Beat the heat with these dog-friendly ice lolly recipes

It’s Pimm’s o’clock: strawberry and cucumber cooler recipe

Summer is on the horizon – which means picnics in the park with plenty of Pimm’s. We love a fresh glass of the quintessential British classic, so we thought we’d come up with a way to share it with our dogs.

This recipe is – of course – alcohol-free, and packed with fresh flavours, so it’s perfect for cooling down on a hot day. Simply take cucumber and a little bit of fresh mint, blend it up with some water and add sliced strawberries – it’s super refreshing and low in calories, and makes a delicious treat for humans, too!

Servings: 4 lollies or 10 – 12 cubes

What you’ll need

• 100g cucumber
• 50g strawberries, sliced thinly
• 2 small mint leaves
• 200ml water

Method

1. In a blender, combine the cucumber, mint and water
2. Pour the mixture into your ice cube tray or mould
3. Place a slice of strawberry into each section
4. Freeze overnight
5. Our dogs absolutely loved these – they’re the perfect refresher for a hot day.

Watermelon: our new favourite ingredient

Not only is watermelon one of our favourite summertime fruits, but it has a whole host of other benefits. It’s refreshing, packed with vitamins, and it’s great for keeping hydrated as it has high water content. And if it couldn’t get any better – it’s suitable for both us humans and dogs alike.

So with the hot weather upon us, what better way to cool down than with this recipe for frozen watermelon treats.

The best thing about them? They’re lapped up by everyone from teens to toddlers – although you might want to leave out the dog treats when you’re serving them to humans!

Serves: Around 8 cubes, depending on the size of your tray

What you need

• 200g watermelon – with seeds and rind removed (as these aren’t easily digestible)
• A few Good Dog Treats
• An ice cube tray, lolly mould to freeze them in

Method

1. Cut your deseeded watermelon into cubes
2. Use a food processor, hand blender or the end of a rolling pin to blend the melon until smooth. You could add a little bit of water at this point if you want to make your batch stretch a little further!
3. Pour the mixture into your mould
4. Break up the treats into smaller pieces and add to the mix
5. Pop into the freezer until done
6. Serve as a refreshing treat on a hot summer’s day!

As with all treats, we recommend making sure they’re served as part of a balanced diet. Even though watermelon is quite low calorie, it does still contain some sugars so it’s best to keep it as an occasional treat.

A family favourite: peanut butter and banana ice cream

It’s a classic combination and a favourite with the tails.com dogs. The nutty peanuts together with sweet banana is a winner – we’ve recommended mashing the two together before – but this time, we’re going to take it to the next level.

So here is…our recipe for peanut butter and banana ice cream! It’s great stuffed into a Kong, on a lick-mat, or just dished up in a bowl. And like most of our recipes, it’s suitable for dogs and humans.

Servings: 3 – 4 scoops

What you’ll need

• 1 peeled banana – the riper the better!
• 1 heaped tablespoon of peanut butter (xylitol free)
• 2 heaped tablespoons of dairy-free yoghurt, kefir – or water, if you prefer

Method

1. Peel your banana (no skins please, they’re not easy to digest) and mash it together with the peanut butter and yoghurt or kefir
2. When the ingredients are combined to a smooth consistency, spoon the mix into a freezable container
3. Pop it in the freezer until it’s ready
4. Scoop and serve!

Banana is a great dog-friendly fruit because it’s packed with vitamins and minerals – like potassium and vitamin C – and full of fibre (great for healthy poo). Bananas are high in sugar, so do save them as an occasional treat.

It’s best to enjoy peanut butter occasionally too, because it comes packed with fats, even if they are healthy ones. We can’t say this enough – make sure any peanut butter you choose is xylitol-free. Xylitol is an artificial sweetener found in some nut butters and it’s toxic to dogs.

A summer favourite: chicken and apple pupsicles

No matter what the British summer throws at us, one thing we can all agree on is the joy of an ice lolly. Whether in the park or the garden, they’re a refreshing and tasty treat and a great way to keep cool in the summer months. And who says our dogs can’t enjoy one, too?

It’s a common myth that dogs can’t have ice, but according to our Head Vet Sean, ice is actually a good way to keep dogs cool in the sun – especially if they’re not great at keeping themselves hydrated. You just need to make sure your dog is supervised at all times as chunks of ice can be a choking hazard for smaller dogs.

And now you’ve got more than just the perfect summer treat, because this recipe is good for teeth too. How? Well, we’ve come up with a great way to combine your dog’s daily dental routine with something fresh. Our chicken and apple pupsicles use low salt chicken stock, apple and one of our Dental Dailies as the lolly stick! Genius.

Servings: 1

What you’ll need:

• 100ml low salt chicken stock
• 1 dental stick (ours really get tails wagging)
• ¼ of an apple (no pips as they can be toxic for dogs)

Method:

1. Mix up your stock and leave it to cool
2. Chop up the apple into small pieces
3. Pop the apple pieces into a small plastic cup, ramekin or ice-lolly mould
4. Pour over the chicken stock
5. Using sellotape, create four barriers over the top of your dish – this will hold the dental stick in place (for a how-to, have a look at the video below)
6. Freeze overnight, or until frozen
7. When it’s ready to eat, run the sides of the pot under warm water to loosen the lolly and remove the tape
8. Use the dental stick to grab the lolly – time to enjoy!