Easy Dog Treats With Three Ingredients

Intro: Easy Dog Treats With Three Ingredients

Five days ago we adopted a cute little Heinz 57 fellow from the shelter. He looks like he might be part Dachshund but he is definitely all puppy. They thought he might be about five months old but his tag said two years. He’s a very sweet boy who likes to chew and has zero training.
Since we brought him home, we have been taking him on walks and watching movies with the little guy. We even tried to go to the dog park that has an exercise circuit. That didn’t work out very well because he barked and growled at every dog out there.
It seems that this pup needs some serious training. So, I designed some dog treats just for him. Most of my other entries on this site are for people food but today is special; I’m presenting something for our furry friends.
This recipe is for dog treats that you can use to train your dog. I’m going to be using mine for when our puppy goes “outside” and for “sitting”. If I can get him to fold laundry, I’ll give him a treat too but I’m not holding my breath on that one.
For this recipe, I looked up foods that are good for dogs. I wanted to use ingredients that were either of minimal risk or no risk. I have plenty of experience creating recipes for people but not for dogs. One of the fun and challenging elements of this project was finding out what my pup would like, what would be healthy, and how to put the ingredients together in a treat form. It took three ingredients to make a treat that my dog loved and gobbled up. I chose carrots, peanut butter, and flour. That’s it. That’s all it took to create a wonderful reward for my little guy. You probably have these ingredients on hand right now. Easy peasy!
Special note: You may have an older dog or a dog with gluten sensitivities; no worries, you can use gluten free chickpea flour. You can also substitute apple, banana, pumpkin, or sweet potato for the carrots. They are all of minimal risk to your dog.
The dough is wonderful to work with and it comes together in a food processor. It’s not very sticky and it doesn’t spread on a pan when baking. These treats need no refrigeration and the recipe creates quite a few treats when using small cookie cutters.
Best of all, my dog loved them and kept coming back for more. That’s a sign of a good recipe!

STEP 1: Getting Ready

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

For this recipe you will need:
2 cups of peeled and washed baby carrots
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 cup of creamy peanut butter (make sure your peanut butter does not contain xylitol)

Other:
Cookie cutters
A baking sheet
Parchment paper or silicon baking mat

STEP 2: Making the Dough

For this instructable, we are going to use a food processor to create the dough for our dog treats. Go ahead and add 2 cups of peeled and washed baby carrots. Run the food processor on the shred/slice setting for about 1 minute until they have been thoroughly shredded.

STEP 3: Making the Dough

Add 1 cup of all purpose flour to the food processor.

STEP 4: Making the Dough

Add 1 cup of creamy peanut butter.

STEP 5: Process the Dough

Run the food processor on the shred/slice setting for about 1 minute or until the dough ball forms.

STEP 6: Rolling Out the Dough

Use flour to dust your hands, work surface and a rolling pin. Place dough on your work surface and roll until it is 1/2 inch in thickness.

STEP 7: Cutting the Dough

Using various cookie cutters, cut different shapes of treats from the dough, I used a heart and a square with scalloped edges plus a star. Make sure that you choose a size that fits your dog. My dog only weighs 15 pounds so I chose small cookie cutters.

STEP 8: Almost Ready!

Place dough shapes on either parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool.

STEP 9: Enjoy!

After the treats cool, you can go ahead and start training and rewarding your pup. If you look at the picture of “Watson” above, you can see his big puppy smile. He’s got a treat in his mouth and one waiting for him on the ground. I think he really enjoyed his homemade treats. You never know, I may be able to get him to fold laundry after all.

Comments

[jvincent1]

Wheat and grains are not good for dogs, all the better and healthier dog foods have more protein and other sources of nutrients instead of grains

[dbrotherton]

I myself have used chickpea flour and it works great. Our Doodles love these and they get ear problems with grains. Besides I know what in these treats.

Going to make them with apples today and see how that works. Maybe just a cup and a half , because of the moisture.

Great treats TTFN

[ButterMyBiscuits]

“A walk down the pet food aisle shows high-end (and high-priced) kibbles boasting “grain-free” formulas. We’re made to feel guilty if we feed our dogs the dreaded grain. But what’s the big deal?”

“Grain may have gotten a really bad name from the 2007 pet-food contamination tragedy in which wheat gluten imported from China had been contaminated with industrial chemicals used to falsely boost protein-level readings and caused kidney damage when ingested. Thousands of pets got ill and many died. Of course it wasn’t the grain itself that was the culprit, but that’s what many people remember.”

“Combine that incident with the human gluten-free food fad, and it’s only natural that health-conscious pet owners would consider the same for their dogs. It’s not that wheat gluten is evil. It’s that about 10 percent of people have gluten intolerance. The rest of us are just fine with it. We don’t know what percentage of dogs may have a similar condition, but chances are it’s not all of them.”

-Caroline Coile, PhD (American Kennel Club)

[22calgal]

I made these today. Super easy, our Chiwienie Gigi loved them! I will share some with other family dogs are well. This will be a family favorite! Thanks for the recipe!

[ButterMyBiscuits]

You are very welcome! I’m so happy that Gigi loved them!

[ArleyB1]

Going to try this . Looks good enough for us humans .

[ButterMyBiscuits]

Thank you very much! I ALWAYS try my recipes before recommending them. I decided that this should be no exception. Since the treats had only flour, carrots, and peanut butter, I gave them a shot. Don’t laugh too much at me but they were tasty! Ha ha!

[struno]

I've made treats with pureed sweet potatoes before, never heard of using carrots. I'll try using them next time. Thanks for the great recipe!

[ButterMyBiscuits]

Cool! I’m so glad that you liked my recipe.

[jannie.lloyd]

Sounds good and nice and easy but -- my vet has always advised me not to give peanut butter to dogs. Thanks for the idea, though. I'm now going to look into making treats for my pair of hooligans

[struno]

Have you asked your vet why they say no peanut butter for your dog? Our vet suggested putting our dog's allergy pills into a small glop of PB to get her to take them easier, otherwise she'll just spit the pill out. Interesting.

[jannie.lloyd]

I'm afraid my French isn't good enough to question the vet about the Yea's and Nay's of anything. All I could really understand is "le beurre de cacahuète est interdit." (peanut butter is banned) and "le beurre d'arachide est mauvais pour vos chiens." (peanut butter is bad for your dogs).

I had intended to ask one of my English speaking French friends to ask the vet why but it's one of the things that didn't get done.

[ButterMyBiscuits]

Dr. Susan Wynn is an author, speaker, veterinary nutritionist and specialist in integrative medicine with BluePearl Georgia Veterinary Specialists. She says that when it comes to animal nutrition, “one of the biggest challenges is misinformation on the internet. You can find any information you want to back up any kind of opinion you have on the Internet and a bunch of them are wrong, so it’s a giant problem.” Still, there are certainly some concerns that are justified when it comes to what is safe to feed your pets.
“...regular peanut butter is not toxic to dogs. It’s important to read ingredient labels before feeding any human grade products to animals. Wynn’s advice is “if you are going to use peanut butter to give your dog treats or medicine, which many people do, it should only have peanuts, salt, and maybe sugar. Make sure it doesn’t have Xylitol.”
(National Peanut Board)

[jannie.lloyd]

Thanks for getting back to me and for that info. My vet advises me not to use p/nut butter so I wont but I wouldn't say Yeah or Nay to other people giving it to their dogs. Might even use this I'ble for my own use, though.

BTW I didn't say I thought it was well presented.

Have a good evening.

[ButterMyBiscuits]

Thanks for looking!

[SonnyR1]

Great idea! We add spinach and rolled oats. The dogs and we love them for snacks.

[ButterMyBiscuits]

Those sound like wonderful additions. I bet my pup would love them too. Thanks for sharing!

[OneLonelySock]

Palm oil, used in most peanut butters IS TOXIC to our adopted brood!

Yours might not (looking at the photo) but you should warn folks to avoid messy doggy deaths.

[ButterMyBiscuits]

Hi there! Thank you for looking. “While palm oil is not poisonous to dogs, it does have a laxative effect,” (Vet News)
In addition, according to Vet News with respect to palm oil, “there's unlikely to be enough in a jar [of peanut butter] to cause a dog health problems”.
Therefore, I don’t think we need to worry about “messy doggy deaths”.
If you are still worried, check you ingredients on your peanut butter label. Mine did not contain palm oil. An ounce of prevention...

[plyle]

Thanks for the recipe! I will try it. One word of caution! I recently read that the artificial sweetener "ZYLIDOL" is deadly poisonous for dogs. It is used in SOME peanut butters. Please check the ingredients in your peanut butter before making these.