a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: Dogs Just Want To Have Fruit ... Tomatoes or Pears or...

Sunday, September 12, 2021

Dogs Just Want To Have Fruit ... Tomatoes or Pears or...

SUMMARY: Tomatoes, or plums or pears or apples or whatever.

Yes, these days tomatoes are referred to as vegetables. But, technically, they're a fruit.

Dawn and Katie posted about tomato-eating dogs this morning, and I of course had a response.

I’ve grown tomatoes only once, and only inadvertently: A tomato bush volunteered in one of my planters. Fifteen to twenty years ago. That might go back to Remington and Jake, but answer is hazy; try again later.

It grew and grew and covered itself with little green cherry tomatoes that then started turning red and I checked eagerly daily for ripe ones. Got a couple–really good–and then, shortly thereafter, I looked out my kitchen window and espied one of the dogs plucking the ripe-ish ones off the bush. Grrr!

I didn’t try setting up a fence and I never got more tomatoes for myself. 

Other fruit--

If pears really looked like this, maybe the dogs 
wouldn't eat so many

Tika used to stand on her hind legs and even jump from that position to get low-hanging pears or plums or apples off the trees. Jake loved oranges. All of my dogs would get fat on plums that drop constantly during their ripe season, and now I know that that happens for pears, too--Zorro has added 4 pounds in the last month or so, which a 31-lb dog should never do if he wants to keep his boyish figure (and do agility and jump on and off beds safely).



Zorro chewing a bit of pear while protecting the rest.


Zorro doesn't eat the stems from pears; they now litter the back yard and deck and the house (although I pick those up as soon as I see them.  

Boost also didn't eat the stems--but made sure that every speck of pear belonged to her.

Tika enjoyed pears, too--nibbling off a bit, licking her lips, and continuing.


But I get all of that, because pears and plums and apples are sweet. I wouldn’t necessarily guess that dogs would like the slight tartness of tomatoes. Shrug. What do I  really know about dogs, anyway?

Do your pups steal your tomatoes?



2 comments:

  1. Katie would steal plums and apples and probably pears if we had any growing. Not oranges though. Did your dog est the rinds from the oranges?

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    1. The only dog who like oranges actually was Jake (that I'm aware of). He would eat the orange out of the rind, I think, but not the rind itself. I'm amazed at details that I forget over the years.

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