Happy now?

I mentioned a while back on my Facebook page that China was on a diet. She's too good of a "vacuum cleaner" and has put on a few pounds (I can relate  *wink*). So unfortunately, in order to keep her from scrounging for tidbits, she has to stay in a dog run.

The highlight of her day then is our morning walk!

Here we are heading down the trail. We are blessed to live in an area where there are safe places to walk and the dogs can be off lease.

This was cute. All I said was, "Hey!" to get their attention for the picture and this was their reaction. Good dogs!

Usually these three (Echo, Moriah and China) are out ahead scouting things out.

Pooh likes to scout too, but he also keeps an eye on mom. Can't get too far fro her!

Heading home.

Are you happy now guys?

Cookies!

I don't know about your dogs, but my dogs get treats everyday. At our house, the dogs all know what the word "Cookie" means!

So I go through a lot of cookies and am always looking for some that look halfway "healthy". One day I decided to do some internet perusing and find some recipes to make my own.

Today was the first test recipe that I found on Pinterest. They are called "Homemade Pumpkin Dog Treats" and found on http://blog.doggievogue.com.

I decided to try a double batch since I have more than a couple dogs ;) And I did substitute some unrefined white flour and rice flour for some of the wheat flour since I didn't have enough. They still turned out fine.

Here they are ready to go in the oven. And yes, it did take a while to make all those! The recipe says to measure the dough out by teaspoonfuls then flatten with a fork. Doubling the recipe got me over 120 cookies.

They puffed up a bit with baking.

Now to see if the "taste testers" will eat them. This cookie is disappearing!

Number two cookie going in!

The cookie monster looking for crumbs.

Yep!  I think we'll make these again.

New toys!

I don't know about you, but I always enjoy shopping for my critters, whether it's a new blanket for the horse, a special treat for the parakeet or new toys for the dogs!

Yesterday when I made my weekly trip to town for groceries and other essentials, I stumbled across some cool new "Zoink!"s at my local grocery store! (These had openings where treats can be inserted.) That heightened my awareness for other fun ones, so of course I was on the watch at my other local stops.

I love toys that are interactive to keep the dogs minds (and mouths) busy. So I was happy to find some new Kong toys at one of my other stops. I don't usually buy the rawhide sticks, but the Kong toys had a spot where you can slide a long treat through from one end to the other, with some nice rubber ridges in the middle "to massage gums and help clean teeth". (I love the bully sticks for the dogs, but since they can be a bit "spendy" I usually by them online or at Costco which is a couple hours away.)

And lastly, the cute little rope toys are always fun for the little pups, so I had to snag some of them also.

Now to go try them out the the official "toy testers"!