My dogs love yams! So I’ve started making them a simple and delicious little snack for training. Anyone who knows me knows that I hold my dogs to a very high standard when it comes to manners. I don’t mess around about keeping consistency in my dogs lives. I think having well behaved dogs is all about keeping things consistent. One rule in my house is to keep out of the kitchen when I am cooking or doing anything where I have to walk from one counter top to the other. My dogs know to stay out from under my feet!

So even during the time frame it took me to make these delicious morsels, which they absolutely know are for them; they patiently waited in the living room.

Sweet potato dog treats:

1 yam

1 cup stock  (beef, chicken, duck, etc.)

Pan and cooling wrack

For training treats the yam only needs to be sliced to the size of a dime, if you want something your dog can chew on a little longer thinly slice the yam into little patties. Soak the pieces 1-3 hours our over night if you forget about them like I did. Drain off the stock and feed to the chickens or add to the top of your dogs breakfast, moderation is key though as most stocks have a ton of salt! Place the wedges onto a baking sheet and leave in the oven (150 degrees)  until they start to look dried out. You can also use a dehydrator but I didn’t have one. Once they appear to be more like leather take them out of the oven and place on a cooking rack for several hours. Store in an air tight container in the fridge.

My dogs go crazy for these when I pull the container out of the ice box. The larger wedges I use as an apology treat when I head off to work and I use the smaller pieces to reward for new tricks. Have you made dog treats? If so what have you used? I have a coworker who makes biscuits out of spent beer grains! I love the idea of using something that would other wise be a waste byproduct.