Dog Treats

This year have you wondered what a good Christmas present for your dog(s) would be? Well, this question stumped me. I have two golden retrievers named Sampson and Kooper. They’re pretty big dogs, and they’re brothers so they love to fight and play. When we give them stuffed animal toys they tear them up so, usually all they get are bones and hard toys. This year I did find them a stuffed Santa toy that was really cute, and I ended up giving it to them before Christmas. Of course, I watched them to make sure they didn’t tear up the “supervise toy” but, somehow Sampson chewed Santa’s little hat right off. This put me in a Christmas gift dilemma. What would I get my dogs?

After thinking about it I decided a great gift to give them would be homemade dog treats! I could make fun shapes, and my dogs would love them! Of course, I had no idea how to make homemade dog treats, so I went to http://www.cesarsway.com/dog-care/dog-nutrition/Recipe-Ideas-for-Quick-and-Healthy-Homemade-Dog-Treats and found some great recipes! One of them was a simple dog biscuit recipe. It called for flour, salt, egg, beef or chicken Bouillon granules and hot water which are all safe for your dog. They say to bake them in strips or bone shapes but, you can do them in whatever shape you want. Since I’d be giving them to my dogs for Christmas I would make them into Christmas trees and candy cane shapes.

Another website I went to was http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Gourmet-Dog-Biscuits/Detail.aspx?evt19=1. If you are feeling fancy and creative I recommend making these gourmet dog biscuits. Juanita, the creator of this recipe says, “Dogs go crazy for these biscuits. When my dogs smell them cooking they know that it will soon be time for treats! You can use any type of meat broth in them, or just use water if broth isn't on hand." These gourmet snacks consist of white and wheat flour, cracked wheat, cornmeal, garlic powder (might give the dogs bad breath), brewer’s yeast, milk powder, beef broth, and milk. Again you can shape these into whatever you want, and they take 45 minutes to bake. To get the details for the recipe go to the website above.

I hope these fun dog treat ideas inspired you and helped you with gift ideas this year!

And P.S. I’d recommend storing them someplace other than under the tree because knowing my dogs, they would plow through the presents to get to those nicely wrapped treats.