Grapes

I have just read another thread on here about foods poisonous to dogs and it said grapes and raisins are poisonous. How much is harmful? My daughter was eating grapes today and wanted to give some to the dog but fortunately only gave him one. I think most dogs won't eat something that is harmful but Reggie will eat everything.
I find this worrying at the moment as there seem to be toadstools growing everywhere and what if he ate one while out walking.

I wouldn't have thought one grape is going to harm him, and if it was, I think you would know by now quite honestly, I think!

I've had dogs in the past that used to get the raisins out of my bag of mixed nuts coz I didn't like the raisins, and they never caused them any problems. We do have a very good thread on here somewhere showing you just about everything that is harmful to dogs, and some of the things on there are quite unbelievable, like apple pips and avocados, who would have thought?! Potato skins, not the potato, but the skins.

Yes, those mushrooms are growing like mad at the moment due to the recent rain and now the heat, and I did notice this afternoon that my dog sniffed a little patch of them in my garden, and turned her nose up and walked away, so like you say, I'm sure dogs know when something is quite poisonous growing in the ground at least.

If your dog ate a couple of bunches of grapes she probably would be ill. It`s not going to happen though is it?
Onions, tomatoes, garlic, raisins, ice cubes etc... all these pop up on a thread regularly promising that your dog will keel over and die if he has a spoonful of spag bol and a lolly.
If you look closer at the original research you`ll find it recommends dogs don`t ingest them in certain quantities.
Which is where common sense comes in.

Funnily enough I saw a friend of mine two days ago who has a typical labrador (dustbin on legs ) - he managed to drag a whole bag of grapes off the work surface and scoffed the lot. No ill effects whatsoever, although she was worried for a little while!

I nagged my mother for years to try to stop her feeding her dogs chocolate. In the end they would stop eating any else but there sweet treats. Trouble is that my well fed dogs have never made it past 12, she has never had a dog that failed to make it to 15. One actually lived to 17.

I asked my vet once about this expecting her to be horrified, but instead she said that it was similar to peanuts with human. Most of us can eat them by the bucketfull, but one can make some very sick indeed.

I wish there was more research on the benifits of things like chocolate, as I would sure like to get a few more years for my dogs. As it is I am scared that my dog would react badly.

I used to play 'catch' the grape with both ours, till I found out they were poisonous to them They love them!

Keisha once pinched a full bunch off the top and ate the lot, luckily she's a large dog and it didn't do her any harm, the fruitbowl is now higher up.

That's a food allergy/intolerance though, totally different to toxicity.

Whilst it may be a case of these things needing to be eaten in large amounts, I don't think it harms to be aware and avoid them. I won't panic and rush my dogs to the vet if they picked up a few grapes, licked the last of some onion gravy off my plate, etc. but I wouldn't purposely feed them either. There are plenty of alternative, healthier foods I can feed as a treat. I wouldn't suggest anyone beat themselves up because they've been feeding their dogs grapes, and I'm sure we'll find out in 5 years time that the carrots we suggest feeding as a healthy low-fat treat are proven to have some kind of toxic quality in large amounts or something like that, but like I said, it's not going to be the end of the world to stop feeding your dog something we know poses a small risk.

I certainly wouldn't trust a dog to not eat something that's harmful though - one of my previous dogs scoffed her way through a whole pack of Christmas chocolates one time! Luckily she was fine, being a big dog they have a larger tolerance and none of us were a fan of dark chocolate so it was all milk/white choccies, but she certainly didn't stop and think about how bad chocolate is for her!

Grapes/raisins and chocolate are the two things I definately won't feed. I think a bit of garlic is a potentially beneficial and I see no harm in a tiny bit of onion if in a sauce (don't feed onions directly). But chocolate and grapes, I just don't see the need to risk it. Cain gets on just fine without them (don't even really both with dog choc, he prefers a hunk of juicy sausage!). I would be worried if he ate a few grapes but not panic without obvious ill health signs. If he got hold of a packet of dried fruit, he be straight down the vets, and I'd avoid intentionally feeding them. The thing that worries me is that if grapes do affect your dog, it may only takes a tiny amount to cause problems so I won't feed any.

One grape won't harm them. My son has accidently dropped grapes on the floor many times and my very quick collie X eats them before I can pick them up!! He's fine. No upset stomach or anything. But I would guess that you'd have to feed a few to be any problem.