Dogs and Chocolate

Dogs and Chocolate: A Wake Up Call

I cannot put enough stress on the danger chocolate presents for dogs. This Sunday something happened to me, and I want to share it with all of our LoveToKnow visitors. No matter how careful you are, sometimes things just go wrong. It can happen even when you're as prepared as I am. I know my regular readers understand that chocolate is toxic for most dogs. However, we cannot always predict what is going to happen.

On Sunday I had a friend sleep over. She brought a bag of chocolate chip cookies and a bag of chocolate bars. I had asked her not to place the bag on the floor, but somehow it wound up there anyway, and I did not know about it until Monday morning. We went out for coffee on Monday morning, and when I got home, to my horror, my Lab Senny was in the living room with a plastic package in his mouth. He had a guilty look on his face, like a child who just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I ran to him and took the plastic package out of his mouth and ran to my bedroom. To my horror, Senny had eaten not only the entire bag of cookies, but the entire bag of chocolate bars as well!

I know there were about twelve chocolate bars in the bag. Now, Senny has eaten chocolate before and did not get sick, but this was a lot of chocolate. Some dogs are very allergic to chocolate, and others are more tolerant of it. Luckily, Senny falls in the first category.

I called my vet, and he said to just watch Senny since he has done this before. He said if Senny looked like he didn't feel well to bring him in, but that I could also give him a teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide to help make him throw up the chocolate. Lucky for me, Senny is a canine garbage can. He was and is ok and never got sick, but the entire situation reminded me just how easily accidents can happen.

Avoid Holiday Hazards

During the holidays, many of us keep presents on the floor under the tree. If you have unknowingly received a gift of chocolate or other food forbidden to dogs, you may not even realize it. If you have a dog like I do, you could come home from a day at work, to see the gifts under the tree gone!

I simply can't stress this enough; be very careful at holiday time. Even though we may be a bit distracted with entertaining holiday visitors, this time of year can be a time bomb if you are not thinking, as it was for me on Monday morning.

If your dogs seem to want chocolate as badly as mine, here is a safe holiday treat you can make for them or to give away to friends. The recipes calls for a carob, a healthy chocolate substitute that both people and pups can enjoy.

Carob Dipped Cookies

Recipe yields 25 cookies

Supplies you will need:

• Cookie sheet
• Double boiler
• Baking rack (for drying the cookies)

Ingredients:

• ½ cup skim milk powder
• 1 cup brown rice flour
• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup wheat germ
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup carob chips (found at any health food market)
• 3 tablespoons dark molasses
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine milk powder, brown rice flour, whole wheat flour, egg, water, and wheat germ.
3. Mix well until you have a dough you can roll. You may need to add a bit more water or flour if you are at a high altitude or the weather is very dry where you are, but this is an easy dough. You cannot go wrong.
4. Roll and cut your dough into any shape you like. If you do not want to roll the dough, make a log shaped roll and put in the refrigerator for one hour until you can slice nice round cookies.
5. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes, and then turn off the oven for at least one to two hours to help dry out your cookies.
6. Once the cookies are cool enough, here is the fun part!

On the stove, in a double boiler:

1. Place the carob chips in the double boiler and let them melt slowly.
2. Slowly mix in ¼ cup powdered milk, salt and ¼ cup water. Take off the heat and whisk very well. You do not want to burn the carob.
3. Once the carob is melted, take your cookie and dip one half in the carob mixture. Then let the cookie dry on a baking rack to let the extra carob drip thru when cool.

You can wrap these treats as a gift, or store them in the refrigerator for up to one week. You can also freeze these treats for up to one month. I like to seal a dozen cookies with my vacuum sealer, and then gift wrap them as holiday gifts. This way everyone is happy and no one will get sick.

Happy holidays from Wendy, Cappy, Senny and Little Man!