randall loves peanut butter treats

up until our acquisition of our not-so-little pup, i was not such a big fan of owning a dog. i like other people's pets because i know that i could play with them and still know that i don't have to deal with the stress of cleaning up pee and poo and also the i don't have to deal with the unwanted barking alarm in the morning. then a little over a couple of years ago, shawn started talking about getting a dog. obviously, since he was still in school that time, i said no.

after a few weeks of talking about getting a dog and getting the same same answer, shawn finally stopped bringing up the topic. then one day, he tells me that his neighbor's dog gave birth to a bunch of pups and that he bought one. i was dumbfounded. i didn't know what to say. i was left on the other end of the phone saying, "okay". the next day, after my class ended, i immediately drove up to sacramento to see the craziness that he brought into our lives. i saw the little critter inside their little pen and i was in love. now, i couldn't even imagine life without this little brown monster.
now that we have a dog, and that i have to deal with all the things i used to hate about them, i am quite surprised that i am not that stressed over it. don't get me wrong, i still go crazy when i get woken up by randall whimpering and nudging my hand that is hanging off the bed signaling me that it is time to eat, but the stress that goes with owning a dog wasn't as much as i expected - which is a good thing.
what's surprising about having this particular dog is the ridiculous amount of treats he wants. i mean seriously, he whimpers, cries and begs for treats. it's crazy! when randall had surgery for intestinal obstruction (that's a whole other story), he weighed 80 pounds. apparently, he was overweight. we were surprised because he didn't look like he was. so after he recovered from surgery, a goal to make sure he loses some of the weight was in place. we, more shawn than i, really made sure that randall's weight loss plan was in motion. we decreased the amount of store-bought treats he's having and upped his celery and carrot intake. he loves those veggies as treats. now, whenever he sees those veggies being chopped up, he's there next to me in the kitchen looking up and waiting to get some.
now that randall has lost some of the weight, i thought it would be great to make some homemade treats for him. i have been planning to make treat for him ever since we found out that noah's bagels carries little bagel treats for dogs. now that i found enough time to cut little shapes out of a rolled out dough and bake them i did it.
after painstakingly cutting little hearts out of the fragrant peanut butter dough and baking them, i gave randall one of those little hearts and after he inhaled the whole thing, he was already begging to have another one. obviously, he liked it. as i am writing this post, i only have half a jar left and i need to make more! so if your dogs love treats, it's time for you to get this recipe into the oven.

peanut butter dog treats
(adapted from dogtreatrecipes.org)

ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup soy milk or water

instructions:

1. preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. in a big bowl, combine all ingredients and mix until combined and a dough is formed.

3. roll out dough on a well-floured surface until it's about 1/4 inch thick. it'll puff up when baking.

4. cut out pieces from the dough using your favorite cookie cutter or a dog bone shaped one. if you don't have a cookie cutter, you can just cut bite sized pieces.

5. on a parchment lined baking sheet or a lightly oiled one, lay out cut out dough and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

6. store in a ziploc bag or an airtight jar, if you can resist not giving it to your dog during the cooling down process.