Recipe: Pumpkin Pie for Pups

Benefits of Pumpkin for Dogs

• Pumpkin is rich in dietary fiber, which can aid in regulating and improving a dog’s digestion. It can help alleviate both constipation and diarrhea by promoting regular bowel movements.

• Pumpkin is packed with essential nutrients like vitamin C, A, and E, as well as potassium and iron. These nutrients can contribute to a dog’s overall health and well-being.

• The antioxidants present in pumpkin, such as beta-carotene, can help strengthen a dog’s immune system and protect cells against oxidative stress.

• Many dogs find pumpkin highly palatable, and it can be served in various forms. Whether pureed, cooked, or incorporated into homemade treats, pumpkin can be a tasty addition to their diet.

Why Make Pumpkin Pie For Dogs?

Human pumpkin pie is not good for dogs. It has lots of sugar and dogs shouldn’t consume sugary desserts.

Many common ingredients found in pumpkin pie mix are harmful or toxic ingredients for dogs. Some bad ingredients in pumpkin pie spice are nutmeg, clove, and allspice. Vanilla extract is also a harmful ingredient. Human pumpkin pie filling can cause an adverse reaction in dogs. Some dangerous symptoms include high blood pressure, abdominal pain, or upset stomach. This is why it is best to make a pumpkin pie with dog safe ingredients.

How to Make Pumpkin Pie for Dogs

Prep Time: 22 minutes

Cook Time: 18 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Servings: 12

Calories: 53 kcal

Author: Renee Dobbs

Ingredients

Crust

• ¾ cup Oat Flour

• ½ cup Unsweetened Applesauce

• 1 Egg

Filling

• ¾ cup Pumpkin Puree

• 1 Egg

• ¼ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

Topping

• ¼ cup Plain Greek Yogurt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.

Crust

• In a mixing bowl, combine oat flour, applesauce, and egg.

• Place approximately 1 tablespoon of the crust mixture into each cup in a one dozen mini muffin pan.

• Use a small spoon to press down the center of the mixture and up around the sides to form a shallow well.

• Bake crusts for 8 minutes. Then remove the pan from oven.

Filling

• While the crusts are baking, prepare the filling by combining pumpkin puree, egg, and cinnamon.

• Spoon about a tablespoon of filling onto each crust.

• Bake for 10 minutes.

• Remove the pan from oven and allow the pies to cool to room temperature.

• Remove the pies from the pan.

Topping

• Top each pie with a small dollop of Greek Yogurt.

Serving Size

Treats should not make up the majority of your dog’s calorie intake. Only give your dog small quantities of this healthy treat – just like you do with other treats.

And always remember when introducing your dog to new foods, to only give small amounts to see how your dog handles it and to make sure there are no adverse reactions.

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

Be sure to use plain pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. 

You can substitute the pumpkin with cooked sweet potatoes or butternut squash.

Sweeten this dog treat recipe with a tablespoon of honey or maple syrup if your pup likes sweet foods. Do this, and it will taste just like a slice of pumpkin pie!

It’s easy to make your own oat flour. All you have to do is place uncooked old-fashioned rolled oats in a blender or food processor and blend until it reaches flour consistency.

How long does homemade pumpkin pie last?

Place the pies in an airtight container. When pumpkin pie is stored in the fridge should last up to 5 days. Pumpkin pie stored in the freezer should last up to 2 months.

Can you eat this pumpkin pie for dogs?

All of the ingredients are safe for human consumption. But it’s not sweet. 

*Check with your vet first before introducing a new food to your dog's diet. And if you do begin to give your dog this treat, be sure to start with small quantities. As always with any food, if you see behavioral changes or digestive issues call your vet.

Source: https://spoiledhounds.com/pumpkin-pie-for-dogs/

Dining Out: Restaurants for Dogs!

From special menus for canine companions to food trucks and even tasting menus, some restaurateurs are pulling out all the stops for pets.

(Article by Christina Morales, NY Times, April 20, 2023)

To celebrate the 10-month anniversary of the successful spinal surgery on Jagger, her goldendoodle, Cat Torrejon-Nisbet didn’t buy him the traditional rawhide dog bone. Instead, she paid $15 for a light pink, rose-shaped dog pastry made with antelope heart from Dogue, a canine restaurant in San Francisco.

Dog owners like Ms. Torrejon-Nisbet are frequenting an increasing number of restaurants across the country that offer separate menus for their four-legged family members. Dog menus have become the new version of children’s menus at some restaurants. Pet parents can now order their dog a steak or Alaskan salmon with steamed rice. The dog can wash that down with a nonalcoholic “beer” made of pork broth, or a bowl of Dög Pawrignon made with wild-caught-salmon oil.

Other restaurants have gone a step further, catering exclusively to dogs, from custom canine birthday cakes to food trucks serving chicken nuggets and burgers. At Dogue, dogs eat a fine-dining tasting menu.

Kelly Lockett, 32, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, has taken Benji, her mini schnauzer mix, to several New York restaurants with dog menus, including Judy Z’s in Greenwich Village. “He gets so happy, and he enjoys spending time with us and not spending time home alone,” she said.

In San Francisco, Jason Villacampa, 40, has treated his corgis, Tony and Captain, to the tasting menu at Dogue four times. It costs $75 per dog, with complimentary sparkling water or mimosas for the owner.

On a recent visit, Mr. Villacampa said, the chef, Rahmi Massarweh, explained the dishes the dogs were about to eat, detailing which local farm provided each ingredient and how each meal was prepared. He served bone broth tableside, and put the finishing touches to plates like mosaic chicken, thin strips of white meat wrapped in nori, layered together and cooked in a water bath. Mr. Massarweh, a chef for 20 years, trained in French cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco.

“Pets are members of our family, and we equally want to feed them that way,” said Ron Holloway, who owns Woofbowl, a food truck based in Dumbo, Brooklyn, that caters to dogs. Mr. Holloway and his wife, Solo Holloway, a former biochemical and electrical engineer, started the mobile restaurant after making more nutritious meals from scratch for their French bulldogs, Latto and Dino. Mr. Holloway, a military veteran, and his wife, a Cambodian refugee, adopted the dogs as part of his treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Just as some people celebrate their birthdays or holidays at restaurants, many dog owners do the same for their pets. Owners order custom cakes — like one shaped as a ramen bowl for a Shih Tzu named Ramen — from businesses like Maison de Pawz in New York, a dog bakery and catering company where they can choose from flavors like peanut butter, Funfetti, coconut, spiced apple or carob (chocolate is toxic to dogs). The dense cakes are made with buckwheat flour and coconut oil, and though humans can eat it, they probably wouldn’t like the taste, said Mei-i Zien, the owner of the bakery.

Ashley Marino, who lives on the Upper East Side, is planning to take Henry, her Maltipoo, to a birthday brunch at the Wilson later this month. She’ll probably order him his favorite dish, chicken with baby vegetables in a dog bowl, and he’ll later eat a bacon- or banana-flavored cupcake. (She hasn’t decided which.)

“I want to experience this with him,” said Ms. Marino, 37. She and her boyfriend celebrate birthdays with brunch, and would like to do the same for Henry. “It sounds so ridiculous to say out loud. It’s just nice to take him out and treat him to something. We’re all enjoying this together.”

When Joey, a Yorkshire terrier, visits New York City, his owner Rachel Choi, 25, usually takes him to socialize at a dog park on the Lower East Side. But Ms. Choi said he makes it clear, with his whining at the entrance, that he doesn’t want to be there. He wants to go to Boris & Horton, which has air-conditioning, to enjoy a peanut butter cupcake and have other people pet him.

“He just seems to have a bright mood there in a way that he doesn’t have anywhere else,” she said.

Can you read your dog's emotions?

Dogs are “really good at reading our emotions,” says one expert. But we’re not so good at reading dogs. Many misinterpret what their dogs are saying. Dogs are always communicating with us. Not listening can lead to behavioral issues,

Here is some interesting information about dog behavior:

How to recognize signs of distress

One key mistake people make is that they often miss signs that dogs are stressed or anxious — often a precursor to aggressive behavior. According to the experts, a stressed-out pup may show she’s scared by licking her lips, yawning, lifting a front paw, shedding hair, scratching, shaking, panting or pacing. His eyes can change too. A phenomenon called "whale eye" is often a sign of doggie distress. This doesn’t mean that every time your dog pants, yawns or lifts a paw, he’s on the verge of a breakdown. Dogs pant when they’re hot, too. Some dogs, such as pointers, lift their front paws when they pick up a scent. Yawning can also mean, of course, that your dog is tired.

To understand what a dog’s body language and behavior are saying, “you have to look at the dog’s whole body, and you have to think about the context in which you’re in,” said psychologist Sarah Byosiere, director of the Thinking Dog Center at CUNY Hunter College in New York City. So if your dog is panting but he isn’t hot or winded, or if your dog is yawning but not seemingly tired, yes, he could be stressed. And especially if you’re seeing a constellation of these stress behaviors at once, that’s a good sign that your pup is uncomfortable, Dr. Byosiere said.

If your dog is out of sorts, what should you do? First, try to figure out what might be causing his discomfort, said psychologist Angie Johnston, director of the Boston College Canine Cognition Center and Social Learning Laboratory. Are you in an unfamiliar place? Is your dog meeting new people or dogs? Once you have an idea as to what might be making your pup uncomfortable, “pull back from that activity,” she said, and see if those anxious behaviors dissipate.

Tail movements are another thing we think we understand but typically don’t. “The most common misconception, by far, is that tail-wagging definitely means the dog is happy,” Dr. Johnston said. If a dog’s tail-wagging is fluid and relaxed, then yes, she’s probably content, she said — but if the tail is wagging only slightly, and seems rigid, then it may be a sign that she is about to be aggressive. Research suggests that when a dog’s wagging tail leans more to the right, she’s happy, but if it leans more to the left, she’s feeling hostile.

How to manage a dog’s social life

Many of the mistakes dog owners make revolve around how they handle their social interactions. We often don’t recognize the signs — panting, stiff tail-wagging, lip-licking, yawning — that a dog is uncomfortable around other people or dogs and needs help. Responding to their cues might mean asking other people to give your dog space. Maybe it means leaving the dog park and going home. “Probably the worst thing to do is to not do anything,” Dr. Byosiere said. If you don’t step in, you’re also increasing the risk that they could become aggressive.

One reason we make these errors is that we tend to assume dogs are more extroverted than they really are. “People who love dogs love to meet new dogs. But not all dogs like to meet new people or dogs,” said Brian Hare, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University who founded their Canine Cognition Center. If you want to meet a dog, first ask her owner if it’s OK — and respect them if they say no. If the owner says it’s OK, approach the dog slowly. Stop a few feet away, kneel or crouch down, and see if the dog approaches you, Dr. Hare suggested. If he doesn’t — and especially if he looks or walks away — take that as a sign that you shouldn’t get any closer. If you see some of the distress signals mentioned earlier, that’s also a sign that he’s feeling nervous and that you should back off. And don’t approach a dog with your hand outstretched, Dr. Hare said — this can trigger aggression in dogs that have been mistreated, and it could lead to a bite. Instead, hold your hand out in a fist, or don’t extend a hand at all.

Don’t anthropomorphize your pup

The experts told me that we often attribute our dog’s actions to feelings they’re not really having. Dogs often lick faces because they’re hoping to get a taste of what you recently ate, said Evan MacLean, an evolutionary anthropologist and comparative psychologist at the University of Arizona. (This stems from the behavior of young wolves, who lick the insides of their mother's mouths so that their moms regurgitate food for them to eat. Which explains why dogs do gross things like eat people’s vomit.)

Another mistake we make is assuming that dogs like the same things we do. When a pup rolls over, he doesn’t necessarily want a tummy rub — it could be that he wants some space. Also, the guilty expression you see on a dog’s face after he has done something “bad” is not really a sign that she feels sheepish — she’s probably just responding to your anger. “Dogs show this look as a response to their person’s behavior or tone, not to their doing something we consider wrong,” said cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz, who directs the Barnard College Dog Cognition Lab.

Ultimately, dogs understand us far better than we understand them, Dr. Johnston said. Over thousands of years of domestication, they’ve become “really good at reading our emotions,” she said, but “I don’t think that it’s worked as much in the other direction.” To do right by our beloved canines, we really need to get to know them — and their weird little cues.

Source: NY Times article by Melinda Wenner Moyer.. (Published May 12, 2022. Updated June 12, 2022). https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/well/dog-behavior.html