back up whatsapp without icloud?

Im stuck looking for an answer to this question, there should be a way i can connect my iphone 6 plus to my macbook pro or desktop and just download the data from whatsapp? I have been looking for hours and not finding a simple solution.

The options i find are to use the icloud (i don´t want that, i want a hard copy) and itunes..which i tried to do but could not find the backup option for my phone when it was connected, it doesn´t show up.

I would prefer just to have it as a file on my computer, is that not possible?

I start looking for the answer to one issue and it leads to 3 other problems that i have to research.

This is majorly frustrating.

If anyone can tell me, id be grateful