It’s 8:40 p.m. and my teenage son is hungry again. He quietly walks into the kitchen, past our five sleeping German Shepherds, and grabs a plate. The dogs continue dozing.
All is quiet until . . . he opens the peanut butter jar.
At the first sound of the lid twisting off the jar, the dogs, one by one, rouse and walk into the kitchen. Soon all five dogs sit in a semicircle around my son.
And they begin to drool.
How did we arrive at this place, where we attempt stealth tactics in order to make a pb and j without dog drool on the kitchen floor?
If you are like us, it started with a medication we needed to give a dog for a several days after spaying. And then it took on a life of its own!
We realize we could stop the drool flow by denying them a little dab of peanut butter. With a little training we could extinguish this learned behavior, we know. After all, the humans here are the alphas . . . but the dogs just look so CUTE it’s hard to say no! And there’s the fun of watching them slurp away when the peanut butter gets stuck to the roof of their mouth.
Many dog owners might wonder, “Is peanut butter healthy for my dog?”
The answer is, it depends. It depends on how much peanut butter you feed and what type of peanut butter you feed.
We’ve opted for Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter because it has less sugar than some other brands and no trans fats. We also like Trader Joe’s Organic Peanut Butter and other natural nut butters.
Quite a yummy peanut butter. Make sure you stir in the oil while it's at room temperature and then refrigerate!
Peanut butter is considered a healthy food for humans, despite the fat content. In fact, a natural peanut butter typically contains additional nutrients and most of the fats are the “good” fats that actually help raise the “good cholesterol in the body.
If you, or your dog, are obese, then you will want to limit peanut butter consumption due to the fat content, but for my pack of lean, working dogs, we’re far from worrying about obesity.
And so the peanut butter maneuvers will continue at my house–what about yours?
the natural dogosphere's Blog 