Homemade Dog Treats

My cool cat Sam loooooooves rawhide bones. Each time I would go grocery shopping I'd buy her one. On grocery day she'd delicately sniff around the bags of groceries littering the kitchen floor as I put everything away and when she'd find the one with her bone in it she'd pull it out of the bag and bring it to me to open. Then she'd demolish it in a matter of days. She loved them and I thought nothing of the process in which they were made. 

A few months ago I bought her some treats to use when I train her and they gave her a terrible belly ache. So I read the ingredient list to see what may have been upsetting her stomach. I didn't know what half the ingredients were which got me thinking about what else I feed her. Which is when I found this article and many others that spell out how raw hides are made. 

After some quick research, Sam doesn't get rawhide anymore, and while some store bought treats still work for us I have also begun making her homemade treats from natural ingredients. 

Now before you go rolling your eyes that I bake my dog homemade treats they really are so simple and quick to make. Seriously. I make them all while the baby throws around eats lunch and I clean the kitchen, so simple. 

I use oats, coconut oil, and dog-friendly veggies. That's it!

I didn't start Avery on solids until she was almost seven months old. And when I did she loved homemade purees and a select few store bought ones as well. That lasted like a month and then she was like can I get some real food?! So her sudden dislike of purees left me with a cabinet/freezer full of baby food. So rather than have those go to waste I mixed them with the oats and Sammy's dog treats were born. 

Here's what you need:

1 Cup Oats

8oz of Pureed dog-safe fruits and/or veggies

1 TBSP Coconut Oil

Mix everything well. You don't need to pull out the mixer, I did it by hand with no trouble. You want the consistency of oatmeal cookies. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop mixture by the tablespoon full onto parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 30 minutes. Cool and serve. 

This makes enough to last me the week as I don't give her loads of treats each day.

In honour of Valentines Day I made them in heart shapes this week. Mainly because I have heart cookie cutters that I had been using for everything every since January because basically the Christmas tree gets put away and the hearts, pink, and red come out in full force over here.  

Sammy absolutely loves her treats! And I feel good that I'm no longer giving my pup some over-processed, bleached raw hides. 

If you give it a try let me know! And if you add other things to the treats do tell! I think eggs or peanut butter would be great additions as well. I did mix a batch that included peanut butter in the mix but she ate it directly out of the bowl while I was in the living room changing the baby. Welcome to my life people.

Happy puppy treat baking!

Wine on a Rug

Dearest Samantha,

Really? You knocked over a glass of red wine with your tail? On my awesome rug? I'm not sure if I'm more upset about the fact that you wasted my wine or ruined my rug. 

I don't know if it's my fabulous good looks or fantastic personality that you're hating all over when you "accidentally" do things such as ruin my once perfect rug.

I need a few days to reevaluate this relationship of ours. This love/hate thing is playing games with my emotions.

True Story,

Mum

Sam is Seven...Months...Almost

Did that title confuse you? I couldn't come up with anything else so let's roll with it. Aight?! Thanks.

Samantha will be seven months old next week. That is CrAZY to me. We brought her home when she was a sweet-faced eight week old pup.

Forgive all the blurry photos. Some of my favourite photos of her are blurry, they would be absolutely perfect if they came out clear but unfortunately life doesn't work that way, so I'm embracing the imperfections. 

So Sam came to live with us with she was two months old, tiny, soft, cuddly, and innocent. And now she is almost seven months old!

And since I haven't shared weekly photos of her in a while here we go, let's count back a month and a half or so...

She has gotten so big! She still has a lot of puppy in her and she still has a lot to learn but I love this puppy-girl, which says a lot because as much as I like dogs I'm not typically a "dog person"...I'm more of a cat person, which my brother cringes at but hey. Samantha though, she's my girl - many times she frustrates me but that's my pup through and through. I can't wait to look back on her weekly photos at the year mark - it's sure to be tear-jerking. Call me a sap.

Meet Samantha

About a month ago we added to our family:

A real cutie, right? Sam is our 12 week old German shepherd. Seth loves dogs, so while I was content with only owning a fish in my infamous wall-mounted fish bowl for the next three years, Seth yearned for a dog. So we agreed that if we got a dog it would be a family affair - we'd all pick him/her out, we'd all take care of it, we'd all agree on a name. My only request was that he give me a few months to get settled in with work, the house, and get the kids here. During the search I shot down several puppies he showed me as I had a few must-haves:
I wanted to either get a puppy for Christmas for the kids, because how awesome of a memory would that be to open a box and see a cute little puppy inside to love. Or...
I wanted a litter of puppies that we could all go see, play with, and then choose from.So when he found a litter of 6 puppies we jumped on the chance to check them out. We all interacted with them and narrowed it down to two, but we were torn. Then, out walked Samantha and all five of us said, "I want that one!" Seriously, it was unanimous. And so she was the one that came home with us.

I plan to take weekly photos of her for a while to track her growth. I thought it'd be cool to look back on how little she once was when she's older and larger. Plus I'm kinda yearning for a baby and this is totally the thing I'd do if I had a newborn, take a photo of him or her weekly to have something sappy to look back on during the celebration of their first year of life, so maybe I'm going a bit overboard but don't you worry, I'm not one of those people that thinks my dog is a human - those people need evaluated. By a psychiatrist. While in a straight jacket. After being given intravenous drugs. 

She's definitely gotten bigger, as have her ears. Grow Sammy grow...into your ears so that you don't look like a little jack rabbit for the rest of your life. 

Potty training is going well. She finally sleeps through the night rather than needing to go out at 2am and then again a few hours later like she did for a while. She's learning to heel and does pretty well, I think the daily walks help with that. She's good at Sit Stay. And we've just begun teaching 'down' because in the last week or so she jumps on us when she wants attention. Oh, and the perks of having a girl dog? Buying fun girly accessories for her, of course. I'm a bit of a girly girl, so I loved finding her chevron collar and pink treat bag; it was like Christmas in July.

She started teething a few weeks ago and would gnaw on everything in sight. She's gotten much better. Her new bad habit? Smelling food and putting her paws on the cabinets in an attempt to see what's on the counter. That's another reason we've begun teaching 'down'. Today, as I was in the office planning the details of a trip we are taking this month, I heard noises from the kitchen. I knew the kids weren't in there so I figured Sam was up to no good. I walked in the kitchen. Nada. So I continued into the laundry room. Nothing there either. So I went back to the office. As soon as I sat down I heard the noises again. I grabbed my phone knowing she had to be doing something very sneaky for me not to notice her the last time I checked and this is what I crept up on. Oh Sam, I hope you don't give me my first gray hair...

So there's the story of Sam. And her awesome collar. And her love of bacon on Sunday Mornings. Glad you could meet.