Is natural yogurt beneficial to dogs? How much can they have and should it be live yogurt?

While feeding yogurt is not necessarily harmful in itself, there are no particular benefits to yeast that have been proven. Yeast's are a source of B vitamins but most dogs don't need the additional supplementation of this vitamin. Great quantities could undermine your efforts at achieving a good diet and your pet’s health. If you are going to give your pet yogurt, use it only as a supplement. Do NOT make it a major portion of your pets diet. ½ teaspoon once a day is plenty, don’t over do it. Commercially prepared dog food contains every nutrient your dog needs and the right amount.

While we are on the topic of foods to feed pets, I want to address about other foods they are not friendly to pets. We often assume that since dogs will eat most anything including non-edible items that it is perfectly safe to feed them the foods we enjoy. When in fact many of these foods can be fatal or cause other health related problems.

Take for example “grapes” dogs like grapes very well because they contain sugar. Grapes however, cause the liver to produce an over abundance of a certain enzyme which literally keeps the kidneys from producing the right amount of a certain naturally occurring chemical in the kidneys necessary to break down protein in the urine. The result is that stones and stone like grit form in the bladder and urethra preventing urine from passing. This condition is permanent and is a real headache for both dog and owner for the life of the dog.

Other items are chocolate, coffee, tea, and other drinks which contain caffeine. Alcohol, Onions, garlic, nuts, fruit pits, Apricots, avocados, berries, flax, chestnuts, mushrooms, leaves and stems of tomatoes, walnut hulls.

Excessive fat and sugar can cause pancreatic health problems. Raw meats, raw fish and raw poultry can contain some very harmful bacteria. Please consult with a vet before giving any over-the-counter medications, some of these items can be quite fatal for pets.

So if you're not supposed to give them nuts, why does everyone advocate putting peanut butter in Kongs? I guess chunky PB is out? Also, I've noticed that many of the all natural treats you can get out here have garlic. That's bad?

It should have read "macedonia" nuts. Sorry about that. Peanut butter is ok.


Onions hinder the red blood cells ability to carry oxygen from the lungs and heart. Garlic also causes the same problem. It isn’t quite known just yet how much garlic the pet can ingest before a problem occurs. Some individuals are quite sensitive to the compounds in garlic, while others show no symptoms at all.

The amount of garlic in commercial treats is pretty minimal and is used to enhance the smell of the product.

I give my dogs a good tablespoon of natural live yogurt two or three times a week. It has to be the natural live yogurt as that is the type that helps the digestion process to move along smoothly and aid production of "good" bacteria. Yogurt that has additions such as fruit does not do this.

If any of my dogs have had a digestive upset, then a little yogurt is one of the first things I give them when re-introducing food. My Vet recommends this.

Many doctors prescribe natural live yogurt to replace normal intestinal flora that are destroyed when oral antibiotics are prescribed, especially long term. (Antibiotics destroy the "good" bacteria along with the "bad" bacteria.) Whenever one of my family, or one of my dogs, is taking antibiotics, they are given yoghurt daily.