Bored with baking the usual cookies?

Then you obviously haven’t tried making Flea Fighter Fingers, Plaque-Buster Biscuits, Simple Simon’s Birthday Bones, Tuna Tidbits, or Liver Crisps.

Yes, we’re about to discuss rolling out some dough for Fido and baking up a batch for Bootsie.

Why go to the trouble, when you can order twice-baked, carob-dipped Scottie Biscotti ($8.50 a dozen) from Three Dog Bakery (www.threedog.com) or have Yummy Chummies cat treats made with Alaskan salmon (4-ounce bag, $3.49) delivered to your door from www.cattoys.com?

“Just for the fun of it,” said Jennifer Braxton, buyer for Braxton’s Animal Works in Wayne, Pa. “People with children enjoy doing it because it involves the whole family.”

About 40 million American households own one or more dogs and 34.7 million have one or more cats, according to a survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, as reported in Animal Sheltering, the magazine of the Humane Society of the United States.

Recipes for homemade pet treats are found even in mainstream cookbooks. Esteemed dessert-maker Maida Heatter included a savory dog-biscuit recipe in “Maida Heatter’s Brand-New Book of Great Cookies” (Random House, $25), published in 1995. And bread guru Bernard Clayton Jr. devoted a short chapter to baking for dogs in “Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads” (Simon & Schuster, $30).

Cookie cutters shaped like dog bones, dog breeds, fire hydrants, cars, paw prints, cats, mice and fish are displayed in cookware stores as well as in pet boutiques.

Convenience mixes such as Buddy Biscuits Bake-at-Home Dog Treats and Buddy Biscuits Bake-at-Home Cat Treats are sold with cookie cutters attached, requiring only water, oil and a quick rollout on the countertop before baking.

Some customers have told Braxton that they bake for pets that are allergic to ingredients in packaged treats. Others want to avoid preservatives or artificial colors and flavorings.

Ingredients that most dogs enjoy, and tolerate well, include peanut butter, white meat chicken, lamb, rice and potatoes. (Where’s the beef? Not all dogs can digest it easily.)

Cats do well with most types of fish, liver and white-meat chicken.

Before you reach for the cookie sheet, consider this caution from Kathryn Michel, a veterinarian and assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School.

“Animals can overindulge just like people. They can get GI (gastrointestinal) upsets from the same overindulgence,” she said.