This easy homemade salmon dog treat recipe is about as simple (and smelly!) as they get. These “stinky pinky” salmon dog treats are super simple to make and doggone delicious! Delicious stinky fish treats are irresistible to our boys. Here’s the recipe plus details on how we make our mini circle training treats.
Scent-sational!
Yum! Our dogs love fish treats in all forms. To them, the strong smell is simply irresistible. For their humans, not so much. You might like to do your stinky treat baking on a day when you can open a window or two. Hehehe… As a helpful tip for coffee drinkers, you can pop some spent coffee grounds on the baking tray and put it back into the oven when you’re done to help clear the air. Once cool, the coffee grounds are still good-to go for normal disposal, including your worm farm or compost if you like using coffee grounds in the garden.
Making Mini Dog Training Treats with Plunger Cutters
Cutting tiny treats used to be a pain until I discovered the secret superpower of my little plunger cutters. Now I can quickly and easily make lots of tiny biscuits. As a bonus, the small circle shape holds up well in pocket treat bags or my running wristlet. Using a nice solid biscuit dough helps, and preferable something smelly and delicious, of course! The treat bags pictured here are homemade drawstring bags, and In the years since I’ve made new pocket dog treat bags with waterproof liners. Handy for wet walkies in our New Zealand weather.
You can buy similar plunger cookie/fondant cutters from baking supply stores, in the baking and cake decoration section of large stores, on from an online retailer. They’re usually inexpensive and may be individual or part of a set. Shop around for a size you like at a good price. Check out the plunger cutters on Amazon (affiliate link) for product examples and ideas. Looking for other sneaky dog treat baking shortcuts and tricks? See our simple shortcuts for making baked dog treats in any size for more ideas.
Pepping Up the Pink in Our Salmon Dog Treats
Although our tinned salmon is naturally a pale pink, when it’s made into treat dough it becomes kind of pinkish beige. While mixing up this stinky pink salmon dough, I had the nickname stinky pinky for these treats on the brain. So I added some beetroot powder to the dough mixture to pep up the natural pink colouring. Totally optional, of course! See our dog treat tinting post for other ideas and tips. Being pink, I couldn’t help making a few big (stink-iliciously smelly) love heart dog treat along with my mini circles. Smell the love, furfriends!
Simple Salmon Dog Treat Recipe (Stinky Pinky Salmon Treats)
Easy Homemade High Value Salmon Dog Treats
Treat Ingredients:
- 1 large tin of water-packed salmon (my tin was 210g)
- 1/4 cup ground flax or LSA
- Optional: 1-2 tbsp dried parsley or other dog-friendly herbs
- Optional: Beetroot powder or alternative tint for extra pinkness
- Approximately 2/3 cups of brown rice flour, plus additional flour for rolling
These treats were made with tinned water-packed salmon. You can use most water-packed tinned fish relatively interchangeably in dog treat recipes, including tuna or sardines. Even within the same fish family, moisture content can vary and tins may be slightly different volume sizes. You can compensate for this with a little extra water or flour when you are mixing the dough to your desired consistency.
Making the Treats:
- Preheat your oven to 180C (or local equivalent) and gather together your baking ingredients and materials.
- Puree the salmon (undrained – include the packing liquid) in a food processor or similar. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
- Add ground flax and optional herbs. Stir to combine.
- Incrementally add flour to form a nice firm workable dough. Tinned salmon can vary quite a bit in consistency and in liquid content, so working incrementally is important. You may need to use less/more flour to adjust consistency depending on your specific ingredients and prep methods. Overshoot? No worries! You can add a bit of water if you find the mix a bit too dry when you are ready to roll.
- Rest dough (optional but recommended). Adjust consistency for rolling after resting, if needed.
- Roll, cut to shape, and place on a prepared baking sheet.
- Bake at 180C for approximately 10-15 minutes (less if you’re making tiny treats, like our circles). Keep an eye on your cooking time – the smaller the treat, the shorter the baking time. For a crunchier treat, you can let baked treats sit a while in the cooling oven before removing to get a little crispier or pop the baked treats into a dehydrator.
- Allow to cool before storage and serving.
Taste Test Cat Crasher
Even Tiger was keen for a sniff of these stinky pinky salmon dog treats. The picky old lad isn’t interested in most homemade snacks beyond a passing sniff though, with the exceptions of cooled bone broth and homemade jerky. If you have a feline in the furfamily, you can check out Tiger’s post on crafts and DIYs for cool kitties for more ideas and recipe links.
Baked Biscuit Dog Treat Making Tips and Tricks
- See our introduction to making homemade baked biscuit (cookie) dog treats for additional information on baked dog treats.
- We don’t include yield in our treat recipe posts because it is very dependent on what the maker decides for treat shape, size, and thickness when they’re baking. We like baking smallish batches of different treats for lots of doggone delicious variety.
- Homemade baked dog treats are best consumed within a couple of days from baking or frozen for longer storage. See our post on baked dog treat shelf life and storage for information and tips.
Recipe and Ingredient Tips and Tricks
- Variations in measurements, individual ingredients, options and substitutions, temperatures, etc. are all part of why we work incrementally when mixing. It helps makes treat dough prep easier, and I’m all about keeping it easy in the kitchen.
- Resting the dough is optional, but it allows better ingredient hydration and helps to improve the texture/handling of gluten-free baking dough. I like to rest briefly, then knead a little before final rolling and ensure it is well mixed.
- As a caution for our Dal pals, many fish including salmon and tuna, are higher purine proteins. Moderation is extra important. If you have a known issue with stones, then you might want to pass on the fishes, no matter how delicious. See our post on the Dalmatian diet and purine problems for more information and handy links.
Hungry for more tasty treats?There are all sorts of homemade dog treat ideas in our blog archives. You can use the category and tag labels to find other recipes that might be of interest or use our internal search tools 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.
