Cooking for the canine epicure

I have two dogs, and both are ridiculously fussy eaters. The not-so-miniature schnauzer won’t touch canned food and will even give the most expensive canned product a withering once-over that borders on revulsion — it’s like watching one of our snobbier local “foodies” painfully examining the offerings at the buffet tables at the Golden Corral.

The lab mix won’t eat anything suggested by the vet and once actually tipped over a bowl of Science Diet dry food with her paw and stalked out of the kitchen in a snit. What’s a parent to do? So I cook for my dogs: real ingredients from the grocery store and farmers market. There are times when these mutts eat better than I do!

This Saturday, the Dog Food Dude — author Rick Woodford — teaches a culinary canine class, “Making Healthy Dog Food” at the Whole Foods Cooking Studio (inside the Whole Foods store at 7401 West 91st Street, Overland Park, 913-652-9633) from 10 a.m. to noon.