Bach Flower Remedies for Pets

Help Your Pets Overcome Their Depression or Anxiety With Bach Flower Remedies

Our pets can get just as depressed or nervous as we do. Lots of situations can bring their sad side out, like the absence or loss of an owner or someone who was close to them. They can get nervous simply from going to the vet or from fireworks outside.

CC image courtesy of Lulu Hoeller on Flickr

Unfortunately, we can't make them understand that the fireworks are harmless and will go away and that only time can cure the sorrow after a beloved one's loss.

If you want to soothe your pet's nerves, TAGS recommends using Bach flower remedies, a natural option to help your pet (or even yourself) overcome such emotions. These remedies were developed by Edward Bach in the 1930s. Bach discovered that the dew found on the petals of flowers contains the healing properties of that plant.

The remedies nowadays are made from spring water infused with wildflowers, and the ones that are safe for animals (alcohol free) are preserved with glycerin. They are considered vibrational medicines and rely on the concept of "water memory." Despite often being labelled as homeopathic, they do not bear the same characteristics.

CC image courtesy of Desi on Flickr

The most common flower remedy is the Rescue Remedy, which is a mix of five Bach flower remedies:

• Star of Bethlehem
• Rock rose
• Cherry plum
• Impatiens
• Clematis

 You can read more about these remedies here.

This is a great and natural solution to help soothe the mind of you and your pets!

Recipe: Bacon & Cheddar Dog Treats

Russell & Riley—a picture that completely captures their different personalities

It really doesn't take much to impress my furry friends—a little shredded cheddar and some bacon fat will do the trick. (I actually have a mason jar filled with bacon fat for this very reason!) The dough for these bacon and cheddar dog treats comes together very quickly, just like for the previous recipe we posted for pumpkin peanut butter dog treats. As much as I love baking, when it comes to dog cookies, there are no real skills involved, and honestly, if you mess it up, your canine critics don't care much anyway. It's all in the ingredients, and the line-up in this particular dog treat is sure to please even the pickiest palate—like Riley!

We love our cookies extra crunchy, and baking them a little longer helps keep them crunchier longer. Our dogs love the satisfying crunch-crunch-crunch. We also share most of our homemade treats since they don't have any preservatives and won't last very long. However, the treats can also be frozen if you don't have anyone to share them with.

I swapped out the vegetable oil and subbed in coconut oil due to the health benefits of coconut oil for dogs but you can use whatever you've got on hand. My dogs love coconut oil—they even love to eat if off a spoon.

Bacon & Cheddar Dog Treats ready to eat!

Bacon & Cheddar Dog Treats

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup bacon fat, melted
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup milk
2-3 tsp coconut (or vegetable) oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. On a floured work surface, knead the dough for 10-15 seconds, until the dough comes together in a smooth ball. Roll dough to 1/4-1/2" thickness and cut into desired shape(s)—the dough might be greasy/oily but should roll easily.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, depending on size and desired crunch factor.

Cool and give one to your salivating and patiently waiting pooch:

Russell practising his "leave it" command

....and store the rest in an airtight container (or freeze).

PS. If your pooch is trying to watch is weight or you'd like to lighten up the recipe above,  substitute pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) for the bacon fat.

Recipe adapted from: Delish Blog

Recipe: Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Treats

Photo credit: Dogtipper.com

Have you got your Christmas baking list ready? How about some treats for your furry best friend?

Store-bought dog treats are expensive and filled with hard-to-pronounce ingredients, so we've started to bake our own cookies for our pooches. Homemade cookies are way cheaper than their store-bought counterparts, and you most likely already have in your pantry all the ingredients to make these cookies. The even better news is that these cookies are delicious. My dogs can't get enough of these treats and will come racing whenever I approach the counter where they are stored.

The dough for this recipe is easy to handle and is healthy, with the addition of pumpkin* and peanut butter, both of which my dogs love to eat right off the spoon. The dough is not sticky and comes together quickly and is super-easy to roll out. Additionally, the dough doesn't spread when baked, so you can cram lots of unbaked cookies on one cookie sheet. I've even substituted the peanut butter in the recipe with bacon fat with lots of positive feedback from my dogs and from friends' dogs, too.

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Treats
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 large eggs
2/3 cup pumpkin purée, canned or fresh
3 tbsp. peanut butter

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place all ingredients in the mixing bowl and stir until the dough comes together and looks like a bunch of little dough balls. If you pinch a piece and it crumbles, add a little water. If it’s really sticky, it’s too wet, and you’ll need to add a little flour. Gather the dough together and form into a ball. Place on a lightly floured work surface and roll it out to about 1/4-inch thickness. You can use either a cookie cutter to cut out cute shapes or a knife to cut squares or strips—I prefer to use a cookie cutter just because it makes the cookies look so cute!

Gather the scraps together and roll them out again and again until you've used up the dough. Place the cookies on a baking sheet. They can be crowded pretty close together since they don’t expand much. Bake 15-20 minutes for softer treats or 30 minutes for hard treats. (My dogs like crunchy treats, and they last longer that way, too.) Keep a close eye on your cookies after 20 minutes. If they were rolled out too thinly, they will burn if they're baked the entire 30 minutes. Let cool completely.

Recipe from Use Real Butter

Did you know that pumpkin is a solution to two common doggie problems—diarrhea and constipation? It's a great natural remedy to both, so the next time your dog has either, start with a teaspoon of pumpkin and gradually work up to two teaspoons or a tablespoon until he's back to his normal self.