Can Dogs Eat Plain Yogurt? When it is or isn’t an Emergency

Most dogs will be fine with eating a small amount of plain yogurt. Despite yogurt not being toxic to dogs, it’s not something you want to let your dog eat in large amounts for a number of reasons.

What happens if a dog eats yogurt?

Let’s first start off with some of the health benefits that yogurts may offer to dogs. First, plain or non-fat yogurt may provide probiotic benefits as well serve as an excellent source of minerals like calcium. In certain situations, adding a small amount of plain yogurt to your dog’s food may also offer digestion-related benefits.

On the opposite side, bad things can also happen if your dog was to eat an excessive amount of yogurt or was to eat yogurt that contains ingredients that aren’t healthy to dogs. Some yogurt products, for example, may contain the ingredient xylitol. As some of you may already know, this artificial sweetener is toxic to dogs. You are most likely to see this ingredient in yogurts that are marketed as sugar-free.

As a dairy product, yogurt also contains lactose, which dogs lack the necessary enzyme to digest. As a result, dogs that eat a bit too much yogurt may end up with temporary digestion problems like stomach upsets and diarrhea.

Is a spoonful of yogurt good for dogs?

This very much depends on factors like your dog’s age and body weight. In most cases, a spoonful of yogurt won’t make a dog sick and may offer the digestion benefit as we highlighted earlier. Dogs with sensitive stomachs, however, may find a spoonful of yogurt a bit too much. We would suggest asking your vet the next time you make a visit to see if it is safe for your dog to consume some plain yogurt.

To find out what else aside from plain yogurt is safe for dogs to eat, go check out our comprehensive human food for dogs database!