treats

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August 31, 2010(Good) Treats for Dogs: The Barkery

Tradition would have us believe that dogs and mail carriers can never be friends – but my dogs will love our postman forever if he continues to deliver packages that smell as tasty as the one that recently arrived from Minneapolis’ The Barkery.

Thanks to April at The Barkery, Mingus and Dottie had the pleasure of taste-testing a selection of The Barkery’s flavorful treats, namely molasses & granola cookies, salmon & yogurt snacks, chicken & apple cookies, salad bar snacks, and peanut butter & cheerios.

I can tell you that Mingus and Dottie loved the treats, but they’re crazy about treats anyway (I mean, saying my dogs “like” treats is like saying Don Draper enjoys a drink and a smoke now and then) — so I should probably also explain why I like treats from The Barkery. First, they’re handmade with love rather than in some ol’ dirty factory somewhere. Plus, they’re baked from scratch to order from wholesome, human-grade, organic, fresh, local ingredients and packaged in earth-friendly materials, meaning they’re good for dogs and for the planet. Plus (again), The Barkery’s packaging and web site boasts really nifty graphic design. (Hey – these things are important to me.)

Fetch The Barkery treats (plus cute treat jars!) directly from their web site.

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August 5, 2010Nutrition + Love = Nulo

I ran across nulo on twitter yesterday, and as with anything with bright colors and good design, it caught my eye. Nulo (nutrition + love) is food for dogs and cats developed by self-professed “pet foodies” aimed at providing holistic, wholesome nutrition to your pets. Their animal-protein-rich foods contain no hormones, byproducts, or fillers, and they deliver their kibble, canned foods, and treats right to your door – which is awesome, because in addition to being attracted to bright colors and pretty packaging, I’m also super lazy and scatterbrained.

Check out nulo’s goodness on their web site — and don’t get freaked when that cat and dog on the home page start moving (like maybe I did).

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July 27, 2010Cakes 4 Claws: PupCakes 2 Go

Anyone remember those microwave cakes from the ’80s where you’d stir some water into the bag of cake mix, pop it in the microwave bundt pan, and “bake” it in the microwave in just a couple minutes? I LOVED THOSE THINGS… not so much for the taste, but because they were the perfect entertainment for a kid who wanted to pretend like she was cooking but whose mother perhaps didn’t trust her with a power mixer and hot oven.

PupCakes 2 Go are little microwave cakes for dogs and were voted Best New Product for 2010 at the Global Pet Expo. It’s easy to see why — they’re super easy and fun to make, inexpensive, and made from organic, wholesome ingredients (wheat, soy, and preservative-free at that). Melinda from Lucky Paws, the makers of PupCakes, sent me a couple boxes to try, and I relived a little ’80s fun whipping up a batch for Mingus and Dottie yesterday afternoon.

With PupCakes, all it takes to become a canine pastry chef extraordinaire is a little water, a little peanut butter, and a microwave. The powdered mix smells really good, just like cinnamon, and the PupCakes really do look and smell like real cakes when they come out of the microwave after a magical two and a half minutes. I was even tempted to try a tiny piece, and, well, they kind of tasted like those microwave cakes from the ’80s. But hey, they’re not made for humans, they’re for dogs. And the dogs? LOVED them.

And that preshy little purple tray? It’s reusable with PupCakes’ refill mixes. LOVE IT.

To find out how to get your paws on some PupCakes 2 Go, check out Lucky Paws’ website.

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July 1, 2010Beachy Keen: Alopaw Treats

Y’all remember that movie Superbad? Well, that’s pretty much how badly I want to go to the beach right now: SUPER BAD. I figure if I’m going to be sweating and getting sunburned, I might as well be breathing the salty air and sitting in the sand with cold drink in my hand, right?

Checking out Alopaw treats isn’t helping either — these cute, handmade Hawaiian themed treats, with ingredients like pineapple, banana, and coconut, and names like Beach Bums, Hula Honeys, and Paradise Palms, make me want to hit the beach REALLY SUPER BAD.

Alopaw treats are more than just cute, though. The treats were originally created for Kona, a lab puppy born with a liver shunt, who has to adhere to a strict low-protein and low-phosphate diet. Alopaw treats thus contain no meat, no wheat, no corn, no gluten, and no dairy — but, instead, all human-grade, virtually allergy-free ingredients.

Plus I betcha they smell like the beach.

You can buy Alopaw treats on their website or in their Etsy shop.

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June 19, 2010Help Kickstart Barkwheats

Y’all, no doubt, know Barkwheats because, well, we’ve featured them here before, and because our good pal Abby McMillen’s art is featured on their (adorbs) packaging. Makers of wholesome, grain-free treats for dogs, Barkwheats buys their ingredients from local organic farmers in Maine, utilize wind energy for production, and employ 100% compostable materials in their packaging.

Barkwheats was born in 2007 as a little homespun operation and already has grown into a successful business with nationwide distribution. Barkwheats has grown so much, however, that their current baking equipment can’t keep up with demand. They’re running a campaign through Kickstarter to try to raise enough money for a new biscuit moulder. This new biscuit moulder a) sounds like something I want in my kitchen and b) would increase Barkwheats’ production by, like, a million (or basically a whole lot).

Check out Barkwheats’ Kickstarter page to find out more about this awesome company and how you can help.

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June 7, 2010Kookoo for Coconuts: CocoTherapy Treats

Picture this: young me (I was cute) at a church picnic, spying the dessert table from across the room, running with unbridled glee (while wiping drool) towards a what I think is a giant vanilla cake, then skidding to a stop in horror when I get close enough to realize it’s not vanilla, it’s… COCONUT. Bleaughh.

Coconut. Aside from an umbrella drink here and there, can’t stand the stuff. But apparently it’s, like, totally super healthy for both humans and dogs. Not coconut cake, of course… but 100% raw, virgin coconut oil. Apparently it’s a fatty acid, but the good kind, and in dogs, it’s been shown to help with weight loss, metabolism, energy, skin and coat, and digestion. It’s also a huge immune-system booster and is a natural anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-oxidant. Kind of makes me feel bad about being so anti-coconut as a kid.

Dehydrated coconut carries the same health benefits as the oil, making these 100% pure organic coconut chips from CocoTherapy something I’m definitely curious to try with my beasts. After reading about the health benefits of coconut for dogs, I’m totally on the coconut boat. And who knows? Maybe I’ll even try one myself.

You can fetch CocoTherapy Coconut Chips online at Fun Dog Fred (or check CocoTherapy’s site for stores).

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May 17, 2010Umm, Yum: Poocheze Gourmet Dog Treats

So I’m starting to wonder if maybe I’ve been doing this dog-bloggin’ thing a little too long, ’cause I’m not supposed to actually get hungry when I look at dog treats, am I? I mean, that’s not right. Am I wrong?

But check out these handmade gourmet dog treats from Poocheze. I mean, really. I could eat that.

Poocheze offers fresh, made-to-order treats like liver crisps, chicken puffs, and peanut butter carob chip chews, as well as resusable, eco-friendly treat bags.

I need a snack.

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April 21, 2010Taste Test: Crunch Woofs Microwave Treats

A few days ago a nice lady named Lora, whose company makes Crunch Woofs, sent us a couple sample bags of their microwaveable treats. While we weren’t actually asked to do a review, a rainy Tuesday afternoon makes for a good time to play around in the kitchen taste-testing treats, so we put on our official testing hats and opened up a bag.

(OK, so we don’t actually wear hats. But wouldn’t it be cute if Mingus and Dottie had little taste-taster hats to wear? Some of you crafty Etsy folks, get on that.)

Crunch Woofs are made from 100% human-grade U.S. farm-raised pork. They’re low in fat and high in protein and contain no meat byproducts. That said, out of the bag, they’re not too much to look at — just kind of like a little piece of rawhide or pig’s ear. BUT!! Place them in the microwave for about a minute and a half, and they puff up and expand into light, crunchy, tasty treats. Ever put a Peep in the microwave? Or play with those dinosaurs that grew out of the plastic capsules? Same sort of science here. Well, sort of. Whatever.

Anyway, I didn’t let Ming and Dot get too close to the microwave to watch, because, well, I don’t want pups with more brain damage. But they were all about sampling the “afters.”

The scientific conclusion of our little rainy day experiment? Dogs LOVE Crunch Woofs.

Want to have some exciting microwave fun with your pups? Find out where to fetch Crunch Woofs on their web site.

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April 2, 2010Doggie DIY: Martha Stewart’s Paw-Print Treats

You want a guaranteed ego booster? Bake some homemade treats for your pup. Failing to delight is pretty much impossible, even if you’re no Martha in the kitchen.

(A little trivia: My first name used to be Martha. I dropped it when I got married ’cause I always used my middle name anyway, and I didn’t want to have four names to deal with. I had to go through a whole court procedure to do it. This is completely irrelevant to the topic at hand, it’s just weird to think about sometimes.)

Anyway, here’s an easy enough dog treat recipe from MarthaStewart.com. The ingredient list is pretty short (and I’d leave out the salt), and there aren’t too many steps. (Recipes with more than 4 or 5 steps sort of scare me.) And while your pup may not actually care about the cute little paw-print designs on the treats, they look like they’d be kinda fun to make.

I’m going to take a little Easter break for the weekend — see y’all Monday!

Thanks to Sarah for this tip!

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March 25, 2010Etsy Love: Kb Originals Etc Pottery

The other night I announced to my husband that I was quitting my day job and throwing myself full-time into pottery. He chuckled heartily, not because he’s unsupportive, but because he knows that a) I make drastic pronouncements like this all the time with absolutely no intention behind them and b) I took one pottery class in college, and the only thing I made that didn’t either fall apart on the wheel or explode in the kiln is one tiny little pot hardly big enough to hold some spare change.

My little pot (which I still have, of course) is nice, but quite laughable, indeed, especially compared with the cool stuff in potter Kim Berger’s Etsy shop, KbOriginalsetc, which boasts gorgeous, colorful housewares, including some awesome doggy treat jars and bowls. I love pretty much everything in her shop.

And, since any dog will tell you there’s not much use in an empty treat jar, Kim’s shop also features home-baked, personalized dog cookies made by Kim herself.

I’m going to go sit in the corner with my little clay pot and feel inferior now.

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