Today was HOT.   I kept thinking of Eddie Murphy in the SNL James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub skit.  At least that got me laughing.  Zip didn’t have many options for fun today though.  We couldn’t walk more than about 5 minutes; the heat was too oppressive.  And the air conditioning inside our apartment is just not strong enough for high temperatures and high humidity, so activity inside was limited to dips in the tub (I keep a cold shallow bath on hot days to cool him down fast).

So I whipped up some Dogurt for Zip.  In the early days of Fetch (our other store, in Portland ME, est. 2000), I used to make homemade frozen yogurt for dogs.  I called it Dogurt (what else?) and had big ideas involving an ice cream truck.  I imagined summer days driving around Portland, and dogs coming running when they heard the truck.  But summer is short in New England, and in the end it didn’t make a lot of sense.  (Or did it?  See Yoghund).

Dogurt is easy to make.  For Peanut Butter & Banana, place in blender or food processor:  about a cup of greek yogurt (just because it’s thicker, so you can serve it up right away), a whole banana, about 4 TB of organic peanut butter, a TB of flax seeds, a tiny amount of stevia powder (natural sweetener; intensely sweet so you don’t need very much) and some ice cubes.  I also add a probiotic/enzyme, Digest-All Plus, to help Zip digest the fat in the peanut butter (he’s got a history of pancreatitis).  Blend till smooth.  It should be thick.  Serve immediately, or freeze in ice cube tray or small containers for later.

There are endless possible variations.  Try substituting cold cooked sweet potato or canned pumpkin for the banana, and apple sauce instead of peanut butter, and add a little cinnamon.  Or substitute cottage cheese for yogurt, and add frozen berries for the fruit.  To appeal to a dog’s taste buds, make it a little sweeter than you would for yourself.  They are said to have only about a sixth of the number of taste buds we have, so their sense of taste is not as strong as ours, and they usually drawn to sweet foods.  That’s why I like using Stevia; it’s an herb, and won’t alter blood sugar level or add calories.