Place the warm water, yeast and sugar in a large mixing bowl. You should see some activity in a few minutes.

Add the flour, melted butter and salt and mix with your hands to form a soft dough.

Flour your kneading surface with some of the reserved flour. Turn out the dough and begin to knead it, until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Add more flour as needed.

Give the mixing bowl a quick rinse and dry. Then place the kneaded dough inside and cover it with a towel. Set it aside until the dough doubles in size.

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Prepare two baking sheets with baking spray.

Heat the water and baking soda in a large dutch oven to a brisk simmer. You'll bring it to a boil before before adding the pretzels.

Punch the dough down and divide it into workable pieces. For example, I had a container of 18 cocktail wieners. I divided the dough into four portions, using half for the wieners and the other half for plain bites.

Pinch off a piece of dough and pat or roll it into a rectangular shape a little narrower than the wiener, but long enough to wrap around with a little overlap. Roll up the wiener and pinch the ends shut. Set aside while you finish forming the others.

To make bites, roll a portion of dough into a rope about an inch thick. Cut into bite sized pieces.

Return the baking soda water bath to boiling.

Melt the butter and have a brush ready. Measure a couple tablespoons coarse salt into a small bowl.

Working in batches, add about 10 pretzel dog bites at a time to the baking soda water bath. They'll sink then begin to rise to the top. After about 30 seconds, remove them from the bath with a spider and transfer to a prepared baking sheet.

When the sheet is full, brush each pretzel with melted butter and sprinkle with salt (you can do this after they come out of the oven, too).

Continue working in batches until all the pretzel dog bites have been in the baking soda bath.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until they are dark brown and baked through.