My dog once ate an entire platter – a double batch – of chocolate fudge.  You couldn’t even tell that there had been any fudge on the platter, it was that clean!  She didn’t die but she did vomit quite a bit.  Here’s what you need to know:

• It’s theobromine – not caffeine - that doesn’t sit well with dogs.
• It causes vomiting, diahrrea, then an increase in heart rate, muscle tremors and eventually seizures. 
• Baking chocolate has six times more theobromine than milk chocolate.
• How much chocolate your dog can eat depends on his/her size. Four ounces of milk chocolate may be too much for a small dog. My 70 pound lab/retreiver mix had about eight ounces of baking chocolate.
• Call your vet if your dog ingests a lot of chocolate. They can tell you, based on the dog’s size and the amount of chocolate, whether you should bring your dog in. My vet told me to run around with my dog to help her start vomiting but said that she’d be fine.

So your dog can eat chocolate … it’s just not a very good idea.

Instead of chocolate try the following treats:

1. Blue Dog Bakery Treats. These are real bakeries you can take your dog to to buy treats. If you don’t happen to live near one, you can order their treats through Amazon.
2. Greenies. Our dogs love greenies. They have the added bonus of cleaning their teeth. Even though we have large dogs, I buy the petite sized greenies so I can give them treats more often.
3. Meat flavored treats. In a test where dogs were offered dirty baby diapers, a can of spam and gourmet dog treats, most of the dogs sniffed the baby diaper first, then ate the spam. You may like chocolate, but your dog probably prefers meaty stuff.

Get your dog a non-chocolate special treat today!

Photo by Farl.