You can create a large variety of treats! We know people who make their own dog kibble each week! But start small. Learning the basics of doggy treats and snacks will get you on the right path and introduce you to a new concept that, hopefully, you'll want to adopt!

Making dog treats at home is a fun and loving thing to do for your furry best friend. Once you start making cute shapes and decorating them with icing, you can make special treats for your dog’s birthday or “gotcha” day. Before you know it, you’ll be giving bags of homemade dog goodies to all your friends and tails will be wagging all around you. Oh, and because they are made with whole foods, your dog might be willing to share one with you. Woof!

Choose a Base

Any flour can be used to make dog biscuits, but why not go for the healthiest choices? Whole-wheat flour and whole-wheat pastry flour are good choices. If your dog needs to avoid wheat, choose gluten-free flours like chickpea, sorghum, or oat flour.

Choose Your Flavors

You can choose any combination of healthy foods to put into your biscuits. Fruits and veggies that are safe include apples, bananas, berries, broccoli, carrots, celery, citrus (without the seeds), eggplant, green beans, kale, melons (without the seeds), potatoes, spinach, squash, tomatoes, watermelon (without the seeds), and zucchini. Peanut butter is a popular choice for dogs.

Sweet or Savory

Dog biscuits can be sweet, savory, or both. Add a small amount of molasses or maple syrup and a hint of pure vanilla extract. Those ingredients complement his favorite flavors of carob and peanut butter.

Lovin’ in the Oven

Just roll the dough out on a flat baking sheet and use a knife to cut it into squares before baking. I bake the biscuits, which are small 2-inch cookies, for 18 minutes at 400 degrees, until they are hardened and crisp.

Decorating With Icing

While the decorations and designs may be for us humans, our dogs do love the taste of the frosting or icing. Of course, we don’t want our dogs to get too many sweets, but a little bit as a treat is fine. Ingredients you can use to make icing include non-dairy yogurt, vegan cream cheese, carob, banana, peanut butter, pureed fruits and veggies and even mashed potatoes. A simple recipe is to mix yogurt with peanut butter or cream cheese.

By making healthy dog treats, you're showing your pooch that you care about them and their health. You make snacks for yourself all the time, right? So making them for your dog should become second nature to you after you've done it a few times and finessed the recipes! To view the entire article on homemade doggy treats, please visit our friends at One Green Planet.