Beyond Bourke Street: Doggy biscuits for the spoilt pooch

I wrote on Facebook earlier today, while the last batch of these peanut butter doggy biscuits were baking in the oven, that I was "so bored I baked cookies for my dog...probs time to go back to uni." It occurred to me afterwards perhaps this sort of attitude made me a bad dog owner. After all, if you really loved your dog, you wouldn't bake cookies for them simply out of boredom, would you? No, you would go out of your way to acquire the finest ingredients, and lovingly craft each and every one of the cookies so that your treasured pooch could have the artisanal treat it knows it deserves.

My two doggies, a few years back.

We have two dogs in the family, but it's only Wango, the chihuahua, which gets spoilt rotten. Our other dog - Bella the akita - is obedient, loyal, and affectionate. Wango, on the other hand, is more likely to pee on your shoes than to roll over, or beg for a bone. But it seems that, the more pairs of shoes he pees on, the more we mollycoddle him, and talk to him in a baby voice, and stuff him silly with delectable doggy treats.

Aww, lookee at his little snout. And his itsy bitsy paws. And his ears(!)

Don't make me get all eharmony video on you.

One of Wango's specialties is playing dead, so that we feel sorry for him and feed him watermelon and frozen yoghurt and all the other stuff dogs aren't supposed to eat. Except chocolate. Cos we don't want him actually dead.

A few days ago, I had a lightbulb go off in my head: why haven't I thought to bake for my dogs before?! And before I get accused of being frivolous and wasteful: store-bought dog treats are much more expensive! And full of preservatives, and goodness knows what else. All it took was a quick search on the internet for a simple, peanut butter-based dog biscuit recipe, and checking to see what dogs are not allowed to eat (chocolate!) to come up with this recipe for Peanut Butter, Honey and Coconut oat doggy biscuits.

These are so simple to make: simply combine the ingredients into a dough, roll out straight away, cut out the shapes with cookie cutters, and bake for 15 minutes. I got about 60 chihuahua paw-sized cookies out of it.

I'm not trying to pass these off as healthy dog treats, but they are what they are: dog treats. Save them for the special occasion when your canine friend finally succeeds in fetching that thrown frisbee, or for a doggy birthday party, or on the off-chance that your chihuahua decides to pee in the bushes, rather than on your groceries.

(Wanna know something funny? My sister's been secretly eating the cookies. She usually has very little interest in my baked goods, only nibbling on a sample and then forgetting all about it. Kids. I'll never understand them :D)