Homemade Dog Treats (recipe)

by ilene on May 31, 2011 · 37 comments

in baking

Hello!! I’m back from our sailing trip around the Caribbean! We had a great time sailing to different islands around BVI and hanging out with our friends!  This was my first time sailing and it opened my eyes to a whole new way of vacationing and I LOVED it! We would just jump off our boat deck to snorkel or swim to shore. The water was clear and beautiful and we saw all sorts of sea creatures. I think the highlight of the trip was when we spotted dolphins jumping around us and swimming alongside our boat!  We saw turtles, too! Living on a sailboat for 8 nights was quite an adventure.  I learned to shower with less than 1 gallon of fresh water a day, use just 2 squares of toilet paper and rinse dishes in the ocean.  It was definitely a challenge for a princess like me but one of the best trips I’ve ever been on.  I want to go again!

Before I left for my adventure at sea, I made a whole bunch of dog treats and sent them to my furry friends around the country. My sister just got a Shiba Inu so I wanted to send some yummy treats to welcome sweet Bailey into our family.  I searched the internet for recipes and found lots of recipes that used ingredients like bacon and cheese. I didn’t want to run to the grocery store so I came up with this recipe with what I had in my pantry.  Bailey LOVED the treats! My sister said he’s a pretty picky eater and likes these better than the store bought ones!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1/3 cup margarine or butter
  • 1 cup boiling beef broth
  • 3/4 cup cornmeal
  • 2 teaspoons white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1 egg, beaten (or 2 eggs to make treats softer for older dogs)
  • 3 cups whole wheat flour

Directions

Combine rolled oats, margarine/butter, and boiling beef broth in a large bowl. Let stand and soften for 10 minutes.  Thoroughly stir in cornmeal, sugar, bouillon, milk, peanut butter, and egg. Mix in flour, 1 cup at a time, until dough comes together.  Knead dough together so that it looks like this:

Roll out dough to 1/2″ thickness:


Cut out shapes with cookie cutter. I had a hard time finding a bone shape cutter and almost made my own cookie cutter but then I randomly saw this 4″bone cutter at AC Moore:

I cut some smaller shapes using mini cutters for smaller dogs:

Place on cookie sheet. They don’t spread apart so you can fit a lot on a sheet:

Bake 35 to 45 minutes at 325 degrees, until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool:

All packaged up and ready to mail to my doggy friends all over!

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{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Irene May 31, 2011 at 10:05 pm

Bailey loves his treats, thank you very much!!

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2 Debra E July 22, 2011 at 6:49 pm

Sounds yummy. I’d like to try them for my dog, but the amount of peanut butter is missing from the recipe. Is it 1/2 cup?

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3 ilene July 22, 2011 at 7:01 pm

Yes! Sorry about that! It is 1/2 cup!

ilene :)

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4 Kimberly September 21, 2011 at 8:36 am

What a great recipe! Can’t wait to try it and send to all my friends’ dogs.

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5 Jutta Johnson October 5, 2011 at 7:10 am

I also love the way you wrapped and labeled these treats. Do you have a tag template I could use? Thanks

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6 ilene October 5, 2011 at 12:18 pm

Hi Jutta! I just printed out the doggies’ names using the font American Typewriter and cut out and pasted onto polka-dotted scrapbook paper. Sorry I don’t have a template!!

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7 Jean October 5, 2011 at 9:25 pm

Leo loved his treats, too! I must make some more now that I have the recipe!

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8 Marta Mercado October 7, 2011 at 10:12 am

Hello, thank you for sharing this recipe. Will make a great gift to the dogs of my friends. I wonder where I can buy beef bouillon granules.

Thanks!

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9 ilene October 7, 2011 at 12:40 pm

Hi! You can find beef bouillon granules in the soup section of the grocery store. You can also make the treats with out them, but i think it makes it tastier!

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10 Emily October 12, 2011 at 1:48 pm

Hi there, Just curious if you know how long these last before they go bad…or if they need to be refrigerated?

Thank you!

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11 ilene October 13, 2011 at 11:26 am

Hi Emily! They should last 1-2 weeks, but store in an airtight container. They don’t have to be refrigerated.

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12 Julianne October 22, 2011 at 5:10 pm

I made a batch today and the dogs seem to love them! Thanks for the post!

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13 Anonymous December 7, 2011 at 12:07 am

Actually, it would be best, given the milk and eggs, especially if they are made softer for older dogs, to keep refrigerated. I make dog treats for a living, and have found that they generally go bad sooner if not kept cool in an airtight container. Also, for better results, try baking at 325 for 20 minutes, then turning off the oven and letting them sit for another 20 in the oven.

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14 Ilene December 7, 2011 at 12:26 am

Thanks for the tips!!

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15 Shannon December 9, 2011 at 4:25 pm

Would these be OK for cats too?

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16 ilene December 9, 2011 at 8:44 pm

i’m not sure, I haven’t tried these on cats before but my guess is that they wont like them.

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17 karen December 17, 2011 at 8:19 pm

Are these treats supposed to real crunchy? I just made these today and I had to cook them longer than the 45 minutes and they arent very crunchy. My dog loves em anyway!

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18 ilene December 20, 2011 at 2:11 am

They aren’t suppose to be that crunchy, more like a biscuit.

- ilene :)

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19 Sharon January 11, 2012 at 1:42 pm

Can I leave out the peanut butter? My pup cant have peanut butter. Tks

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20 Laura March 6, 2012 at 8:43 am

Our family just adopted a dog from the pound so I think some homemade treats would make him feel quite at home. Thank you so much for the recipe.

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21 Mary March 12, 2012 at 2:22 pm

can they be made with “white” flour?

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22 Janis April 15, 2012 at 12:58 am

Thanks for sharing! I baked my first batch today, and had my black lab, Amber taste test it and be the judge. She absolutely loved them and approves!

Just to note, I don’t usually bake (I don’t even like cooking! well, most of the time)… but I did enjoy making these. Now that I know it’s easy to do, I’m going to be making more of these! :)

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23 Georgia Hall April 19, 2012 at 3:22 pm

Thanks for sharing this great recipe! I baked a batch immediately. They are cooling right now. I am sharing this post with a link on my Friday Friends! feature on by blog. Come check it out.

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24 Jessica May 5, 2012 at 8:50 am

My dog is super picky. Do you think she would like these?

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25 Anonymous May 16, 2012 at 2:09 pm

Can you substitute chicken broth and bouillion granules for the beef?

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