Monday, June 26, 2017

What Are You Waiting For? Make Your Own Homemade Dog Treats!


If we had a dollar for every time someone said to us, "It's easier to buy dog treats at the store than it is to make 'em" we'd probably have enough money to purchase a double oven and a 6 month supply of Skippy Natural peanut butter. We get it. Life is busy. Chaotic. However, whipping up a batch of homemade dog treats isn't a painstaking activity that requires you to move mountains and swim oceans.

There's a whole bunch of misconceptions that feed the fire of excuse making...

1. Meat needs to be one of the ingredients. No. It doesn't. There are a lot of homemade dog treat recipes that include meat however, the majority that we come across don't include meat. A good portion of these recipes are made with ingredients that you probably have on hand like peanut butter, flour, pumpkin, eggs, honey, etc. No. Meat. Needed.

2. It takes too long. Making a batch of dog treats takes about as much time as whipping up your favorite chocolate chip cookies. Most recipes create a dough that needs to be rolled out and shaped with cookie cutters, but that only tacks on about 5-10 minutes extra.

3. Making homemade dog biscuits is complicated. If you can measure ingredients into a bowl, stir, roll, cut and bake...you can make dog biscuits. It's not rocket science.

4. It's cheaper to buy treats at the store. If you're reaching for the $1.97 bag of treats on the shelf, you'll probably break even with the cost of making a batch of dog treats. Maybe. It's hard to say...after all it depends on the ingredients you use and how much you make. Bottom line, in the long run, you'll get more bang for your buck when you go down the route of DIY.

5. My dog won't like homemade treats. In one hand you have a store bought, name brand chocolate chip cookie. In the other hand you've got a warm chocolate chip cookie fresh out of the oven. Which one will you choose? The difference between store bought and fresh made is like night and day. We've heard from dozens of people who said their pups won't eat store bought after being treated to homemade dog treats.

6. There are very few recipes for dogs with food allergies. Spend a few minutes online searching and you'll discover hundreds of recipes that cater to food allergies. There's everything from gluten free to vegetarian (yes, some dogs are allergic to various meats).

7. I have to purchase specialty cookware and bakeware. Do you have a mixing bowl and cookie sheets? Then you can make dog biscuits. Recipes that require rolling the dough out and using a cookie cutter...if you don't feel like purchasing those items, don't. You can roll the dough into small balls and press flat. Your pup doesn't care about the shape of the treats.

8. Homemade dog treats don't keep as long. This is true, but that's a good thing. Do you know why store bought dog treats last so long before going bad? One word...preservatives. Those aren't healthy for your dog. A lot of homemade dog treats, depending on the ingredients, stay fresh for several weeks if you store them properly. A lot of the recipes include instructions on how to store the treats so they last longer.

Need some inspiration? Here is a bunch of homemade dog treat recipes I've created over the past few years. Enjoy! 

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