A cookie sheet with rows of small cookies.

Cheap and Easy Training Treats for your Dog

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A cookie sheet with rows of small cookies.

Peanut Butter cookie treats, fresh from the oven!

In our Puppy Kindergarten and Basic Manners 1 classes, students often ask, “How am I going to afford all these treats?”

Easy! You’re not going to buy them at the pet store.

Easiest Dog Treats

Pre-cooked, frozen chicken breast: Toss it in the fridge to thaw the day before class. Cut into small pieces.

Plain rotisserie chicken breast: White meat only for dogs. Eat the rest yourself.

Low-fat string cheese: Cut it up before class or break pieces off with your fingers.

Baby food: Lickable meat!! Read the labels. Avoid onion powder and garlic powder.

Deli meat: Yes, it has fillers, but some brands are better than others, so check the labels. Deli meat is also handy for infusing a lower-value treat (kibble, cheerios) with a bit more value. One piece of deli meat rolling around in your treat pouch will make everything else smell more delicious to your pup!

Peanut butter: A super awesome treat! Read the label and avoid brands with xylitol (deadly for dogs). Use peanut butter sparingly as it is a high fat food.

Easy Dog Treats

Meat: Boil chicken breasts or make your own jerky if you have a dehydrator.

Lickable treats:  In a blender or food processor, make a paste of tasty ingredients. Put the paste into a PetToob/GoToob, Coughlin tube, or a small tupperware or baby food jar.

Combinations:

  • pumpkin/banana/peanut butter
  • strawberry/peanut butter (PBJ!)
  • tuna in water (drained), mashed potatoes
  • leftovers (meat/potatoes/vegetables)

A good consistency for use in tubes is somewhere between baby food and toothpaste. Thin with water or broth. Thicken with plain rolled oats.

Tuna fudge: Sounds gross but dogs go CRAZY for it.

TUNA FUDGE

4 cans of tuna in water (do not drain)
4 eggs
3 cups flour
(Tip: Tapioca flour is AWESOME for non-crumbly treats. You can find it in the gluten-free section of the store.)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or grease it).

Mix together eggs and tuna.

Once eggs are mixed in, gradually mix in the flour.

Spread mixture on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Let cool completely, then use a knife or pizza cutter to slice into squares.

Portion out the tuna fudge into snack-size zip baggies and store in the freezer.

Bake cookies:  This sounds difficult, but it really is easy and tons of fun. Fill in the _____ with some sort of protein: 90/10 ground beef (drained), chicken or turkey breast, a pouch of salmon or tuna (drained), peanut butter, grated cheese.

DIY                 DOG COOKIES

1/2 can of chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup of rolled oats
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
1 cup of ______

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a food processor, whiz the rolled oats until they are flour.

Add the _____. Whiz.

Add everything else. Whiz.

Check the consistency. It should be like thick mashed potatoes.

If you need to adjust, add water/broth to thin or more oats to thicken.

Using a spoon, drop rounded blobs on your cookie sheet. Don’t worry about spacing them out. They don’t expand like human cookies do.

Bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes. They are done when the bottom of the cookies are starting to brown.

Cool before letting your dog taste test!

Store in an airtight container in the fridge. They also freeze well.

Your dog will enjoy these tasty treats and your wallet will enjoy the extra cash you’ve saved!

Red tri Aussie dog with mouth open to catch a treat

Has Your Dog Wised Up to Pill Pockets? Try this Trick!

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Some dogs are easy to medicate. Wrap a pill in a bit of cheese or stick it in a Pill Pocket and—GULP!—down the hatch it goes.

But what do you do when your dog hates taking pills or you have a particularly bitter-flavored medicine that renders your usual technique useless?

Here’s a fun trick that you can play on your dog.

Materials:

  • 5 bite-sized pieces of super yummy food (cheese, leftover steak, meatball, etc)
  • 1 pill
  • 1 unsuspecting dog

Instructions:

  1. Hide the pill in one of the 5 pieces of yummy food.
  2. Call your dog over.
  3. Toss him one of the pieces that has no pill.
  4. Continue tossing pieces of yummy food one after another until you have no more.
  5. Pat yourself on the back for being so clever!

Troubleshooting:

  • “My dog can’t catch treats. They just bounce off his face.”
    • Solution: Call your dog into the kitchen. Ask for a Sit or Down and a Wait/Stay. Make a line of 5 treats with a few inches between each one. Release your dog to Hoover up the treats.
  • “My dog chews and then spits out the pill!”
    • Solution: Smaller pieces. Ideally something your dog will swallow whole. If the pill is large, you can cut it into smaller pieces (assuming it’s not extended release—ask your vet!). Use 8-10 treats and hide the pill pieces in 2-4 of them.
  • “My dog now spits out treat #3!”
    • Solution: Make it treat #5. Or treat #2. Mix it up every day so your dog doesn’t expect it
  • “My dog is really smart and has wised up to this game, too!”
    • Solution: Up the ante to something he can’t refuse. Liverwurst. Canned tiny fish (in water). Canned cat food.