Chocolate

My sister in law has a lovely little shih tzu who is very spoiled by herself and my mother in law, in fact IMO he is overweight and I think very heavy for a shih tzu. A few times I have seen them feeding him chocolate, and have mentioned it to my husband and have also told him that chocolate is toxic to dogs (I had hoped that he would correct his sister without me getting involved).
We visited the weekend just gone and I witnessed his sister giving more chocolate to the dog, I did mention in the nicest way that I could that chocolate is bad for dogs but SIL just replied he likes it as a treat.
What else can I try, as I would hate this lovely little dog to die because they are giving him this "treat.

I'd search the news websites for the articles about it. I'm sure it was headline news a few summers ago. An average sized mars bar is enought to kill the average dog, sure I remember reading that.... We won't even give Bentley doggie chocolate!

I guess that she's thinking that she's given it to him before and he seems to be fine, so she'll carry on because she can't physically see the harm she's causing.

From what I've read, it would seem that there are two issues: an 'overdose' of chocolate, or rather the theobromine which is the toxic ingredient and the potential for slow build up of the theobromine.

If the dog eats too much in one go, it's body will start to shut down - it can produce muscle tremors, seizures, an irregular heartbeat, internal bleeding, kidney/liver failure and/or a heart-attack.

Very small amounts may do no harm, but if given regularly, there is still a risk that it is doing harm - e.g. it may be affecting his heart without his owner even knowing, but one day he may keel over from a heart attack.

Perhaps buy her a supply of doggy chocolate drops - these don't have any theobromine in them, so are safe.

As Tessabelle suggests, do some searches on theobromine poisining in dogs so you have some hard facts for her.

If you think she will still carry on, its a bit drastic, but you could consider asking the RSPCA to have a word with her (though I guess that would do nothing for family relationships).

It is a shame when people allow their love for a dog to blind them to the harm they are doing to it. I am sure more dogs die from misinformed love than abuse.

That really is a difficult people problem, and area I don't feel I have any special ability in.

Maybe you could buy the dog a present like dog chocolates, and other dog appropriate treats as you couldnt resist spoiling the dog

Good idea about the doggy chocolate, i think that they see it as he seems ok so everything must be ok.
Thanks for the replys x

Do they know my mother-in-law by any chance?

She has a yorkie which if he was shaved would resembled a small pig! She used to give him rich tea biscuits; a full slice of toast with butter with his breakfast; when she had a strawberry ice cream ice lolly, he would get the centre; at one point she was giving him complete dry food with a tin of dog food on top every day. One day it became too much and he gained that much weight that his cruciate ligament in his back right leg gave way and he had to be operated on. She is not as bad now but still gives him half a rich tea biscuit when she thinks we aren't looking. When we had our other dog, if she went out for the day over the weekend, we would have Tiny for her but he would struggle with a 10 minute walk and get so out of breath, I'd have to then carry him home and at just over 10 kilos, he was a lot to carry!

good idea about the dog chocolate! i would never give jake 'human' chocolate, he has been sneaky and found the odd teeny bit the kids have left lying around, but that is on a very rare occassion.