Ahhh, summertime. Full of pool days, vacations and LOTS of hot weather! You aren’t the only one that sometimes feels a little out of it with heat. Your dog does too! Lots of dogs enjoy swimming and water play in the summer heat, but a lot of dogs do not enjoy water play. So how do we help cool them down?
An easy and great way to support your dog is with delicious, frozen treats! These treats are easy to make, customizable to your dog’s taste and most importantly, enriching for your dog on those hot days that makes it hard to get a proper walk in. Dogs enjoy and are soothed by the action of licking, and a cold treat could be just the thing he needs to beat the summer heat. Here’s 5 recipes that guarantee to cool your dog down.
1. Water Bowl Icee
This is the easiest and FREE way to keep your dog cool: simply fill a large silicon cake pan with water and freeze it! Put this in your dog’s water bowl and he will have a safe way of cooling himself for most of the day. As it melts, it will turn into a nice chilled drink for your pups as well.
2. Stuffed Chew Toys
If you don’t have a fillable chew toy or bone for your dog, pick one up pronto! Kongs, as shown above, are the most common but there are a variety of ones to choose from. They are easy to prep ahead of time, can be used year-round and have an endless list of recipes that can be used. You can do something as simple as filling it with peanut butter and freeze it so it lasts longer, or you can adapt one of the other recipes on this list to give your dog more variety.
3. PB and B-Bars
What’s more iconic that peanut butter and banana together?! Sorry jelly! These are so simple to make even your dog could do it. Slice a few bananas, freeze the slices and put them in a food processor to blend. It may take a while but eventually it will turn into a smooth ice cream like texture. Stir in your peanut butter and scoop into little cups, a mold or whatever you have on hand to freeze. Stick bone in the top for decoration and extra crunch!
4. Red, White, and Blue Bones
Independence Day might be over, but you can still enjoy these year-round! Add sliced strawberries, blue berries and plain Greek yogurt into a blender and mix. Put this into a bone mold and freeze. If you want the colors to stand out from each other, you can blend the strawberries and blueberries with the yogurt separately, and swirl them together inside the mold for a treat that is just as cute and your pup!
5. Ice 'Cake'
This is another simple treat that will keep your dog entertained AND cool. Mix a small amount of beef broth into water. Broth is very salty and not good for dogs in large quantities, but when diluted can add some nice flavor for your dog to enjoy. Pour this mixture into a large mold, fill it with treats, toys and whatever other goodies your dog enjoys. When you freeze it, you dog will have so much fun licking the broth trying to get to the toys!
Pro Tip: Most items will sink to the bottom, but if you freeze half the broth mixture, then add more items and freeze more broth on top, you’ll have an extra layer of goodies in the middle!