Not for the first time we have a neighbourās dog for a few days.
Heās an old black lab, lots of grey hairs, and usually no trouble at all.
Neighbour had previously warned us about not leaving any food within reach, but I hadnāt thought about intact packs of chocolate Christmas presents - all well wrapped and inside carrier bags on the dining room floor.
While I was busy in the kitchen the other night he found one of those big ball packs of Lindor ) and ripped all the outer packaging off, but wasnāt able - thank goodness - to get into the metal ball.
But he also found a pack of Waitrose Orangetti (orange peel in dark chocolate) ripped it open and scoffed the lot! Plus heād ripped open the gift bag it was in.
Of course Iām aware that chocolate is very bad for dogs, but frankly I wasnāt going to take him to an out of hours vet (ludicrously expensive anywhere around here) to have his stomach pumped. So there was a bit of an anxious night Luckily heās been absolutely fine ever since. He wasnāt even sick.
He didnāt touch a pack of dark chocolate ginger, intended for a Dbro who loves it - presumably it didnāt smell sufficiently enticing.
Iām off to the shops later to replace them all.
Apart from that, heās a lovely old boy! š¶
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Very bad dog! š¶
(54 Posts) Had to laugh. I remember my mum hiding a box of Terryās chocolates behind a cushion when we went out and when we returned the old, beloved Boxer had sniffed them out and snaffled the lot! Bad girl 
Dogs are so greedy! A few weeks ago we had visitors and sat at the kitchen table having cheese and biscuits for lunch. They got up to leave so naturally I showed them to the door. When I came back into the kitchen the dog was just jumping down from the table with a block of butter in his mouth. I was only gone a minute. He was most reluctant to drop it and when he did it went straight into the bin. DD said with the price of butter I should have just rinsed it and no one would have been any the wiser šµ
Oh dear...one time I was silly enough to leave my birthday gift bag on the living room floor and went out for breakfast. I came home to 3 packets of orange cream Poppets ripped to shreds and scoffed. I rushed her to the vet who said she would be fine because there's not much chocolate on them but she would probably be bouncing off the walls with a sugar rush from orange creams. She's a wee devil were food is concerned š
Labs are notoriously greedy. Theyāll eat owt.
My little dog once ate the entire contents of a small tub of Vaseline.
She also has a penchant for lip balms.
Crunchy on the outside, smooth and soft in the middle
Never had that with any of our Labs, but with our old ginger cat years ago, I had just been out to buy fish from the fish van when the phone rang. I left the fish on the worktop while I answered the phone - then went back into the kitchen to find the cat nibbling at the fish. I shooed him off the worktop, trimmed the fish with scissors and breadcrumbed it as intended - and hubby was none the wiser!
If it makes you feel any better, Iām in the same boat, as my spaniel is the greediest dog ever, and he snaffled a Go Ahed biscuit with raisins in off the coffee table yesterday evening while my back was turned for 10 seconds. Down in one gulp. Raisins can be highly toxic to dogs and cause kidney failure so I was up in the night and first thing this morning to check him. Heās absolutely fine. They know how to stress us out!
TBH back in the day before we knew about such things we used to give our dogs anything and everything. The only dog I know of who actually died ate a whole box of chocolates that were under the tree. My current dog is probably gluten intolerant so she has nothing except a certain dog food and whatever she can snaffle from under the table!
I'm glad he is OK. The larger, the dog the less the problem with eating chocolate apparently.
I came home from school one Christmas with all my loot - ferrero rochers, Lindors, After Eights, Quality Street etc - and accidentally left the door to the study open. In the morning I found our golden retriever had eaten every single box of chocolate. Not even sick!
Vets are kept very busy over Christmas period with dogs eating chocolates mince pies and/or Christmas cakes. Chocolate liqueurs with alcohol inside is even more dangerous. A vet I know was giving a talk about dog first aid situations and she volunteered the info that her own terriers had devoured two large Christmas cakes and chocolate! She spent Christmas morning at her surgery making her dogs sick then placing them on drips. Luckily they survived.
Yes, I think raisins, like grapes, are very dodgy for dogs, more so than chocolate.
When I was small we had two "animals", on our street called Bruce . One was a little boy the other a dog.
The dog was notorious for going into people's houses and eating the Sunday roast while it was resting.
One Sunday a lady ran out of her house shouting "Bruce has eaten my meat." Guess who got the smack and who was found later with a bone.
The whole street was in an uproar and crying with laughter.
One thing I noticed, he didnāt looked remotely abashed! Our two former dogs would def. know if theyād done something they shouldnāt, would hide under e.g. a table and look sheepish.
This old boy - and I did utter some very cross words - evidently didnāt give a toss!
Many years ago when DH and I both worked, we had two house dogs - springer spaniels. Iād done our Christmas food shopping at M&S and took it home in my lunch hour, letting the dogs out in the garden as usual. To this day I still donāt know how they managed to get the bags down, but when I returned at 5 PM, all that was left was a bottle of sherry, rolling around the kitchen floor! Both dogs werenāt ill, but their poo came out ready wrapped in green M&Ms carrier bags!
DH had a particular liking for Thorntonās rum truffles, which were always in short supply around Christmas time. His sister hadnāt managed to get any, so instead had lashed out on some hand made rum truffles that came in around 80p each. She wasnāt best pleased to find out when weād gone into the dining room to eat, DD2ās little Shih Tzu had doubled back into the family room and scoffed the lot. Surprisingly he wasnāt ill either.
A bug dog eating milk type choc probably ok.
Before we all knew chocolate is lethal my spaniel always seemed to find the hidden Easter eggs and Christmas chocolate. She lived happily to 15.
These days we all know much more so life is less entertaining, and more scary ššš¶šµāš«
We used chocolate buttons to 'train' our little Cairn.
He learned very quickly.
This was before we knew chocolate was dangerous to dogs, and he never was ill.
My son's labradoodle was given a hot cross bun by a visiting child and spent the rest of Easter at the vets on a drip.
Labs are known for this type of thing ... my daughter's lab is lovely, although a rascal at times. When he has things when I look after him ... I get the blame for not putting things out of his reach ... although does the same at home ... once when I was there dog sitting. I decided to take some chicken pieces out of the freezer, thought if I cooked about 2 or 3 would save cooking any the next day ... little rascal stole the plastic bag & yes swallowed it ... Sunday aswell !!! Phoned up vet, as soon as I mentioned his name surprise, surprise yes he knew him ! Phoned up friends in case I had to take him to the vets ... cut a long story shorter came out the other end the next day ... may I add ... if you look after anyone else's animals get the owner to write a letter you have authority to have veterinary care, also contact the vets to let them know ... if not as not your animal won't treat them ...
Years ago (before we knew chocolate was dangerous for dogs) we had a lab and I used to give him the chocolate orange and strawberry creams from my boxes of chocolates as I really don't like them! He was fine. He was very greedy (aren't all labs!?) and one day I came home from work to find he had eaten a full half pound of butter that I had forgotten to put in the fridge- he was as sick as the proverbial dog- the kitchen floor was covered in yellow foam!! Our current lab when she was a puppy, managed to get on the kitchen table and very proudly walked in to our dining room (we had our son and DIL round for a meal) and showed us her prize- a full roast chicken clamped very firmly in his mouth! Luckily I had cooked 2 (it's not only our lab that's greedy in our house!) so we didn't go without our dinner.
* clamped firmly in HER mouth
Fifty years ago my dalmatien was taught that the only food she was allowed to eat was from her bowl, after permission was given to eat, even for the rare treats. It honestly did work whether food was left by toddler DD on the floor or DD walking around with a finger biscuit. However, the week I was away and my DM came to pet sit all was ruined. From then on, she food watched and couldnāt be trusted.
Talking of greedy labs, after a friendās black lab had had his dinner, he was given a big dish of leftovers from us humansā fish and chips. Oddly he didnāt quite seem to be devouring them in a flash as he usually would - more a case of just eating them to be polite.
Friend later realised that heād already had 2 full doggy dinners - her MiL, who was staying at the time, had also fed him!
My friends lab ate the weighed out ingredients for a large Christmas cake when she went to answer the door. He was smelly but otherwise, a fat happy lab
DD keeps chocolate in the fridge. One of her dogs managed to open the fridge and eat some chocolate - luckily she was ok too.
It is poisonous for dogs but it depends on size of dog and how much they scoff.
You're very organised, Witzend. Christmas gifts bought and wrapped!
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
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