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If it did, Ole Ebo, my beagle would be dead !!!! Tammy had started buying those big Hershey's dark chocolate bars. ( For her health she say )

Anyway, we left for the weekend, left the doggie door open so Ebo could come into the laundry room. Except I forgot to close the door going into the main part of the house. So Ebo thought he was in doggie heaven. He slept on the couch, where he is normally never allowed to get on. He raided every trash can he could find. And he ate that big chocolate bar that Tammy had on her side table by the sofa. ATE IT ALL!! No ill effects. I have had multiple people tell me that chocolate will kill dogs. They never met ole Ebo !!

Gene

My old Filipino pitbull liked Tabasco sauce.

I hate to contradict you Gene, but as a dog-lover I have to comment.

Chocolate does contain 2 drugs that are toxic to dogs, but the amounts of the poisons in the chocolate itself varies by brand and type of chocolate, and a dangerous dose (measured by concentration of poison in the blood) also varies by the size and weight of the dog.

Baking chocolate in general (and dark baking chocolate in particular) contains the highest amounts of the poisons, so a fairly small amount of a good dark baking chocolate in a small dog would cause problems (including life-threatening ones) much faster than a very large dog eating low-quality milk chocolate. And other factors also matter--less problem if the dog's stomach is full of other stuff, because the toxin enters the bloodstream slower and is thus diluted. There's also the danger of longer-term problems that aren't apparent right away, like kidney/liver issues.

So, I honestly laughed at your funny Ebo story, but I was also a little concerned that somebody else might read it and somehow decide it was ok to start feeding their little lapdog chocolate and cause problems. Call me a worry-wort if you want!

I just came back and re read this post. I wonder if the breed of dog makes a difference? Ole Ebo is just a scroungy old, standard sized beagle. Seems like he is the garbage disposal of the doggie kindgom.

I do not make it a practice of feeding him chocolate, and will try to keep him away from it. He must have a cast iron stomach.



Gene

My youngest daughter has a mutt. He's a nice dog, friendly as all get out, but she treats him like a china doll. Has a long list of things I'm not allowed to give him to eat.

When I was a kid I had a dog, also a mutt, and that dog ate all kinds of things like chocolate, nuts, berries, raw eggs, cat turds, beer and some of my Dad's homemade wine that didn't turn out so good. Basically anything she found that smelled interesting. That dog lived to be 18 years old, so I don't think she ever ate anything that hurt her too much.

My son has a King Charles Spaniel. At one time they were down to something like 8 dogs of that breed. So they are all badly inbred. That thing is deaf, all sorts of things go wrong with it. Purely an inside, lap dog, pampered. doubt it lives to be 10. Seems like the mutts have that "hybrid vigor" or something.

Gene

Well, little shit did it again. First time it was funny, he sneaked in a few days ago. If I forget to close the doggie door. Now, he knows where Tammy stashes that chocolate bar, and he heads right for it. Our set up is, Kora, the German Shephard is allowed in the house, through the doggie door, As a rule, Ebo the beagle is not allowed in the house. He gets the shop.

We have been trying to keep them pretty separate. If allowed to run together, Kora gets too wild, and keeps injuring her right knee ligament. So we are trying to let it heal, at least 6 months. It is a real pain to be out in the country, but having to keep the dogs separate. Each dog has their own open air kennal. So that helps make the job easier, but still a lot of putting dogs here and there. I try to let Ebo have two or three free time runs each day. He is old and mostly likes to lay down anyway.

So that is the dog story.

Gene