Sausage Oat Dog Treats
Sausage Oat Dog Treats are a crunchy snack with a meaty aroma your pooch will love. A small amount of good quality pork sausage meat is combined with healthy oats, wholemeal flour, breath-freshening parsley plus a little yogurt and/or water. Baked until crispy, the biscuity treats will keep for at least 2 weeks.
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I started cooking up homemade dog treats way back in 2014, not long after we got our cocker spaniel, Larkin, at just eight weeks old. A great foodie, but also something of a nightmare as a puppy, I quickly learned that tasty treats would grab his attention and help with training. These days he’s a good boy, most of the time, anyway… But I still like to him make a few treats, especially on his birthday.
Larkin’s recent birthday was a particularly poignant one though. Five months before, we’d nearly lost him to TWO auto-immune diseases that also caused serious complications in a routine operation. Incredibly, after leaving him at the vet hospital, my partner and I were in a horrible car crash that, if Larkin had been in the car, would surely have killed him. Thankfully, he’s now back to his old self and went absolutely bonkers for the Sausage Oat Dog Treats I made for his precious ninth birthday.
SAUSAGE OAT DOG TREATS
As my recent dog friendly biscuits and treats focussed on fish (Sardine Dog Biscuits, Tuna Dog Treats and a fun Dog Birthday Cake), I decided to go in a meaty direction for my latest.
But that doesn’t mean you need to include loads of meat. While dogs have a sense of taste that’s less powerful than ours (except for water, apparently), it’s thought that they can smell 10,000 to 100,000 times better than us! And what better way to get those nostrils flaring than the enticing aroma of sizzling sausage?
SAUSAGE MEAT
Because of its strong flavour and smell, we only need around 80 grams of sausage meat for a whole tray of Sausage Oat Dog Treats. That’s the equivalent of two thin-medium sausages. I always keep some good quality, free-range pork sausages in the freezer so defrosted a couple and snipped them open with scissors to get at the meat. The skins I discarded. Important: check your sausage meat doesn’t contain ingredients harmful to dogs e.g. onion. If you don’t have suitable sausages then you could swap in minced/ground pork, chicken, turkey, or beef.
OATS
In recent years, it seems that oats have almost been lifted to the status of a superfood. Wholegrain, high in fibre, and a good source of protein, oats certainly have a healthier image than many other grains. As with humans, oats are suitable for dogs sensitive to wheat. The vitamin B they contain may also help maintain your dog’s healthy coat.
My Sausage Oat Dog Treats contain oats in two forms. Rolled oats (larger than porridge oats and sometimes labelled ‘jumbo’) and oatmeal. If you can’t find oatmeal, which is usually sold in health/wholefood shops rather than supermarkets, you can easily make your own. Just whizz up rolled or porridge oats in a food processor or coffee grinder.
Because doughs made with oats can be quite sticky, I include some wholemeal flour in mine. I also use it to roll out the dough. If your dog can’t tolerate wheat, then you could swap in rice flour, chickpea/gram flour, coconut flour or similar. Note that if using flours other than those in the recipe, you may need to adjust the amount of liquid.
LIQUID
To bring the dough together I use a heaped tablespoon of thick, plain yogurt plus some water. Larkin loves tangy yogurt and I think it’s good for him too. But if your pooch is sensitive to dairy then you can use water only or a low salt stock.
PARSLEY
Parsley has long been recommended as a remedy for bad breath in humans as well as dogs. It’s claimed that the chlorophyll it contains can neutralize bacteria in the mouth and gut that can lead to stinky breath. I don’t know if this is true or not, and serious bad breath should be checked by a vet in case of underlying conditions. Nevertheless, I like to think Larkin gets some benefit from the tablespoon of chopped parsley I add to my Sausage Oat Dog Treats. What’s not in doubt is the attractive, green-speckled appearance it gives the crunchy biscuits. If you choose to include it, use curly parsley rather than the flat leaf or Italian types which can be harmful to dogs.
READY TO START? Jump to Recipe or read on for step-by-step images and tips.
MAKING THE DOUGH & ROLLING OUT
Making the dough is simplicity itself. All you do is tip the ingredients, except the yogurt and water, into a mixing bowl. Then put the yogurt into a jug and make up to 100ml with water. If you’re not using yogurt, then just measure out 100ml of water or low salt stock. Now stir the liquid into the ingredients in the bowl. Start bringing them together with a spoon, then switch to your hands to form into a dough that’s firm but neither dry nor wet. As different flours absorb different amounts of liquid, you may need to add a touch more water or oatmeal to get the right consistency.
While bone shaped dog biscuits and treats look very cute, it can take a while to cut them out, then keep gathering all the dough scraps and re-rolling. So I tend to make mainly square or rectangle ones. First, I roll out the dough on a piece of floured baking paper cut to fit a large baking tray. Then I use a ruler and pizza wheel to neaten the edges and cut into whatever size shapes I want.
I gather up the scraps, roll out and use a cookie cutter to make just a few bone-shaped treats. These I place around the edges of the baking paper.
BAKING SAUSAGE OAT DOG TREATS
Rolling and cutting out the Sausage Oat Dog Treats onto paper means I can just lift the whole thing up and place on my baking tray. I do this for human-friendly biscuits and crackers like Easy Homemade Crackers and Easy Seed Crackers too.
Baked on the middle shelf of an oven preheated to 170°C / 150° Fan / Gas 3 / 325°F, the treats should take around 40 minutes to get dry and cooked all the way through. But the actual time may differ depending on how wet your dough was and how thinly you rolled it. It’s important that you don’t take them out of the oven too soon as, apart from giving them a nicer, crunchy texture, thoroughly dry treats will keep for longer.
You might find that those at the edges of the tray cook more quickly. Simply remove them, transfer to a cooling rack, and continue cooking the rest. I find that turning over the biscuits halfway through helps to get thorough and even cooking.
STORING & FEEDING SAUSAGE OAT DOG TREATS
Once all the treats are baked, they should be left on the cooling rack until completely cold. Mind you, Larkin will have been watching me intently and following my every step during their making, so I can’t resist giving him a couple of treats as soon as they’re cool enough!
Stored in a jar or other airtight container they should keep for at least 2 weeks. I’ve also found that thin biscuits and treats can be frozen and fed without defrosting. I haven’t tried defrosting them, but suspect they’d lose their crunch. However, you could freeze the cut-out treats and bake from frozen, increasing the time to make sure they’re cooked through and dry.
Larkin loved these crunchy snacks with a meaty aroma. Using everyday store cupboard and fridge ingredients, plus a small amount of good quality sausage and healthy oats, give these easy treats a try and I think your dog will too.
If you’ve made Sausage Oat Dog Treats, I’d love to know what you and your pupster thought of them. Please leave a comment and rating.
Sausage Oat Dog Treats
Easy, crunchy snacks with a meaty aroma that your pooch will love.
A small amount of good quality pork sausage meat is combined with healthy oats, wholemeal flour, breath-freshening parsley plus a little yogurt and/or water.
Baked until crispy, the biscuity treats will keep for at least 2 weeks.
Ingredients
- 75 g wholemeal flour plus extra for rolling out
- 50 g rolled or jumbo oats
- 50 g fine oatmeal can be replaced with more oats whizzed to a powder in a blender or food processor
- 80 g sausage meat see Recipe Note 1
- 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley see Recipe Note 2
- 1 rounded tbsp thick yogurt can be replaced with more water or weak, low salt stock
- water
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 170°C / 150° Fan / Gas 3 / 325°F.
Cut a piece of baking paper to fit a large baking tray.
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Put the flour, oats, oatmeal, sausage meat and parsley in a bowl.
Put the yogurt into a jug, make up to 100ml with water then add it to the bowl.
Start bringing the ingredients together by stirring with a spoon, then switch to your hands to form into a dough that's firm but neither dry nor wet. If necessary, add a little more water or oatmeal to get the right consistency.
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Transfer to a lightly flour dusted surface and very briefly knead to get a smooth ball.
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Put the cut piece of baking paper on the worksurface and sprinkle with a little wholemeal flour.
Place the dough on top, sprinkle it and a rolling pin with a little more flour, then roll out thinly (approximately 2-3 mm).
Take a knife or pizza wheel and cut the dough into squares or rectangles.
Tip: first neaten the edges with the pizza wheel or knife. These scraps of dough can then be re-rolled and cut into more treats with a cookie cutter if liked.
Alternatively, roll the dough out on a work surface, cut out shapes e.g. bones, and place on the baking paper, re-rolling the scraps to make more.
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Transfer the baking paper with the treats onto a baking tray and put in the oven on the middle shelf.
Bake until dry and cooked all the way through (approx. 40 minutes).
- The treats at the edge of the tray may cook more quickly: remove and transfer to a wire rack when done and continue cooking the rest.
- Turning over halfway through will help to get even cooking.
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Place the cooked treats on a wire rack until completely cold then store in an airtight container. They should stay fresh for 2 weeks.
Cooked treats can be frozen and fed without defrosting if they have been rolled thinly.
You can also freeze the uncooked treats. To bake from frozen, add extra time to ensure they're completely cooked through.
Recipe Notes
Note 1. Sausage Meat. Try to get the best quality you can and make sure it doesn't contain ingredients harmful to dogs e.g. onions. If using sausages, you'll need approximately 2 medium sized ones, skins discarded. You could also substitute ground/minced meat such as pork, chicken, turkey or beef instead.
Note 2. Parsley: it's recommended to use curly rather than Italian or flat leaf parsley as the latter may be harmful to dogs.
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