How to make Dog Treats out of Hot Dogs

These dog treats made from hot dogs are sure to be a hit with your fur baby!! They are easy to make, keep beautifully, and are great fro training and rewards!

Do you ever have leftover hot dogs? Maybe you threw some on the grill and there’s 2 left in the package. Or you made them for lunch and one is still floating in the pan?

Or maybe you don’t eat hot dogs because you don’t want to think about what they’re actually made of and would just like a tasty treat for your dogs?

No matter what, here’s a tasty puppy pleasing use for hot dogs (or turkey dogs)

Here is a simple way to make your dog's treats out of hot dogs! My dogs love these and they are so easy to make!

This is Buddy, quite possibly the pickiest ex-stray lab ever and he loves these!

The first dog I had as an adult was a Blue Heeler mix named Spunky. He was an awesome dog, my sworn protector… but he was a little crazy! To tame his craziness a little we enrolled in dog training classes. I needed to learn how to handle a dog with his energy level and he needed to learn to listen.

One of the things we learned during those classes was how to make these treats! The class instructor gave us the “recipe” during the first class and had us make them to bring to all future classes. These are perfect for training, you can even cut the hot dogs into halves or fourths to make them perfect tiny rewards, they are also inexpensive so since you use a lot for training it makes them a nice affordable option.

Here’s what you’ll need for these hot dog dog treats

Hot dogs- quality does not matter, super cheap ones work, beef ones will make your dogs super happy, turkey dogs work really well too. I’ve never tried them with vegetarian hot dogs, so I’m not sure how they’d work.

A sharp knife

Paper towels

Start by slicing the hot dogs into 1/4 inch slices (this does not have to be exact). Then line a plate with 2 or 3 paper towels. Spread the hot dog slices out in an even layer on the plate and cover with another paper towel.

You are now going to microwave these poor hot dogs to death. Because microwaves vary I can’t give you an exact time, mine takes about 6 minutes. Zap them in 2 minute increments, and check in between. If you’ve chopped them into smaller pieces the cook time will be much shorter. When they are about half way done they’ll look like this.

If they are cooking unevenly rearrange them a little, move the center ones to the edges and the edges to the center so they all cook the same.

Keep going, you’re not there yet. Your kitchen will start to smell like some kind of scary diner… light a candle and open a window.

Here’s what they look like when they’re finished. They are basically dehydrated, and kind of feel like styrofoam. Remove them from the microwave with care, the plate will be super hot!