Creature Good Dog Training - Dog Training for Boston, MA

I’m very excited to share this special guest post written by my friend Trey from caninecompilation.com.

Be sure to check out all the great info Trey shares over at caninecompilation.com.

Liver cake for dogs – high value training treat

It’s not always easy to get your dog excited about a training session. Liver cake is an excellent high-value training treat that dogs go nuts for! It’s not only perfect for getting your pup engaged in learning new tricks and commands, it’s also healthy! In this blog post, I’ll tell you how to make liver cake for your pup!

Liver Cake High Value Dog Training Treats

The health benefits of liver

Liver is one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can give your dog. It’s an excellent source of protein, vitamins B12 and A, iron and copper. It’s also low in fat, so it’s a good alternative to many dog treats that tend to ramp up the calories.

Apart from the health benefits, most dogs absolutely love the smell and taste of liver, making it the perfect training treat.

However, liver is very rich and too much of anything is never good. If your dog isn’t used to eating liver, start with just a small amount of liver cake treats to make sure it doesn’t disagree with him! You don’t want to be cleaning up toileting accidents all day!

The health benefits of bananas

Bananas are another low-calorie, nutrient dense food. They’re packed with potassium and fiber which is great for digestive health. They offer vitamins and minerals that complement those found in liver, making these treats even healthier.

A lot of food loses some of its nutritional value during baking, but that’s not the case with baked bananas.

If you have any bananas that are a little over ripe, don’t throw them in the composter – use them in this recipe!

The health benefits of eggs

This liver cake for dogs has yet another nutritional powerhouse in its ingredients: eggs. They’re rich in many different vitamins, protein and antioxidants.

Oats – vs -Flour

I used oatmeal (ground oats) instead of flour in this recipe. Oats are nutritious, gluten-free, and a good source of fibre.

If you don’t have oatmeal but you have oats, you can easily make your own oatmeal by grinding oats in a coffee / bean / nuts grinder.

Please try to avoid using all-purpose or white flour when making dog treats. Nutritionally, it offers nothing to your dog. If you must use flour instead of oats, at least make it wholemeal flour so it adds fibre.

Recipe: Liver cake dog treats

Ingredients

* 400g (14 ounces) liver (ox or lamb)

* 200g (7 ounces) oatmeal (use wholewheat flour if you don’t have oatmeal)

* 2 eggs

* 1 small banana

Instructions

Heat the oven to 180 deg C / 350 deg F

Grease a baking pan (mine was 15×10″), or line with greaseproof paper. If you don’t grease or line the pan, the liver cake will stick to it. I have pans that are only used for dog treats, so if I forget to line them, it’s not a problem – my dog licks them out after I’ve removed the treats so she helps with a pre-wash!

Put the liver, banana and egg in a food processor. Blend til smooth – note, liver has stringy, lumpy bits and these won’t easily blend down. I just leave them in the batter, as my dog doesn’t care if the batter is a little lumpy 🙂

Put liver, banana + egg in food processor

Add the oatmeal and mix in well.

Put the batter in the pan and smooth out. The depth is up to you – I prefer mine to be no deeper than 1cm high. Deeper cakes take a little longer to cook and make bigger treats. Since I want to have lots of small training treats, keeping the cake shallow helps.

Cook for 25 minutes, checking they’re not burning. All ovens cook at different rates and the depth of your cake will affect its cooking time too. When it’s cooked, it will spring back when you press down on it.

Let it cool and cut it up into little squares

How long will liver cake keep for?

Pop the liver cake in a plastic container and keep it in the fridge for 3-4 days.

To make it last longer, dehydrate it. If you don’t have a dehydrator, use your oven on the lowest setting. Put the cut-up cubes of liver cake on a baking pan and spread them out so they aren’t all squished together. Increased airflow dries them out faster.

I dehydrate mine until they are crunchy – that way they keep for a good few weeks. However, if your dog likes softer treats or has dental problems, don’t dehydrate them.

You can freeze the liver cake cubes too, so there’s no need for them to go bad if you don’t want to dehydrate them.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a healthy, high-value training treat that your dog will go crazy for and is easy to make, liver cake may be the treat of your dreams. Let us know what your dog thinks!