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Chocolate does not convey love for your dog…

The toxicity of chocolate is relative to the size of your dog and the type and amount of chocolate ingested.

Because it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought it might be good to remind everyone that chocolate is not safe for dogs.

PetMD has a great calculator to help you determine when it is time to get your dog to the veterinarian if your dog has had some chocolate. The toxicity of chocolate is relative to the size of your dog and the type and amount of chocolate ingested.

For example my favorite candies are Reese’s Dark Chocolate Mini Peanut Butter cups. I did a little science experiment on them and one of these candies has about 1/4 oz of dark chocolate.

Did you say peanut butter???

My dog Pinball is about 35 pounds. Like so many dogs he loves peanut butter and will not be bothered by the fact that there are wrappers and even some dark chocolate to get through in order to find the coveted peanut butter.

Based on the PetMD chocolate calculator, if Pinball got one of these candies, I would not have to worry. I would watch him closely because at his weight with the amount of dark chocolate in one small dark chocolate peanut butter cup, there would be no symptoms expected. But, because every body is a little different, I would keep an eye on him, AND make sure he got NO MORE.

By the way, it is the compound theobromine that is the culprit here. Theobromine can also be found in things other than chocolate. A few of them are: tea, coffee, cola products, acai berries, coco mulch for the yard, and probably others.

If Pinball were to get 1 oz of baker’s chocolate, I would call the poison control hotline if my veterinarian were not available, and probably take him in to see the veterinarian or emergency veterinarian right away.

There are a number of pet poison hotlines, some charge a fee, and others don’t. Look online to see what works best for you, and here are a couple:

– Pet Poison Helpline

– ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center

For Pinball’s 1 oz of baker’s chocolate, mild to moderate symptoms would be:

  • Vomiting
  • GI Upset
  • Hyper Tension
  • Hyperactivity
  • Restlessness

2 oz of baker’s chocolate would cause moderate to severe symptoms:

  • Vomiting
  • Tremors in muscles
  • Abnormal heart rhythms
  • Elevated heart rate
  • Hyperthermia

3 oz of bakers chocolate would cause severe symptoms:

  • Vomiting
  • Tremors in muscles
  • Abnormal heart rhythms
  • Elevated heart rate
  • Hyperthermia
  • Seizures
  • Collapse
  • Death

When we compare this to 3 oz of milk chocolate which would be expected to cause mild to no symptoms, it is dramatic the difference the type of chocolate can make in terms of toxicity – so – Remember if you have to call the veterinarian, he or she will need to know:

– Dog’s weight,

– Amount of chocolate,

– What type of chocolate

In short – no chocolate is good for your dog, but the darker the chocolate the less your dog will need to ingest to become very sick and potentially lose their lives to a simple piece of candy.

On Valentine’s Day, show your dog you love him or her with a great wild walk in the snow for those of you in the north, or a peanut butter kong, or both. But keep your chocolate up and away.

And for those of you with young kids, send the dog out of the room until the kids are done with their chocolate – save everyone the anguish and let your kids enjoy their treat without worry.

Cooperative Care Workshop

The Three Dogs Training Cooperative Care Workshop is available for enrollment.

This cooperative care workshop starting April 11, 2026 is for anyone who wants to help their dog tolerate and even enjoy the kind of physical care that often makes dogs uncomfortable and even aggressive. IAABC outlines cooperative care in this article.

We care for our dogs to keep them happy and healthy. Sometimes they don’t tolerate that care easily or comfortably. We can help them be more at ease with this care.

Dog in bath tub getting feet washed.

Pax’e stands calmly waiting for her treat while I wash the muck from her feet. No restraint and no struggle!

You can enroll in the cooperative care workshop to prevent your dog from developing handling issues, or you can enroll to fix handling issues your dog has (see limitations below).

This cooperative care workshop will teach you how to desensitize and counter condition your dog to accept and be comfortable with non-preferred body handling activities. These can be –

  • Brushing
  • Combing
  • Ear cleaning
  • Nail trimming
  • Teeth brushing
  • Moderate upkeep between grooming
  • Medication oral, injectable, topical, etc.
  • Accepting equipment, like harnesses, muzzles, cones, etc.
  • Having more successful vet visits
Suzy keeps her eye on the “bucket” as Vicky desensitizes her to petting as a prelude to brushing.

Yes – you might see the bucket game in this class. Thanks Chirag!

This workshop is four weeks and the first week is for humans only. Class time is 11:20 and runs for an hour.

Enrollment is limited to the following:

  • There are four spots for dog/human teams. The dogs need to be dog and stranger comfortable and have NO bite history.
  • There are three spots for humans to audit without their dogs. These are for families whose dogs need help with cooperative care but are not dog and stranger comfortable, and/or have a bite history.
This is not a class on how to groom your dog.

The workshop fee is $280 for dog/handler teams and $250 for human-only auditors.

This class meets for an hour and attendees will bring their own supplies.

For more information or to enroll click these links.

Did you know Three Dogs is on Yelp?

Do you use Yelp and like to write reviews? How about giving your favorite positive reinforcement dog trainer some kind words?

If you’ve never seen or heard of Yelp, it’s a really nifty site that allows users to review everything from restaurants, stores, and even your favorite positive reinforcement dog trainer. In places – like Putnam County – where traditional review outlets like Zagat’s don’t pay close attention we’ve found it to be really useful.

In fact, we tried to get a listing in Zagat’s, but when they asked what we served they seemed turned off when we said “Zuke’s, Pupparoni’s, dried chicken bits, peanut butter, and dessicated salmon all mixed up in a leather bag.”

Here’s a link to the Three Dogs Training page on Yelp – or you can just use the nifty little Yelp icon that Lawrence put in the upper right-hand corner.

If you use Yelp, we certainly wouldn’t turn our noses up at your giving us some kind words!  Positive reinforcement works on trainers, too!

 

Distract-O-Doggie Jersey during Covid-19 Quarantine

Because of the ‘stay at home’ guidelines, we have all probably spent more time with our loved ones than we normally would in a whole year.

That goes for our dogs, too…

While it seems Happy would love to keep playing the ‘race to the top’ game, Jersey is disinclined to acquiesce.

It’s possible that even our dogs need a little ‘me time’ too.