Pumpkin Puppy Dog Cookies

Pumpkin Puppy Dog Cookies… more pet treats?

I know, we just made these Pumpkin Pupsicles a couple of weeks ago. But I have two very good reasons for featuring two furry friend treats in a row.

First of all, there are only two of us two-legged people folk around these days. We used to cook for a family of five, but since moving to Oregon it is just Kevin and I. An entire batch of cookies is a dangerous presence in our apartment, so I scratch my baking itch with some homemade pumpkin puppy dog cookies.

The second reason is that I came upon a newfound use for these little gems after taking Watson to the vet earlier this month.

For a couple of weeks Watson had been licking his paws incessantly. He seems to have some separation anxiety, so we figured that along with our big move might have brought on a new anxious habit.

One day I came home from work and took a look at his sopping wet paws. The sides of his pads were very red and swollen, so I decided to make a vet appointment. He was almost due for a vaccine anyway, so if nothing else I thought I could get that done.

Well… It turns out our poor puppy had cheatgrass seeds embedded in his paws. It took some sedation and patient trimming, but the vet got all of the cheatgrass out of his paws. I hurt for the little guy every time they tweezed out a new one.

After paying more than I like to admit for the vet visit (it was worth it), we left with two prescriptions and orders for Benadryl BID.

They asked me how Watson does with taking pills, and I had to tell them I really didn’t know. We’ve only had him since last year, and luckily this is the first time any pills have been involved.

I truly didn’t feel like poking antibiotic capsules down Watson’s little doggy throat while he fought and gagged and sputtered slobber on me. So I decided to play it safe and hide the pills in these little pumpkin puppy dog cookies. Lucky for me Watson hardly chews anything.

While these cookies were fantastic for getting our pup to pop his pills, I have another recipe I want to share with you that would work even better.

I’ll try and get some good people food recipes ready for you first.

Since some peanut butter has xylitol in it now, make sure not to use that in homemade dog treats. If your peanut butter has low-sugar/sugar free on the label, be sure to check the ingredients for xylitol. This sugar alcohol can cause serious health problems in dogs, so keep your puppies safe and use natural peanut butter. Or make your own.

Compared to the Pumpkin Pupsicles, these cookies are slightly more involved. If you want to save some time you can skip the glaze. It’s just a fun touch that makes them pretty, but Fido won’t know the difference.

Full disclosure, I did eat one of these. Maybe two. They aren’t as sweet as you would expect a people cookie to be, but then again they are much healthier than people cookies. That can be my million dollar idea – a diet book centered around eating pet food. But just for fun I’ll keep my day job.