Homemade Dog Treats

Today I have a recipe for man's best friends...DOGS. :)
Our dogs are a huge part of our lives. They felt so special the day my husband & son made these homemade dog bones for them. Our 'boys' knew that Dad & Son were baking these for them. And they watched & waited the whole time!
I found this recipe quite a while ago over at the Left Over Food Queen's site. The original link with recipe can be found here.

In this first picture, you can see my husband & son working together.

I thought I should take a picture from further away so you could see our boys watching. They were very excited. They knew.

Here they are waiting & watching some more. Their names are Louis (6 years old, he's the sable one) & Otto (4 years old, black & 'red').

Otto has decided to be a little more patient. He laid down to watch.

While Otto rested, Louis decided that maybe the treats would be done sooner if he gave my husband & son the stare.

Finally, Louis got tired & decided to lay down too.

And while Louis laid down, Otto took on gaurd duty. He's got a pretty good stare too:

So, the cookies (bones) get rolled out on the table. We don't have a dog bone shaped cookie cutter, so our son picked out the candy cane cookie cutter. We thought that was about the same size as the dog bones we usually buy for them. There are 2 on the cookie sheet that I shaped into dog bone shape.

Here are the treats after they were finished. There are a few 'candy canes' & a few free hand dog bone shapes. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of our dogs actually eating these treats. You'll just have to take my word for it that they LOVED them.
These homemade dog treats are very healthy & it was nice knowing the exact ingredients that were in them. Unlike store bought bones, I can pronounce each & every ingredient. :) They were not expensive to make either. Compared to store bought, they were very cheap! I had all of the ingredients except for the wheat bran. I picked some up at the grocery store & found it in the flour aisle.

For our 'boys', this is a KEEPER recipe. :)

Dog Bone Cookies
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup non-fat dry milk powder
1/2 t. salt

6 T. butter

1 egg

1 cup water

3 t. wheat bran

3 T. Peanut Butter
Preheat oven to 350 F. Put butter and egg in food processor (or mixer) and process until smooth. In a seperate bowl mix the flour, milk powder, salt and wheat bran together. Add flour mixture, peanut butter and water alternately to butter and egg mixture and pulse processor until the dough has come together into a nice ball (you may not need to use all the water).
Roll the dough out onto a floured surface and roll to about 1/2 inch thickness. If you have a cookie cutter, cut the shapes out. If not, you can shape them by hand. Cut small (about 2 inch long) rectangles in the dough with a knife.
Fold piece in half lengthwise. Squish the middle of each end towards the center to make the 2 rounded knobs at each end. Flip over to smooth side and place on a cookie sheet (don't worry about spacing, they aren't going to grow).
Bake for about 15 minutes, flip and then bake another 3-4 minutes. Place on cookie racks to cool and keep out overnight to harden.
Makes about 60-70 cookies