We’ve been having trouble lately with our dog Dodger and food. Ever since my oldest daughter went to college Dodger has been stealing food constantly. I think she must’ve been feeding him more than we realized! Dodger has always eaten food off the counter or out of the garbage can. He also regularly rips open ziploc bags because he assumes that anything stored in a Ziploc bag must be delicious. In the past he has opened Ziploc bags containing things like flashcards because he just assumes they have food inside them.
Last year Dodger ate an entire container of raisins and had to spend two days at the emergency vet clinic on IV fluids, which as you can imagine cost a fortune. So we have been much more careful about not leaving food out on the counter where he can get it.  But lately he has started taking food out of the pantry. Last weekend he got a bag of walnuts out the pantry and ate most of the bag. Luckily walnuts are not toxic to dogs, but some of the things in pantry are, like chocolate and macadamia nuts. So we have to come up with a new food storage system that prevents him from getting things that could harm him.
Of course remembering to close the pantry doors would help. But we are used to leaving them open, and Dodger is fast. It only takes a few minutes and he is scrounging for food. So our current plan is to put all the things which are very bad for dogs up on a high shelf in a hard plastic container. That way if we forget he shouldn’t be able to get anything harmful. Hopefully with this two-pronged approach we will keep him from getting foods that would hurt him and avoid another huge vet bill.
So far this is the list of the foods we have to keep out of his reach:
- raisins
- chocolate
- macadamia nuts
- coffee
- tea
- onions
- garlic
- sugar free gum and candy
If you know of any other foods we should put on our list please let me know!
I love this post. We have two dogs who are both a adept at stealing food. Sometimes they do it plain site (the nerve!) and other times they are stealth. Our younger dog is only 5 months old. Right from the beginning, it was clear she was going to fact anything she could get her paws on. I tried to convince our kids to name her Hoover or Dyson but they didn’t think they didn’t get the joke. So, they named her Stella. She is adorable and, oh man is she is fast. The only good news is that my kids sit at the table and finish their dinners otherwise, Stella is bound to take anything left on an unguarded plate!
I love this post. We have two dogs who are both a adept at stealing food. Sometimes they do it plain site (the nerve!) and other times they are stealth. Our younger dog is only 5 months old. Right from the beginning, it was clear she was going to eat anything she could get her paws on. I tried to convince our kids to name her Hoover or Dyson but they didn’t think they didn’t get the joke. So, they named her Stella. She is adorable and, oh man is she ever fast. The only good news is that my kids sit at the table and finish their dinners otherwise, Stella is bound to take anything left on an unguarded plate!