Healthy Pumpkin Dog Treats

I’m going to be upfront with you: every single recipe this week will include pumpkin in some way, shape, or form. Kind of redundant for the blog but it made for a very pleasant weekend in the Britnell house…even for the pups!

One of my simple guilty pleasures in life is giving treats to my dogs. The excitement they get over one small biscuit brings me an odd kind of joy. I imagine it’s the joy you get from giving a small child the toy they begged for even though they have 100 of the same thing already at home.

I’m also entertained by the things that I can get them to do for one small biscuit. Zorro knows he has to be sitting to get a treat, so as soon as he catches on that treats are being disbursed, he plops his butt on the ground and scoots it to where I am in order to ensure that he gets his treat ASAP. But, don’t ask him to shake. I’ve been trying to teach Zorro to shake for 4 years now. He either 1) doesn’t get it or 2) knows exactly what I want him to do but refuses. I’m genuinely not sure which one it is. Lexi learned to shake with both paws in about an hour one day. I digress.

Over the years that I’ve had my dogs, I’ve many a times found myself googling “can dogs eat INSERT RANDOM FOOD ITEM HERE!?”. This led me to not only learn what they shouldn’t eat but it also taught me what is GOOD for them to eat such as pumpkin, coconut oil, and cinnamon. Pumpkin is good for dogs digestive systems and is commonly recommended by vets for the fiber to keep dogs regular. Cinnamon and Coconut oil also have health benefits for dogs and, in moderation, are great for them.

I whipped up these treats to include lots of yummy, and good for them, ingredients. Bonus, my dogs love them. See:

Lexi’s licking her lips just thinking about eating these treats. My poor dogs are constantly tortured smelling all the yummy things I cook in the kitchen. It’s nice when they get to enjoy some blog food too :)

Bonus, these treats are very easy to make!

Mix the pumpkin, softened coconut oil,  and water together in a large bowl.

Then mix in the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder (yep, both!).

Mix it a bit and then add in your egg.

Continue to stir until it’s ALL combined. This might take a good minute and feel free to add a touch more water in order to get all of the mixture into one solid, slightly sticky ball.

You’re likely to get some company at about this point in the cooking process:

Once done, roll the dough out on a floured surface. I rolled my dough out to about 1/4 inch thick but the thickness doesn’t matter too much. If you make them too thick, you’ll just need to bake them a few extra minutes.

Using a cookie cutter, cut out treats…

And place on a lined/ greased baking sheet.

Bake for about 25 minutes until the dough has completely hardened.

Let cool and your pups are ready to enjoy!

My dogs LOVE these and I feel better knowing what is in them and that they’re actually pretty good for em!

I took a lot more pictures of the dogs eating them that I then put into adorable gifs. However, those don’t seem to be working. Rats! Here’s a cute picture of Zorro’s face instead :)

***Important update!: If you don’t cook these treats until they’re totally dry and hard (like a traditional dog biscuit) then you need to store these in the refrigerator!

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