Viva Las Vegas Dog Treats

My dogs are a huge part of my family. There used to be times when my family would spend a good ten to fifteen minutes trying to get the dogs to come sit with us, let alone sit still for the camera. We used to include them in our holiday cards, because they were family. My little fluffy brothers, you know? Once upon a time, we got them those rawhide bones to chew on Christmas Day. They ruined the soft squeaky toys. Or, well, the small one did. Rawhide bones had the guarantee of being IMPOSSIBLE to ruin until they worried it with their teeth enough.

This is Joey, a West Highland Terrier. Definitely not the cleanest. 

This is Chester, a Golden Retriever. He's really light for the breed.

In the past two years or so, I've noticed something. My parents were no longer including our dogs in the Christmas picture or getting them presents. The horror! This past Christmas, I resolved to do something about at least one of them. While getting them in the picture was impossible, I got them Christmas presents. Specifically, I made their presents.

I was browsing the internet one day when I stumbled across Brown-eyed Baker's Gone to the Dogs dog treats. No, it wasn't the fact she had a Golden Retriever that hooked me. Although that may have been a factor. I'm not too sure. But I digress! The reason I picked these treats is Chester. The poor guy is (likely) allergic to meat. The vet didn't actually check him for allergies, but it's a safe bet to say he's allergic to meat because the two times we tried to feed him dog food with meat in it (after we suspected this) he stopped eating. He eats fish instead. Fishes are yummy. In order to make treats both dogs could enjoy, I decided on the above recipe because it used peanut butter! My dogs are suckers for peanut butter.

Healthy Dog Treats

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 cup whole milk (Now, there may be a difference for using low-fat and whole milk. I ended up using whole milk because my mom refused to buy a gallon of low-fat specifically for the dogs. It should be fine to substitute the milk. Nothing's happened to my dogs.)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

2. In a bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. In another bowl, combine the peanut butter and milk.

Dry ingredients.

And wet ingredients!

3. Put the dry mixture into the wet mixture or vice versa. Mix well.

4. Knead dough on lightly floured surface or parchment paper. Knead out dough to about 1/8 of an inch thick and cut out shapes with card suit cookie cutters. Place on a cookie sheet, evenly spaced.

5. Bake for 20 minutes. Take out, let cool, and store in an airtight container. (And don't forget to let your dog have a sneak taste!)

I was in the holiday spirit, so holiday treats are in there too.

My batch came out much larger than the original because I rolled the dough thinner and I used tiny cookie cutters. I know my parents have a habit of separating treats, so the smaller the cookie is, the easier it is to snap the treat in almost equal halves. Plus, my dogs are never given big chunks of treats. Thirdly, I wanted the homemade treats to last longer. I also bagged about six to give to Nate's sister's dogs. According to him, they devoured them. Maybe I should make them some dog treats, too!

My dogs took to the treats like dog-sharks. After I gave them a taste, they went around the island, looking to see if I'd give them more. The personality of my dogs showed pretty clearly. Chester sat close to me, knowing he wouldn't get any more, but hoping that if he was good enough, he'd get another. Joey sniffed around for more and kept looking up at the island.

"Don't. Move." 

Chester noms on his treats nicely.

Joey usually takes them somewhere else to nom on.