Homemade “Milk Bones” – Dog Biscuit Recipe

This post, is obviously a re-post from over 2 years ago. Look at the photos- our little Pocket was almost small enough to fit out OUR pockets! Note – i no longer make this recipe, as i feed raw and believe that any grains are unacceptable to feed to dogs. That being said – anything is better than store bought milk bones, so if your dog is less sensitive to grains, give these treats a try!

We love our puppy and we want to feed her as wholesomely as we feed ourselves. I’ve been baking up this recipe for my dogs since i was in the 6th grade back in Merrill, OR. One of the teachers at my elementary school would fly up to Alaska (or Canada or wherever it takes place) to race in the Iditarod each year, and she gave us all this recipe during some pep assembly. I tweaked it up a bit to suit my puppy’s needs, and if she could speak i think she’d recommend them to her friends. You can roll them out thin or thick – thinner makes them easier to break apart for training, thicker makes them harder to chew – so depending on if you’re using them as training tidbits or pre lunch snacks, roll accordingly.

These treats are edible for humans too, depending what you add to them. I used to snack on them when i was a kid 😉

• 3/4 Cup hot water or Meat Juice*
• 1/3 Cup Spectrum natural vegetable shortening or other natural shortening or lard (i used less to make these lower cal, and subbed in a little peanut butter for flavor)
• 1/2 C powdered milk, i used goat (dairy isn’t great for many dogs)
• 1/2 tsp brewer’s yeast
• 1 egg beaten
• 3 cups oat or rye flour

* For the meat juice i purchased some inexpensive soup stock beef bones and boiled them for many hours along with some beef liver. After the beef liver was boiled i cut it into tiny bits and sundried them in my car. That was not a pleasant car to get into the next morning, but Pocket approves of the treats. I have about a quart of meat juice leftover to use for more batches of dog treats.
More options are to add vegetables to the broth to increase the nutrients in the snacks. Try leafy greens, apples, squash, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli.

1. Pour hot liquid over fat and peanut butter
2. Stir in milk, salt, egg
3. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well. This will be a very stiff dough.
4. Knead 3-4 minutes adding more flour if necessary.
5. Roll to 1/2 inch thick (see notes above)
6. Grease a baking sheet and place cookies with a bit of space between themselves. You can use cute cookie cutters, you can cut into pea sized squares or rectangles. I made rectangles that i break apart for training – i will try cutting them into tiny sizes before baking next time and see how that goes.
7. Bake for 15 minutes at 325
8. Allow to cool, remove from pan and store in a sealed jar. Makes 1 1/2 pound and seems to keep quite well.

Ah, look at those puppy photos! Was she ever that small?

Do you cook treats for your doggies? Have you switched to grain free or raw, and have you noticed the positive changes?