4.     While the dough is sitting, finely chop the parsley.

Peanut Butter Flax   Ingredients: õ  1 Banana õ  3-5 tablespoons peanut butter õ  1 egg õ  1 cup oat flour õ  2/3 cup rolled oats õ  ½ cup flax meal (plus more, if needed)     Recipe: 1.     In a large bowl, mash the banana 2.     Add the peanut butter and egg. 3.     Add the oat flour and rolled oats.  Allow the dough to sit. 4.     Add the flax, enough to make the dough moldable.

peanut butter base
 

 

grinding oats for oat flour

chopping parsley

5.     Divide the dough into 24 balls, then press them flat into disks.

6.     Lay the disks on the baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on the desired texture.

 

Notes on Baking and Storage:

 

õ  If your dog prefers soft treats, bake the treats a shorter time.  For crisp treats, bake the treats longer.

õ  If your dog is small, make smaller disks.  Smaller disk will need less baking time.

õ  Softer treats will spoil faster than crisp treats.  To extend the shelf life of the treats, no matter how they are prepared, keep them in an airtight container.  Keeping the treats in the fridge will extend the shelf life even longer.

õ  If your dog eats treats quickly, you can make a whole batch and store the treats in an airtight container at room temperature.  

õ  If your dog eats treats slowly, you can make a half batch, or freeze the treats after baking.  Just make sure they are thawed before giving them to your dog.

 

The finished product

 

Even the cat liked them!

Our final product, ready for gift giving.  We'll be ready for next Christmas!
 

 

 

PawsGo Baking Healthy Treats for Your Dog

The holidays are upon us, so don't forget your best friend!  What better way to treat your dog than with homemade treats?  And what a thoughtful gift for the dogs of your friends, co-workers and neighbors!  Making your own dog treats is easy, inexpensive and fun!  Do it on your own, or make it a party like we did!

My dogs love treats, and truthfully, I give them more than I should.  Treats are rewards, treats are expected, and treats can quickly diffuse an annoying situation.  Treats are a part of our day.  But are treats healthy?  Maybe, but probably not in the volume that my dogs coerce me into giving them. And, they get expensive.

So, PawsGo set out to create healthy treats that we could make at home.  With the help of Kari Faherty, of True Health and Wholeness
http://true-hw.com/ in Arlington, Virginia, we hosted a dog treat cooking class (party). The idea was to create treats to share with dogs and their friends.

Kari developed two very easy recipes.  One with peanut butter, the other with parsley (because who can't use a little breath freshener).  All ingredients were found at our local grocery story and cost $11.73 -- what a deal!  The end result can be consumed by both humans and dogs.  All ingredients and steps are outlined below -- thank you Kari!  (and yes, we served wine)

 

 

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

 

Breath Freshener   Ingredients: õ  1 Banana õ  3 tablespoons peanut butter õ  1 egg õ  1 cup oat flour õ  2/3 cup rolled oats õ  1 - 1½ cup chopped fresh parsley and/or mint   Recipe: 1.     In a large bowl, mash the banana 2.     Add the peanut butter and egg. 3.     Add the oat flour and rolled oats.  Allow the dough to sit. 4.     While the dough is sitting, finely chop the parsley.

Peanut Butter Flax   Ingredients: õ  1 Banana õ  3-5 tablespoons peanut butter õ  1 egg õ  1 cup oat flour õ  2/3 cup rolled oats õ  ½ cup flax meal (plus more, if needed)     Recipe: 1.     In a large bowl, mash the banana 2.     Add the peanut butter and egg. 3.     Add the oat flour and rolled oats.  Allow the dough to sit. 4.     Add the flax, enough to make the dough moldable.

peanut butter base
 

 

grinding oats for oat flour

chopping parsley

5.     Divide the dough into 24 balls, then press them flat into disks.

6.     Lay the disks on the baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on the desired texture.

 

Notes on Baking and Storage:

 

õ  If your dog prefers soft treats, bake the treats a shorter time.  For crisp treats, bake the treats longer.

õ  If your dog is small, make smaller disks.  Smaller disk will need less baking time.

õ  Softer treats will spoil faster than crisp treats.  To extend the shelf life of the treats, no matter how they are prepared, keep them in an airtight container.  Keeping the treats in the fridge will extend the shelf life even longer.

õ  If your dog eats treats quickly, you can make a whole batch and store the treats in an airtight container at room temperature.  

õ  If your dog eats treats slowly, you can make a half batch, or freeze the treats after baking.  Just make sure they are thawed before giving them to your dog.

 

The finished product

 

Even the cat liked them!

Our final product, ready for gift giving.  We'll be ready for next Christmas!
 

 

 

Healthy Natural Dog Food - How to read a label

 

 

These are the scary little things that appear on the back of pet food bags.  Most of the time we want to avoid them since we really don’t want to know what is in most dog foods. And yes, they are written in English, but, unless you have a chemistry degree, you won’t understand half of what is written anyway.  However, be brave and realize that taking the time to figure it out,  may be the key to saving your dog’s life.

Pet food manufacturers list ingredients on the label starting with the highest concentrations first.  That means we want to see things like beef, chicken  salmon etc as the number one  ingredient.  The protein sources should be the number one listing for dog food.  Stay away from foods that are high in by-products.  These are also protein sources, but are of inferior quality to actual ’meat’.  You will see a phrase called “crude protein“.  This does not refer to the type of protein used. It refers to the method used to analyze the total protein.  The percentage of  nitrogen content is measured in a lab.  It is then multiplied by 6.5 to give the percentage of crude protein.

 The two most important factors are not measured. These are the biological value  and the digestibility.  Biological value refers to the amino acid composition.  Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and need to be in correct balance to be useful to the body.  Digestibility determines how well the GI tract can absorb the protein.  It is very hard for the gut to break down the protein in meat by-products.   By-products are things like hair, feathers, feet, tendons - I’m sure you get the picture.

Meat and bone meal are other forms of protein listed on labels.  This is ground bone, gristle, tendons and anything not fit for human consumption that has been through the rendering process.  We discussed the wonders of rendering in the last article.  Anything on a label that says any kind of meal be it lamb, chicken, beef or fish is the cheapest and least nutritious form of protein. So we can see that the source of the proteins are not readily available on most labels.

Grains are other ingredients listed.  They are not all bad for dogs.  Some vegetarian forms of dog food contain lots of grains.  But overall, we would like to see these are secondary ingredients in most dog foods.  The grains used need to also be of good quality since the availability of nutrients is dependent on the digestibility of the grain itself.  We want to see whole grains not pet grade, inferior quality products containing mold and endotoxins.  Pet food manufacturers will also use a variety of ‘spent’ grains as fillers containing very little nutritional value  Spent grains include:

Ÿ  Rice flour- the end process of the milling of rice

Ÿ  Corn gluten meal- left overs from corn processing after the removal of the nutritious layers

Ÿ  Brewer’s rice- discarded rice from the manufacturing of beer

Additives are used to make commercial dog foods to extend shelf life and to make them attractive to the human consumer.  They can be added by the supplier and then again by the manufacturer.  The law does require investigation on the direct effects of additives and preservatives, but what about the combined effects?  We know very little about the synergistic effects of all these chemicals.

 

With four years of nutritional training and twenty years as a Doctor of Chiropractic for both humans and animals Dr. Janice Elenbaas is the founder and owner of Lucky Dog Cuisine.

My Journey On Expanding My Dog's Diet by Sarah Mahrle-Thomas

If you are like me you are a dog lover that wants to give your dogs the very best you can.  Finding a healthy diet that is cost effective can be quite the task.  Reading ingredients, checking out the dogfoodadivsor.com site along with keeping up to date with pet food recalls can be very time consuming.  Let’s just say if I was paid for the amount of time I've dedicated to finding the best food for my dogs I would be on vacation rather than living through the coldest winter in Wisconsin!  I don't have all the answers but I'm here to say I completely understand.  I was taught from a young age that you feed your dogs name brand kibble because the dog food companies know how to create a balanced diet that will keep your dog happy and healthy.  Not feeding dog food could result in your dog becoming diseased, obese or dying prematurely.  This teaching was fed to me through other dog lovers, commercials, pet stores and shows about dogs.  Just look at the bag, it shows you all the wonderful things that you are feeding your dogs AND it says it's a balanced diet!  The more money you spend the better the ingredients.  Chicken by product or Duck.  Hmmm...???  Plus when you feed your dog this bag of food they'll bounce around like a puppy and have a beautiful coat.  It's so easy, just open the bag and feed your dog the required amount.  It's how they sell the food.  Images, words and convenience.  Add a smidge of guilt in there since only people that love their dogs feed them the very best.  Kind of makes you feel empty now right?  Yeah, me too. 

Wonderful Rosie

I'm a mother of 4 young children.  My husband and I also have 3 dogs.  Zeus - 13 year old Australian Shepherd, Rosie - 13 year old Labrador Retriever and Bruce - 11 month old Boxer/Mt. Cur mix.  Our Rosie-girl was recently diagnosed with chronic renal failure.  It wasn't a surprise because we noticed she has really shown her age in the past year and having had cats with renal failure I knew the increased water intake was not a great sign.  There is no cure and the only thing a vet can recommend is that we put her on a vet prescribed diet.  I'm not going to knock that advice.  That's what they have in their tool box and they read the packaging that says this is a specifically balanced diet to feed dogs with this certain conditions.  Can you tell I'm a tad cynical when it comes to advertising?  It must be all my years in sales.  ;)  I get it though, this is a product they can offer the average person to feed their pet that is ill.  I let the vet know that I appreciate the offer but I would not be going the route of prescribed diet. 

My sister has fed raw for some time.  I honestly used to listen to the meals she was preparing for her dog and be totally grossed out.  Plus, how realistic is it to prepare these meals when you have a house full of kids?  She didn't even have one child at that time.  Since then she's had a child and even added another dog to her group and she's still feeding raw.  After getting the news about my Rosie-girl I needed to find out more on what kind of diet I need to feed her.  I had a support system, my sister.  I had a way of researching the diet, the internet and books.  Now I had to implement the change. 

 

I feed what I call an enhanced diet.  Basically I still feed kibble, just in smaller amounts.  Then I enhance it with dog friendly foods.  I use the term raw feeding because I don't cook most of the food they eat.  It's also a term most people immediately recognize.  Whereas if I said I feed my dogs a natural diet there would be some question as to what I meant.  I don't doubt that I will feed entirely raw at some point but for now this is what works for my family.   Since I have senior dogs I don't feed raw bones because I don't want any potentially cracked teeth.  Also I have to be very aware of the protein intake for Rosie because of her renal failure.  Since I do feed partial kibble I don't really have to add much protein at all.  Raw beef liver diced up is a favorite in my house.  Rosie also like plain greek yogurt as a midday snack.  Mostly the enhancements that I add are:  boiled rice, diced baked potatoes (sweet potatoes are awesome), shredded lettuce (skip the iceberg), diced apples, sliced bananas, steamed veggies (broccoli, green beans, carrots, etc.), strawberries, pumpkin puree (not pie filling), blueberries.  I use a lot of frozen veggies because I can buy those in bulk and it's more cost effective.

Really just keep it fun.  Familiarize yourself with foods that are dangerous for your dogs to eat so you avoid them all together.  I keep those types of lists handy on my smartphone and laptop.  Incorporate the family.  My kids often ask me for some of the foods like apples, carrots and berries when they see me getting them ready for the dogs.  I much rather my kids be interested in these things than grabbing a pop tart.  Plus my kids get to help pick out these foods when we go to the store.  Make shopping an adventure.  Next time there's a farmers market bring your dog along to go pick out some locally grown fresh produce. 



 

 

Feeding raw can be a scary thing for people.  Plus even my husband can agree that it's gross to watch someone prepare raw meat for future feedings.  You do have to do some work preparing things so the convenience factor is out.  I make it easier for our household by taking some time every few days to prepare the foods and put them in separate containers to keep them in the fridge.  That way each time I go to feed them I take out the containers and scoop out the servings.  Apples or bananas I dice fresh any time I feed them.  The key is remembering that when you feed raw it's balance over time.  It's fun to diversify my dog’s diets and they absolutely love it.  I think that is the thing that really made me stick with it.  They are so happy and loving their food.  They eat all of it and then come over for some hand licking as I pat them.  Even my seniors have great looking coats and are still very active.

 

I'm not knocking people that feed kibble and I'm not saying I'm a dietician.  I just wanted to share my experience with raw feeding.  It seems people either are raw or not.  I just would like to encourage people to learn about raw feeding and how cool it is.  If you need recipes to start from there's plenty available online.  Plus if you want to start small you can even find dog friendly treat recipes too.  Or if you are having a banana and can't quite finish it, don't hesitate to share it with your dog.  :) 

Sarah Mahrle-Thomas lives in Oshkosh, Wisconsin with her husband, four children and three well-fed and happy dogs.  Do you have a blog entry you'd like to share with pawsgo? Email us at mypawsgo@gmail.com, like us on facebook @pawsgo, send us a tweet @mypawsgo, or leave us a comment here!  We'd love to hear from you!