It’s Not Just the Food. These Holiday Decorations Could Also Hurt Your Dog.

Holiday foods are something to watch out for, but....

In the past, we've always tried to keep you updated on things that are potentially harmful to your pets. Whether it's pesticides or rodent poisons, or foods that Fido shouldn't eat at the Thanksgiving table, we've tried to make sure you knew the accurate picture of safety.

But there's so many other things around your house that could make your dog not have such a great holiday. Naturally, we all know to keep table scraps to a minimum, but what about plants or flowers or garland?

Poinsettias, everyone's favorite Christmas plant may be tempting to some dogs. It's bright red, and likely came from somewhere outside the home, so it'll be full of all sorts of new smells. And lord knows, one thing a lot of dogs like to do is take a curious nibble just to see what's what. But poinsettias are toxic, and be quite harmful.

Have you ever had to chase your dog to "pull the tinsel"?

Luckily, tinsel pretty much went out with the end of the 80's, but the green Christmas garland a lot of us string around is made of pretty much the same stuff. When I was a kid, the cats used to eat the tinsel on our Christmas tree. We'd be chasing them around, gently extracting what seemed like entire spools of tinsel from their backsides. Ugh.

These kinds of plastics can wreak all kinds of havoc on a dog or cat's digestive system. According to the BDN, if your pet has gotten into tinsel of garland, you should get them to the vet ASAP.

I know, a lot of this is common sense stuff, but a lot of kids and teens are getting dogs for the first time. Share the info with them. Lord knows, new dog parents need all the help they can get, right?

If you need some help with last minute presents...