People Food

Any suggestions as to which human food is bad for Border Collie's. My dog loves cold carrots, peanut butter,cheese-filled hot dogs, but her favourite food is ice. She is not given these items on a daily basis, but she would love it and not eat her own food anymore.I have heard some bad stories regarding feeding human food to dogs. Any comments?

The general consensus in the vet community is that you shouldn't feed your dog more than about ten percent of its diet with people food (of course, personalized home prepared diets don't count). The main reason for this is the fear that the dogs will become overweight (just like the people that eat the food) but with most Border Collies, this problem is probably non-existent. The second problem is that with a higher proportion of people food, the dog will begin to spurn its dog food diet. Most brands are complete and well balanced diets for your dog. If your dog starts skimping on its normal diet, it is, in all likelihood, missing out on the proper diet. I would suggest that as long as your dog isn't overweight (almost guaranteed with Border Collies) and it continues to eat the proper amount of its "doggie food", then the people food won't hurt (with the obvious exceptions of chocolate, some nuts, etc.). If it starts to pass on its normal diet, then it's time to cut back on the "good people stuff". I would think of it just like feeding kids ice cream - if they're not overweight, no big deal - as long as they get the proper balanced diet elsewhere, then there is no harm. But if they begin to get a little chunky or won't eat their veggies, its time to put away the Haagen-Dazs.