Healthy Dog Treats Calm Nerves & Strengthen Teeth

My dogs and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this entire line of high anti-oxidant treats, especially the veggie rawhide and Sams Yam’s chamomile!  And chamomile is an awesome herb because of its calming properties.  I also love these treats because they are healthy and help scrape off plaque and tartar from doggie teeth (an added bonus for the prevention of future teeth decay).  As these treats are pricey, we sometimes make our own rendition of Sam’s Yams at home, as follows:

1. Cut up 1/2-inch thick slices of organic sweet potatoes with a serrated edge knife (or use a food processer with a similar attachment).

2.  Mix together natural herbs of chamomile and lavender (both uber-calming) and add to some veggie broth.

3.  Soak the sweet potatoes for a couple of nights in the herbal broth mixture.

4.  There are several ways to slowly dehydrate them.  One is to use a food dehydrator.  Some ovens have a dehydration setting as well.   Another is to place them on a cookie sheet with air holes or openings (anything to allow air in) and then set the oven temp to the lowest setting and cook until hardened.  Time varies, but the “oven version” typically takes anywhere from 4 t o 8 hours.  You can shorten the time between 30% and 40% by using the convection setting on your oven.   It may take some trial and error, but my dogs haven’t turned down a batch I’ve made yet!