So, while my little dog is quite content and happy-stomached with a bit of grated mature cheddar, a cheese sauce from a lasagna or similar is an absolute no-no.
He eats his dinner from my plate (after I have washed it and loaded it with his own food).
The last time my dad let him lick the plate (lasagna, not much sauce left, but enough) the poor little bugger threw up in 17 different spots on the carpet.
As @blackanvil points out above, adult dogs are lactose-intolerant. Puppies lose the ability to produce lactase (which helps to break down the lactose in milk) when they mature.
The same is true of cats. While they love bowls of milk and such, they are technically lactose intolerant and it can cause GI distress for them. That said, as others have said, it varies a lot by animal. For many, a little bit is fine.
That’s my guess as to why the advice seems contradictory. In general, dairy should be avoided, but the occasional treat if the pet can tolerate it is fine.
Wouldn’t have a clue. I make my own peanut butter (using a food processor), and I only go back to the jar stuff in an emergency. Freshly ground peanut butter is joy in a jar.
Here in Oz, there’s a decent local supplier of cashew-based vegan “feta” in oil, which tastes great on its own, as long as you don’t try to pretend it’s feta. It fills the same niche as feta, and is delicious. It doesn’t taste or feel much like feta, so I use the name as a guide for “where do I use this?” Blobs of it on pizza are simply amazeballs.
For dogs the problem is lactose, dogs can’t process it very well. Chesse has a lot less lactose than “drinking milk”. So a lick of milk is probably worth a mouthful of cheese. Of corse high fats aren’t great for them either, but like most food things it is a quantity thing.
Our vet has cheese in the “high value treat” bucket. If they do something a dog doesn’t like they tend to get some sort of cheese treat. “Hi I know we just gave you a shot that hurt, but how about a milk bone with some spray cheese? Are we friends again?”. (with two of my dogs they can’t give the milk bones due to allergies, but they still get the cheese, and one of my dogs will take the treat but not eat it until they get back outside…except for the cheese, they will eat that right away before they remember they are on hunger strike)
There is an absolutely delightful old Mr Rogers episode that addresses this. It’s in black and white, and from a time when saying the word “diarrhea” was taboo on children’s TV. The guest star, a vet, didn’t know this.
On live TV, while holding a cat to show the kids, he explained that giving a bowl of milk to a grown-up cat can give them diarrhea. Mr Rogers quickly and calmly jumped in provided distraction about how it makes grown-up cats sick, then whispered something in the vet’s ear. The vet nodded. Mr Rogers then asked “And what is this cat’s name?” The vet paused, said “um…” and whispered something back into Mr Rogers’ ear. Mr Rogers supressed a laugh and just said “Oh, that’s an interesting name” and changed the subject.
I’m not old enough for the days when live TV was normal, and I feel like I missed something.
I know someone who basically uses his dogs as living disposals at the dinner table, and all of his dogs always have a multitude of health issues. We’ve tried to tell him that all the crap he feeds them from the table is responsible for their health problems, but he refuses to believe it’s a problem. It’s baffling to me.
Dairy? I give my dog shredded cheese occasionally on top of his food to get him to stop stealing dinner from my toddlers. I’m pretty sure that is fine as I’ve done a lot of research about it and more importantly my vet says that it is fine.
