After debating for a long time, we finally decided to get a dehydrator. (Well, the real story is more like this: one day Maya's daddy came home all excited telling me this wonderful machine his coworker had. I got quite upset, because I told him about this thing months ago, but he totally dismissing the idea and said that "we don't need to spoil our dog more". Now he acts like it's the first time he heard about it and it's so awesome because someone else says so...) Anyways, this thing ended up on our kitchen counter a few days later.
There were a few different models to choose from. I picked "Nesco American Harvest FD-61WHC", which is 500W and comes with a jerky gun. So far, I'm really pleased with the product and have made 3 batches of treats for Maya and 3 batches of snacks for the humans. The only compliant is that the whole machine is made of plastic, so I'm afraid to put it the trays the dishwasher and some of the smell is hard to get rid of (like beef liver).
There are also a few lessons learned along the way: 1) Sweet potato and fruits should be cut in very thick slices or they'll turn into chips, 2) Tomatoes will not dry with the skin on, 3) The machines should be moved outdoors when drying smelly stuff, 4) Either start drying in the early morning or late at night, cause it takes about 10 hours to dry, 5) For meat, the leaner the better.
For 1.5 pound (24 oz) of ground beef, I can make about 8 oz of beef jerky, which costs about $6 from the grocery store. Compare to what I paid for commercial treats, it's not really that much of a money saver. However, it's feels much better having full control of what's going into the dogs stomach.
[Edit 6/4 12:53] I just read the product description again, and seems like the entire machine is dishwasher-safe except for the power head. I'll try washing a single tray first tonight. (The one with the strong beef liver smell.)
Yesterday I decided to make some treats for Maya and use up some of the THK Verve (I got a 10 lb box but switched back to home prepared raw). I found a recipe on THK's website, and made a few adjustments.
Ingredients
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup THK Verve
1/4 cup peanut butter (crunchy, unsalted, unsweetened)
2 eggs
1 tsp virgin coconut oil
2 tsp shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions
Mix everything together
Roll into small bits
Bake at 380°F for 20 minutes
Cool and store
Everything mixed together
In the oven
Cooling
Ideally, I would use some other type of flour instead of wheat flour, but Maya never had any problems with wheat and it's only for treats, so I used whatever I had in hand. It ended up crunchier than I expected, so next time I might add some meat or canned fish. Maya waited patiently in the kitchen when I prepared the cookie. Cooking for Maya is always satisfying, because she gobbles up whatever I make!
Maya has never been a toy motivated dog. She enjoys playing tug with us, but rarely does so outdoors when there are much more interesting things going on. It wasn't really a problem till we started to take agility classes. Lots of the training could be done much easier if the dog is toy motivated, such as throwing the toy to a target location. Using a toy as reward is also good for keeping the drive high, as food usually slows them down.
When asked about this issue, the trainer kind of suggested us to use a toy that can hold treats, so the dog can smell it and be more interested. With this in mind, I went to a local pet shop to search for one, but was only able to find a toy that has a small pocket for a plastic bottle. I removed the bottle and put in some jerky and tested at home with Maya. She seemed interested for a while, but once she knows she can't get the treats out, it kind of became just another toy. It was even worse at the agility class. She didn't even attempt to touch the toy, making me like a fool playing with it myself.
The toy that failed me
After this toy failure, I started to a bit more research online and came across this video. (The whole series is pretty worth watching).
I tried shopping around online for the toy shown in the video, but all the ones I found are really expensive, like this and this.
As I was debating whether I should bite the bullet and just get one, the idea came to me that maybe I can make one myself and decided to give it a try. The entire project took me only about two hours and I'm quite happy with the result. (Please note that I haven't touched a needle in years, so it's probably even easier.) Here's what I did.
Step 1: Look for existing items at home that I could make use of. I found a travel water bowl that was given to us by the breeder and a rope toy Maya rarely plays with.
Step 2: I attached some Velcro sticky tape to the edge of the bowl, so that it can stick together when folded in half. I was planning to stich the tape to the bowl, but the fabric is super thick and I wasn't able to punch the needle through. Luckily, the tape itself seemed to stick quite well to the fabric, so I just left it like that.
Step 3: I realized the pocket is a bit too deep, so I sewed in some of the inner fabric and made it smaller.
Step 4: Removed the bottom part of the bowl. I should have done it earlier, which would have made my step 3 much easier, but at that point I wasn't sure if I should keep it or not.
Step 5: Sew in the rope. And here's the final product:
With food in the pocket:
So far, I'm happy with Maya's response to the toy. I let her watch me put treats in the pocket and play with it by myself for a short moment. Then I lowered the toy and lured her to play with me. After tugging for a few seconds, I gave her a "drop it" commend, and as soon as she dropped the toy, I opened up the pocket and let her eat the treat. After a few rounds of that, I threw the toy around and played fetch. Every time she brings the toy back to me, I'll open it up and treat. Since I'm still "charging it up", I made it easy for her to get the goodies. I also kept the sessions short and put the toy away when done. I want to keep it interesting and only use it during training. (Sorry, blurry cell phone pictures, but now I have a few dollars more in my camera funding!)
Tug
Fetch
Treat
The only thing I don't like about the toy is the ugly "Pet Travel Water Bowl" text on it, but it might come off after a few rounds of tugs anyways. I'm also kind of worried if it's sturdy enough, but I guess I can always sew it back up when it breaks. I'll probably have to wash it quite often, cause Maya sure drooled all over and in it. Since it used to be a water bowl, the inner fabric is water resistant, which makes it easy for me to wipe clean after each use. From the way I sewed the pocket, I kind of accidentally made two pockets instead of one, which actually turned out to be nice. I can put a bunch of treats in one side and move a few over to the other to treat Maya each time. This way I don't need to refill that often.
Hopefully, this new toy can help make Maya more toy motivated. We'll see how it goes in the next class.
