Bark City Doggy Daycare

This is Buddy.  Buddy is about 12-yrs-old and thinks his life is really rough (this picture was taken after he ate his morning dose of scrambled eggs). As with most Bassett Hounds, he always looks depressed. Unless, he is out on a "speed walk" with his human companions.... He REALLY perks up when he hears the familiar click of his leash coming off during these walks and he is FREE to roam! This is Buddy's best friend Ollie:  She showed him how to use the dog door (complete with a look of superiority). She is older than Buddy, but can still bat a suspicious piece of plastic around like no other.  This is Buddy playing "Fashion Girls": These are Buddy's new favorite treats: Remember last week when I said I was going to make gingerbread dog treats ? Well, I got a little sidetracked and went to the movie instead (With five kids and adult family members!). The dough, which has to chill for 3.5 hrs, ended up chilling ...

One of my favorite cookies can also be eaten by my dog! We share. These cookies are vegan, gluten free and have carob chips in them.... and I really don't feel all that guilty if I eat half the batch in one day. In fact, I have been known to give them to my (human) kids for lunch. Here are the ingredients: 1 can of chickpeas 5/8 c. of natural peanut butter (usually I just "guesstimate" on this measurement)... and yes, using the natural peanut butter does work better than Skippy of Jiff for some reason. 1/4 c. honey 2 tsp. vanilla 1 tsp. baking powder  1/2 c. of carob chips (as I human, I prefer CHOCOLATE chips. But if you want to share with your dog, use carob chips because chocolate is poisonous to our four-legged friends.) All you have to do is blend the ingredients (minus the carob chips) in a blender: The peanut butter has not been added in, yet! I usually heat the honey and peanut butter up for about 10 sec. in the microwave before I blend.  Stir...

Occasionally, on those really hectic days, I swing by the grocery store to buy a rotisserie chicken for dinner. After my family has devoured most of the meat, I use the left over scraps (bones included) to make chicken broth. Lots and lots of chicken broth that can be froze and used for any future recipe. I should first note, that some of these pictures contain ingredients like ONIONS or GARLIC (I was making it for humans, not dogs). Never give you dogs onion (or garlic). It's poisonous. And when in doubt about your ingredients, you can always double check on this Humane Society link .  Here are some ingredients that are good for dogs that would be good in any chicken stock: Parsley Greek Oregano Basil Thyme Carrot Celery Green Beans Peas  Squash and of course: Chicken scraps and bones  Now for the chicken broth steps: First grab a giant stock pot with a colander that fits inside of it.   Next grab your ingredients. In this picture, I have s...

Fall is quickly coming. Soon it will be time for pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin bread... pretty much pumpkin anything and everything. Did you know that pumpkin is an amazing food for your dog (or cat)? Pumpkin helps with digestion, urinary health and weight loss (Google it!). BUT, you do not want to give your dog canned pumpkin PIE filling. It has sugar and spices that are not so good for them. Instead, opt for the plain canned stuff or you can easily roast your own pumpkins! This summer, I grew sugar pumpkins for the first time and just found out TODAY that I can roast them in the oven whole! This makes the infamous "cutting and gutting" a lot less time consuming. In fact, I roasted seven little pumpkins, cut them and froze them today.... all on a whim! Here is the process: Beautiful pumpkins. Note how I placed them next to various other fruits in an attempt to show you the approximate size of a sugar pumpkin? Yes, that is a green tomato in the background... It was a cas...

 I found this recipe on Babble and decided to give it a try. I did one alteration: I substituted water for the chicken stock. I make my own chicken stock and was wary of giving it to a dog, because I put quite a bit of onion and garlic in it....and a lot of salt. The substitute did not seem to affect the results.   The Ingredients: 2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour 1/4 c. skim milk powder 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese 1 tsp. baking powder 1 c. water 2 tbsp. olive oil sesame seeds for sprinkles  Next, I gathered my helpers......  .... and we mixed everything together. I like to mix all the dry ingredients before I add the wet ingredients. Once, the mixture starts to stick together and becomes hard to stir, I use my hands to form it into a ball (think play-doh). We let our dough ball sit for ten minutes.... Then, we rolled out long logs and shaped them into pretzels!!! It took a little practice to figure out how thick and long the log should be ...