any recipes for dog treats?

[sesa70]

In my efforts to give my dogs better food, I am now realizing that their treats are total garbage. Does anyone have recipes for home made treats that are wheat/corn/soy free?
 

I am also planning on making some to give away to our dog loving friends :)

[Oubliette8]

I don't have any recipes, but you might check your library and see if they have any pet cookbooks (our library keeps them in the pet section) Sometimes they have recipes.

Its also possible to find wheat, corn, and soy free treats on the market, even grain free. when I had dogs with food allergies I discovered quite a few, although I'm a bit more lax now that my current dog is ok (but I'm still fairly picky about ingredient quality) Look at Zuke's Salmon or Peanut Butter soft treats, or any Zuke's biscuit or edible chew bone, Evanger's Nothing But Naturals (these have pheasant and venison varieties for allergic dogs), Solid Gold dog treats, There's are tons. Maybe it would be better to list them this way-

Soft Treats-
Zukes
Solid Gold
Cloud star
Evanger's
Wellness
Real Food


biscuits-
Solid gold
Zukes
Canidae
Wellness
Innova
California Natural
Eagle Pack/Holistic select
Cloud Star
EVO

Chews-
Sweet Potato Chews (made by several companies- 100% dehydrated sweet potato- look for the thick, rock hard one, in my experience, they last longer)
Zuke's Z-Ridge Bones
N-Bone
TerraBone
Some dogs like raw carrots
Antler Chews
Himalayan Dog Chews (made of yak's milk- these last a very long time)

Jerky-type Chews-
Duck breast
fish skins
Free Range (this is a brand) carries a wide variety of treats that are somewhere between soft/jerky in flavors like shrimp and crab, or lamb and sweet potato

Some of the above brands do contain chicken or beef, so read each flavors ingredient list carefully. Several make fish based treats which would be ideal with your fish diet. Also, be aware that normal chews- like rawhide if you give it to your dogs (which is a whole nother conversation) are beef products. Its possible to find those types of chews made out of fish hides and some alternate meats if you really look. I've seen kangaroo, elk/venison/lamb and ostrich bones, Bison bully sticks and tripe chews, even dehydrated duck feet and squid sticks. These items tend to be harder to find, but keep your eyes open. Sometimes my local pet supply store gets strange stuff in seasonally (like ostrich bones for xmas one year) and sometimes you'll find them nestled among "normal" chews in places you wouldn't expect- a local feed store here carries both a line of bison chews and now duck feet.

Also, this list is just the beginning, there are certainly other brands out there. Your local pet store employees might be able to point you towards some products they carry, and just keep reading labels.

[AAK]

We got one book -- but books are tough, they all say that they are using safe ingredients, while many aren't.  

I actually really like this website: 

http://www.dogtreatkitchen.com/

Amy

[Mirzam]

I give our pup dried lamb's lung which he really loves. We got a new bag today, and when he saw it, he sat in anticipation of a treat!

[Oubliette8]

I've always found dogs LOVE freeze dried liver. If you look you can get it in lamb, though most is chicken or beef. I tend to reserve that for training. Also, you might consider real food for training treat type stuff. For instance, my dog will do ANYTHING for a piece of string cheese. Its her jackpot treat, so when I need her to be very motivated thats the reward we use. Other dogs like hot dogs, or homemade liver treats, or shredded chicken (I know that won't work for you- but you could substitute, say shredded fish?) I wouldn't reccomend most of them for every day treats, but they work great for training.

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by Oubliette8 

I've always found dogs LOVE freeze dried liver. If you look you can get it in lamb, though most is chicken or beef. I tend to reserve that for training. 

A word of warning with liver treats, don't give too much, they can give runny tummies. I learnt my lesson with this when we first got our dog, so I stay away from liver treats now.

[Ola_]

Here is one of my favourites.  It's very simple but the dogs love it, very peanut butter-y.  It uses wheat flour but you can substitute any other kind of flour I'm sure, you just may need to add a bit more flour or liquid depending on consistency - it should be a standard rollable dough.

Peanut butter biscuits

1 cup unsweetened natural peanut butter (they have it at my bulk food store, it's inexpensive there too)
1 cup milk (you can use water if your dog is lactose intolerant)
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder

Heat oven to 375 degrees F (I heat mine later because my oven gets warm fast and the cutting takes me a bit).
Mix together peanut butter and milk until smooth.
Mix baking powder and flour together, then pour in the peanut butter mixture and stir it together.
Knead until dough is smooth.
Roll out to 1/4" think and cut with cookie cutters, or even into plain rectangles/strips. Smaller bits are great for training treats (I make little bits at the end to avoid re-rolling so much).
Place on a GREASED cookie sheet or use parchment paper to avoid sticking (I do the parchment paper and it works very well) and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Baked exactly as the recipe directs, the biscuits are a bit soft. If you like them crunchy you can roll it a bit thinner and/or bake a bit longer. It makes 2 full cookie sheets for me. I store them in tupperware till they're gone.

[AAK]

Originally Posted by Oubliette8 

I've always found dogs LOVE freeze dried liver. If you look you can get it in lamb, though most is chicken or beef. I tend to reserve that for training. Also, you might consider real food for training treat type stuff. For instance, my dog will do ANYTHING for a piece of string cheese. Its her jackpot treat, so when I need her to be very motivated thats the reward we use. Other dogs like hot dogs, or homemade liver treats, or shredded chicken (I know that won't work for you- but you could substitute, say shredded fish?) I wouldn't reccomend most of them for every day treats, but they work great for training.

We made our own liver treats.  The dogs LOVE them.  With the link I posted above, I found basic (using oven to dehydrate liver) to more complex--using liver in a cookie.  We have liver available all the time though (my dad raises our beef and we don't care for liver)

Amy

[nd_deadhead]

We just give our pup carrots. He knows that word better than the word "treat"!