People Food May Shorten Dog's Life

It can be hard for pet parents to resist the sad eyes of their beloved pooch starring up at them begging for human food.

Sherry Woodward, an animal behavior consultant for Best Friends Animal Shelter, says giving in is a costly mistake. Best Friends is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping to rescue animals in distress. The organization led the rescue mission during Hurricane Katrina.

“I had an experience with a (Yorkshire terrier) that was given bacon every morning for breakfast,” she says. “Anything greasy, fatty or salty is not good. The dog would end up skipping meals, waiting on the bacon.”

The pooch was eventually diagnosed with pancreatitis.

Woodward says human food has fat, grease and spices and these things can cause dogs to have upset stomachs, bloating and gas.

Additionally, she says, humans eat fatty and greasy foods "and, as a country, are overweight."

Most Serious Threats

Although dogs should not eat human food, Woodward says, there are a few foods that can pose the most serious threats to their health. This list includes alcoholic beverages, caffeine, chocolate, fat trimmings, raisins and grapes, chicken and turkey bones, onions, macadamia nuts, salt and sugar.

Woodward says alcoholic beverages can cause a coma; caffeine may adversely affect the heart and nervous system; chocolate can be toxic; fat trimmings can cause pancreatitis; raisins and grapes can damage the kidneys; and nicotine can affect the digestive and nervous systems.

As for salt and sugar, “It’s just like with humans, animals don’t need them because there is no real benefit,” Woodward says.

If you feel that you must give a pooch food from the table, vegetables, such as broccoli and carrots, have minimal nutritional value and are OK for dogs to consume.

"They serve as good roughage for dogs," she says.

Nevertheless, Woodward says consulting a veterinarian is crucial when deciding what type of dog food a pooch should be fed.

No Bones About It

Many have likely heard that bones are not good for dogs, but some masters continue to give them as treats.

Woodward said cooked bones are brittle and become shards in a dog’s mouth and digestive system, leading to health complications.

Jamie Wolf, a pet lover, advocate and doggie day care owner, also does not believe that dogs should be fed human food.

"I feel it leads to a lot of problems -- health and behavioral problems," says Wolf who owns Pet Lover Central in Boca Raton, Fla.

She adds that feeding a dog human food teaches a pooch how to beg. Human food is also nutritionally unsound for them.

Wolf says dogs that are given human food are typically overweight.

At her doggie day care, she encourages her clients to resist making their dogs "little humans."

Even though pet parents may want to give a little bit of eggs or burgers, they should realize that there will be serious consequences.

"Everything has a much bigger affect on them," she said. "One serving of bacon is like a week's worth for them."

Wolf says that she can spot a dog that is not receiving proper nutrition because it is eating human food or poor quality dog food because of shedding or a poor coat. She says what is going on in the inside will show in the dog’s appearance. This could also mean cloudy eyes.

As with humans, dog’s diets determine longevity.

"What you feed them really determines their life span," she said.

Stop Your Beggin'

Woodward says that it is not too late if pet parents have been slipping their pooch a few scrapings from the table.

“Stop rewarding them,” she says, to correct the bad behavior. “They do what works, and if it doesn’t work, they don’t do it.”

Setting the human’s and dog’s mealtime together but in different areas of the home can also correct the behavior.

Woodward adds that if a pet parent cannot resist rewarding a pooch, she should buy a toy that can be filled with dog food or treats that have a nutritional value and “spoil away.”

A Kong is filled with food or treats and keeps dogs busy because it takes energy and time for the dog to get to the inside.

I have some trouble with it. Up until about 10 years ago we always fed the dogs what we had leftovers of and with a bowl of mash (which you can't get anymore). We never had an animal get sick or die an untimely death due to what they ate. Then when we got Co and we put her on commercial dog food - she died of cancer, then Cera was on commercial dog food - she died of cancer and Diane's cat was on commercial cat food and she died of cancer. I do agree with some of the things that this guy says but certainly not all. I put a post in here awhile ago in the thread 'Pet Food - Are we killing our animals....' after I had done some research and talked to some vets in person and on line. I have found one commercial dog food up here that puts nothing else into their food, no additives of any kind and I can get it up here but I have so far been unable to find it in the US. The canned food is called Merricks and it comes from Amarillo, TX and the dry food that I give her is Dick Van Pattons (the actor) Natural Balance and it is made in Patoima, CA and I have not been able to find it in the US either.

Yes, I agree and like Laser here, he won't eat anything except one kind of cat food and the gravy off of Roo's food that I drain off for him. The cat food that he eats is not one of the healthiest brands either. But until I hit on something that he will eat he is stuck with this stuff. I have tried just leaving food in the dish for him and he won't touch it, he will go out and catch a shrew and then he upchucks that because cats are not supposed to eat them. He just vomits them and then he is fine again. The cat foods have carcinogens in most of them too, except for the Merrick foods again and Lase won't touch them and yet he will eat the gravy off of the Merricks dog foods.

If eating people food will shorten a dogs life I wonder if eating dog food would make us live longer?

We are trying to decide if we want a Saint Bernard puppy.  A friend of Esther's has one she needs a home for.  I have always liked Saints, might take a lot of dog food.

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I'm switching to dog food.

So has anyone tried switching to dog food yet?  The items they say will shorten a dog's life have also been shown to shorten a people's life.  I think a dog could safely eat from Denny's plate these days.  He has switched to a healthy eating lifestyle.

One of the dogs we had growing up would eat anything except oranges. By the way, he lived to be around 20 or 21 (we didn't know his exact age).

While I was laid up so much Roo was back on dog food but she will be going back onto people food in a couple of weeks.