You already know that pizza is bad for dogs, and you’ve done well to keep your take-away out of reach from those pleading puppy eyes.
Now somebody ordered Papa John’s ‘The Works’ with its fat black olives sprinkled liberally among the toppings. But what if you’re not a big fan of olives? And they’re just sitting there, deserted on the plate, while your pup drools.
In this case, you may be wondering if dogs can eat olives? Are they bad for dogs? Have they joined the ever-growing list of human foods that have become canine taboo, along with raisins and chocolate? Should dogs eat black olives rather than green ones, or vice versa? And what’s the deal with olive oil?
Sorry, in this case, the answer is not cut and dry. But since we all want the best for our pets, it’s always good to take a thorough look at anything we may feed them to ensure optimal health.
After all, dogs usually don’t pay much attention to what they eat, so it’s up to us as owners to be discerning about their nutritional intake.
So, Can Dogs Eat Olives?
Today, many articles recommend olives, particularly in the form of olive oil, as beneficial to a dog’s health. The problem is that most of the articles written on the subject tend to cite research that is focused on humans and apply it to dogs.
It’s not news that dogs and people’s physiology are different. What’s suitable for one isn’t necessarily right for the other. So while olives and olive oil may have all kinds of therapeutic effects for humans, the answer about what they really do to dogs simply hasn’t been widely studied.
So to get a better idea of whether dogs can eat olives, we need to ignore all the hype and really investigate what olives are made up of.
To do this, we will first focus on the ordinary olives we buy in the store to avoid the complications that can come with stuffing, pickling, or other processing methods. We will also not bother looking at raw olives since these are incredibly bitter and not great for either you or your dog.
Keep in mind that there is little difference between a black and green olive, nutritionally speaking. A green olive was simply picked from the tree before it ripened.
