Do you give your dog any chocolate ever?

aonb

my dogs would swop every bone, teddy, chew, kong, sirloin steak for a doggie choc! Ditto for a real choc, but they dont get those - the expression on their faces when we eat chocolate but dont give them the last corner as we do with everything else is heartbreaking!

(Our dogs get the dinner plates to lick every night - before going in the dishwasher - top dog gets the extra plate as 'seconds' - I swear that dog can count!!)

angeldaisy

this thread made me chuckle - much needed today!

Rusty my 11 yr old collie has never been interested in food, he just eats to live, never stole anything - once it was not on the floor! - anything on the floor automatically gets hoovered - usually spat back out again...

Tara on the other hand is uncivilised, last christmas (we'd only had her a couple of months) and unused to food stealing behaviour, left advent calenders on the shelf at the back of the couch. came home to find them destroyed! she seeks out sweets from hidden places, steals my sons breakfast if he leaves it for more than a minute. Last night she stole his half eaten muller yoghurt and licked it clean - toffee hoops!
But people never learn in my house I never leave my chocolate where anyone else can find it!! Usually the freezer - cos I'm the only one who uses it!

DeVore

The more serious side of chocolate scoffing is called Theobromine poisoning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobromine_poisoning

For the non-scientist out there: LD50 is what you need to look at. Its the "Lethal Dose 50%" number, ie the amount at which 50% of the test subjects died from exposure.

In dogs thats 0.3 grams per kilogram of dog.

So how much chocolate is that? Well it depends how dark it is basically, and how big the dog. But a descent sized bar of 85% dark chocolate is enough to seriously endanger most dogs.

Its half-life (that is, the time it takes to halve its presence in the body) is 17.5 hours. Thats very long because say you start with 100 units of Theobromine in the dog.
17.5 hours later, its down to 50 units.
35 hours later its halved again to 25 units
52.5 hours later its down to 12.5 units.
70 hours later, its down to 6 units.

So, three days later, theres still 6 units left. Thats significant traces of the original dose. If you give the dog chocolate every day or every second day, they arent processing it out of their systems sufficently before they get the next dose. Long term they will build up to a toxic level ...

Bottom line, smoking is bad for humans and chocolate is bad for dogs.

bluecherry74

I don't ever give my dogs chocolate, in fact I'm completely obsessive about what treats I give them and when they get them. They never, ever, ever get a bit of something I'm eating when I'm eating it - so no bits of dinner off my plate and no sneaky crisps or biccies when I'm slobbing in front of the TV. Some of my friends think I'm being mean and am too strict and maybe I am, but the result is that both dogs more or less ignore me when I'm eating.

I do of course save them a bit of my dinner and give it to them afterwards.

nala2012

I don't give it to her but she has sneaked a few things, the most recent being half a packet of oreos. She hides the empty wrapper but i always know cos she gets a big guilty look on her face or hides behind her paws

wandatowell

wandatowell wrote: »

My old man ate the doggy chocolate we got our dog for christmass

Funniest bit was when he turned to mam and said the chocolate tasted funny.

Alun

I used to pinch our dog's "Good Boy" doggie chocolate drops when I was a nipper I thought they were quite nice at the time, mind you I also used to eat the occasional Bonio ... I was an odd child

murria

bluecherry74 wrote: »

I don't ever give my dogs chocolate, in fact I'm completely obsessive about what treats I give them and when they get them. They never, ever, ever get a bit of something I'm eating when I'm eating it - so no bits of dinner off my plate and no sneaky crisps or biccies when I'm slobbing in front of the TV. Some of my friends think I'm being mean and am too strict and maybe I am, but the result is that both dogs more or less ignore me when I'm eating.

I do of course save them a bit of my dinner and give it to them afterwards.

I was just thinking what a meanie you were but you redeemed yourself with the last sentence.

I'm such a bad mammy, I give my dog my last Rollo and the chocolate at the end of my Cornetto. I can't resist his beautiful big brown eyes.

RSpookee

We used to give our old dog quite a bit of chocolate, before we knew the dangers.. she lived to an old age, extremely healthy till her last two weeks! That being said, I would not give any of our other dogs chocolate, I just stick to the proper dog treats. All of our dogs hated those fake chocolate treats

BillyMitchel

Anything my little nephew has he always shares with the dog. Once or twice I caught him sharing some chocolate biscuits! Nothing happened but the dog is 100lb so that's probably why.

Rosier

RSpookee wrote: »

We used to give our old dog quite a bit of chocolate, before we knew the dangers.. she lived to an old age, extremely healthy till her last two weeks! That being said, I would not give any of our other dogs chocolate, I just stick to the proper dog treats. All of our dogs hated those fake chocolate treats

I never give treats.. just never have done. partly cost as I am on a tiny pension but they have never known any different. My cats get more odd bits then they do; cheese mostly as one loves it and has the most beseeching face you ever saw.

fatmammycat

I often share treats with my dog, always have done. Same with my last dog, never made him unwell. This guy neither.

Gael23

A small bit as a treat every so often doesn't hurt. Wouldn't be too often though because chocolate is not good for dogs.

Setun

gimmick wrote: »

As a general rule, no, but he has been known to get half a malteaser now and then. Of course he has known a full bag of malteasers as well - I was lying on the couch watching telly, and the little jerk snook up - "YOINK" and away he went, delighted with himself.

Ha! I left a bag of maltesers on my desk the other day while I went out to do the bins or something. Came back, Tigger back in his bed like nothing had happened - except for the maltesers packet torn open sitting beside him. Luckily there were only two or three left. Still learning with that lad, he certainly keeps me on my toes.

aonb

bluecherry74 wrote: »

I don't ever give my dogs chocolate, in fact I'm completely obsessive about what treats I give them and when they get them. They never, ever, ever get a bit of something I'm eating when I'm eating it - so no bits of dinner off my plate and no sneaky crisps or biccies when I'm slobbing in front of the TV. Some of my friends think I'm being mean and am too strict and maybe I am, but the result is that both dogs more or less ignore me when I'm eating.

I do of course save them a bit of my dinner and give it to them afterwards.

Our dogs always get the plates to lick after dinner (the softies in our family dont scrape the plates too clean :rolleyes:) and we have always given them a corner of toast or whatever. Now they are total nuisances at meal times or having a biccie/coffee - one will start whining when we are eating something, shoving his chin on your lap. One will sit up and beg, with his chocolate brown eyes - hard to resist, but Ive sworn we'll never let any new dogs get in to the habit