Instructions

1. Cut the core and every seed out of the apple before it goes near the bowl. Apple seeds release a cyanide compound when they are chewed, and a dog treat is not the place to be casual about that.
2. Cook the oats in the water until they are soft and claggy. Raw oats stay gritty through drying, and a gritty treat gets spat out on the carpet.
3. Check the tin says nothing but pumpkin. Pie filling is sweetened and spiced, and nutmeg in particular is not something to feed a dog.
4. Mix the cooled oats, pumpkin and diced apple until no dry oat is visible. Any pocket of plain oat is a soft spot, and soft spots are where a batch starts going off.
5. Roll the mixture into balls or press it into a mould, keeping every piece the same size. Match that size to the dog — a chew a terrier works at for ten minutes is a single swallow for a labrador.
6. Flatten each piece slightly so it sits rather than rolls. Round balls migrate to the edge of the tray and dry unevenly against the wall.
7. Dry at 57 °C for 11 hours. They are done when a chew is hard all through and does not dent under a thumbnail — the apple makes them tacky at first, and tacky means there is still water inside.
8. Break one open and look at the centre. Pumpkin holds moisture well past the point where the outside looks finished, and a damp core will grow mould in the bag inside a week.
9. Cool them completely and bag them airtight: a fortnight in a cupboard, a month in the fridge, six months frozen. There is no preservative here at all, so treat these like food you cooked rather than like something off a pet-shop shelf.