After eating a whole milky bar easter egg i turned to the buttons that came with it and to my Horror it was advertising the fact that dogs can have chocolate too! I thought all human chocolate was harmfull? I have heard that dark choc is worse than milk choc but surley white choc can be just as dangerous? I personally only give doggie choc and no one is allowed to feed human choc at all. But am i right or can they have white choc?
Also IMHO nobody in the human choclate world should advertise that their chocolate is suitable for dogs as the less informed children will give any chocolate :( Colud anyone clarify this for me?

The amount of chocolate that it takes to poison your pet depends on the type of chocolate eaten and the dog's weight. White chocolate has the least amount of theobromine at 1 mg per ounce. Baking chocolate or cocoa beans have the highest. Baking chocolate has 450 mg of theobromine per oz; semi-sweet chocolate 260 mg/oz; milk chocolate, 60 mg/oz; and hot chocolate, 12 mg/oz.

White chocolate: 200 ounces per pound of body weight. It takes 250 pounds of white chocolate to cause signs of nervous-system poisoning in a 20-pound dog, 125 pounds for a 10-pound dog. (Wonder how they discovered this?)

White chocolate is made from cocoa butter and is therefore non-poisonous to dogs. However, I agree that dogs should not be fed chocolate of any description, and that it is irresponsible of manufacturers to state otherwise as people may not differentiate between the various types.

If you wish to research this further search Google "white chocolate"+dogs

White chocolate is the least toxic to dogs and according to this link would take "250 pounds of white chocolate to cause signs of poisoning in a 20-pound dog" as opposed to "one pound of milk chocolate in a 20-pound dog"

http://petcaretips.net/chocolate-poisoning-dog.html

Theobromine content,
white chocolate - 1 mg per ounce
milk chocolate - 60 mg per ounce
baking chocolate - 450 mg per ounce

So it's "relatively" safe but like you, I think it's wrong to advertise that it's OK to give it to dogs. :( Some people wont discriminate between white and dark chocolate and think it's all OK. It's also encouraging dogs to get a taste for it so they may seek out chocolate and help themselves!

Kath.
Edit: you just beat me Shadowboxer  :D

I never realised there was any chocolate in white chocolate - 'cos it tastes horrible and I am generally a chocoholic :D

The amounts given for the fatal dose of chocolate will probably vary from dog to dog - does anyone else remember the story about the two, I think they were bull terriers or bull dogs, a couple of years ago who ate a square of dark chocolate each and died of poisioning?