Are dogs omnivores or carnivores?

I appreciate wolves are carnivores...

I do think perhaps dogs have evolved (not necessarily the right word..) and are now omnivores. Most eat a tremendous amount of cereal and plant matter now.
Some are able to be healthy and vegetarian (therefore herbivores...)
So.I put it to you all, are dogs omnivores or herbivores. I don't have an answer, I was just musing over it today when I was teaching!

Their dentition is that of a carnivore, so by definition they are carnivorous. Just because they can survive without meat doesn't make them omnivorous. They only eat a 'tremendous amount of cereal and plant matter' because we choose to make them eat it, not by their choice.

Perhaps this will help Ailsa (from an email response to the question of dogs being looked upon as carnivorous or omnivorous in the newsletter of the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition.)

According to Rebecca Remillard, DVM, a Specialist in Veterinary Nutrition:
"Canines are in the order Carnivora, but I think their feeding behaviors are best described as omnivorous. The term carnivore applies to their taxonomic classification, not their feeding behavior. Taxonomically, dogs are members of the order Carnivora, a very diverse group, that includes 12 families of more than 260 species, some of which are herbivorous mammals (the panda). There are three types of feeding behavior (omnivorous, herbivorous and carnivorous) all of which can be found among different members of the order Carnivora."

" Canines are just slightly different from cats in their conversion of foods for life maintenance; dogs are classified as omnivores. They can survive on a diet of either plant or animal origin if it is balanced and diverse. But to thrive and not merely survive, dogs should have a source of animal protein - MEAT - in their diets. There is a huge difference between survive and thrive! Nature made the rules of biochemistry and nutrition and we mortals have no power (and no business, for that matter) to try to bend those rules. For that reason there are truly no adequate vegetarian diets for cats. For that reason dogs thrive on diets based on meat."

Ahhhh so are they sort of both Kath?

No. Just carnivores.

Yip is the short answer Hun, they are true carnivores (body and digestive tract wise) but they can feed as omnivores.

Like I make Cosmo eat carrots...
Never made that dog eat a thing, he eats what he likes, including plants and grass when we are out...by choice. Never eaten grass to eb sick, just entirely for fun, same with the plants he eats.

Thanks Kath...I was thinking just in terms of what they eat you see.. ( the kids were 7) so it was pretty hard to explain why they were classified as carnivores when they were all saying 'my dog eats apples Miss...'
I wasn't thinking ahead to next weeks lesson on teeth! My head couldn't cope with that,it had been a long day! I just spoke about largely meat based diets!

dogs are facultative carnivores. That means that they are true carnivores but can survive on a vegetarian diet.
Unlike cats that are obligate carnivores thus cannot survive with a vegetarian diet.

You are missing the point. You mentioned wolves being carnivorous. Wolves don't pop to the supermarket and purchase carrots and brown rice to chow down on. Humans introduced those elements into their diet.

I'm guessing Jess is technically a carnivore still as she is fed raw