These homemade dog treats are easy to make, sugar free and your dog will love them! The not-so-secret ingredient that will make your dogs go mad for these treats is aniseed – it’s like catnip to a dog!
I hope I don’t disappoint you by bringing a non-human treat today, but since I made cat treats before I had to make something yummy for the canines in your lives too! After all, our furry family members enjoy a nice treat every now and then too! And boy will your dogs LOVE these. Ours have been going mad over them, after I did the photoshoot for these the little critters followed me everywhere wanting more! Before we go any further, now is when I’ll warn you this will be a pretty photo heavy post – but it’s with lots of cute, happy doggies so you can’t be mad about that!
These homemade dog treats are full of all natural, all good ingredients and absolutely no added sugar or ingredients you can’t pronounce. I know you want to feed your kids only the best stuff, it should be the same for our furry children too! The three main ingredients are all things dogs love, and put them together and you have a very popular treat! Dogs love sweet potato, you’ll find lots of dog treat recipes with a sweet potato base for that very reason – it’s probably the same reason we love them, the sweetness! The next ingredient is peanut butter, now I don’t know if you’ve ever tried giving your dogs pills before but if you have your vet has probably recommended smothering it in peanut butter first – your dogs will love the peanut butter in these. Plus it’s a nice source of protein and fat. The third ingredient is what pushes these treats from great to phenomenal in your puppy’s eyes – aniseed! It sounds weird, I know, it’s such a strong flavour – but aniseed is like catnip to dogs. I don’t know why, but they just go mad for it!
And when I say go mad for it, I really mean it! They don’t just love the treats, the aniseed makes them go a bit wacky – just like catnip does for cats! Don’t worry, they’re not going to start painting the garden fence at 2am or order 10,000 different things from infomercials – they just might be a little hyperactive for an hour after having them. It’s hard to tell the difference with dogs sometimes though! Bear in mind though that, just like cats and catnip, not all dogs will be affected by aniseed – they’ll enjoy the scrummyness of the treats either way though, don’t worry!
I’m not really a big dog person myself. Before you plan to hunt me down and burn me at the stake, let me tell you that I don’t hate dogs – I’m just more of a cat person and I don’t think I would ever own a dog myself. The dogs enjoying these treats are my mums, well three of them are – the other is my younger sisters, we dogsit him quite a lot. I always had dogs growing up though – my two childhood dogs were Elsa and Disney. Elsa was a golden retriever (named after the lion cub from Born Free) and she was just the best dog, we lost her when I was 15 or 16. Disney was a Dalmatian and she only passed away a few years ago, she lived to be about 15 which is very old for a Dalmatian so we were lucky to have her for so long. Now mum has a long haired Dachshund (Lucy), a miniature Dachshund (Missy) and a Whippet/Lakeland Terrier/Bedlington Terrier cross (Kimi), we like to refer to her as a “bearded whippet” though and I’m sure you can see why from the photos! Milo is my sister’s dog, he’s a Chihuahua/Dachshund/Yorkshire Terrier cross.
Because of the lovely experience I had with Elsa growing up (fun fact: we now have a cat called Elsa) I’ve always said that if I ever did get a dog it would be a Golden Retriever. And the experiences I’ve had with my mum’s dogs are why I would never, ever get a dachshund! They’re cute dogs and my mum’s two are lovely, but boy are dachshunds stubborn as hell! If they don’t wanna do something, they won’t do it! Missy is a real mama’s girl too – if my mum isn’t there she basically has a massive strop until she returns, this includes not eating her dinner! Lucy is just very lazy too, bless her heart she’s a bit overweight (not as much as she used to be at least) and she doesn’t like to move much – and when she does move it’s at a snails pace! And what can I say about Kimi? She’s not as stubborn as the dachshunds but she’s very, very mischievous! Don’t turn your back on your food when she’s around, it’ll be in her stomach before you realise she’s even there! I’d love to hear about your dogs in the comments!
These homemade dog treats are really easy to make too, you can’t go wrong! Just mix everything together, roll out the dough, cut out your cookie shapes and bake! As they’re dog treats, if you have a bone shaped cookie cutter that would obviously be perfect – a star shaped was the best I had! The fun shapes are just for our enjoyment anyway, the dogs don’t care what shape they come in as long as they get to eat them! You don’t even have to cut out shapes if you don’t want, just roll into balls and flatten out (to make sure they bake evenly) – easy peasy!


- 1 medium sweet potato (about 160g cooked sweet potato)
- 70g creamy peanut butter
- 2 eggs
- 375g whole wheat flour (plus extra for dusting surface)
- 1 tbsp whole aniseed, roughly crushed
- Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
- Prick the sweet potato all over and cook in microwave until tender, about 6-8 minutes. Leave to cool and scoop out flesh, discard skin.
- Beat the sweet potato, peanut butter and eggs on a medium speed (using your stand mixer or handheld mixer) until combined.
- Turn mixer down to low and gradually add the flour until the dough is no longer sticky, you may not need the whole 375g.Mix in the aniseed.
- Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead into a ball. Roll out 1/4" thick and cut out your shapes, place on baking sheet - they won't spread so you can place them close together.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the edges are golden. How long you need to bake them depends on how big they are, so check after 20 minutes.
- Please talk to your Vet if you are unsure about your dog's allergy status - treats contain peanuts, gluten and aniseed.
- Keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days
And your dogs will thank you for going to the very little effort of making them a yummy homemade treat! We all know dogs will eat almost anything (let’s not talk about the things I’ve witnessed these dogs try and eat!), but that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy delicious and made just for them treats, just like we do!
So, are you going to try your hand at making homemade dog treats? If you do, please take photos and share them with me – you can tweet me @GiraffesCanBake and tag me on Facebook or Instagram, I’d love to see your pups enjoying them! In fact I’d love to see your pups full stop, so go ahead and share your pics with me!
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I bet my dog would love these treats! I don’t think he has ever tasted aniseed before. I tried making homemade dog treats once, and they didn’t turn out very well. I will have to give these a try!
You should give them a go Jenny and let me know how your dog likes them!
Interesting recipe Michelle – quite different from ones I have made. Sounds like a treat I would like to eat LOL! I have a lot of dog friends who would enjoy these – I will have to make them this weekend 🙂
Thank you Judi! They’re definitely human friendly too, although the flavour combo is a bit weird haha – I did have a little taste, they’re not too bad actually! It’s more the texture that make them way more dog friendly 😉 Hope your doggy friends like them!
Thanks for sharing these starry treats with us, Michelle! I recently adopted a doggie from the pound, Ori, to make company to mum’s Prague Rattler, Chas. They’ll surely love your treats, and even more if they can steal each other’s treat! 😉
So glad you liked them Lily! Congrats on your new family member too 😀
Thanks!
You did not disappoint me at all. In fact, can I have some of these too, pretty please? They look so delicious. And not to mention super cute!
Hehe thank you Petro!
This looks fantastic! You are really amazing!! Your post has been pinned,tweeted and shared on Facebook! Your post will be featured this week on the Friday Favorites Link Party at Mustlovehome.com. Come by and see your feature and share another of your favorite posts! The party goes live Thursday at 7PM. I hope to see your there…Hugs – Christine at Must Love Home
Aww thank you so much!!!
What a fun addition to Fiesta Friday! I did read that too much anise can slow down metabolism although a little is fine, but if anyone has a dog like my Gibson, keep them out of reach so they don’t down them all at once! Gibs is a notorious counter cruiser and like many labradors does’t know when to stop!
I am out of peanut butter – I don’t really keep it around now my son is gone or I would have already made these!
Thank you!
Yeah there’s only a little in these treats so I think it’s okay!
Yes Kimi is a lot like your Gibson, you can’t leave her alone in the kitchen if there’s any kind of food on the counter – she’ll have it! You can’t leave any food unattended around her actually!
Oh I can see the joy in those dogs’ eyes! 😀
😀 😀
I had no idea that dogs have a thing for aniseed, I’m very tempted to give these a try as my dog is pretty hyper anyway and I think it would be quite funny to see him even more amped up! 🙂
I didn’t until pretty recently! Haha, I definitely want to hear the results of that haha!
Brilliant. I don’t do any animals as I’m very allergic, but used to have a cat, who I adored, as a kid (I refused to give up when the doctor diagnosed me at age 9… he stayed on for another 7 years…). I would definitely have made a special treat for my cat, he was the business. I’m sure these treats will be well appreciated by the doggies – especially the ones that go a bit wacky for them 😉
Funny you should say that because last summer I found out I’m very allergic to cats (been having really bad sinus problems for years, but they only did an allergy test last year) – will never stop having cats though! I’ve also made cat treats, they’re on the blog too 🙂
My little Maci would love these treats. I didn’t know about the aniseed.
They’re so easy to make too, need to whip up another batch for my pups soon I think. Yep – it’s like catnip in that not all dogs go crazy for it, but most do. In greyhound racing they usually soak the “hare” in aniseed oil to make the dogs want it more!
I make cookies often for my pups, but have never used sweet potato! Cant wait to try them…. but of course my doxies will be howling while I make them, because thats just what they do when the jar of peanut butter comes out… It should be interesting with the anise seed…. can you imagine the doxies getting even more excited? I may have to video this 😉
Ah you definitely have to try these then, dogs love the sweetness of sweet potato!
Hahaha you should definitely film it, I want to see that! Our miniature doesn’t get too excited about treats because she’s too excited about everything to notice there’s treats! But the standard goes crazy for them, well any kind of food really haha! Bless her, she’s old, overweight and very poorly so she moves very slowly (or not at all if she can help it), but if you get a treat out (she usually just has carrots as treats to try and help her weight, she LOVES them) she’s bouncing around and running up and down like she’s a puppy again!
This is such a cute post with so many fur-babies enjoying your treats! So sweet!!
Thank you Naina!!
This is so cute Michelle! And of course I’m sure you guessed that I am more of a cat person as well, although I like dogs too. But since I have only cats I’m popping over to your cat treat post too! Love all the adorable photos of the pups!
Thank you Meghan!
Your kitties will love the treats, although t-shirt kitty may not be able to have them if she has food allergies!
I love that gourmet dog treats are a thing! They are so sweet and deserve a treat too! There was a gourmet dog ice cream shop in Jacksonville close to me. They even had ice cream sandwiches. So much fun! Great for breath odor too!
Ooh a gourmet dog ice cream shop sounds amazing, my pups would love that!
What a post Mich! Loved seeing your friends! I miss my dog so so much at times.. Wish he was here for me to bake these beautiful cookies for him. PS: Love that u used start shape!!
Thank you Swayam! Aww bless you hun, it’s never easy to say goodbye to our furbabies, I’m sure he would have loved them but I’m sure he had plenty of yummies from you too!
I never thought to make my own dog treats…I am sure she would love these. I feel like a bad dog owner for never considering it 🙁
Well dogs are generally happy with anything, mine love carrots! I’m sure you’re an awesome fur-mum!
Homemade treats are just a little extra indulgence when the mood strikes – and cheaper than storebought!
I may be being silly but when do you add the aniseed?
Hi Scott,
No you are not being silly, that was my fault! The aniseed is added with or after the flour – I have updated the recipe instructions! Sorry about that!!
Hi was just wondering if you crush the whole star shape and seeds or just use the anise seeds?
Hi Johanna,
So this recipe calls for anise, rather than star anise – however you can use star anise, you just may wanna add a little more as the flavour/scent is not quite as potent in star anise. (I’d suggest 1.5tbsp instead of 1tbsp). I’ll edit the recipe details now just to make that clear as it doesn’t currently!
To answer your question though, if using star anise you would just use the seeds inside not the star shape
Hope your pups enjoy!
Ok, I’m a regular American man who rarely bakes. Can I get the measurements in quantity and NOT weight? MOST people don’t have kitchen scales to weigh measurements. MOST people DO have measurement cups and spoons though.
Hi Calvin, here in the UK we use weights and almost nobody uses cups – as for baking it’s much more accurate to do weights. I have added cups conversions on some of my recipes, but I just don’t have the time to do them all. However there are lots of resources online that will do the conversion for you