New old dog: it's love again.

I just made some human biscuits - all purpose flour, buckwheat flour, bking pdr and soda, buttermilk, butter, fennel seeds, parsley, smidge dried garlic, s & p - based on this recipe, but different, including using less butter and no sugar:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/04/18/buttermilk_biscuit_recipe_infinitely_better_than_baking_powder_biscuits.html

Came out great. So, now I'm looking at dog biscuit recipes, here's a few. Haven't tried any of them yet.

http://www.all-natural-dog-treat.com/Gingerbreaddogtreats.html
Gingerbread Dog Treats

The writer mentions to be sure you don't add any chocolate to dog treats as it is dangerous for them.

Ingredients:
1 cup molasses
1 3/4 cup water
½ cup vegetable oil
6 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger or one tsp. of dried powder ginger

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the molasses, water, and oil in a medium bowl.
In another large bowl mix the flour, the baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Combine well.
Cover and refrigerate for an hour or overnight.
After the dough is well-chilled roll it out into a 1/4" thickness. Cut dough with a cookie cutter into gingerbread men or other fun shapes.
The dough will rise.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Turn oven down to 325 and bake another 3-5 minutes.
Makes about 40 treats.

The next two, the K. Arthur Flour recipe and the Epicurious recipe, are both courtesy of the site http://www.thekitchn.com/cookies-for-canines-homemade-d-135078
There are more recipes there, garnered as these from different places.

I like this one, except I don't have any dry milk - which I notice a lot of recipes call for. I'll just give the link since there are useful/charming photos:
Best of Breed Dog Biscuits, King Arthur Flour source (peanut butter)
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2010/12/13/puppy-love-our-biscuit-taste-test/


Another one that sounds good to this human - it involves parsley and mint and a mix of flours, corn meal, and oats (and other stuff).
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Dog-Biscuits-233290


From Allrecipes.com - Brie's Banana and Honey Dog Treats
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bries-banana-and-honey-dog-treats/


Well, that tuckered me out and I don't have all the ingredients for any one of them at this point. For the third one, I think I could get away without wheat germ. Manana...

If I have time this weekend I think I'll give your dog biscuit recipe a try.

A friend lost his dog a few months back when he accidently left bakers chocolate on the counter and his standard poodle ate it.

Really! I suppose I should have left that comment in then - but the recipe doesn't include chocolate. Maybe there's still time to edit.
Good, got it in there.

Your poor friend, that so hard.

I've made a version of the parsley/mint biscuit (in more enthusiastic baking days) - they're great dog digestives

That's good to know, Beth.
My baking waxes and wanes. Once I get going I get interested in doing more. I've pretty much waved off store bread since my closest market has quite horrible bread, every bit of it, so I started doing it myself again, as you know. So... it was the human biscuits that make me want to keep going and play with doggy ones.

I’ll bet those dog biscuits are better then the ones you can buy in the pet stores! Having three dogs we should make them a batch!

I knew that about chocolate and dogs but it’s a good thing you posted about it, some people may not know.

I remember when our friends lost the poodle. They don’t keep the dogs, they rescue standard poodles and keep them until they find a home. I felt so bad when I heard about the last one they had. It was an accident and they felt horrible for months!

I think this is the recipe I used (or it is so close I can't tell the difference)

(I don't feed anything with corn in it to my dogs)

http://www.thepowerhour.com/recipe/dog_biscuit_recipe.htm




I'm not fussy on using bone shaped cutters - the dogs really don't care

My then business partner's doberman ate a fudge cake once. 'course she rushed him to the vet, but he was all right, thank goodness. She know an immense amount about animals and was freaked (I don't remember the story - it well might not have been her that left it out on the counter). Anyway, baking chocolate, yikes. I feel bad for the dog and terrible for your friends.

It's true plenty of people that might ever read this might not know about it (and onions and grapes, far as I know). And cooks like me who fool with recipes sometimes add cocoa to human recipes..

There are a zillion dog treat recipes online. It could become a hobby (I don't need a hobby!)

ah, the activated charcoal...

I had a friend long ago who was a pharmacist in Sweden (and a tennis champion) and became an airline stewardess, as they were called then. She eventually moved to our area in LA, which is how I got to know her. Anyway, her trick for going to Mexico and not getting sick - this is back in the late sixties - was to take charcoal tablets...

What's the deal with corn? I don't know about that.

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-industry-exposed/dog-food-corn/

this article is a bit dramatic but it covers up the basic info that the vet clinic keeps telling me



(and I've noticed that when we try a bit of kibble with corn, there is a LOT more poop - suggests that it's truly not easily digestible)

Thank you for that link.. I'll check it right now.

Meantime, re:
"I'm not fussy on using bone shaped cutters - the dogs really don't care"

Me either. I'd probably use little squares as part of the training program.

It's also not especially good for people, if they have diabetes. Better than white bread, but that's a left handed comment.

Read it, saved it. So it's not that it's toxic or similar, except for dogs with allergies to it, just that it's on the lower scale of usefulness relative to other flours, an argument I completely buy... plus the digestibility issue.

Also on the recipes - I'm just starting. For one thing, I've cut my own use of sugar waaaay down.. and well might cut recipes' amounts of it.

I was one that didn't know about chocolate being harmful to dogs until I heard about Bob's poodle. That was a beautiful dog.

Here's what I could find immediately on the doggy-harmful chemicals in chocolate:

Chocolate contains both caffeine and theobromine, a stimulant that affects the central nervous system and the heart. Although both of these chemicals are dangerous to dogs, theobromine is the more dangerous of the two because dogs metabolize it very slowly.

Symptoms of chocolate poisoning in dogs include vomiting, diarrhea, hyperactivity, arrhythmia, increased urination and excessive panting. When they ingest high levels of theobromine, dogs can experience muscle tremors, seizures and comas. Chocolate can even cause death.

Because different types of chocolate contain different amounts of theobromine, dangerous chocolate levels depend upon the type of chocolate the dog ingests. In general, it takes between 45 and 68 mg of theobromine per pound to cause symptoms.

To be safe, if your dog consumes any chocolate, go immediately to the vet as your dog, especially if he is old or ill, might have increased sensitivity to the chemical.

Read more: Dangerous Chocolate Levels for Dogs | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_8365039_dangerous-chocolate-levels-dogs.html#ixzz1sUns1hkh

Katy plum is still the sweetest dog in the world.

I know a little more. She is eleven or twelve.
She is pretty healthy for that. A bit of stiffness with one leg re range of motion. Her teeth are fine. She is a tad heavy.

We have both been learning.
The back door is the center of some interest. She aims for it when she has a second's interest in going outside and then comes right back in, is interested in sitting in the sun, wants to pee, might want to pee eventually, may want to defecate, may have no interest in that but just smelling stuff, may want to see if the dog next door still exists. With all these her demeanor is apparently the same. Sometimes she sits in front of the door (much of it glass) and looks out at the sunshine with no apparent need to be in its bath.

We've practiced coming back in. Easy if the door is open a foot. A consternation if it's open eight inches, but doable (treat followed). More consternating if it's open six inches, and I've managed to urge her through it once (treat followed). At four inches, no way, Jose. This matters, fly season is nigh.

The good news is that she has barked to get back in twice now.

Stay tuned..

Will definitely stay tuned when I can. Can't wait to see a photo!

Here's my new Katy food supply shop - I'm giving the link in case anyone wants to check it out and for myself since I'm going to research a lot of those brands (that have already passed the store owners' nice and picky review:
http://jackandrascals.com/Products.html

Yesterday I picked up a 15 pound pack of Blue Buffalo Adult Dog Chicken and brown rice. So far she likes it fine, or at least as fine as the Purina One I picked up fast before I got her, to have some dog food in the house.

Chicken & Brown Rice
Ingredients: Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Whole Ground Brown Rice, Whole Ground Barley, Oatmeal, Chicken Fat (naturally preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Rye, Tomato Pomace (natural source of Lycopene), Natural Chicken Flavor, Whole Potatoes, Peas, Whole Carrots, Whole Sweet Potatoes, Blueberries, Cranberries, Flaxseed (natural source of Omega 3 and 6 Fatty Acids), Barley Grass, Dried Parsley, Garlic, Alfalfa Meal, Dried Kelp, Yucca Schidigera Extract, L-Carnitine, L-Lysine, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Turmeric, Sunflower Oil (natural source of Omega 6 Fatty Acids), Fish Oil (natural source of Omega 3 Fatty Acids), Dried Chicory Root, Oil of Rosemary, Beta Carotene, Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Niacin (Vitamin B3), d-Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Biotin (Vitamin B7), Folic Acid (Vitamin B9), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Ascorbate (source of Vitamin C), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Choline Chloride, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Iodate, Salt, Caramel, Potassium Chloride, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecium.

I'm still researching harnesses, leads, gentle leader, reading all the pros and cons.

Ragman, I haven't run across the lead you described - do you remember anything about what it was called? or where you got it?