Get the scoop on how to make your own easy dog-friendly café style drinks. Recipe ideas and instructions for making homemade puppuccino and hot dogolate drinks for dogs. Doggone delish indeed! Lap it up, furfreinds!
But First, Coffee...
Sometimes you just need a little extra indulgence to start the day off on the right paw. For our dogs, the sound of the coffee machine signals the potential to plead for a little bit of froth or perhaps some warm milk. Cue the puppy dog eyes and drool! If you feel like spoiling your pup, then perhaps a puppuccino or a mini cup of dog-friendly carob hot ‘chocolate’ is the perfect quick treat for a chilly morning, birthday breakfast, or just because. We’ll show you a few easy but indulgent options for making your own.
In our case, this all started as an occasional indulgence on chilly weekend mornings – puppuccinos! Dog Dad and barista extraordinaire for the win! Pavlov’s Oli quickly developed a love for the sound of the coffee maker, and (of course) Humphrey learned from the Master. Those puppy dog eyes are just so doggone hard to resist. Whipping up a puppuccino or other little dog-friendly beverage has become a frequent treat during our family coffee ritual.
How to Make Homemade Dog Puppuccinos
Puppuccino Ingredients and Options
Dog’s can’t have coffee, of course. Special puppuccinos, perhaps – depending on the dog and the ingredients. Café puppuccinos are often made with whipped cream and may be sweetened, high in fat, or include ingredients that may not suit some pups. Especially not by the cupful. Although my dogs would definitely be happy lapping up whipped cream, we froth milk for a healthier alternative.
Our dogs aren’t lactose sensitive as far as we know, but we buy trim lactose-free milk for their puppuccinos all the same, just to be on the safer side. We like to serve them warm and frothy, but you can make a cold drink, if you prefer. For a light and simple dog-friendly puppuccino-style fluffy, we froth up the milk and serve it with a tasty sprinkle of Ceylon cinnamon and/or carob powder. The boys usually get a plain fluffy or plain warm milk from me so that hubby can have the special role of barista and hot dogolate hero, but I occasionally make something special on wet cold mornings. Although the servings are kept small, I normally use much bigger bowls than these staged photos to minimise mess. Humphrey is a particularly splashy slurper. Hooray for easy-clean mats!
Making Homemade Puppuccino
Treat Ingredients:
- Milk
- Water (optional)
- Carob powder (optional)
- Ceylon cinnamon (optional)
Volumes can be whatever you wish, based upon your dog(s) and personal preferences. Special treats and in careful moderation, as always. See the tips and note at the end of this post, especially the notes about milk and alternatives.
Making the Puppuccinos:
- Heat (optional) and froth (optional) the milk.
- Pour the frothed milk into single serving bowls.
- Add cool water to dilute (optional) and/or adjust temperature, if needed.
- Optional: Sprinkle with a dash of carob powder or Ceylon cinnamon (optional).
- Serve warm, but not hot.
Don’t worry, eagle eyed furfriends. The cinnamon sticks are just photo props. I’m ready-to-use all the way! If you’re using cinnamon for dogs, Ceylon cinnamon is the recommended variety. Cinnamon in moderation has some good purported health benefits for dogs (and humans). But like many things, it’s not suitable for all people or pets, and may conflict with health conditions or medications. Always check before trying new foods. Of particular note, cinnamon is not recommended for pregnant or lactating dogs.
How to Make Homemade Hot Dogolate
Carob as a Dog-Friendly Alternative to Chocolate
For a dog-friendly hot chocolate (hot dogolate), the process and ingredients are similar to the puppuccinos, but with the addition of carob to the milk. We use trim lactose-free milk or goat milk with carob powder. Sometimes with dollop of froth or perhaps a carob drop to make things extra special. Again, we serve them warm, but you can make a cold drink, if you prefer.
Carob is often used as a dog-friendly version of chocolate. Chocolate contains a compound called theobromine which is toxic to dogs. It can also contain other doggy no-nos like caffeine, sugars, or sweeteners.
Ready-made carob drops or chips (like we use in our indulgent Easter Egg dogolates) are rather similar to their chocolate equivalents. But the tastes and nutrition profiles for carob and cocoa powders are quite different. Carob is naturally sweet and flavoursome. It smells a lot like chocolate, but I find that it tastes a little different with a slightly nutty spicy zing. Pure carob powder is high in fiber and anti-oxidants, low-fat, low-calorie, and free from gluten, lactose, and caffeine. Pawesome!
Making Homemade Dog-Friendly Hot “Chocolate” (Dogolate)
Treat Ingredients:
- Milk
- Water (optional)
- Carob powder
Volumes can be whatever you wish, based upon your dog(s) and personal preferences. Special treats and in careful moderation, as always. See the tips and note at the end of this post, especially the notes about milk and alternatives.
Making the Hot Dogolate:
- Heat (optional) and froth (optional) the milk.
- Pour the majority of the milk into single serving bowls. Retaining some of your froth for topping.
- Add cool water to dilute (optional) and/or adjust temperature, if needed.
- Stir in a small amount of carob powder
- Top with remaining froth.
- Optional: Sprinkle with a dash of additional carob powder.
- Serve warm, but not hot.
Recipe Tips and Tricks for Puppuccinos and Hot Dogolates
- Skipping the whipping? How about froth, froth, frothing? It’s always optional, but it’s probably our dogs’ favourite part.
- If your dog is sensitive to dairy including lactose free options, you can create a special drink using other dog-friendly treat ingredients. An alternative such as goat’s milk, unsweetened coconut milk, or even plain water might suit. You can also make drinks using diluted yogurt or kefir. We used to mix ours with lactose-free milk, but goat milk has become a new fav in the many years since this post was first created and shared. Humphrey loves it plain, too!
- Our dogs get colostrum as one of their dietary supplements (it has lots of potential health benefits). We often slip the powder into their drink bowls. It’s a natural fit with the milk.
- A little carob powder goes a long way. My powder is potent and a dash is enough to add a great hint of carob to the drinks. Not sure about yours? You can probably get a good sense from the smell, or you can taste test. You might even get hooked!
- If you can’t get carob powder, you can melt and mix carob drops for a similar effect. Check your ingredients for suitability and moderation. Ready-made drops are often sweetened, even if sold as dog-friendly.
- Drinks can be made and served cool if it is too warm for hot beverages or made as a smoothie-style slushy on an extra hot day. See our pet chef help post on making frozen and chilled dog treats for tips and ideas.
Hungry for more tasty treats? There are all sorts of homemade dog treat ideas in our archives. You can use the categories and tags to explore or use our internal search to find something specific. Remember, treats (bought or homemade) are for spoiling your pup in moderation. We share ideas from treats that we’ve made ourselves for our pets, but different animals have different preferences (likes/dislikes), just like people. Some pets may have special dietary requirements and/or food allergies/intolerances. If you are ever in doubt or have questions about what’s suitable for your pet, have a chat with your trusted vet.
