DIY: Peanut Butter-Banana Dog Treats

Meet Effie. She is a miniature schnauzer, and she pretty much runs our house. She ran out of treats recently, and that is a no-no in our household. You see, she thinks that she is supposed to get at least one treat a day. She'll sit, lay down, or dance for a treat, but for some odd reason, she thinks she is supposed to get a treat when she comes in from outside. We are currently trying to break that habit.

Any-who, I decided to make treats instead of buying them this time.

Effie loves peanut butter. We don't normally give her human food, but we occasionally have to use peanut butter to get her to take medication. Wanna make some for your dog?

Print this Recipe
Ingredients:
1 banana
2/3 cup of whole-grain oats
1 cup of flour
1/4 cup of crushed mint (optional for fresh breath)
3 tbsp peanut butter
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300. In a medium bowl, beat egg. Add the banana, then mash with a potato masher. Mix in the remaining ingredients with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Roll the dough onto floured wax paper, and sprinkle a bit of flour onto the dough. This will prevent your roller from sticking. If you don't want to make shaped dog treats, you can roll the dough into small balls and flatten to make disks.

Bake biscuits at 300 for 20-25 minutes. You should see them progress in color from darker to lighter.

If you want to make sure the treats are done, use a toothpick to lift the treat and check the bottom (as shown above).

Let the treats cool, then give one to your pup to taste-test.

The longer you cook the treats, the crisper they will be. They will always be sort of soft in the middle, though. If your dog has sensitive teeth, I would suggest not cooking them as long. These are actually great for older dogs as well as young ones. I cooked Effie's so they would be crunchy on the outside, but soft on the inside.

Effie loved these, just check out her tongue. After her taste-test, she stood in the kitchen staring at her treat jar for a good 15 minutes.

I'm sure your dog will love these, too. What do you think?