Canine Cuisine: Make Your Own Training Treats
All dogs love beef, but some puppies and dogs have a hard time digesting training treats. Luckily, the addition of pumpkin helps with digestion - and besides, most dogs love pumpkin! Here’s a recipe that makes the most of both ingredients. It also works with ground lamb or buffalo. photos: Tamara Bricker
Beefy Pumpkin Training Treats
Tools needed: Dehydrator preferred, oven okay.
Shopping tips: Two pounds of ground beef will make about 14 ounces of dried ground beef jerky. Shop around and you can often find prepackaged grass-fed ground beef on sale for less than $7 a pound. Grass-fed organic beef is my preferred product. Pumpkin puree can be found in grocery stores (check the canned food or baby food aisles; you can also sometimes find fresh puree in the produce department), or in pet food stores.
Ingredients:
2 one-pound bags of grass-fed beef extra lean or 93% lean
¼ cup pumpkin puree (strain if watery)
1 teaspoon liquid aminos (optional)
One or two of the following:
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary (optional)
½ teaspoon culinary lavender (optional)
2 dashes of liquid smoke (optional)
Directions:
Pat dry the beef and place into a medium bowl. Add the pumpkin puree, with optional liquid aminos and chosen seasonings, if using. Mix the ingredients together well by squishing, squeezing, and mashing with your hands (I like to wear gloves to do this; you can also use a food processor if you don’t mind the extra clean up). The mix should have a very subtle scent of your chosen seasoning. Dogs have a strong sense of smell and if the mix is too strong (especially the liquid smoke), they may not like the treat.
Use a tablespoon or small ice cream scooper to scoop out some of the mix. Put a scoop of meat into your hands, fold and press it a few times, and then flatten it out to about ¼ inch thick. Then press it onto the dehydrator tray somewhat firmly (you want the meat to be scored by the ridges in the tray). Repeat until all the meat is used, allowing some space between patties on each tray.
Set the temperature at 165 degrees. If the patties are on the thicker side, plan on 7-8 hours; for patties on the thinner side, set it to stop at 5-6 hours (dehydrating times may vary due to the amount of moisture in the air and the patties). When finished, the patties should be dry and brown on the inside but still pliable. Let them cool down before offering them to your drooling pet.
If you’d like to use an oven instead of a dehydrator, set the oven for the lowest temperature possible (under 200 degrees is preferable). The cooking time will be about the same as the dehydrator, but check the patties once an hour after they’ve been in for 4 hours.
For dogs on dietary restrictions or for lazy treat makers, try this hack. Take pate style canned dog food and slice it ¼ inch thick (for ease of slicing, first place the can in the refrigerator overnight). Lay the slices on the dehydrator racks, lightly press, and dry for 7 hours at 165 degrees. Check at 5 hours and every hour thereafter to make sure the treats are dry but not brittle. NOTE: Depending on the brand of dog food, this will be stinky and should be done with a good working fan in the kitchen or in a garage. Also, treats made with canned dog food tend to be drier and more brittle than the homemade mix.
Due to the ridges on the dehydrator racks, these patties will have nice grooves for easy tearing or for cutting up into bite-sized training treats. The size of the chew will depend on the dog’s size. My 12-pound Chihuahua mix gets a pea-sized cut (two grooves) and my larger Pit Bull mix gets a navy bean-sized cut (four grooves).
Storage:
Keep jerky sealed in an airtight container in the freezer or the refrigerator. I like to portion my patties into two bags, one for current use and one for future use that I store in the freezer. Keep jerky in the refrigerator for no more than a week, but it probably won’t last that long. Food waste is never a problem with happy training dogs at home!