#12 snack for an upset tummy

I love giving my dogs treats! Who doesn’t, right? But, I always have a hard time deciding what treats to give them. Most treats that you buy at the store have tons of crap ingredients that could cause Baron to have a seizure or cause all of my dogs to have allergic reactions. Shopping for them is not an easy task!

I have done a lot of trial and error to come up with recipes for dog treats that my pack will actually eat- they are pretty spoiled and can be very picky eaters. I came up with the following recipe mostly by accident. Baron had just had his medications adjusted and was showing signs of stomach upset. My vet suggested adding canned pumpkin puree to his food. She explained that it is great for dogs suffering from constipation or diarrhea. It is loaded with fiber and beta-carotene that help soothe the irritated gastro-intestinal tract and adds water to the system (It’s also good for cats in preventing hairballs).  Baron, being his regular spoiled self, turned his nose up and wanted nothing to do with it. So I had to improvise and come up with a way to get him to eat it. This is the recipe that I came up with, that Baron actually approved of:

Ingredients- 1 ½ cups of wheat flour

                      ½ - ¾ cup of oatmeal (I used regular I’m not sure if instant would work)

                       ¾ cup canned pumpkin puree

                      1-3 tablespoons of water (roughly may be more or less.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients together except the water. Slowly start adding the water a bit at a time until you have a ball of dough similar in consistency to cookie dough. At this point you can be fancy and roll the dough out and use cookie cutters but, I don’t usually have time for that. I just start pulling off pieces of dough and roll it into a ball about the size of a walnut. Then I flatten them out so they look a little bigger than a fifty cent piece. Bake for about half an hour or until they look dark golden brown. Let them cool completely before you store them and they will get a hard crunchy texture that is great for cleaning your dog’s teeth.  

I was lucky in that Baron actually liked this recipe. I also tried it without the oats and it worked but used four or five cups of flour and didn’t get the crunchy texture. I hope your dogs will enjoy these cookies as much as mine do!


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