Easiest homemade dog treat recipe with three simple ingredients: oat flour, peanut butter and pumpkin purée.
Want to make an easy homemade dog treat with organic, gluten-free flour, three simple ingredients - oat flour, peanut butter (or any nut/seed butter) and canned pumpkin, sweet potato or butternut squash purée plus optional natural dyes and “toppings” for fun and fancy gifts for dogs and dog lovers - for homemade DIY dog biscuits for your own puppy or to give as a homemade, meaningful gift to any dog lover.
Educational Playtime
Now that you are ready to your homemade dog treats ready, it's time to explore the endless possibilities of creativity and learning. Here are some ways to make the most of salt dough playtime:
Shapes and Letters: Use rolling pins and cookie cutters to create various shapes and even form letters of the alphabet. This activity not only enhances fine motor skills but also introduces early literacy concepts.
Sensory Exploration: Dough engages the senses, making it an excellent tool for sensory play. Encourage your child to squeeze, mold, and explore the texture of the dough.
Imagination Station: Challenge your child's imagination by asking them to create animals, objects, or scenes using dough. This fosters creativity and storytelling skills.
Math Fun: Use dough to teach basic math concepts like counting, addition, and subtraction. You can also create simple math problems and have your child use dough to represent the answers. Use chopsticks or toothpicks or fork to poke holes or press lined patterns into dough and count the lines or holes.
Social Play: Dough can be a social activity. Invite friends or family members to join in the fun, promoting collaboration, sharing, and communication skills as you make DIY ornaments or homemade holiday gifts together.
Generosity and Gratitude: Discuss how making homemade gifts fro friends, loved ones and teachers is a great way to express appreciation and gratitude for people in our lives.
Color mixing: Mix natural food dyes to add to biscuits: Mix red and blue to make purple, red and yellow to make orange, and yellow and blue to make green. Discuss how more and less saturated colors look and how mixing and adding colors in different ratios changes the color. For example, how do you mix blue and yellow to make green or turquoise? What different shades of purple can you make from a reddish purple to bluish purple hue?
Incorporate multiple elements: Consider pressing dog-friendly food items into the dough to make them “fancy” or add fun textured elements. Roll a small strip of dough around a dollop of peanut butter to make a doggie eclair. Roll the treat in cooked rice or place a plain popcorn kernel, a piece of dry dog food or small piece of jerky or bacon bits into the center of a round dog biscuit. If your dog likes fruits and vegetables, add unseasoned coconut shreds or diced or dried apples, bananas, green beans or blueberries.
Patterns: Arrange pieces of different color dough into patters: green, yellow, red, green, yellow, red.
Sorting: Sort and group play dough into the correct color, size, shape.
making homemade dog biscuits is not only an entertaining activity but also an excellent learning tool. It allows children to explore, create, and develop various skills while having a blast. So, the next time you're in need of a creative outlet for your kids, whip up a batch of this homemade dog treats and watch their imagination flourish. Happy creating!
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Homemade Dog Treat Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups gluten-free oat flour
1/2 cups unsweetened, unsalted peanut butter
1 cup pure pumpkin purée (without pumpkin spice seasoning) or sweet potato purée.
Natural food coloring (optional)
Turmeric, beet powder, spirulina, spinach, kale, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, natural dye.
Instructions:
Mix Wet Ingredients: In a large bowl, combine the peanut butter and pumpkin purée.
Add Flour: Keep stirring until the mixture forms a large, non-sticky ball of dough.
If dough sticks to hands, add more flour until dough stops sticking to hands.
Optional Color: If you'd like to add color, divide it into separate sections and add natural food dyes to each section. Knead the dough until the color is evenly distributed. Consider braiding or combining colors for a tie-dye or swirl effect.
Beet Powder: Purple/Pink
Turmeric: Yellow/Orange
Spirulina/Spinach/Kale Powder: Green
Strawberries/Raspberries: Pink
Blueberries: Blue
Optional “Fancy” Creativity:
Consider pressing dog-friendly food items into the dough to make them “fancy” or add fun textured elements. Roll a small strip of dough around a dollop of peanut butter to make a doggie eclair. Roll the treat in cooked rice or place a plain popcorn kernel, a piece of dry dog food or small piece of jerky or bacon bits into the center of a round dog biscuit. If your dog likes fruits and vegetables, add unseasoned coconut shreds or diced or dried apples, bananas, green beans or blueberries.
Roll out dough with rolling pin or cylindrical jar/bottle to 1/4 inch.
Use small jar (or cooking spray lid) to cut into circles or use dog bone cookie cutters.
Optional DIY gifts: This is a great gift for dog lovers on any occasion but consider using cookie cutters or small round jars/cans to shape holiday-themed gifts:
Winter: Snowflake, mitten, snowman
Spring/Summer: Flower, Sun, Butterfly
Autumn: Maple & Oak Leaves, Apples, acorn, squirrel, pumpkin
Christmas: Tree, angel, stocking, reindeer
Hanukkah: Dreidel, Menorah, candle
Thanksgiving: Turkey, corn on the cob, Pilgrim hat, Cornucopia (horn of plenty)
Halloween: Ghost, Pumpkin, Witch’s Hat, Broom
Easter: Egg, Bunny, Basket, baby chick
Bake at 400 F for 10 minutes (or more depending on thickness of dough).
Want more daily ideas to teach early childhood learning skills in just minutes a day? Enjoy simple questions, conversation starters and no prep activities to teach preschool math, STEM, sight words, literacy, character education and more in just minutes a day throughout your daily routine to teach kindergarten readiness skills.
You can connect and learn with your 2, 3, 4 or 5 year old child and prepare toddlers and young kids for preschool and kindergarten in just minutes a day.
Follow my blog or Pinterest page @LaurenMartinBooks for new weekly learning activities every week.
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Want to teach early childhood learning skills in just minutes a day? Enjoy simple questions, conversation starters and no prep activities to teach preschool math, STEM, sight words, literacy, character education and more in just minutes a day throughout your daily routine.
You can connect and learn with your 2, 3, 4 or 5 year old child and prepare toddlers and young kids for preschool and kindergarten in just minutes a day.
Why wait? Want to make an easy homemade dog treat recipe with organic, gluten-free flour, three simple ingredients - flour, peanut butter, pumpkin purée - plus natural dyes - for homemade DIY dog biscuits, painty day activities, homemade, meaningful dog lover gifts, DIY craft gifts and more? Plus, enjoy educational ideas for using dough to encourage early childhood learning skills.