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My last pup, Flower, was a therapy dog. I really want the same thing for Blossom, but we always say she’s “a little cray-cray.” In other words, she needs some more training in order to get to therapy dog behavior. Treats are necessary for this training. When I first got Blossom, I knew I wanted to feed her as naturally as possible. Farmer’s Dog does that for me with her regular meals, I needed to figure out a way to do that with her training treats. I realized I needed a Food Dehydrator. While I was looking for one, I discovered this Chefman Food Dehydrator, and it does a great job of making Blossom high quality, human grade, dehydrated treats.
In the past I’ve considered making doggie treats, but always cookies, never jerky. What I decided was cookies aren’t super realistic. When training, so many treats are used that cookies don’t make sense. When you make jerky, you can make a large amount all at once and you can make the pieces as small as they need to be.
I researched making my own jerky treats and saw that you can technically do it in the oven, but after really looking into it, I realized the best way to do it effectively is with a “dehydrator.” I didn’t have a dehydrator, but I’m now in possession of such a kitchen gadget. It’s been almost two years now, and I have to say, I suspect it’s Blossom’s favorite kitchen gadget.
Admittedly, I haven’t done enough research to be certain; but I suspect the jerky I bought in the past had more ingredients than just meat. I’m sure there were flavorings, sodium, and preservatives. To avoid all that “extra,” I have the butcher thinly slice a top round steak and put it in the dehydrator. It came out as beautiful dried jerky–sans any extra ingredients that might be bad for Blossom. We’re both in love.
To be fair, I haven’t used other Dehydrators, but I can’t imagine any dehydrator being larger or more effective than this one. And I have to say, it has wonderful reviews on Amazon.
The combination of The Farmer’s Dog and the wonderful homemade natural jerky dog treats, will hopefully make for a long, healthy, and happy life for Ms. Blossom. In the meantime, I will say these treats seem to be a huge hit! Below is a link to purchase the dehydrator and above is a link for a 50% off coupon on your first box of Farmer’s Dog. Your pup will love you for both!
Happy Cooking!
- Cheap cut of meat such as Chuck Roast or Round Roast
- Slice the Meat as thinly as you can.
- Place the slices on the dehydrator trays, leaving at least a little bit of space between each slice.
- Set your Dehydrator to 160 degrees (or its highest setting) and dehydrate the meat for 10 hours (or until hard and jerky-like--my understanding is different dehydrators might act differently).
- Cut the Jerky into super small pieces for training. (You don't want to overfeed your pup while training).
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