There’s nothing better than getting friends and family together to celebrate Thanksgiving with a spectacular Thanksgiving feast. But if your family includes members with four paws, fur, and a talent for snaffling things they shouldn’t, extra care is needed.
Thanksgiving offers our dogs numerous opportunities to eat something they shouldn’t. Our dogs can get themselves into a lot of trouble in a very short space of time. Whether it’s well-meaning guests slipping something tasty from their plate or a stolen treasure from a momentarily unguarded table, nothing dampens the holiday spirit faster than a sick dog.
So here are our tips for dogs and thanksgiving; keeping the holiday spirit alive and our dogs safe.
House rules
While your guests may mean well, feeding your dog inappropriate or even dangerous foods will not go down well with you or your dog. Set up some house rules so that everyone knows what is and isn’t acceptable behavior towards your pet.
If your guests are inexperienced with dogs or you think they will succumb to puppy dog eyes, keep your dog away from the table. Separating your dog from the rest of the family is not a punishment. It’s a safety measure that you can teach your dog to enjoy by making it an enriching experience.
Interactive feeders are a great way of keeping your dog occupied while apart from the family group. They can be stuffed with a variety of fillings and frozen to make the experience last even longer.
Talking Turkey
Plain turkey meat is okay for your dog as long as it’s cooked and boneless. On the whole, the lean white meat is easier to digest than the darker fatty meat, so it is less likely to upset your dog’s stomach.
Stay away from giving your dog thanksgiving turkey skin. Not only is it fatty, but all the butter and spices that are rubbed into it make it additionally hard for your dog to digest.
Make no bones about it
While offering your dog, some turkey pieces are OK; cooked bones are off limits.
While raw bones can be fed safely (with supervision), cooked bones should never be given to your dog. Cooking a bone changes its structure, drying it out and making it brittle. This increases the chances that the bone will splinter as your dog chews, and these splinters are problematic.
Splinters can cause severe injuries, including cuts, lacerations, and blockages in the mouth, throat, stomach, and intestines. So keep your pets well away from all cooked bones, especially birds, as the bones are hollow and much more likely to crack.
Bin there, done that.
Bin safety is vital. Turkey smells, and it smells delicious to your dog. No matter how well you hide the turkey carcass, you will not fool your dog.
Hunting for food comes naturally to our dogs, and if you don’t secure the remains of your Thanksgiving meal, it’s likely to make a reappearance all over your kitchen floor.
What’s more, it’s not only the turkey bones that your dog is going to find in your trash. Any number of food and non-food items are temptations for your dog and potentially dangerous.
Chocolate
It goes without saying that you should never give your pet chocolate. However, it can be easy to forget to keep candy and sweets out of your dog’s reach in the midst of such a busy time.
Not only that, but visitors may not know the danger that chocolate poses to your dog. So make sure that it’s covered as one of the house rules or keep your dog away from your guests and temptation.
I want to be alone
Let’s face it, not every dog wants to socialize. We may want to include our dogs in all the festivities, but it’s much more relaxing for some dogs to chill out away from all the noise. An overexcited or stressed dog is not a happy one. Dogs can struggle to cope with the higher than usual visitors and noise levels around the holidays.
Unfortunately, busy owners may not notice the signs that your dog is showing you that they’re uncomfortable, they don’t have many options. A stressed dog is much more likely to show unacceptable behaviors, like not leaving people alone, humping, and nipping.
Keep everyone safe and provide a quiet, secure place for your dog to escape to if they need to.
If you can’t stand the heat
Stay out of the kitchen. While staying out of the kitchen is impractical for you, there are many reasons why it’s a good idea to keep your dog out.
Not only are kitchens full of inherent dangers – hot pans, knives, boiling water, and dog toxic foods, to name a few. But tripping over a dog that’s determined to see what you’re up to and it’s a recipe for disaster.
Although it’s not always possible to segregate your dog, it’s worth teaching your dog the command ‘go-to place.’ Simply put, it means that your dog can safely remain in the kitchen with you, where you can both keep an eye on each other.
Just a small one for me
Indulging in a small ( or not so small) glass or bottle of something alcoholic is common on Thanksgiving, but keep it well away from your dog. Even a small amount of alcohol can have devastating consequences for dogs. Unfortunately, ethanol poisoning is common at this time of year. And it’s not only alcohol drunk for a glass or bottle that is dangerous. Any food that contains alcohol, like rum cake, for example, is potentially lethal for your dog.
What’s more, if baking bread is on your things to do list this Thanksgiving, the uncooked dough carries the same risk to your dog as alcohol. Our dog’s stomach provides the perfect environment for the yeast in the dough to grow and ferment. So not only is your dog at risk of alcohol poisoning, but the expanding dough can damage organs and create breathing difficulties.
Finally, a word of warning about turkey accompaniments: it’s hard to think of a turkey dinner without some stuffing. Yet many stuffing recipes include onions or garlic that, along with vegetables like leeks, are members of the Allium family and are toxic to dogs.
All members of the Allium group contain a compound called N-propyl disulfide. This compound affects the red blood cells leading to anemia. In severe cases, the effects of N-propyl disulfide can lead to internal organ damage and even death. So keep the stuffing where it belongs and well away from your dog.
Thanksgiving foods for dogs
While it may seem like a long list of don’ts, there are some foods you can give your four-legged friend as a special treat this Thanksgiving in moderation.
- Turkey, plain white meat
- Cranberries, fresh (not in sauce)
- Mashed potatoes
- pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- Carrots
- Peas
- Green beans
- Sweet potatoes
- Apple slices before they go in the pie!
There you have our safe thanksgiving foods that are fine if you want to treat your pet to a little festive treat. But if you’d rather be completely safe, you can always give your dog commercial dog treats made especially for the occasion.
Dogs and Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving should be an enjoyable day spent with friends and family. A day of appreciation and relaxation without the worry of a sick dog.
While we may view our dogs as members of our family and want to include them as much as possible in the day’s atmosphere, their safety should come first. Because a happy, healthy dog is always something to be thankful for.