# My dog can't eat chocolate

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dog-cant-eat-chocolate/20294>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 23, 2000, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dog-cant-eat-chocolate/20294 "2000-05-23T17:48:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aenea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@aenea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aenea)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2000, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dog-cant-eat-chocolate/20294/1 "2000-05-23T17:48:08Z")

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For those of you that know this…move along, nothing new to see here.

For anyone else, and in the spirit of mundane shit I must share, please don’t feed my dog (or yours) any chocolate. Yes, that’s right, the nectar of the gods (chocolate) is poison to dogs.

I had been told that the liver of a dog could not process it, and so it became as a toxin to the dog. This is not the real story.

After doing a bit of reading on the subject I found that it’s actually because chocolate contains theobromine. When ingested by a dog this causes a release of epinephrine which cause the heart to race and can make caridiac arrythmias occur. See this link for more: [www.vetheart.com/choc.html](http://www.vetheart.com/choc.html)

So as we eat our favorite chocolate munchies, although the puppy begs and begs, just say no and eat it all yourself. (I hear you out there; “As if I was going to share anyways…grumble, grumble”)

What about chocolate _flavored_ things though? Since it’s an imitation chocolate flavored ho-ho or whatever, would the dog still get sick from eating it?

Any experts out there?

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2000, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dog-cant-eat-chocolate/20294/2 "2000-05-23T19:17:01Z")

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Hmm. Look what came up as [Hit #10](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/951201.html) during a Google search for “dog chocolate toxic”. I bet **Handy** had forgotten all about it…