DIY St. Patrick's Day Dog Bandanas

Lucky dogs? Yes, Indeed! These DIY St. Patrick's Day themed dog bandanas combine several of our archived DIY techniques, and you can easily adapt the ideas to make your own customised look and DIY design. Here are the DIY details (and some more cute pics of these very happy looking lucky pat-collecting pups).

Marbled Green and Gold St. Patrick's Day Dog Treats

These homemade St. Patrick's Day dog treats are made using one batch of dough that has been split, naturally tinted in shades of green and gold, and then marbled together before cutting into treats for baking. Check out the details below on how to make you own special treats for lucky furfriends.

Easy DIY Ideas for Homemade Valentine's Day Dog Treats

Looking for love, Valentine? Find sometime who looks at you the way Oli and Humphrey do their tasty treats! Hehehe...  Happy almost Valentine's Day, furfriends!  If you're thinking about baking up a special Valentine's day dog treat, here are a few of our personal favourite ways to make Valentine treats, plus links to more treat making ideas.

DIY Valentine's Day Dog Bandanas

Hey there, Valentines! Who wants kisses??? These DIY Valentine's themed dog bandanas combine several of our archived DIY techniques, and you can easily adapt the ideas to make your own customised look and DIY design. Here are the DIY details (and a few extra kisses).

Hand Stamped Valentine's Day Jigsaw Puzzle Dog Treats

With Valentine's Day coming up and Puzzle Day later this week ( I love these crazy days), today's post is a cute DIY decorating idea for homemade dog treats. Stamping is one of my favourite ways to dress up a treat, and it's an easy way to make cute treats without adding icings or glazes that require extra time/ingredients and may affect the portability, storage, and/or shelf life of the treats. They look fancy, but stamped designs can be deceptively easy to make (and fun).

Happy New Year! Post Holiday Blog Break Catch Up

What??? Holidays are over? And it's Monday? Oh poo... Hello again furfriends and hello 2020! We've been quiet the past few weeks enjoying some semi-offline family holiday time. Every day we share together is a gift, and we hope there will be many more days, celebrations, milestones, and memories to come. Here is a little catch up from during our break before we dive into our Valentine's Day posts starting next week.  

Homemade Christmas Dog Treat Biscuit Bars and DIY Wrappers

Happy almost howlidays, furfriends! Today's post shows how to bake a segmented bar of homemade dog biscuit/cookie style treats as well as a fun option for wrapping little DIY dog treat gift bars for presents.

This will be out final post of 2019 before our Christmas/New Year's blog break, but we'll be popping up from time to time on our social media, so please join us if you're not already following the fun. Thank you for all the love you've shown to Oli and Humphrey this year, your kind words of condolence when our elderly cat, Tiger, passed away, and the support you've given to us and our Dalmatian DIY blog, especially when we took the leap of transitioning to our own domain. Happy holiday wishes and may your 2020 be filled with health and happiness. ~Laura, Oli, and Humphrey 

{RECIPE} Spirulina Sour Cream Christmas Dog Treats

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, how yummy are thy branches... These tasty dog treats get the naturally deep green colour from spirulina powder. I used my Christmas tree plunger cutter to make the decorated trees, but a normal Christmas tree cookie cutter (or other shape of your preference) would work great with this green dough as well.

DIY Dog Bandanas with Serged Edges

Serging the edges of DIY dog bandanas can be a great option for speed, style, or material factors. Plus it's incredibly easy, if you have a suitable machine. If only it was just as easy to get these two rascals to smile at the same time when posing together! Haha!  Humphrey is always such a serious young lad:

{RECIPE} Peanut Butter Banana and Carob Christmas Treats

One month until Christmas, furfriends! In prepping our holiday posts this year, I couldn't resist experimenting with a few plunger cookie cutter recipes so I could play with my Christmas plungers, but this dough works well with standard cutters or as a simple ball-and-flatten treat. This dense fudgey dough worked great for cutting, and the dogs loved the irresistible combination of banana, peanut butter, and carob. Drool!

Styling a DIY Reversible Dog Bandana for Versatile Wear

Feeling stylish, furfriends? Here's a easy way to style a basic triangle dog bandana with four different design options for more versatile wear, plus DIY instructions for sewing your own bandanas. Pawfect! Doggy dress up around our place usually means a simple bandana (perhaps a bow tie for extra special occasions). As much as I like dressing our boys in matching bandanas sometimes, I'm also a realist about the impracticality of having a full duplicate wardrobe.  Similarly, as much as I like holidays, it's also nice to use each bandana more than once or twice a year. Here's an easy compromise that lets me play dress-up with more variety and greater options.

{RECIPE} Pumpkin Gelatin Gummy Dog Treats

We love experimenting with interesting treat recipes and playing fun little shapes, designs, layers, and other decorations; however, quick, simple, and wholesome is still a go-to for treat making even in our treat crazy kitchen. The dogs don't care about looks, just deliciousness! We usually have a batch of simple gummies in the fridge all the time, either made with simple stock or boosted with spices/herbs, and occasionally I'll include fruits or veggies as well.

{RECIPE} Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog (Trick or) Treats

Mmmm....pumpkin! Harvest is here for our northern furfriends and with it the silly season of all things pumpkin (and pumpkin spice), but here in New Zealand we like to enjoy pumpkin all year round. Pumpkin is delicious and nutritious, and we like to keep some cooked cubed pumpkin on hand in the freezer for quick and convenient use in baking/cooking for both humans and dogs.

Dress Shirt Dog Collars (Plus How to Adjust Collar Size)

We're starting September with a special week long mini-series using materials salvaged from old shirts (the same shirts as were cut apart to make our "Pillow Daddy" recycled dress shirt cushion covers) for a combination of sew and no-sew projects. For years, I've had the occasional giggle from putting one of my husband's laundry-bound shirts onto Oli (and now Humphrey), buttoning the collar and leaving the shirt flapping like a Daddy-scented cape. :) When the time came to cut apart some old shirts, of course I was going to keep the collars for the dogs. Hehehe... How cute do they look in this Father's day photo, recently shared on our Facebook page?

Recycled Dress Shirt "Pillow Daddy" Cuddle Cushion Covers

No matter how many walkies we take or treats I bake, Daddy is our boys' favourite human. Over the years, when he has been away on work or other travels and they miss their Dad, I've been known to tuck one of his worn t-shirts into their nests. This was the inspiration for our patchwork t-shirt quilts (still in use) and when he recently sorted through his old dress shirts, I could feel a new project coming on! The ones that were unsuitable for charity donations were kept for my cutting table to be trimmed into usable parts, usable fabric, and workshop rags. Less waste, more use, more creative recycled crafting fun! I have some awesome recycled shirt crafts to share in future posts, but first up are our "Pillow Daddy" cuddle cushion covers in honour of Father's Day in our part of the world this coming Sunday. These pillows were made for our dogs to have virtual snuggles with their Dad, but the same easy DIY could be used with any special fabric and memory/relationship.

Doggone Great Carob "Chocolate" Easter Dog Treat Ideas

Happy almost Easter, furfriends! Today we have two simple no-bake Easter treat ideas using carob to create a dog-friendly version of Easter chocolates. There are lots of ways to create carob treats for your pet, from baked treats to frozen pupsicles and everything in between, but these two are quick, simple, healthy, and you can use then to mold fun festive shapes too!  All of the looks of a fancy treat, but actually easy peasy in the kitchen.

{RECIPE} Stained Glass Yogurt Gummy Easter Dog Treats

Anyone else remember stained glass Jell-o jigglers from childhood? Here's my dogified version made with yummy yogurt, healthy gelatin, and colourful add-ins. Because I simply can't resist doing these crazy things. Haha!  The dogs totally don't care about the colours, but they do love gummies!

{RECIPE} Pretty Pastel Pupsicle Easter Dog Treats

Pupsicle season is nearing an end here, just as things start to warm up for our northern furfriends. This may be our last batch before chilly weather arrives. Boo! These simple treats were created as an add-in to our posting cycle to go along with our stained glass gummies which use similar natural add-ins for colour - but you'll have to wait until next week's post for the full details. Moohahha...

"Gold Dust" St. Patrick's Day Gelatin Gummy Dog Treats

This little gummy is a just-for-fun adaptation of our simple green gummy treats that takes advantage of the way turmeric powder tends to partially settle in gummy treats to create a dusting of golden flecks. 

{RECIPE} Cream Cheese Chicken Dog Treats

These treats combine the irresistible flavours of grilled chicken and tangy cream cheese with tasty herbs, and use healthy add-ins to make a naturally green treat - just because! They are perfectly yummy au natural, but cream cheese dough is great for tinting and I felt like playing. As we were pre-prepping our St. Patrick's Day posts at the time, I went for green, but this dough would also make a great base for other tints. I may try a pretty pink beetroot powder adaptation next time!