giving dogs leftovers - do you?

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My goldie eats a decent dog food but we often give her the leftovers from our dinner - last night she had a nice bit of plaice in her bowl and this morning, her clicker 'treats' were little pieces of bacon and leek quiche which she adores . Is this acceptable amongst doggy owners or should she just have her own food? Would add though that she is never fed from the table so doesn't hang around scrounging at meal times !!

Our dog loves drink time in the evenings! Seriously. She hangs around looking hopefully at the bottles coming out. And she always gets her treat. She loves an ice cube!

MMeLindt

Ours is the same. If you put stones on a plate, she would steal them.

Saying that though, I think she thinks stones are quite tasty. She also like dishcloths and dirty socks.

Shiny - we have to feed the cat upstairs now. He gets mainly a complete dried food, with the occasional sachet of whiskas, and he is used to going to his bowl for a snack whenever he wants it, so his dried food bowl is always down - and this was toooo much of a temptation for a brown lab puppy, so the cat's food moved up onto the landing, and we got a stairgate.

lol at stones on a plate. I have another stone lover here why is that do you think?

New puppy also has a penchant for the smorgasobord of snails that are out on the patio of an evening. I have lost count of how many I have fished out of her mouth. Now I have to do a snail sweep before I let her out. Am VERY glad I accidentaly mentioned this to the vet as snails are carriers of lung worm which her regular wormer doesn't touch so we are having to go in to get her weighed for dosing of a different wormer

I have been soaking her kibble in left over veggy water though.

I knew most of the forbidden foods but not all. Am surprised at the cat food - our pup adores dried cat food and I had been using it as treats when clicker training as it is tasty but small. Guess I need to find a replacement. Are small amounts of cheese okay as treats or is this too high in fat?

Thanks to everyone for the links - very interesting.

Daphne gets the ends of cheese. Bet that is on the banned foods list.

Am slightly upset (as is Daphne) that alcohol is on the list. She will not be happy if I ban her champagne cocktail. We sit on the terrace in the evening together and have a drink, some cheese and watch the boats on the lake.

Funnily, Phoebe tries to steal my wine if I leave it at puppy height. No chance girl

MmeLindt - we give our dog cheese, he's very funny, he knows when it's being cut and comes into kitchen for a small cube. When he was a puppy and we were training him we use dot give him small cubes a s a reward, the vet said it was ok as long as it wasn't loads.

Why would you feed your dog string?? Our dog loves cheese and breakfast cereal and carrots!

He will also drink your tea if you leave it on the floor! He is not over weight though and has a normal digestion.

Dogs are scavengers and I was under the impression that they had a fairly robust digestive system because of that!

This website has another take.

I dont my dog would handle alcohol well. He is a JRT and I dont want him to develop small dog syndrome

My JRT's have leftover brocoli, carrots, rice and pasta and meat mixed in with their dog biscuits. Goes down a treat

Just as an aside, I met a rather unusual lady at a party a few weeks back who with the greatest of sincerity advised me to give my puppy a brick as a chew toy.

The conversation went as follows

UL (unusual lady): oooh is your puppy chewing lots?

me: oh yes!

UL: You should give her a brick to chew on. I give my dog a brick and he loves it.

me: A brick? What's a brick then? (thinking it might be along the lines of a kong)

UL: A brick

me: A brick?

UL: yes a brick

me: what like a brick brick

UL: yes! a brick brick

me: really ? your dog likes chewing on a brick

UL: Yes! and when he finishes the brick we just go out into the garden and get him a new one. He loves his bricks.

me: Okey dokey then. It was lovely to meet you

Slubber - bricks are excellent.

I would add that so is coal. We used to feed large chunks of coal to pigs and the dogs were not averse to a nibble.

Cleans the teeth and the guts at the same time. Charcoal used to be used for the same purpose.

Very rarely give my springer leftovers. He would dearly love them but his digestive system doesn't cope well with anything other than Burns dog food and he needs to lose a bit of weight.

He would eat all day long if he could though and it doesn't stop him tryig to source his own food out and about. He did once eat three whole rabbits out and about, one after the other (and was very sick afterwards).

Surely there isn't a woman alive who has not yearned to nibble coal during pregnancy?

Or was that just my mother?

lolol at coal nibbling wimmin

om nom not

I didn't chew coal during any of my pregnancies, I'm afraid.

Our puppy is rather fond of chewing stones, though - she nicks the ornamental ones that I've collected from various holidays, that were in a big enamel bowl planter I've got in the garden. Same with the oyster shells I collected one year, and used round the plants in the pots on the patio. I do worry about her teeth.

I don't understand,

i give my dog cooked lamb bones (from my friend as I don't cook meat). He adores it, I thought it was fine to give them cooked bones, I thought raw bones gave dogs worms.

Dogs aren't designed to eat cooked bones- the bone splinters and can stick in the gut (I have had to unblock lots of poor dogs with bone fragments stuck in their rectum- really not nice!)

Have to admit, my dogs get nothing other than dog food (meanie that I am!) Oldboy has a sensitive digestive system, so anything unusual just gets fired out the other end and he is miserable. My mum used to give them bits and pieces and I found they became unbearable moochers at her house. They couldn't settle, leapt up anytime she moved her leg, constantly looking for food. The other problem is that some dogs fed with leftovers quickly cotton on to the fact that human food, with all its salt nd flavourings, tastes better than dog food, and they then slowly start refusing their own food, which means the owner needs to do a lot of research to come up with a suitably balanced diet rather than just feeding a diet designed specifically for the dietary needs of the dog, based on years of research.

I also find a lot of dogs fed on human scraps do get fat. People forget that a dog's calorie requirement is far smaller than a human's, so a small treat to us can be a big calorie injection to a dog.

But as long as your dog's main diet is balanced, and he/ she isn't overweight, and you avoid all the "forbidden" foods, I don't get too worked up about it!

I try and give mine left over vegetables, but no onions, potatoes, pasta, spaghetti and bread. I wasa bit more lax with the old one would eat anything except for brie
He too is a springer totally unmotivated by food, our last one was as well. He is only young though and skinny as a rake.

DH dipped his finger in his G&T the other day and held it out to the pooch, who sniffed it and recoiled! Which makes you think...

my dogs eat their own dry complete, along with raw chicken wings, turkey legs, eggs (inc shells) veggies (raw) and anything else!

they dont get human sweet treats like choc and biscuits, but do get a mini milk icecream in the summer!!!!

because of the raw they have the cleanest teeth ever!

only bits of meat or fish here, without bones. And he cleans up under the the kitchen table after dcs, so little bits of rice, pasta, whatever.

My pooch is off his food and moping today, so going to take him to the vet in a mo.

Gosh, ok thanks JOOLY, I won't give him cooked bones anymore, I thought only chicken bones were a problem.

Do people give raw bones to thier dogs then ?

What sort is best ?

Should I ask the butcher for them ?

Would he have them ?(I've never stepped into a butchers)

Should I expect to pay for them or would he be glad to get rid of them ?

I must say I find the thought of raw bones around the house a bit repellent.

Thanks...

They are horrible in the summer as they attract flies [vom]