Homemade treats can help your dog’s joints

Turmeric can be a great boost to dogs with stiff joints, particularly in combination with black pepper: piperine increases the bioavailability of curcumin by more than 150%!

Give your old dog a new lease on life with these simple cookies, adapted from thecookierookie.com:

Ingredients

300g plain flour (2.5 cups)

1 large egg

270g peanut butter (1 cup)

225ml water (1 cup)

1 tbsp honey

2 tsp turmeric

Pinch of black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking sheet.

2. Combine the ingredients in a large bowl until a stiff dough is formed.

3. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until ½ an inch thick

4. Cut into shapes, I used bone shapes.

5. Bake for 15 minutes until golden; reduce baking time for smaller biscuits.

Note: The maximum recommended daily dose of turmeric for dogs is 0.5 tsp per 10kg of body weight, so a small dog could safely eat the whole batch over four days (although that’s a lot of peanut butter!). As always with feeding peanut butter to dogs, check the ingredients for the sweetener Xylitol which is toxic for them.