There are millions of dog owners in the US. Some of them own two dogs or more. Part of your responsibilities as a dog owner is protecting your pet from household dangers. Consider it as a way of returning the favor for the company that your dog is giving you. One of the most important things to watch out for is the kind of foods that they eat. In some occasions you might enjoy giving them a treat as a reward for their good behavior or to motivate them to learn new tricks.

You might have also thought of sharing to them some of the food you eat. But you should know that not all human foods are fit for dog consumption and one of them is coffee. Coffee is a hidden danger that may cause fatalities especially in small dogs.

There are reasons why coffee can harm your dog and this will make you realize why you should never give it to them. Coffee has caffeine that falls in the category of methylxanthines which is found in chocolates as well. This is a toxic substance for dogs. If your dog has ingested this toxin in higher doses, it can cause a number of issues such as the following.

• Hyperactivity or restlessness. If your dog ingests caffeine, it would immediately affect his central nervous system. Even mild symptoms may include restlessness or extreme hyperactivity regardless of the breed.

• Irregular heart rate. When you drink coffee, caffeine will immediately affect your central nervous system, helping you feel more alert. But what you do not realize is that dogs metabolize coffee more quickly which results in irregular heart rate and rapid breathing.

• Vomiting. As the body starts rejecting the toxicity after the caffeine has been ingested, dogs may have diarrhea or vomit. The symptoms occur within 24 hours as a sign of caffeine overdose.

• Poisoning. As the symptoms progress after the dog has eaten coffee grounds, full on poisoning may occur. The lethal dose of caffeine for dogs is around 150 mg of caffeine per kilogram. Caffeine poisoning can increase respiration, alter the mood and cause tremors.

• Death. As unpleasant as it may seem to think about, one of the worst possible outcomes of dogs ingesting a huge amount of caffeine is death. Small breeds are at especially high risk of this as they tend to react strongly even to smaller dose of caffeine.

Though you are able to drink coffee or eat anything that has coffee in it to your heart’s content, you should never make the mistake of sharing some of it to your dog. You might think that decaffeinated variety is safer because of the absence of caffeine but some experts say that they may also pose danger and risk to the health of your dog.

Instead of giving your dogs coffee or chocolate, why not give them fresh fruits such as apples and strawberries. Aside from being delicious, they are also safe and nutritious for your dog to eat.