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The Best Healthy Dog Treats

Updated 7/3/21

I originally made this post back when COVID was in full force. While things still aren’t back to what was normal before that we are finding our new normal.

Today’s post is for the fur babies in your life. We have 2 dogs. Kiya, an American Boxer, and Callie, a lab Brittany mix. We are very careful with what we feed our girls. Our boxer in particular has some food allergies so we need to be extra careful. They get quality dog food and I rotate through a couple of healthy dog treats. Or I bake my own. It’s important that I have healthy snacks for our dogs.

The Governor of Georgia issued a Stay at Home order until April 13th. The other day he extended it until April 30th. We haven’t been able to get out to get groceries and other necessities like we used to. I don’t want the girls to suffer since they can’t tell us what’s going on.

I decided to bake them healthy dog treats so we can spoil them a little extra.

Why Bake My Own healthy snacks for dogs?

I started making my own dog treats in part because we were out of treats for the girls and couldn’t get to the store. First, I started by researching recipes and then modified one to suit my needs. I love being able to control the ingredients list. I know that these treats don’t have any junk in them. And, as I mentioned, I don’t like giving our girls stuff full of junk.

How to Make the treats

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

First, get a stand mixer (or a large bowl) with the paddle attachment. Mix the pumpkin and peanut butter together until well combined.

Make sure that your peanut butter doesn’t have xylitol in it as it can cause seizures or liver failure.

Also, use pumpkin puree, NOT pumpkin pie filling. There are a whole bunch of spices and sugar in it that dogs do not need. Plain pumpkin will taste like cardboard to us but, I assure you, your dog will love it.

Next, add in the eggs and mix until well combined.

Now, start adding in the flour a little at a time until moistened.

After the flour is combined kneed the dough a few times on a lightly floured surface until it comes together.

Roll the dough out until it’s 1/4″ thick. Cut shapes out with your cookie cutter of choice. I got this super cute set. I use the smallest and middle sizes most often. If you have a hard time rolling out your dough to a consistent thickness you can get these cool rolling pin rings. They go over your rolling pin and your dough is the same thickness. How cool!

Please on a cookie sheet. They don’t spread so they can stay close together. You can see how close I put them.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. They will crisp up when cool. If they are a bit thick they will be chewy. My girls don’t seem to mind. They LOVE them!

Cool fully before serving to your pup. Store in a cool dry place. I put them in a glass container with a chalk label and chalk marker. I have to redo it, you can see it’s getting a bit smudged.

I hope you enjoy baking these. Enjoy giving your pups healthy homemade dog treats. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! For more great recipes check out my healthy eating archives HERE.

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