Thanksgiving is a day of feasting and festivities and while you definitely don’t want to leave your dog out, there is a proper way to include your dog.Our friends from Best Bully Sticks helped us compiled a handy list of Thanksgiving Safety Tips For Your Dogs.
Safety First
Be sure your dog wears their collar with up-to-date ID tags during your Thanksgiving festivities. You never know when your dog could get loose during arrival/departure of your house guests.
Food For Thought
Your dog will be hypersensitive to all the yummy smells coming from your kitchen on Thanksgiving day. While it’s best to stick with your dog’s routine feeding on holidays, you can indulge your dog with a nip of holiday favorites here and there. Sticking to a few guidelines can keep your pup included without going overboard.
Don’t give your dog any raw or uncooked meat. Turkey is a Thanksgiving staple of many households, but only give your dog a bit of turkey if it’s fully cooked and not doused in spices. (No Cajun deep-fried turkey for Sparky!)
A little is a lot. If your dog is going to be treated to any human food, it’s a good idea to keep this designated to one person. Ask your guests to abstain from treating your dog, too. You don’t want to end your holiday on doggy cleanup duty.
Stick to the basics. Fully cooked turkey, a bit of mashed potatoes or some pumpkin are all great treats for your dog on Thanksgiving. Here is a quick list of things to avoid feeding your dog on Thanksgiving.
Bread dough
Raw, uncooked, or spice-laden meat
Alcohol
Sweets
Sage (highly toxic to dogs and cats)
Onions (also highly toxic)
Bones
Social Butterfly or Wallflower?
If you have friends and family attending a Thanksgiving dinner at your home, make sure your dog is comfortable, too. If your dog is a social butterfly and loves being around people, be aware of how your dog greets guests, their behavior around the dinner table or even being “under foot.” If your dog is skittish or uncomfortable around more than just a few people, provide your dog a cozy retreat in their favorite room. Giving your introverted dog a place of solace during a busy holiday get-together could be prevention against stress-induced aggression or other unwanted behaviors.
Show Some Love
Before your guests arrive, show some love to your dog by playing a long game of fetch or take your dog on a lengthy walk. This time with your dog will not only show him how thankful you are, but will also make him more well behaved during Thanksgiving dinner.
While you’re entertaining your guests, give your dog a great all-natural dog treat like a bully stick or elk antler to keep them occupied. Best Bully Sticks even has tons of natural turkey dog treats perfect for the holidays! It’s an easy and healthy way to show your dog how thankful you are for their love!
Lots of Golden Thanks to Best Bully Sticks, sister company of Best Elk Antlers,
and our current blog sponsor.
Special 10% Discount for our readers, use SUGAR10 on Best Bully Stick
Have a Safe Thanksgiving
Lots of Golden L♥VE n Woofs
SUGAR
Have a great Thanksgiving you guys! Also, we nominated you for the Shine On Award. Go to MatildasJourney.com to see the post.
-Livvie
YUM frosty treats!
Thanks so much Sugar!! All great tips that we should keep in mind for our safety for the holiday!! Happy Thanksgiving! xo Chloe and LadyBug
Great tips today! A lot of dogs get pancreatitis around Thanksgiving. If they aren’t used to eating that kind of food, then they’re pancreas can’t handle it well. Shiner gets human food sometimes, but that is mostly because we have a baby! The adults don’t usually feed her people foods.
we will have no visitors, but even without a long walk or a long play time sounds very good. Thanks for this post, Sugar, we will follow your advice for my menu. Have a tasty tuesday
Excellent tips. I did not know sage was toxic to dogs and cats. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
Important tips I learned about the sage last year but prior to that I didnt know
urban hounds
We always get our own special treats and stuff on holidays. Those sweet potato frosty bones look good, but I can’t eat bully sticks for some reason they make me sick. Katie and Bailie love them, though. Happy Tasty Tuesday!
These are some great tips! Thanks for sharing! Lee and Phod
Those treats are so cute! 🙂 Thanks for the awesome tips, Sugar!
Those are great tips, Sugar! So nice of Best Bully Sticks to provide you with such great information so we can all stay safe and healthy during the holidays. And gosh…that photo of the layered sweet potato frosty bones is making me drool. I just LOVE sweet potatoes!
*Cairn cuddles*
Oz
Thanks for the tips Sugar….mom says she’s going shopping today, pretty excited!
Great post! Holiday tips are always a good reminder!
Great tips Sugar. I’ve hooked up to the post with a little special holiday dessert you can make easily for your pup.
Such a good list, Sugar! We’ll be spending the day at family’s house, so we’ll leave our two dogs with Knee Caps from Jones. No turkey bones for our pups!
thanks for these super helpful tips Sugar! We can never be reminded enough! Barks and licks and love, Dakota
Great tips for keeping us safe. hope everyone has a great thanksgiving!
Hope all your preparations are going well Sugar. Have a terrific Tuesday.
Best wishes Molly
A very important reminder Sugar
Lily
Great tips! When only 10 months old, before mama knew better, I had a special bowl of turkey with dressing an giblet gravy. I was really lethargic for days – turns out it was most probably the onions!
Happy Thanksgiving beautiful girl!
Safety first and good treats second!
Great tips! Thank you for sharing and have a great Thanksgiving!
Sounds like you’ll have a safe and tasty Thanksgiving dinner Sugar!
Sugar….
This was great!! Very informative!! Thanks for sharing!! I think I might copy and paste this!! {Sans the pictures!!} ;op
–Raelyn and Rose
Very good information, great advice.
Sheba.
Oh, that’s some good info Sugar!!! And those frosty bones look FABulous!!!
Kisses,
Ruby ♥
Impawtent information for all hoomans!
Your Pals,
Murphy & Stanley
Top tips, thanks for sharing them!!
Fantastic tips Sugar! Thank you for sharing them with us and we hope that you have a safe and fun Thanksgiving!
Great tips Sugar thank you!