A vet has warned of the possible dangers to your health and your dog's health if you let them lick plates - even if they go through the dishwashers.
Needless to say, some human foods are dangerous to dogs and owners wouldn’t dream of giving them things like chocolate or alcohol but it seems they're a lot less cautious when it comes to plate sharing.
TeamDogs writer, Charlotte Regen, polled her Twitter following on whether they let their pets lick their plates, and it turns out 38.5 per cent do.
And research by Wren Kitchens found that one in six (15 per cent) households in the UK let their pets do the pre-wash clean up - so it is a fairly common practice.
But is there any harm in letting your dog have a little taste of what you’ve eaten? It turns out there is.
In fact, you could be putting yourself and your family at risk of a salmonella infection if your dog is fed on a raw meat diet and licks your plates.
These germs can even survive on your crockery after a good blast in the dishwasher.
Most people who get ill from salmonella have diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps - lasting up to seven days. With very young, elderly or vulnerable people it can even be fatal.
TeamDogs asked Dave Leicester, head of telehealth at pet emergency service Vets Now, for his expert opinion.
He said: “You shouldn’t be tempted to give your dog any leftovers from your own meals, including licking your plate, and there’s a couple of reasons for this.
“The first is that so many human foods are poisonous to dogs. Some pet emergencies are unavoidable, whereas others are easier to prevent than you might think.
“Your dog ingesting a hidden hazard in food is one of these preventable ones where you could avoid an impromptu emergency vet visit. We see so many emergency cases of dogs who’ve eaten something they shouldn’t have.
“There’s lots of human foods that are poisonous to dogs including chocolate, grapes and raisins, alcohol, onions, garlic and chives as well as many other foods.
"Human food is also often high in salt which can be harmful to pets.
“The second reason is for infection control. Pets can harbour bacteria such as salmonella, especially if they are fed a raw meat diet, which cannot be reliably destroyed by dishwashing, and can remain on crockery as a source of infection for the family.
“Also, recent research shows that pets can catch Covid from their owners.
"While most infected pets tend to be asymptomatic or display mild symptoms, Covid is common in cats and dogs whose owners have the disease. Based on the available information to date, the risk of animals spreading COVID-19 to people is considered to be low.”
