Vegan Peanut Butter Dog Treats

A while back I posted my version of vegan dog food. Amitu, the queen of the household, likes her homemade food, but her favorite food snack is the vegan peanut butter dog treats.

I was in Mexico, preparing the paperwork to bring Amitu to Guatemala with me, when I saw a fundraising table for a local dog shelter. They were selling homemade dog treats. Knowing nothing about dogs, I had continued giving Amitu the processed meat treats she had been getting… until I saw these. I knew I could easily make them at home and I started with this recipe on vegaprocity.com.

Note: If you have any concerns about your dog’s health on a vegan diet, check out this article at Vegans First.

Most dogs love peanut butter. While many dog health authorities say that peanut butter is a great snack for dogs, you will find people on the Internet who insist you should never give dogs peanut butter. Most of the arguments against peanut butter, however, are about hydrogenated oils and added sugar. I wouldn’t eat that kind of peanut butter myself, and I’m certainly not going to give it to my dog. I use only natural peanut butter that is nothing but peanuts (get the unsalted variety), and I usually make my own.

These treats are ridiculously easy to make: throw all the ingredients in the mixer until thoroughly combined, roll the dough out, cut them, and bake them. I keep treats in the fridge and they last for weeks (since they have no preservatives, they will get moldy if you don’t keep them in the fridge). We keep a few days’ worth in a jar on the counter and Amitu comes running when we open the jar.

This recipe makes enough treats to last us several weeks, but Amitu is only one tiny dog. You can easily double the recipe for bigger or multiple dogs.

I used little pastry cutters because, well, I have them. You can just cut the dough into squares appropriate to your dog’s size.