Showing posts with label Commercial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Commercial. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Salmon Puppy Pizza Bites

In preparation for my first time wrangling of about 25 dogs for a Television commercial, I baked a batch of Salmon Puppy Pizza Bites. Humans were told to bring treats, but I wanted to be sure we had a super high value treats just in case.

My budget for dog's treats breaks the bank some weeks. When I saw my trainer friend  Tracy Haskell's  blog on  salmon brownies that she baked and brought to a Rally-O trial, I took a look at the recipe and couldn't wait to give it a try. I already had a pack of seven 7 oz cans of Salmon my mother bought me at Costco (for human fish chowder , but Mom I still have enough for fish chowder) and all the other ingredients on hand.
While I realize that was not technically free, it sure seemed like it last week! A comparable dog treat if purchased in a store, would not be nearly as healthy and would cost about 10 dollars for less than half a pound. I estimate this made the equivalent of perhaps a dozen store sized  bags, but my guestimate math is weak at best . What I do know is that I had enough for all the dogs at the shoot, and for training treats for my 4 dogs, and my client's dogs for another week. Only a few dogs turned their noses up at it. Most of the dogs including mine, acted like it was doggie crack.
Now that is some guestimate math that I can get behind!

For Charlee who is on a very restricted diet due to pancreatitis, I stored the treats in with her regular food to make her own food tastier and of course smellier. She still has a small bag of  salmon trail mix left.

Tracy's recipe is for Salmon Brownies, but I ended up using my pizza pan, which is how I ended up making Salmon Puppy Pizza Bites. 

Copy and pasted below is Tracy's recipe. I will be making them again, and next time I am going to add shredded sweet potato. I will let you all know how that turns out. If you have a  tried and true high value dog treat recipe (not biscuits) please share in the comment section. My baking time was closer to 50 minutes.


FYI, I froze leftovers in small baggies and used them as needed. I have no idea how long you can freeze these for, but at my house that is not ever an issue.

Bandit liked them so much his Mom asked for the recipe.  I wish they had told me that you can't wear shoes in the studio, guess who wasn't wearing any socks that day?




Tracy's Chewy Salmon Brownies


The Basic Recipe
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix All together:


14 to 18 oz. canned fish- do not drain (salmon, tuna)
2 or 3 eggs
1/2 cup cheese finely grated
1 1/2 cups flour (oat, wheat...)
Spread onto an oiled 9 x 13 inch baking sheet.
Bake about 20 minutes.
A large chef's knife works well to cut them. After cutting remove from pan to cool.


Makes about a bazillion training size treats!


Feed to your dog- who hopefully relishes them- woof, woof woof!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Ready for his close-up

I am lucky that I love my job. One of my jobs anyway, that would be the one with dogs. Recently I picked a job in retail for holiday help. My hope is that they keep me on and I get benefits. The "other" job is not so bad and it is nice getting a discount on clothes for the kids and I. Better than the 15 % discount, is being aware of special sales that pop up now and again. If you pay attention, things can be obtained much cheaper, and that goes for all retail, to include some great bargain shopping at the supermarkets. Yesterday I saved a hundred bucks at Shaw's! Being in retail these last few weeks has given me insight into ways to save when I shop for other items to, so hopefully even if the job doesn't pan out, there will be that.




The most fun and exciting thing of late in the good job, the dog job, was that I wrangled a commercial last week. I am sworn to secrecy until it airs on Saturday, but check out how handsome my dog Finney looks. Both my dogs are in it along with a few of my client's dogs. Not sure of the total of dogs that I handled that day, but I think it was about 25. They were all sweet and adorable and the hardest thing about movie or print work with animals is working from a distance and not being in the shot yourself. If you think your dog has what it takes to be a superstar, I can tell you right now that is where you need to start.

Distance, distance, distance! Target training where you can send your dog to a place is the thing you should be working on.



Next week all will be revealed. Can't wait to see the commercials and share!



By the way, the new retail job has VPI pet insurance as a bennie. How cool would that be? Pet insurance in the work place sure seems like a wave of the future to me.