The summer heat can be harsh on your furry friends. My dogs love homemade ice treats! They help keep them cool on hot summer days while providing a healthy snack. I like to use a muffin pan, because the size is perfect for me. You can use any freezable tray that you may have. The ingredients are simple anything your pet loves plus water. You can do pet friendly vegetables, treats, plain yogurt, eggs, or meats. You can use anything you desire. Then, just freeze the treats and pass them out on hot days. My dogs LOVE them. This really helps them beat the heat. You never know how far such a small act of kindness can go.
I actually make regular homemade dog biscuits for my Beagle. We have an appliance that looks much like a sandwich maker or a George Foreman grill. They come out wonderfully. They take some time and effort but the recipes I have he seems to like the taste better, although the cost is more than just buying them at the store.
As for ICE treats. Petey, our Beagle, loves ice cubes. Nothing special, just plain ice cubes. In fact, if Petey gets a hold of something that he's not supposed to have and won't let it go, the only trick that works is if you present him with an ice cube. No matter what he has a hold of, he will drop it for an ice cube. It works every time. Plus, we never worry about him choking on the ice cubes because we make ones about half-sized for him and they will of course melt if he even decided to swallow one whole. So far, that's never happened, but just in case anyone was worrying about choking, it really won't happen because of that.
I think my dog would live on soft ice cubes if I let him. Any time he hears a clink in my glass, he knows that ice is in there. And since he has a hard time with the heat here in Texas, I always share several pieces with him. It is a quick way to reduce his internal temperature.
The treats are mainly for outside dogs. I wouldn't want them to melt inside with snacks in them. Unless the snacks were solid. Our 3 family pets growing up loved ice cubes. They were miniature Schnauzers. Our icebox had the built in ice machine. Anytime you went to fill your cup with ice,and they heard the machine start up.They would be waiting patiently for their piece. Seems kind of like a common thing for dogs to like ice,on this thread.
I sometimes give ice cream to our dogs for treats when I am in the mood. But I use the dish for that so it will not mess the floor. I haven't thought of making ice candy - frozen juice drink or simply frozen sugared water. Maybe that's a good weapon against the summer heat that we had just gone through - good thing the drought is over and we have rains since last week.
Maybe I would instruct our maid to make ice candy tonight for the dogs. They love mango juice so that would be a good flavor for the ice candy.
Ice cubes definitely do the trick and my dog loves them. Every once in a while, like maybe 2 or 3 times during the summer, I get her ice cream but I don't make a habit of it, the ice cubes work just fine. I also have one of those baby pools that she loves to cool down in. My 4 year old son has his and I place my dogs beside it and they "swim" together. It's funny to watch and for some reason he knows not to go in hers and vice versa.