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24.05.2015

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Categories : Recipes

Westley turned one a couple of weeks ago! I made him some doggie biscuit treats with his favourite ingredient. Yes, it’s peanut butter. How did you know?

So it’s been 10 months since Westley crashed into our lives and turned them upside down! In a totally good way… He is growing fast, and has the appetite of any regular teenage boy. If you know (or indeed have) any teenage boys, you’ll know what I’m talking about. And just as teenagers are usually tall and lanky, so is Westley. He eats like a horse but doesn’t seem to put weight on. Since Golden Retrievers are notorious for loving their food, I’ll take thin over fat any day, I can’t imagine trying to put Westley on a diet…

His treats mostly consist of frozen stuff (I’ll write about that sometime soon) which he absolutely adores. Anything frozen, even plain old water – in fact especially water – is a treat he will go bonkers for. I mean doing “sit-down-stay-gotobed-come-gotobed-come-gotobed-come for as long as it takes” kind of bonkers. It’s quite funny. But he does love these baked treats too. I mean, they have peanut butter in them. I must say here that I am extremely proud of him for “leaving it” while we fiddled around taking photos of him with a jar full of treats in front of his nose. He did do a couple of nosedives in, but considering we were there for some time, he did fantastically.

In my Greek post I’ve gone on a bit about things I’ve noticed and thought about since having a puppy in my life. I won’t do the same here, although I’m sure some of the points I make also apply to other countries. Maybe not the problems with the cooked bones that people put out to feed all the strays, but surely the overenthusiastic well-intentioned dog lovers who make kissy kissy noises from across the street and excite your puppy to distraction. So I’ll say this. Please take no notice of my dog! I know he is the handsomest dog you’ve ever seen, but just don’t pay him any attention. He will pull, he will try and jump on you, he will get overexcited because he is a dopey teen and wants to play. And jumping on people when you’re 70 pounds isn’t a good way to play. But I won’t “tell him off” for doing something someone asked him to. And be sure that by calling out “oooooooh what a beautiful booooy you aaaaaare” you are asking him. Lesson over!

Now go and make these treats, they are very easy. After the first couple of days, if you have leftovers (you should, this makes a batch of about 65), stick them in the freezer in a zip lock bag. Your pootch will probably like them even more if they are frozen.

Ingredients

6 Tbs peanut butter (100% natural)

4 Tbs sheep or goat’s yogurt (cow’s can irritate tummies)

3 Tbs applesauce (100% natural, no sugar, spices etc)

1 egg

1 cup + 6 Tbs corn meal (flour made from corn)

extra corn meal for worktop

Step 1

Whisk wet ingredients till smooth. Add 1 cup corn meal and mix well till dough starts to form. Add corn meal as necessary to stop dough from sticking to your hands. Sprinkle some corn meal onto your worktop and turn out the dough. Knead and shape into a thin log.

Step 2

Preheat oven to 160C fan assisted. Slice log thinly to get your biscuits. If you want specific shapes, roll out the dough and cut with a doggie cookie cutter.

Step 3

Place biscuits on baking trays lined with grease-proof paper (baking paper) and bake for about 11-12 minutes if small (like the ones in the photo) or 16-17 minutes if round and a little bigger. Don’t let them brown too much but make sure they are cooked through. Let cool and store in an airtight container. After a couple of days transfer to a zip lock bag in the freezer.

Westley’s diet is nearly all gluten free. There is a component of gluten called gliadin which is said to cause allergies and food intolerances in dogs (same component that causes problems for humans with coeliac I think). So although many vets give the ok to give wheat flour to dogs, I don’t. IMPORTANT: regular corn meal may contain traces of gluten, so it’s not suitable for humans with coeliac.

Photo Credit: The Mister (thanks!)

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