The Healthy Hound Cookbook: Over 125 Easy Recipes for Healthy, Homemade Dog Food--Including Grain-Free, Paleo, and Raw Recipes! Read Online Free Page A

your dog’s diet. Some willpower is in order, both for you and your dog! Treats should never make up more than 10 percent of your dog’s total diet.
Training with Treats
    We love using training treats with our dogs; both our dogs have learned very quickly thanks to positive reinforcement training. Remember that you’ll need many training treats when initially training your dog, so the key is to make training treats very small (think pea-size) and then compensate by reducing your dog’s meal size.
    Meat treats work best with many dogs, and often the stronger-scented treats like liver are most effective. Allowing refrigerated treats to warm to room temperature before you use them will bring out the scent to further entice your dog. You’ll also get the best results if the training treats are used exclusively for training.
    Many trainers also use a dog’s regular meal as a training tool, meaning that you can give out far more “treats” as positive reinforcement training tools. A serving of chicken, which might have comprised your dog’s dinner, can be cut into small bits and used as training treats instead.
Bones: Yes or No?
    Should you give your dog bones as a chew toy? That’s definitely a bone of contention in the dog world! First, the easy answer: you should never give your dog cooked bones. The cooking process dehydrates the bones, making them far more likely to splinter and break. Splintered bones can puncture an organ and lead to life-threatening complications.
    Beyond that, though, things get a little stickier. Ask most raw-food diet advocates, and you’ll hear that raw bones—from large marrow bones to smaller chicken wings and thighs—play an important role in their dog’s diet. Digestible bones (comprising up to 10 percent of the diet) provide the necessary calcium your dog requires, and large marrow bones are a recreational favorite and are also an excellent source of vitamins and minerals.
    On the flip side, even raw bones present a danger. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) says, “Bones or bone fragments in some raw diets can result in intestinal obstruction or perforation, gastroenteritis, and fractured teeth.” We can testify to the fractured teeth: Our Irie, a devoted marrow bone chewer, had to have three teeth extracted due to fractured teeth.
    The decision to feed bones, whether as part of a diet or as an occasional treat, is one that you will need to make after consulting with your veterinarian.

CHAPTER 4
Sweet Treats
    Does your dog have a sweet tooth? Although you should never feed a dog chocolate, which is toxic to canines, many other sweets are fine for rewarding your rover. Blackstrap molasses, which is rich in nutrients, serves as a sweetener for many of these recipes, while others rely on fruits for their touch of sweetness. You’ll be able to take advantage of seasonal sales as well as peak harvest seasons for preparing wholesome treats with a hint of pear, pumpkin, blueberries, and more.

Grain-Free Peanut Butter Biscuits
    Most dogs, ours included, absolutely love peanut butter. This easy recipe is grain-free; if your dog has no issues with wheat, you can substitute whole-wheat flour or all-purpose flour for chickpea flour.
    YIELDS: 36 (2") treats
    1 medium banana, mashed
    3 tablespoons organic unsweetened creamy peanut butter
    1 egg
    1 3 ⁄ 4 cups chickpea flour
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix banana, peanut butter, egg, and flour. Turn out dough on a floured surface and knead; roll out the dough to 1 ⁄ 4 " thickness.
Cut dough into 24 cookies with cookie cutters (or slice with a pizza cutter) and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool completely before serving or refrigerating. Refrigerate for 5 days or freeze in an airtight container for up to 6 months.
    Flour Power
    Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are a good source of fiber and protein as well as minerals