Homemade flax seed dog biscuits
These homemade flax seed dog biscuits are just one of the ways we can give a little of the love back to our pups, who fill our hearts so. They love us more than we deserve and if there is a healthy way to spoil them, then we are all in.
- This Flax seed dog biscuit story and recipe shared in 2008. Update: We lost our dear Dante in May, 2011. And lost our loving Sierra in March, 2020. And we lost our sweet Lexi in May of 2024. We love you all so much. Thank you for bringing us so much love and joy into our lives. We can’t wait until we have our next set of dogs to share our lives with. Until then we ache and smile with the love of memories of our pups.
- Update: here is a new recipe for Pumpkin Flax Seed Dog Biscuits.
When we saw her 3 years ago, her gentle puppy demeanor, her adorable little brown “pirate patch” over her eye, her lovable licks and her warm, sweet gaze deceived us into believing that she was going to be the perfect puppy.
She tricked us into thinking that with proper, firm training, she would do no harm. Can you call us two big SUCKERS?!! Not only has she killed and pulled up many plants from our garden, those that she has not killed, she’s eaten. We finally gave up on the idea of growing rhubarb because she eats the stalks even before the snails get to them. What’s left of the plant is a tiny base stalk with a dog paw print as evidence left behind. She loves strawberries too. Every other morning, it’s a race to our little strawberry patch to beat her to the ripened berries.
If we’re a little late, she’ll be found licking her mug free of the super duper sweet chandler strawberry juice. It’s SO wrong to see two humans (us) salivating and staring down at a dog (her) who just beat her guardians to their prized strawberries. Can you call us JEALOUS?!! But she is a great soccer player, loves to play in dirt and her love of the sprinklers keep us entertained and forgiving of her destructive ways!
He’s big, he’s lazy and he’s a princess. He is named Dante, inspired during our trip to Rome, after the famed poet Dante Alighieri. We really should have named him “princepesa”. Dante is supposed to be the big, strong, noble, athletic and fearless Rhodesian Ridgeback hunter that we also got suckered into loving. Is it too late to get a refund? Isn’t there an 8 year dog ownership statue of limitations?!
What we ended up getting was a dog who HATES water, doesn’t like to get his paws dirty, screams bloody murder when getting his nails trimmed or when about to get a shot at the vet and sleeps about 20 hours a day. And worse yet, he will not chase balls. Nope, none of this “fetch, Fido, fetch” playtime with Dante. He looks at a tossed ball like it’s an insult to his character, giving us that “you really don’t expect me to chase that, do you?” look. But wait, those are his GOOD traits.
Their Favorite Dog Biscuits
If there’s one significant description to singularly identify this dog amongst others, it’s is his love of FOOD. Yes, of course, mostly all dogs love food and love to be fed. But our “great red hope” of a canine is so infatuated with food that if there was a plate of leftovers on the counter sitting over night, he will sit and stare at it ALL NIGHT. True! When we wake up in the morning, we’ll find this hound sitting in the kitchen, half asleep, hoping the food will miraculously fall to the floor for him to ingest. But he is part hound and does have great smelling and hunting skills. He can run trails with Mom & Dad like no other, and if one of us gets lost, we’re certain that he’ll be able to find us by smell. We suppose that’s a good thing!
Homemade Flax Seed Dog Biscuits
But they are loved! Aside from our rant, they do get treated quite nicely (we remind them of their fulfilling life). They get plenty of couch cuddles, ear rubs, new toys , daily walks, frequent hikes, beach visits and road trips. In return, they give us unconditional love and loyalty, despite our faults. To show them that they are really, truly and deeply loved, we make them homemade flax seed dog biscuits. Can you call them SPOILED?! Yes, they get homemade dog biscuits made from all natural ingredients. Our highly loved and tattered bible, “The Professional Pastry Chef” by Bo Frieberg, is the ultimate, extensive book that is full of wickedly amazing dessert recipes. But Bo Frieberg’s very first recipe in this monstrous book for human consumption is a recipe for dog biscuits, in which he dedicated to his dogs. This recipe has been in the White On Rice Couple’s household for 8 years now and along with the addition of flax seeds, it’s a culinary tradition will continue to be fully executed for as long as we have four legged monsters in the house. Here’s reasons why flax seed is good for dogs.
Here’s our favorite cutter sets. Obviously they have many uses beyond puppy treats, but ours tend to see a lot of action in that department. We love how all of these sets store, ’cause nothing drives us nuts more than messy kitchen drawers:
Cuisipro Heart Cutter Set – Set of 5. Snap together for easy storage Nice heart shape and easy to handle and press.
Fox Run Bone Cutter Set – These are the bone shaped cutters we currently use (a little smaller than the ones used in this post’s photos). Fun shape! Set of 3, comes in a handy storage tin.
Kayaso Round Cutter Set – This is our favorite round cutter set. Great selection of sizes. We’ll use the smallest for slightly larger than kibble sized training treats. 
Homemade Flax Seed Dog Biscuit Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups (340g) whole wheat flour
- 2 3/4 cups (340g) bread flour
- 1/2 cup (40g) wheat germ
- 1 teaspoon (5g) salt
- 3-4 Tablespoons Flax Seed (optional)
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup (240ml) vegetable oil
- 2/3 cup (85g) powdered dry milk
- 1 cup (240ml) water
Instructions
- Combine wheat flour, bread flour, wheat germ, salt, and flax seed in mixing bowl. Stir in eggs and vegetable oil.
- Dissolve dry milk in water then incorporate the mixture.
- Mix to form a very firm dough that is smooth and workable. Adjust by adding a little extra flour or water as required.
- Cover the dough and set aside to relax for 15-20 min.
- Roll the dough out to 1/2″ (1.2cm) thick. Cut out biscuits using a bone-shaped cutter 3″x1.5″ (7.5×3.7cm). Place the biscuits on sheet pans lined with baking paper.
- Bake at 375°F (190°C) for approx. 40 minutes or until biscuits are brown and, more importantly, rock-hard. Let biscuits cool, then store in a covered container five to six feet off the flour. Use as needed to reward your four-legged friends.)
Aw, I love that picture of them ogling the pan of biscuits! Spoiled indeed!
Sophie thanks you for the shout-out, as do I. I’m afraid she would not like the biscuits, though. She’s such a prima donna. A bookseller friend even tried stocking some fancy ones from the dog bakery just for her, and she just sniffs at them and says. “Meh. Where’s the chicken jerky?”
What cute kids (the dogs I mean…they’re kids, right?) Makes me miss our black lab who was spoiled, wonderful and played golf!! (ok, she didn’t actually “play” golf, but she did retrieve the balls!!) If I lived closer to you guys, I might even offer to “dog sit” for you sometime…these look like a couple of cuties, troublemakers or not!
Nice post, and good recipe for the biscuits!
undeniable fact: i’m in love with your pups. many large curses on my landlord, who won’t let me have pets! eh, make that one small curse–he’s a nice old man. 🙂
What a wonderful recipe….even though we “cook” for Da Boyz every night, we’ve never tried baking for them. I think the Missus needs to get to work!
OMG! there are so so so cute and adorable!
YAY! You posted about the pups! I don’t care what you say about them, Dante and Sierra are my buds and I *love* them. They are absolutely the sweetest – just look at those faces 🙂 Kaweah wags in whole-hearted agreement too. She thinks they’d make the BEST play buddies and wants to know what your problem with sleeping 20 hours a day is?! Thanks for the recipe. I’ll definitely give those a try for my pup-girl and she will have Dante and Sierra to thank for it! xxoo
Hi T&D, I love this post! Dante and Sierra are just gorgeous, and I would spoil them too. I grew up with dogs, but unfortunately have spent my post-Uni life dog-less and in apartments (although I adopt friends’ pets as much as possible). Those dog bikkies are adorable. And thanks for the mention – glad the package arrived safely!!
My little christmas ham- cylinder with legs-crack head-blind in one eye-starbucks latte loving- doesn’t bark- rarely runs-scared of the cat- used to have a tumor on top of her head- shelter chihuahua, Roxy would be totally scared of your dogs. Okay, your dogs aren’t cute they are very handsome because boxers aren’t suppose to be cute.
WOW… all this gift-giving! This food-blogging thing keeps reaching levels I never knew it would. You may need a new house for all those gifts. People are so nice… how the heck do you have time to send all this stuff to people?
I must say, your dogs are SERIOUS POOSHES (that’s Amy-speak for totally cute). They look so chill and fun – the way I like people! My parents thought I had a social disorder when I was young b/c they thought I liked animals more than people. Well, I still kind of do – but this post w/ all the gift-giving is restoring my faith in the human race. I guess I shouldn’t be saying that since I’m a counselor for a living.
And I can honestly say, if I was a dog, I’d say those biscuits looks delicious. Is it bad that I kind of want a taste? They seem like they could go either way… cracker/dog biscuit. damn, i must be hungry.
I beg to differ: Sierra is too cute. Adorable even! And Dante has the most soulful eyes and expression. I don’t know how you resist him asking for anything. That picture of him looking at the biscuits is killing me!
My dogs name is Annabelle and I know she will love these dog biscuits. Tell Sierra and Dante Annabelle says thanks for the recipe!
I bet my two dogs, Gracie and Holli, would love those treats…oh, who am I kidding. They like anything that’s remotely like food.
Thanks for the mention guys! I think of you both everytime I reach for the rosemary! What’s left of it still looks fresh & wonderful! I’m sure Moose would love a home made biscuit. Our mailwoman gives him a biscuit every Saturday and he promptly run to dig and hide it. Heck if I feel ambitious, I might even give this recipe a try! Thanks!
Cool post. many of us have pets and it’s cool that you two even serve up gourmet for the pooches. ARF! ARF!
Bad doggies!! Hahaha 🙂 But hey, a dogs with good taste can’t be bad, right? Hee hee.
Allen also has Bobby 🙂
[psst … the pic under “We suppose that’s a good thing” apparently isn’t loading]
Around this house we have four cats and two dogs. I imagine if I baked for a couple of them I’d have to bake for all of them and I really ain’t got the time for that! The dogs are a Jack Russell named Wishbone (yup, looks like that other Wishbone), and a Pomeranian named Samwise Gamgee (his dad at the breeder’s was named Frodo). And yeah, they’re spoiled rotten but really, I didn’t do it! God forbid we should go to the ice cream shop and not return with two cups of the doggie ice cream with the Milkbones on top … 😉
Hold On! hubby calls me principesa- what exactly are you getting at? lol
No dogs here just the hubby. 😉 And thanks again for the mention- I’ll have to check out a number of those listed sites especially the homemade marmalade! and granola. If there’s anything else you’re missing or need from the UK- just let me know. (seriously)