Dogs & avocados

I know avocado tops the list of harmful foods for dogs, yet we have an avocado tree in the backyard, which has a lot of tiny young avocados that fall to the ground. My dogs love to play with them. Missy pretends they're her balls, and fetch them. Mocha & Muffin use their noses to roll them forward, or toss them up & down. They know they're not supposed to eat them, but I do find half-eaten avocados lying around, as proof of my command not being followed when I'm not around.

We've had this avocado tree for about two weeks, and the dogs do not show any signs of being sick. Should I worry? Is there anything I can do to keep the 3Ms from eating it?

PS: Cutting the tree down is not an option, because it's a VERY big avocado tree that has about a million avocados on it right now, and everyone in our families & friends, including ourselves, love avocados!

I think it's the pit in avocado's.... there are some dog foods with avocado in it. I think. Anyone?

I thought it was the pits too...but I'm not really sure....

ETA: found this
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc_dyk#2

= loose stool

My Dogs have eaten tons of avocados. None of them ever had any problems because of them. Not even loose stools.

A Dog will not eat the pit, but they eat everything else (including the skin). The pit must have a very bitter taste because none of my Dogs want anything to do with them.

A Dog who knows what it's doing will size up the avocado first to figure out which end has the pit. Then she chews that end off first. She will then squeeze the rest of the avocado to force out the pit. The rest is swallowed in one gulp. Takes longer to type it out than to do it!

Last fall I watched my Doberman eat at least a dozen avocados. After she had her fill she buried about a dozen more. I'll, bet she wishes she could find those buried ones because this year's crop was wiped out in the "Great Freeze Of '07". They'll be back next year I'll bet.

Thanks for finding that. I was almost positive that I had seen a dog food with avocado but clearly I was mistaken. Besides... the avocados are for me. The dogs are spoiled enough with other treats.

I'm not sure about dogs and avocados but I just wanted to say that I'm SO jealous. To have an avocado tree in your back yard.....LUCKY! I could heat avocados with everything, I love it. It costs an arm and a leg here to bye them in the stores. It's about $5 for 3 and I make sure they don't go bad once home. I could almost cry when I find out that my avocado has gone bad.

As for dogs, I didn't realize it was harmful to them. Mine don't like them at all. Boomer even did a look of disgust after trying a little piece of it. lol

Avoderm dog food does have avacados in it.

Yeah, I tried Avoderm and it gave Daisy Diarrhea. Benji was ok on it though.

Thanks guys. I guess I shouldn't have any problems then. My three only consume a small amount here and there, and always leave the pit out.

Kharma ADORES them . . . I think she wants to come and stay with you when they get ripe, lol!