Share a meal with your pet pooch

Does your hound hang around the table begging for titbits and wishing they could eat with their humans – well, now they can! And it’s all for a good cause.

The Noodles4Noodles Cookbook – raising funds for Greyhound Rescue – is full of recipes that are suitable for both humans and hounds, from “Paw’d Thai” and “Hound-dog’s Hokkein” to “Fettucine Bark’onara”.

All the recipes are dog-safe (humans might like to add some seasoning or spices to their own serving) and were “woofed down” by the four-legged taste testers.

Which means your best friend can now also be your dinner date.

Why noodle dishes? The cookbook is part of the Noodles4Noodles fundraising and awareness campaign for Greyhound Rescue, an independent Sydney-based charity that ethically rescues, lovingly rehabilitates, and safely rehomes greyhounds no longer wanted by the racing industry. 

Greyhounds have earned the affectionate nickname of “Noodles” because they are “long, skinny and make weird noodle-like shapes”, Greyhound Rescue president Nat Panzarino said.

The charity, which relies on donations and more than 200 volunteers to undertake its important work, also needs a new home. It is fundraising to turn the old goat shed its team has been working out of into a proper office and rehabilitation space at its Greysland base.

Ms Panzarino said the Noodles4Noodles recipes were a “sometimes” food for your dog but they do provide important behavioural enrichment. And just like humans, dogs – with their superior smell – get bored with the same food and crave something more interesting.

Why not cuddle up on the couch and enjoy a bowl of noodles with your pup, or put out the fine china and make it a dinner date? Share your photos on social media, using #Noodles4Noodles and tag @GreyhoundRescue.

Ms Panzarino said the Noodles4Noodles cookbook “is a novelty and not intended to replace a regular balanced diet, however it is important to provide enrichment to hounds and this is a fun activity for both hounds and humans”.

“It encourages the hound to try new things and allows for interaction with their humans,” she said.

“Dogs have a vastly superior sense of smell – so powerful that studies have demonstrated dogs can smell in stereo and across time! So exposing your hound to new tastes, textures, eating experiences, and of course smells, can be a very exciting activity for them.”

The Noodles4Noodles cookbook is available in a digital version for donations of $25 or more to Greyhound Rescue, and printed copies (posted tin Australia only) for donations of $50 or more