Fellow dog owners will know just how expensive it is to keep spoilt little pooches happy. Things to eat, things to chew, things to play with (not to mention the vets bills, repair bills and replacement costs when the pups feel the need to amuse themselves!).
Well, I got a great bargain yesterday. A Tesco’s Finest, Free Range, Ready Cooked Chicken for just £1 out of the “Reduced” section.
First we chopped up all the chicken meat to make training treats to die for. And we were rewarded with some exceptionally good behaviour during this morning’s walk:
And some of the usual Beagle naughtiness:
Our two like something to chew on in the evening (or perhaps more accurately WE like them to have something to keep them quiet in the evening). We don’t like them to have too much rawhide and the little strips we give them each day don’t last long. Bones aren’t really an option as they’re likely to lead to squabbles. Most toys just aren’t tough enough for our power chewers. Nyalabones are the safest and most hardwearing, but they tend not to have much appeal…..UNLESS we flavour them.
So, during the afternoon I boiled up the chicken carcass. After a couple of hours of simmering it was clearly cooked to perfection as Beanie and Biggles began to howl and whine to get in the kitchen. I gathered up all their nylabones, gave them a good wash and popped them in the pan with the chicken stock. Beanie and Biggles camped out in the hall by the kitchen door. By the time evening came I fished out a couple of nylabones, cooled them and presented them to our hounds. We had peace for the whole evening. They were so tasty that Biggles chewed clean through his:
Finally, I fished the bones out of the stock and poured the lovely thick, lumpy stock into ice cube trays and froze it. We now have hundreds of tasty little chicken flavoured ice cubes for our puppies to snack on.
Not bad for £1, eh?