How to Make and Sell Dog Treats in 3 Easy Steps

DIY dog treats are a popular craft to make and sell at Farmers Markets, Craft Fairs and Online. The most popular one are decorated with healthy homemade dog treat icing. When you are just learning how to decorate dog treats you might wonder how people become so good at it. The answer truly is to practice. But you CAN still sell decorated dog treats that you, personally, don't think are "perfect". 

🐾 DIY Healthy Dog Treat Recipe

The first place to start is with a homemade dog treat recipe that you can roll out as a dough. While you can find varieties of recipes online be sure that they are truly dog safe. Just because they are online or even in a dog treat recipe book does not mean they have the best ingredients for a dog. You can always ask your veterinarian if an ingredient is safe or not.

Basically, avoid salt and sugars, and we all know not to use chocolate. But you can use unsweetened Carob chips, for example. For a good dough based treat avoid any ingredients that would make your dough rise while baking. The trick is to have a nice flat treat to decorate. You may need to poke small holes in the cutout dough with a fork to prevent air bubbles. 

Wheat Flours, Wheat Free Flours or Grain Free Flours... All of these types of flours are most likely safe for dogs to enjoy for treats but not all dogs can eat them. A lot of dogs have allergies to wheat, soy, corn and some require a grain free diet. The best way to choose which flours to use is to decide which one would sell best. 

🐾 How to Price Dog Treats 

Pricing dog treats really starts with how much money you spend on your ingredients. When selecting Wheat Flours, Wheat Free Flours or Grain Free Flours be sure to compare the prices.

Grain Free Flours are the most expensive but dog owners who feed their dogs grain free foods are used to spending more money and already know the prices are higher because the ingredients cost more. However, if the majority of your costumer base does not ask for grain free treats then it may not be necessary to bake grain free treats. 

Wheat Free Flours are a nice middle of the road selection. They cost less than grain free and the form a perfect dough for rolling out treats that can be nicely decorated with icing that dries hard. 

Wheat flours are also a great choice for "dough rolling" treats but keep in mind that a lot of dog owners would expect that your decorated dog treats are at least made from wheat free flours. And... a lot of dogs are on a wheat free diet.

After you select your flours you will need to price them out by how much you actually use in the dog treats, be sure to price out all of your ingredients the same way. Then, you should factor in your labor costs, etc... 

Most DIY bakers take our Beginners online course when they decide to start a dog treat business. The e-course is a very detailed step by step instructional course on everything you need to start a successful business. It also comes with a dog treat recipe and a free dog treat decorating workshop kit.

🐾 How to Decorate Dog Treats

 After you master your homemade dog treat recipe, it's time to start decorating! The easiest way to decorate dog treats is to use a pre-made dog treat icing mix that dries hard and does not need to be refrigerated.  With this style of icing, you can add water in amounts that will help you to control how thin or thick you want the icing to be applied to your treats. 

With this style of royal icing for dogs you can use all the human decorating techniques. You can flood the dog treat, then mix up icing with all natural or human grade food coloring to pipe out the details on top of the treat. You can use decorating tips and decorating bags, as well. 

The best thing to remember is that with practice your decorating skills will improve. BUT... dogs will still love and devour all your treats! So, do not judge yourself when you are just starting out. Your customers will still purchase your decorated dog treats whether they are perfect or not. They will simply be happy to see hand decorated treats. And their dogs will always ask for more!

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