Here it is, Valentine’s Day. Great holiday for sweets, kisses, and chocolate. It couldn’t hurt to share some of that holiday love with your dog, right? For some of us, our dog is our sweety! As your dog sitters in Chandler, they’re our sweeties, too. So sad to say, that would be about one of the worst things you can do for you dog. Chocolate is poisonous to dogs! 🙁

First of all chocolate contains cocoa which contains a chemical known as theobromine, and of course, caffeine which strongly effects the nervous system of our canine companions. Dogs don’t metabolize the chemical theobromine nearly as well or as quickly as their human family so it remains in their system for a long time, even 24 hours later!

The higher a cocoa content in the chocolate, the more dangerous it is. In other words, white chocolate contains very little theobromine, but something like baker’s chocolate has a very high amount of it. Regardless you should avoid giving or allowing your dog to digest *any* chocolate; including things which contain cocoa such as chocolate ice cream, chocolate milk, etc..  Also the smaller your dog, the more risk there is involved since they have a smaller body weight, and the effects vary depending on the size of your dog.

Some signs that your dog may have chocolate poisoning are:

• Restlessness
• extreme irritability
• diarrhea
• being hyper and overly excitable
• accelerated heart rate
• tremors
• vomiting
• If a very high dose is ingested, you might be looking at seizures and even cardiac arrest.

So truly it is  nothing to mess with.

We know you love your pooch and want to share some Valentine’s Day treats with them. Why not consider these tasty, healthy and *safe* yummy peanut butter/pumpkin treats instead?

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/peanut-butter-and-pumpkin-dog-treats/

Your Chandler dog sitters would hate to see anything happen to your beloved fur-sweety, especially on Valentine’s Day! Keep it chocolate free everyone.