Why Table Food Is Not Ideal for Your Dog

This is something I’ve been thinking about lately, and I wanted to throw it out there and see what you guys think. It’s often-repeated advice, “Don’t feed your dog table food.”

Sure, there’s a list of stuff that dogs should never eat. But what’s really wrong with feeding your dog table food?

I think there are two different issues:

First, there’s a legitimate concern that dogs might not get all their needs met from a diet of scraps. And I agree. If you’re feeding your dog “table food,” it’s needs to be healthy, nutritious food. Little bites here and there are fine as treats, in my opinion. Discounting Cooper whose food is 100% home cooked “table food,” the big boys are eating Petcurean, a commercial dog food, but also get lots of bits of veggies, some meat, scrambled eggs, the last bite of pretty much any sandwich I eat, and fruit – oh, how they love blueberries.

Second, there’s a big difference between feeding your dog table food and feeding your dog from the table. The latter results in unwanted begging behavior. The first, though, I’d argue isn’t that big of a deal. Table food is just… food. Right? And commercial dog food should just be food, too. All the ingredients in a bag of dog food should be whole foods (aka table foods). Commercial dog food is just processed “table food” ingredients made bite-size for convenience.

I suppose if someone’s table food consists of, I don’t know, Hot Pockets and Pop Tarts, then feeding that to your dogs probably isn’t a good idea. (Of course, as much as I love brown sugar Pop Tarts, it’s not a good idea for me to eat them, either…) But if your diet consists of whole foods and you skip the stuff that’s on the toxic list, I guess I don’t get the hubbub about not feeding table food.

What do you guys think?? This isn’t a right or wrong, in my opinion, but I’d love to know your experience, ideas, and opinions on this!