Thanksgiving Dinner and Your Dog: What's Safe to Share and What Isn't

Thanksgiving weekend means a full house, a lot of food on low tables, and at least one relative who will slip the dog something under the table. It is worth knowing what is fine and what is not before Monday.

Safe in small amounts

• Plain turkey meat. White meat, cooked, with no skin, no bones and no seasoning. A few small pieces is a treat.
• Plain pumpkin. Cooked or canned pure pumpkin, not pie filling. Pie filling has sugar and spices.
• Green beans and carrots. Plain, before anyone adds butter or bacon.
• Plain potato. A bit of cooked potato with nothing on it. Mashed potatoes usually have butter, milk and sometimes garlic, so skip those.

The key word is plain. Most holiday food is safe as an ingredient and not safe once it has been cooked the holiday way.

Keep these away from your dog

• Cooked bones. Turkey bones splinter once they are cooked and can damage the mouth, throat or gut. Keep the carcass well out of reach, including in the garbage.
• Turkey skin, fat and gravy. Rich, fatty food is a common cause of pancreatitis in dogs, and holiday weekends are a busy time for vet clinics because of it.
• Stuffing. It usually has onion and garlic, which are toxic to dogs, cooked or raw.
• Grapes and raisins. These can cause kidney damage in dogs, even in small amounts. Watch for them in salads, stuffing and baking.
• Chocolate and desserts. Chocolate is toxic, and some baked goods and sugar free treats contain xylitol, which is very dangerous for dogs.
• Nutmeg and heavy spices. Common in pies and very rich for a dog.
• Alcohol. Including the last inch in a glass left on the coffee table.

The real risk is the counter, not the plate

Most holiday food problems do not come from what you give your dog. They come from what your dog helps themselves to when the kitchen is busy. A few habits help:

• Push food back from the edge of the counter and the coffee table.
• Take the garbage out as soon as the turkey is carved, or put it somewhere with a door.
• Tell guests, kindly, that the dog is not allowed table scraps. Kids especially.

Give them their own job during dinner

A dog with nothing to do during a two hour dinner will find something to do. Give them something better. Scatter a portion of their regular kibble, or a few small bits of plain turkey, into a snuffle mat right as you sit down. Sniffing out food is tiring in a good way, and it keeps them out from under the table.

A long walk before guests arrive helps too. A tired dog is a much better dinner guest.

If your dog eats something they shouldn't

Call your vet or an emergency clinic right away, even if your dog seems fine. With some foods, like grapes or xylitol, the problems show up later, and early treatment matters. Have the packaging or a rough idea of how much they ate when you call.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Wagbase. If your dog is also shedding all over the good tablecloth, our guide on why dogs shed so much in the fall explains what is going on.