Dogs should not eat milk or ice cream because they do not tolerate lactose very well. Young dogs and puppies can tolerate milk because of their body’s enzymes that can process lactose, but once they are well past infancy, when they are living off their mother’s milk, you should stop giving your dog dairy products. Of course, there are also dogs, like us humans, who tolerate dairy products their whole lives.
But can dogs eat yogurt?
Yoghurt is a milk product with many valuable bacteria and very little lactose. We don’t want to issue a general ban, because many dogs tolerate small amounts of yoghurt. In order not to take any risks, you can give your dog lactose-free yoghurt: in this case, the animal will most likely tolerate this food.
It’s in the yogurt
Yoghurt is a food rich in vitamins, protein, potassium, magnesium and iodine. Magnesium is good for the muscles, calcium is good for the bones and iodine benefits the entire metabolism. Unless your dog has a thyroid problem. Please clarify the consumption of iodine with your veterinarian.
However, the meat in wet feed usually contains a lot of iodine, since cattle, chickens and pigs are boosted to perform better with iodine-rich feed, and not only in factory farming. Therefore, the consumption of yoghurt in moderation is unproblematic even with thyroid dysfunction.
In addition to the valuable vitamins and minerals, yoghurt contains valuable lactic acid bacteria. These ensure a healthy intestinal flora. Yoghurt can help people and dogs, especially when taking antibiotics, since these drugs often also reduce the actually health-promoting intestinal bacteria.
You can give this yoghurt to your dog
Please only give your dog pure natural yoghurt. The animal cannot do anything with sugary fruit varieties. In addition, there may be sugar substitutes in yoghurt that can even be fatal to the animal. If you want to use a little fresh fruit, there’s nothing wrong with that, but avoid ready-made fruit yoghurts.
A word of advice: carrots are a naturally sweet vegetable, especially when cooked, but contain less sugar than fruit. What may sound strange to humans can be a delicacy for dogs: try carrot yoghurt for the dog.