If you know cookies are your weakness, then don’t bring even bring them in the house, because like me, you will eat them – Rachel Hollis
It isn’t the first cut that you have to have to worry about, it’s the first bite. I’ll always remember the first time that I had a cookie and the cornucopia of tastes that flooded my canine brain.
From that moment I was hooked on the sweet, sweet taste of sugar and the unmistakable crunch of a cookie.
Anyone who tells you that dogs aren’t supposed to eat cookies is talking all sorts of baloney. Of course, we’re supposed to eat them, that’s why they taste so good.
And they’re just the right size for my mouth too, but as I’m an Irish wolfhound, most things are made to fit my mouth, and as my humans are always willing to share their snacks with me, I’m more than partial to most of the food that they offer me.
If I had to choose my absolute favorite human snack though, I’d always choose ginger snap cookies, and I wish I could eat them all day and every day, but my humans won’t let me.
After one or two, they always start woofing “That’s enough Albert, no more”, which doesn’t seem fair to me at all. If they can eat cookies all day, why can’t I?
Actually, I know why, and it’s because as much as I love ginger snaps, I’m not really supposed to eat them as they’re not very good for me.
The Delicious Ginger Snaps
My humans know that the old pups tale about ginger being poisonous for dogs is nonsense and that the opposite is actually true. In small amounts, ginger is actually as beneficial for us dogs as it is for you humans.
Ginger has all sorts of natural anti-inflammatory properties which can help older dogs to deal with their arthritis, and it’s also an antioxidant that can prevent motion sickness and help us to stop us having lumpy yawns when we go on adventures in the car with you.
Giving your dog a ginger snap before he goes for a ride in the car with you, could make everyone a lot happier and might mean that you won’t have to clean up after your boy if traveling in the car does make him feel poorly.
It can also help to calm and relax our digestive systems and can be good for our stomachs too, so if your boy has a sensitive tummy, a ginger snap might actually be good for him.
A little bit of ginger can also help poor puppers who have heartworms to fight off those nasty little parasites and feel a bit better. Cookies really can be good for dogs.
Does That Mean That Ginger Snaps Are Actually Good For Dogs?
I wish they were, but they’re really not good for us at all. The odd cookie or two every now and then won’t do us any harm and can be good for us, but we really can’t have any more than that, or we might start to get sick.
And the horrible thing is that it isn’t even the lovely tasting ginger in the snaps that’s bad for us, it’s all of the other things in the cookies that don’t agree with us or our tummies.
Ginger Snaps Versus Dogs – The Bad Bits
Unfortunately, a lot of the things that make ginger snaps taste so good are actually bad for dogs.
They’re not really very good for you humans either, but they are worse for us, as our biology can’t handle them as well as you humans can.
Sugar
Sweet lovely sugar is the worst part of the ginger snap equation for us. As much as we go crazy for the sweeter things in life, dogs aren’t really able to process sugar very well and our bodies can’t tolerate a lot of it. If we’re fed too much sugar, we can pile on the pounds very quickly and that could lead to us becoming obese which puts a lot of unnecessary strain on our joints and our hearts.
Too much sugar can also cause us to develop diabetes and become insulin dependent, which can drastically shorten our lives and the quality of the time that we get to spend with our humans. A little bit of sugar won’t hurt us, but too much could, over a long time, be lethal.
Flour
The best diet for your boy is a gluten-free one, and while it might sound cruel to deprive your dog of bread or the hot buttery toast that we all seem to love, believe me, he really won’t miss it all that much if you give him a nice doggy biscuit instead.
The problem is that dogs were never meant to eat bread and while we might not show any immediate symptoms, it can make us sick if we eat too much of it. Which is a shame, as I like toast a lot, even though I know it’s very bad for me.
Shortening
One of the loveliest ingredients in ginger snaps is shortening, but as it’s a dairy product, it isn’t very good for us, and too much dairy can make us sick and can sometimes give us diarrhea.
My friend Larry the labrador stole and then ate, a whole stick of butter from his human’s fridge and his poor bottom felt the consequences for days and days. A little bit of dairy is nice, but if you give us too much, we could end up like Larry.
Artificial Sweeteners
If you read the ingredients on the side of a packet of ginger snaps and that list includes artificial sweeteners, then you must not, under any circumstances let us have any of them.
A lot of artificial sweeteners are very, very bad for us and unless you’ve woofed with the vet and know exactly which ones we can and can’t eat, you shouldn’t let us eat any cookies that contain them.
Does That Mean You Can’t Have Gingerbread?
No, it doesn’t. I like gingerbread almost as much as I like ginger snaps, I just can’t have a lot of it.
But a little bit every now and then is a very, very tasty treat that I really enjoy.
The Ginger Snap Solution
So now you know as much about dogs and ginger snaps as I do, and you know that while it’s okay for you to give your boy one or two when he’s been very good and deserves a nice treat, you shouldn’t give him too many.
If he eats too many ginger snaps, they can be very bad for him. But a little bit of what your best boy fancies every now and then can also be very good for him and will help to make him a very happy dog.
