Wondering why this ‘special treat’ looks so much like dog food? Well, because it is dog food. Dog niblets, to be precise! Because – duh! – the newest member of our family is the cutest puppy ever! Her name is Lucy and she is just the most precious, smartest and funniest little troublemaker!
This is her at 8 weeks old.
Cutie, right? I think she looks like a proper model!
It has actually been a few weeks since we picked her up from the breeder and she has gotten herself in a number of sticky situations since then. Like that time when she decided that it was a good idea to crawl underneath the Chevy for a good back scratch and she appeared on the other side of the car covered in grease and oil – to give you a very literal example – or that time when she tried to take on a huge German Shepherd that was running around in the street unattended…
Seriously, that little encounter nearly gave me a heart attack…
Anyway, this is a picture of us the day we picked her up. The breeder took our picture, while our little rascal was chilling out in my arms.
Back then, she was very laid back…
Over the past four weeks, she has pretty much doubled in size and instead of chilling out she now prefers to wreak havoc in our living room, so we’ve been very busy trying to teach her tricks and taking her to a special puppy training program for hunting dogs, like Lucy.
I took this picture of her last Wednesday. See how big she has gotten? Especially her ears have gotten a lot bigger and fluffier and her eyes have lost all of the blue that puppies are born with…
She’s just so pretty! Her mom was a champion, you know…
My mom came across this recipe when she was checking out the online puppy diary on the breeder’s site and I figured it would be a great way to welcome Lucy into our little family. Besides, Lucy sometimes needs a little motivation when we’re training her!
These niblets are really easy to make.
Just start by combining some oats with a little stock. I used beef stock, but I guess you could use any kind of stock you like. My mom’s dog loves anything with fish in it and has actually grown up on cat food, so if you have a dog just like her, you may want to give fish stock a go…
Once the oats and stock are mixed together, add half an egg, some whole-grain flour and minced garlic.
You can put as much garlic in as you want. It just depends on how well you can tolerate garlicky puppy breath when your pup is licking your face!
Mix all the ingredients together, until a dough forms.
Next, use your fingers to roll the dough into a long sausage, then cut little pieces with a sharp knife.
Arrange the little doughey niblets on a cookie sheet lined with baking parchment and bake until they’re nice and dry. This may take as long as 25 minutes.
Ideally, you want these to be bone dry. People may prefer their cookies on the chewy side, but dogs like bones and other boney things. Besides, I guess it’s better for their teeth if the niblets are really dry.
The Rocking Rebel and I thought these treats were a bit bland – yes, we’ve tasted them – but I know someone who has been dreaming about them…
Enjoy pups!
- 50g (or ½ cup + 1 tablespoon) rolled oats
- 70ml (or 4 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons) stock, such as beef or fish stock
- ½ egg
- 100g (or ¾ cup + 4 teaspoons) whole wheat flour
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- Preheat your oven to 180°C or 350°F (standard oven setting).
- In a small bowl, combine the oats with the stock. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until a dough forms. Using your fingers, roll the dough into a long sausage, then, using a sharp knife, slice into ½-cm (or ¼-inch) niblets. Arrange on a cookie sheet lined with baking parchment and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until the niblets are no longer chewy when cooled.
New favorite food quote:
WAIT!! I thought that garlic was bad for dogs…
Hi Jessica!
Don’t worry! I’ve looked it up. Apparently, garlic has many beneficial properties, even for dogs. The main reason why you should feed your dog garlic (and why it is often used in commercial dog food) is that it is a natural flea-repellent.
However, like many other healthy things (including water and oxygen) garlic can become a poison if your dog consumes extremely large quantities of it. The study I read said that garlic can be extremely harmful to your dog if a medium-sized dog consumes about 10-20 bulbs of garlic (about 50 cloves) at once.
If you still don’t feel comfortable feeding your dog garlic, just don’t, but I know a lot of dog owners who feed their dogs garlic all the time, including the people we bought Lucy from: a registered breeder who was voted breeder of the year in 2011.
For more info: http://raisinghealthydogs.com/is-garlic-good-or-bad-for-dogs
Hi! Discovered your blog while trying to google if anyone else has blogged about lindsay’s salted double chocolate muffins. Now goun
g through your old posts. I also have a dog and will be trying this recipe soon!
Hi Carla, nice to meet you! I’m sure your dog will love these! Lucy, being the pup that she is, sometimes like to pretend she’s deaf, but whenever I pull these babies out, she suddenly can hear me when I’m calling her 😉
Lucy is so cute eyeing up the treats.
We have three dogs at our place and I’m sure that these would go down without protest.
Thanks for sharing these with us!
Yeah, that was back when she was still a little baby 🙂 She is getting so big! She is about 35 pounds right now and I have a hard time picking her up these days, but she’s such a little cuddle bug that I just can’t resist picking her up and carrying around every now and then!
No~I guess I would not feed this to our dogs:
1- garlic
2-oats
3-flour
4-our dogs are allergic to all and No onions or Garlic is good for dogs
Hi Sally, thank you so much for your nice comments. In general, garlic and onions are not toxic for dogs. In fact, many vets say that garlic can be safely used as a natural flea repellent and I know a lot of people who feed their pregnant dogs and puppies garlic pills during summer (flea and tick season, because pregnant dogs and young puppies shouldn’t use artificial flea repellents.
I’m sorry to hear that your dogs are allergic. It must be hard to find treats for them! Have you tried natural beef jerky dog treats? Lucy loves those! 🙂
Wow! I just love your site as I just stumbled onto it from your giveaway. It’s AMAZING, and now even more so with puppy food recipes! I can’t wait to try this for my little Lexi, our shihpoo puppy.
Thanks Lauren! I bet your puppy will love these! And these treats are also a natural flea repellent!
Same as others. can across your site looking for a recipe. Can’t wait to try your dog treats. Our beagle Dewdrop loves peanut butter and honey so I think I will throw in a bit with this! Great site, will love to see what other recipes you have. Thanks so much for sharing
Thanks Diana! I love beagles 🙂 They’ve got such pretty eyes!
So cool I have two dogs and I am sure they would love this!