I have just noticed on another post that some people are giving their dogs chocolate, I understand its because of the cocoa but I know little more about it.

Chocolate can kill dogs, I know very little about the reasons but plenty on here do, maybe they can give more info.

Chocolate contains theobromine which is poisonous to dogs, the darker the chocolate, the higher the levels of theobromine.

Here's a few past topics on the subject:

Is all chocolate poisonous?
chocolate
chocolate emergency
chocolate and dogs

The link below has been posted by admin before and gives the toxicity levels of theobromine

Chocolate toxicity

Thanks for those links, I had not read them before, it gets the message home alright.

I always find it quite daunting reading stuff about chocolate killing dogs.  When I was in my teens I used to hang out down the local shops with my mates, because it was quite a distance from my house I would always take one of the Afghans with me for a bit of company and a deterrant to anyone approaching me.  Now this dog didnt like people much but was ok if he was left to curl up for a nap, but kids being kids everyone wanted to pet him so they would buy him chocolate bars, and I mean proper size mars bars and snicker bars - he would sometimes eat 2 or 3 in a night Of course in those days no one really knew about the affect chocolate had on dogs, our other Afghan would turn his nose up at doggy chocolate so we would give him cadburys buttons for christmas :(  these dogs lived to the age of 14 and 15, different dogs must have different tolerances to chocolate - thank god :)

Occasionally now my boys get a minute taste of what im eating but never more - I like chocolate too much :D :D

My Gran's Poodle used to have loads of white chocolate mice shaped things, I don't know if they were doggy choc's or like penny sweets but no harm ever came to her dog, he live until he was 17.

It's the dark chocolate that is poisonous - "doggy chocs" are ok.

Margot

Yes, but I didn't know if they were doggy choc's or not, they could have easily been just penny sweets.

We also had a BC when we were kids, we had him off an old lady who was moving into sheltered housing, and couldn't take him with her. On the way home from school on a Monday, we would nip into the butchers and get a big bag of dog bones for free, and then there was a chippy next door, that used to do battered mars bars (they were lovely - don't knock it till you have tried it :D ) but we would always take one home for him, he loved them. Obviously we didn't know then about choc being poisoning for dogs. He was PTS at 15 years, he had slipped a disc in his back, and couldn't walk or anything :(

It was funny though, he always knew when it was Monday!

Bailey decided at easter to eat 2 eggs and when I came down in the morning the smell hit me there was poo all over the place and 1 guilty looking dog. Needless to say I had to help the kids finish the chocolate eggs (such a chore) at least he was ok but a lesson learnt it could have been much worse I came down to.

One other thing to be aware of, now that its gardening time again, is that cocoa shell mulch is extremely toxic to dogs - I think that a warningn is now shown on bags of this mulch - but if you have any left over from last year - give it to someone who doesn't have dogs!

Margot