Liver Cookies

Does anyone have some cool, easy dog treats that Buddy would love? Buddy will eat anything, but I really want to make him something special for Christmas and his birthday. (December and January) Just nothing with too much peanut butter, preferably none. We had a bad incident with a very large amount of PB... Ugh... I really don't want to experience that again...

LIVER COOKIES
Easy to make, healthy, and economical, and DOGS LOOOOOOOVE THESE.
(even picky dogs go crazy for THESE)
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INGREDIENTS:
1 cup chicken liver
1 cup yellow veggie (i often use carrotts)
1 cup green veggie (i often use green beans)
1 egg (optional, but, they fall apart easier without the egg)
Oats to thicken.

cook 1st three ingredients, in any way you like.
Typically, i boil the ingredients, but, you can bake, broil, grill, whatever YOU like. You can drop the contents of the tub of liver, blood and all, into the pan of boiling water.
Carrotts take much longer to boil than green beans, of course.
DRAIN WELL.
Beat together,
and add in egg, stir in raw oats, as needed, just to thicken, so it looks sorta like cookie dough.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Drop by spoonfuls onto blue rubbery silicone cookie sheet liner. (or these stick like crazy)
Mash the cookie down a bit so they are not TOO thick, or they won't cook through to the center.

LET THE DOG LICK THE BEATERS AND BOWL CLEAN.

BAKE AT 450 x 30 minutes or so...sometimes 45 minutes,( til firm.)

cool.
THESE WILL RESEMBLE small HAMBURGERISH TYPE COOKIES.
EAch cookie can be broken up into small crumbs for tricks training.
(dogs do not care how big a training treat is, at all, and for a jackpot, i hear dogs realize it is a jackpot treat by having treats repeated, one after the other, not just one big handful all at same time.)

Now take 1 week supply of treats and put into baggies.
Put all those baggies in a freezer bag, and freeze.
Store this week's supply in refridgerator.

ALL DOGS GO CRAZY FOR THESE, (so far anyway, and i hear cats like them too)
and they are healthy!!!!

the small lil cookie contains
NO FLOUR
NO SUGAR
NO SALT
NO ADDED FATS
NO SPICES
NO ARTIFICIAL ANYTHING
and only cost about $6 to make almost a month's worth of training treats!

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I only dilute the liver with veggies to CUT CALORIES down.
LIver is loaded with calories,
as much training as we do, Buddy'd get fat!! But by watching my dog's reaction to this recipe, i guess these cookies must taste like PURE liver, but, without all the calories.

These have to be stored IN FRIDGE, as there are NO PRESERVATIVES in them, but, these cookies are okay/safe at room temp for several hours, i've never ever had a problem.
If i am going to be training outdoors on super hot day, i leave house with the frozen ones, to be sure. Dogs will eat these frozen, good to know if you ever forget to thaw some for the week.

These also make a great gift for a pal with a dog, even a finicky dog will like these. (the owner WILL call you and demand the recipe).
When i make these as a gift, i put on latex gloves and form perfect lil flattened circles, that look similar to human type of cookies, or bone-shapes......to make them extra cute.

2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
1 cup milk


Preheat oven to 375'F. In a bowl, combine flour and baking powder. In another bowl, mix peanut butter and milk, then add to dry ingredients and mix well. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Bake for 20 minutes on a greased baking sheet until lightly brown. Cool on a rack, then store in an airtight container. --- This is the original recipe, but I have found the cookies burn easily.

OH, Dilly, try using one of those blue rubbery SILICONE COOKIE SHEET LINERS. They cost $9 at Walmart, or you can buy one online.
http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Easy-S...X4G2/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1319054609&sr=8-8
I use mine allll the time, you can NOT burn anything if you use one, well, not easily anyway. I always used to burn biscuits, with the bottoms browning before the biscuit cooked all the way through. But on a blue SILICONE liner, i make great biscuits now.
That recipe sounds great for human kids!
I bet my dog would indeed love your recipe, but, it's not one i'd give every day for training, dogs don't need flour, nor baking powder, or milk, at least, not every day. And some dogs are allergic to wheat, and will scratch at theirselves after getting wheat.
Still, i bet these make a yummy occasional treat for every once in a while. I bet the dogs love these.

I copied/pasted that from this site. http://www.bullwrinkle.com/Assets/Recipes/Peanut Butter Puppy Poppers.htm I just noticed it said that. Thanks anyway! XP

I didn't think about that... Thanks for the tip! I've been using them on Mondays for our agility classes. Do you think using them as treats once a week is okay? (I make them into little balls so they are easy to pull out.)

yeah, i do, i do think occasional flour treat is okay for dogs, others may disagree. It's not the BEST thing you can give your dog, but, it's not poisonous either.
Some ppl are very picky, some ppl are very very lax, about what they use for dog treats. I guess i am somewhere in the middle, i try to use healthy homemade treats about 80 or 90% of the time, but, my dog does get the occasional flour based treat, or worse, (shiver), a store bought treat. Most of the store bought treats are simply crapola. and the ones that do seem decent, are sooooooo pricey.
Yeah, do check out getting one of those blue silicone cookie sheet liners, i just love mine, use it all the time, and wonder now, what i did before i got one?

Rachel loves loves loves LOVES yogurt. Frozen, thawed, with or without doggy dog toppings. what i did for her birthday was i got two gogurt tubes and squirted one color into a bowl. then i got dog food and sprinkled it in. Then i got the other color (blue and pink yogurt) and put it on top. I mixed it up so it was a blue-pink-purple swirl and froze it for about 2 hours. Bella doesnt like yogurt so she didnt eat it but rachel loved it.

I give ray this for her birthday and she likes it. i think its cuz she doesnt really have to chew it. it melts in her mouth.

by the way thats a pic of ray eating the food.

CUTE DOG!! CUTE PICTURES!!
lol, my dog also loves yogurt, too, i eat the kind that comes in small containers, and i always let Buddy lick out the container when i am done. He has to do a trick first, but, i think it is so much more fun and entertainment for dogs to have to work a lil bit to get their treats out of a container of some sort. My lil individual yogurt cups are just the right size for him to clean out.
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For jackpots, or boring days,
I make 'puzzles' out of various kinds of plastic tubs, containers, and plastic water bottles, cutting lil holes in them, crumbling treats into them which roll out as he works on it.
I put the lids back on after i fill the container.
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I always put one treat too large to roll out of the punches holes,
so he has to work hard to figure out how to get that one bigger treat.
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Usually, Buddy has to do several tricks in a row to get his beloved 'puzzle',
but he KNOWS there IS a puzzle waiting! ha ha.
and some of these 'puzzles' can take Buddy a good half hour to get every last morsel out of them. Lol, the sound of my punching holes into a plastic container always brings my dog running into the kitchen, with big smile on his face, "Really? you are making a puzzle for me? yay!"
My guy says, "Why don't you just give him the treat???"
and i reply, "Cuz i love him too much, and want to give him a chance to figure something out, something to DO for half an hour."
Buddy really does enjoy working to get that last morsel out of the container! Some containers take him quite a while to open....i think it makes the fun last longer.
.........half of the fun of anything is looking forward to it, ha ha.. Buddy seems very satisfied after working to get his treat out of the container.

thats cool! i'll try that with rachel and bella. bella hates to think though so she might give up rachel loves it though if theres something to think on i gave her a scavenger hunt in the back yard and she loved it. bella was confused and didnt understand i had to show her where the first treat was to get her to think on it

yes, occasionally, if i make the puzzle TOOOoo hard, Buddy will give up, BUT, he comes back to it later. If a dog is easy-to-giveup, i'd make first puzzles super-easy,
give much much praise as dog attempts to get treats out,
and then,
over time, as dog develops skill and good associations with working on puzzles,
THEN
i'd begin to make the puzzles slightly more difficult.
NOW my dog has sooooooooo much 'good' associations in his mind (as he always DOES get that treat out) now he is far more determined to stay at it. But i did not hand him a 'hard' one right off the bat.

ok i havent made puzzles yet though

lately,
cuz of all the recent threads on 'tracking' and having read other's remarks about how they get their dogs to 'find' things,
i have made the "puzzles",
SHOW the puzzle to Buddy, who instantly becomes quivery-excited,
i then put BUddy in a "stay" in another room, (GREAT practice for him to stay, when he KNOWS i have a puzzle)
and then
i go hide the puzzle in some other room,
THEN
i call him into this room
so he can hunt down that puzzle.
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fun to watch.
Adorabley, Buddy ALWAYS looks at last place i hid the last puzzle first,
and THEN
he sniffs all over the rest of the room.
I'm always amazed he even REMEMBERS where i hid it last time! wow.
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"puzzles" are like washed out empty plastic container of any type,
with holes punched in it,
and 1 treat which IS too big to fall out the small holes,
and also, many crumbs that WILL fall out of the holes as he investigates the puzzle.
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But Buddy does have to 'work' to figure out
how to get to that 1 larger treat inside.
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Liver Cookies are great to stick inside a puzzle,
as they have a strong scent for dogs to follow.
Peanut butter inside a puzzle is also easier for my dog to track down, lol!

I have a question... lol. I make homemade treats for Bosun and his two cousins.... One of which is an extremely fussy eater. I hae been messing around with using rice flour instead of flour/wheat in recipes.

Here's the question.... from what I read, oats are a wheat-type product same as regular flour. So wouldn't it be better to substitute rice flour for the oats if you're trying to avoid wheat products. Or is it just he flour you're avoiding?

I happen to have bought liver yesterday... guess what I'm making today????

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy Smokes do the animals ever like these treats!!!!! Animals = one dog and one cat. I make treats weekly, they get different flavors and ingredients... this one my boy will do tricks for!!! Instant motivation!!!! Here's what I did;

1 package of Chicken Gizzards (liver was frozen, this wasn't)
4 carrots, sliced
2 broccoli stems sliced
(boiled all for aobut 10 minutes until cooked/tender)
Run through food processor, add
1 egg
3 cups rice flour

I rolled into 4 logs, sliced, then quartered each "cookie" for smaller training size pieces

450 degrees for 10 minutes.

I had been working on "catch" with Bosun... he was doing it, but not in any hurry to "get it"... well, I want you to know... this boy will do anything, and I mean anything to keep the treat from hitting the floor and being hidden under Momma's foot!

Wow!!!! Have already shared your recipe with another person!!!! Love it... will use it as a base for many variations. Thank you!!!!!

Have to contain myself from feeding the Boy all of them via training... don't want to break the new secret weapon! His attention for training is still pretty short!

And yes, my cat if finicky... he liked them both raw and cooked! Woo Hoo!!!!!! Super excited!

OOH, i'm so happy to hear your dog loved them too! and lol, the cat too! ha ha!
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Yeah, i do sometimes swap out the ingredients, using whatever
meat,
yellow veggie,
and green veggie
i have on hand that day.
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i only add in the veggies to cut the calories down from the liver i usually use. LIver is loaded with calories, but, liver is my dog's favorite treat of all time. This way, in a liver cookie, Buddy *thinks* he is getting pure liver,
but, he's not, hee hee.
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I only use the oats to thicken the 'dough' up a bit, and sometimes, IF I DRAIN THE BOILED INGREDIENTS VERY VERY VERY WELL, i barely need ANY oats at all.
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I don't think oats and wheat are same thing at all. Completely different plants, for starters.
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Oats have different nutrients and no allergens. (some dogs ARE allergic to wheat and will scratch at their skin after eating wheat treats).
I don't think oats and flour are quite the same thing, either, oats have fiber, flour doesn't, for one thing. And the nutrients are slightly different from each other. But yeah, i imagine rice flour is superior to reg flour. But, the recipe really needs NO flour at all, dogs dont' need flour at all.
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Sounds like a great variation, VERY CLEVER!! i will have to try some gizzards next time!!!
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but, that IS a lot of flour you add in, though. I bet you can probably reduce the flour if you drain the ingredients SUPER well.
cuz This recipe really needs zero flour at all.
Mine have zero flour at all, just a dab of oats--just enuff to thicken it up for making "cookies", and like i said, IF i DRAIN the ingredients REEEALLY REALLY well, i barely need any oats,
but,
sometimes, it is a bit runny-ish, so i DO need some oats then. I don't need a food processor either, ordinary beaters will do for anyone reading along, for dog cookies, if you have no processor. PLus, that way, your dog can show you
HOW GREAT HE IS at cleaning up dishes and beaters, til they are SPOTLESS! rofl!!
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SO GLAD YOUR DOGS ARE LIKING THE TREATS! THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW! Your dog sounds so funny, ha ha, what a character!

but, it was EASY recipe, right? it IS easy to make these, if anyone thinks, "i can't cook", well, this recipe is SUPER easy to make.

Mine was quite wet, maybe because the broccoli stems were frozen? I do them up for Bosun's meals... when I make the vege mash. We're just back from a 2 hour walk (it's a beautiful fall day here and no Sunday Hunting!) He is "catching" like a superstar!!!

Ditto the super easy to make! The addict in me is wanting to go thaw the liver now and make another batch! lol. And... I also give my dog the beaters to lick whenever reasonable...