Pampered pooches chow down on homemade goodies

• Tasty treats to please your pup
• Finding snacks for canine pals

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser food Editor

Ipo the golden retriever is ready to partake of a cake made just for her. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

It comes down to love — love and, sometimes, necessity.

For Jean Hashimoto of Kane'ohe, it was when her basenji, Casey, and poi dog, Penny, began to gain weight, which is as dangerous for dogs as for humans. Cutting back on their kibble left them miserable and unsatisfied — and still pudgy. On the advice of her dog trainer, animal behaviorist Wendy Mah, Hashimoto attended a class on cooking for dogs by veterinarian Ihor Basko. Now Casey and Penny are sleek and healthy, eating their fill twice a day of a veggie-meat stew Hashimoto makes, plus a daily vitamin.

For Jen Kunishima of Honolulu, it was when her beloved golden retriever, Ipo, was pregnant with nine puppies and also suffering from itchy allergies that left her coat thin and dull-looking. Her veterinarian, Arlene Skillman, advised Kunishima to switch Ipo to a nutrition-rich homemade diet. Once the puppies were born, Kunishima drafted her sister, Trudi Mahelona, a home baker, to create crispy dog biscuits to help in training the young 'uns. This little enterprise eventually led them to found the Hawai'i Doggie Bakery, which sells healthy treats. A couple of months ago, Kunishima and Mahelona published "Paws Through Paradise," giving away their secrets for healthy dog treats.

For Basko, a commitment to homemade dog food began with his own journey into healthier eating. Back in the 1970s, he noticed how many of his veterinarian friends were living the buffet-lunch lifestyle and gaining weight and suffering poor health. He began to study nutrition and adopted a macrobiotic diet. Then one day, he turned his back on a bowl of rice with vegetables and fish and his dog scarfed the meal down. "That's when I got it: Why am I not doing for my dogs what I'm doing for myself?" recalled Basko, who has a practice on Kaua'i but also treats patients on O'ahu two days a week at Kapalama Pet Hospital.

Basko has been teaching people to cook for their dogs for more than 30 years, so for him, this is no fad. But it's a new and interesting idea to many, as evidenced by a number of new books on home cooking for animals, and media coverage nationwide.

Mahelona said people think of their dogs as part of the family, and the growth of the Doggie Bakery through the post-Sept. 11 economic downturn is proof. People get a sense of emotional well-being from training a puppy with store-bought treats, holding a doggie birthday celebration or cooking for their dog, she said. "It's time spent with your dog, and it just feels good," she said.

She learned doggie baking by trial and error, under the guidance of Skillman, using no salt, no refined sugar, no yeast, no butter, no preservatives, a variety of different grains and very little dairy, making the food available to dogs with a variety of allergies and sensitivities.

Mahelona started with a pet treat recipe from Rose Levy Berenbaum's book "Rose's Christmas Cookies," but soon simplified the recipe and began using local ingredients, from bananas to poi. To make the crisp biscuits dogs need for tooth and gum health, she learned to lower the baking temperature a bit and bake the treats longer than you would human cookies.

But Doggie Bakery products are meant only to be an adjunct to a proper diet. Others cook their dog's daily meals.

"It's not a well-known fact but there are many people who do cook for their dogs," said Hashimoto, who admits she was reluctant to take on the task at first. But now she shops in bulk when ingredients are on sale, cooks up a big batch of the food every other week, freezes it and then thaws out what she needs. Her recipe: brown rice, lots of vegetables (broccoli, spinach, celery, carrots, sweet potatoes, kabocha pumpkin among them), pork or chicken, ginger to soothe the tummy and garlic to keep away fleas, all moistened with a bone broth.

Basko, former president of the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association and a member of the board of directors of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, is an outspoken critic of commercial dog food. He says it is generally made up of meats that have been condemned for human consumption and contains such things as recycled restaurant fat, salt and sugar and other preservatives, residues of antibiotics, herbicides and pesticides. He attributes the high incidence of skin diseases, cancer and some forms of arthritis in dogs to overfeeding of commercial diets and says store-bought dog food, along with over-vaccination, also is a cause of canine allergies.

"My conclusion is that the healthiest thing is to feed your dog home-cooked food because at least the stuff you buy in the supermarket is safer than what's in the bag or can," he said.

Basko's position is controversial; many veterinarians do not favor home cooking for pets. But Eric Ako said neither the national organization nor the Hawaii chapter of the Veterinary Medical Association has an official position on homemade pet food. The primary concern of veterinarians, he said, is that most people don't cook or eat properly themselves, so how can they be expected to take on the additional burden of learning how to feed animals properly? But Ako himself has quit "fighting" with patients who want to cook for their animals; now he just gives them Basko's recipes.

Basko suggests pet owners consult an expert to get an appropriate recipe for healthful pet food: Proper feeding is based on the breed of the dog (how the breed evolved influences what mix of foods is best), the dog's age and gender, the dog's personality and fitness level, and the presence of allergies or ailments and the climate and season.

In general, Basko advocates a diet made up of equal parts:

• Grains (brown or white rice, oats, millet, quinoa or barley, since many dogs are sensitive to wheat and corn);
• Protein (meat, fish, egg, soy products, kelp, spirulina, blue-green algae and dairy products)
• Vegetables grown locally and in season (roots, leaves, legumes and a few herbs — basil, cilantro, seaweed, rosemary, pepper and dill).

White rice is the most commonly used grain. Larger dogs, generally healthy dogs and puppies get more meat while older dogs and those with allergies or kidney ailments do better with little or no meat (often just the broth from cooking meat bones in water). Vegetables are given mostly cooked (though a few raw) and chopped into small, bite-sized pieces; some peels can be left on for more crunch and fiber.

Tasty treats to please your pup

The first recipe among those baker Trudi Mahelona chose for the "Paws Through Paradise" cookbook (Hawai'i Doggie Bakery, oversize paperback, $24.95) is the favorite of Doggie Bakery "founding dog" Ipo the Golden Retriever — a crispy biscuit made with Okinawan sweet potatoes, oats and whole wheat flour.

Mahelona says sweet potatoes are easy for dogs to digest and full of vitamins. You can substitute yellow or orange sweet potatoes or yams. As with all the recipes in the book, this mixture contains no salt or butter and Mahelona uses honey rather than white sugar; while both are digested as sugar, honey offers additional nutrients and moves through the system more slowly than refined white sugar.

These treats keep four weeks, unrefrigerated, in an air-tight container.

Ipo's Sweet Potato Sweethearts

• 1/2 cup Okinawan sweet potato, steamed, peeled and mashed
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 4 1/4 cups rolled oats
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• Water

In a large mixing bowl, blend flours and oats. Incorporate the sweet potato, oil and honey into the mixture. Add water a little at a time until the mixture holds together and can be formed into a ball. Turn onto a floured surface and roll to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into heart shapes with a cookie cutter. Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown and crunchy.

Paw-ty Cake

The doggie cake pictured on the cover of this section is a sort of banana bread that the Doggie Bakery sells frosted with cream cheese and decorated for birthday celebrations. This one is almost good enough to share with your dog!

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 apple banana
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup Hawaiian honey
• 2 pound soft low-fat cream cheese

In a large mixing bowl, mash one ripe apple banana and mix in eggs, water, honey and vegetable oil. With a hand mixer, mix in dry ingredients and add water as necessary as to achieve cake batter consistency.

Grease a cake pan and pour batter in. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Cool cake at least 2 hours.

Trim cake into a bone shape and smooth the low-fat cream cheese onto the cake with an inverted pastry spatula. If desired, use food coloring to tint cream cheese "frosting" and pipe dog's name onto cake.

Finding snacks for canine pals

Dog treats on O'ahu:

• Hawai'i Doggie Bakery & Gift Shops: Ward Warehouse, 521-PAWS (7297); Pearlridge, 487-PAWS (7297); www.hawaiidoggiebakery.com. Dog treats, gifts, cooking classes (next series begins in April). "Paws Through Paradise," (Hawaii Doggie Bakery, oversize paperback, $24.95) founders Trudi Mahe-lona and Jen Kunishima's canine cookbook, is sold at the stores; call (877) 949-DOGS (3647) to ask about mail orders.

Kits and utensils

A quick phone survey of local pet stores found that resources for baking doggie treats are limited here. Here are some mail-order sources:

• MacPherson's K-9 Biscuit Kit ($9 to $13) and MacPherson's Cat Treats Baking Kit ($9 to $13). Three bone-shaped plastic cutters and a booklet with 18 recipes. Online at www.ferretstore.com.
• Stainless-steel cookie cutters in dog-breed shapes ($2.50 to $2.85), available from www.gooddogexpress.com, or call (877) 682-7387. Copper cookie cutters shaped like a fire hydrant, doghouse or paw print ($8.95 each) are sold under the gifts/cards heading at www.SitStay.com.
• Buddy Biscuits Bake at Home Dog Treats ($6.49), garlic/roasted chicken flavor, comes with a bone-shaped cookie cutter. Available at www.petco.com.

BOOKS

If you want to read up, check out:

• "Barker's Grub: Easy, Wholesome Home Cooking for Dogs" by Rudy Edalati (Three Rivers Press, 2001)
• "The Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog" by Wendy Volhard and Kerry Brown, DVM (Howell Book House, 1995; new edition, 2002)
• "Real Food for Dogs: 50 Vet-Approved Recipes to Please the Canine Gastronome" by Arden Moore and Anne Davis (Storey Communications, 2001)
• "Three Dog Bakery Cookbook: Over 50 Recipes for All-Natural Paw-Lickin' Treats for Your Dog," by Dan Dye and Mark Beckloff (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $14.95). Online at www.threedog.com.
• "The Doggy Bone Cookbook" by Michele Bledsoe (Come & Get It Publishing, $9.95).
• "Gourmet Dog Biscuits: From Your Bread Machine," by Sondra Macdonald (Bristol Publishing, $10.95).