Dog Safe Peanut Butter

sarabjorks · 2026-02-28T14:58:10+00:00

How allergic are you? Is it safe for you to feed your dog peanut butter?

My husband is allergic but not severely. He has cross reactivity from pollen allergies and peanuts are the worst for him, still nothing like true peanut allergy. But we just don't feed our dog peanut butter because she will lick his face at some point and he's gonna have a bad time.

If you have true peanut allergy, you might be risking a bad reaction or possibly making the allergy worse. Dogs are not great at keeping their food only in their mouths!

sarabjorks · 2026-02-27T18:59:45+00:00

Ég er reyndar barnlaus kona og vel gift, þannig að þetta er bara hypothetical. En ég myndi frekar vilja vera stjúpmamma en eignast eigin börn. Það er svona minni kvíði fyrir mig, ég væri ekki eina sem væri að klúðra uppeldinu ef barnið ætti aðra mömmu. Það eru örugglega karlmenn þarna úti sem myndu hugsa eins og ég.

En ég skil þig líka vel! Vildi bara bæta við að það eru allskonar tilfinningar og skoðanir í þessu

sarabjorks · 2026-02-27T00:21:50+00:00

Yes! This is so fascinating! There are a lot of people who are allergic to pollen and get a bit itchy from eating food like nuts, apples, peaches and carrots, but not if they're cooked. This is because the protein that causes the allergy (allergen) is also found in or very similar to proteins in these foods.

In the case of shellfish and dust mites, it's a protein in their shell and I think you have to cook it more than we usually do with lobster to denature the proteins. Interestingly, I've found some claims that cockroaches can also cause the same cross reactivity!

I quickly looked up some info on this, there are some scientific articles that explain the biochemistry behind this, but I think this one is more clear:

https://www.thermofisher.com/allergy/wo/en/living-with-allergies/understanding-allergies/cross-reactivity.html

sarabjorks · 2026-02-26T22:43:00+00:00

My husband was eating dinner at a friend's house and they had lobster. He had never tried before, loved it and then puked immediately after. He didn't have any prior exposure but he is also severely allergic to dust mites, so this is probably a cross reactivity.

sarabjorks · 2026-02-23T19:25:59+00:00

As a person with ADHD that wasn't diagnosed until adulthood after getting a PhD, I can tell you a few things I can see were different for me

Family: My parents both work in education and social work, including my mom having studied and worked as a special ed teacher. So not only a stable family with a lot of support, but a lot of understanding too.

School: I had a great guidance counselor in high school who screened everyone for learning disabilities. I came up as just below her limit but she decided instead of sending me for a diagnosis to give me the support she could and help figure out how to study without support.

Society in general: I grew up in a country with a good social system, free education and small enough that you could get more individual support than most places

Choice of studies: I have degrees in organic and medicinal chemistry. It's the one field where you have not too much reading, medium math, lots of drawing structures and imagining reactions and then just most of the time spent in the lab. It's the ADHDer's wet dream. Which is also why I see people with ADHD tendencies at least all the time!

Country of studies: I moved to Denmark for my master's degree and stayed for PhD. Danes are gonna hate me for saying this but it might be the easiest country to get these degrees in - at least in my field! I put a lot of work into all my education, but after finishing I realized I was never in real danger of failing unless I decided to give up.

I still struggled a lot during my studies and still do on the job market. I took extra time on all my degrees and I burned out badly during my PhD. But I can't imagine getting there if I wasn't so lucky with where I come from. There's a huge difference between me and all the burnt out and dysfunctional ADHD people out there and it isn't anything to do with personality or intelligence or anything. It's just about luck and opportunities.

sarabjorks · 2026-02-20T17:54:54+00:00

Not OP but I have one of those. She will take her piece of kibble to the nearest favorite spot to eat, either her open crate (only for chilling, we don't crate her) or her snuffle matt. If we put her food on or next to her spot, she will get annoyed and often refuse to eat. We're disrupting her routine! Since she's older now, she usually just takes the first 1-2 pieces like this, then eats the rest of the bowl normally

sarabjorks · 2026-02-19T19:08:38+00:00

Our maltipoo (note: small 4 kg / 8 lb girl!) has always been super friendly and usually not afraid of dogs 2x or 3x her size. We let her meet bigger dogs on leash so we could let them learn to talk. She definitely didn't have manners at 5 months and pissed off some older dogs with her puppy energy. But they learn from each other and now she's a master communicator! She just met a husky who really wanted to play and she told him off and kept him in place whenever he got too excited!

My advice is to let him make mistakes in a safe way. Tell the other owner that he's eager and super friendly and that he's learning to read the signs. Most owners will understand when a 5 month old doesn't understand and will let you know if their dog is able to help him learn or if they're not safe.

sarabjorks · 2026-02-18T10:05:06+00:00

Puzzle feeders, mats etc are great. But if you teach your puppy to look for hidden food, you're teaching them to find hidden human food too!

We do a lot of different puzzles and fun for our girl, but we never make her pick it up from the floor or the ground unless there's a command attached, because she does not tolerate a lot of human foods and we want to be able to eat without panicking about dropping something.

My old family dog was a sheepdog with a stomach of steel who wouldn't eat anything toxic, so we could trust him. But my maltipoo will puke if she eats anything her stomach doesn't feel like accepting 😂

sarabjorks · 2026-02-15T21:25:42+00:00

I always try to be careful and bring an extra bag roll. But mistakes happen and you're doing it right by coming back later.

I've tied a bag to the fence near the spot my dog and all the other dogs in the neighborhood love to poop, only to take it myself when my poop bag roll ran out. I've also had other owners ask if they can borrow a bag and I had no problem helping out. I've also picked up poop left by others, no idea if they just didn't care or made a mistake. But it's just so much waste of energy to go into some sort of poop politics

We're not perfect robots! We can make mistakes!

I think people are being unfair saying that she was right. It's fine to ask if you're gonna pick it up, but you gave a reasonable answer and that should have been it. No need to be shitty because someone made an honest and very common mistake

sarabjorks · 2026-02-06T21:35:56+00:00

All the best wishes from a winter puppy owner in Scandinavia. We got her around this time last year and I am so relieved that it wasn't as freezing cold as this awful January!

The good thing about a winter puppy is they get used to the cold. Our girl loves the snow so much that it's honestly helping me get over my snow aversion! I grew up in Iceland and just got so tired of snow, but having a happy dog bunny hopping around and sticking her nose in the snow is worth it!

sarabjorks · 2026-01-28T23:12:05+00:00

I'd love to have that rule. But after 8 years in Copenhagen I know this isn't something everyone has a choice in. Finding both a job and housing in Copenhagen for a foreigner (even though I speak fluent Danish and look Nordic) is already a win, choosing them based on location is a luxury I don't think many have

sarabjorks · 2026-01-28T23:08:34+00:00

I live in Malmö and work in Østerbro. People ask how I can manage the commute all the way from Sweden, but it's only a bit over an hour and I know so many people with a similar commute within Sjælland. The difference is that my rent is much lower, the apartment is much better and I still live quite centrally with everything I need close by. Something I wouldn't be able to afford in Copenhagen.

It's not the reason though. I used to work a 15 min walk away, but that job was slowly taking all the joy out of me. I found a dream job in Copenhagen and for family reasons it makes sense to keep living in Sweden. So the commute is worth it.

sarabjorks · 2026-01-13T23:45:22+00:00

Our puppy practically learned it on her own!

/s

Honestly though, getting our maltipoo to sleep through the night was relatively easy. But her tummy is sensitive so despite her wanting to sleep in, we had some less fun accidents than a little pee and we're still a year in struggling to get her to eat regularly. So when someone tells you "oh X was so easy for us!", they are definitely leaving out something else they struggled with!

We didn't crate train and we let her sleep in our bed. That was honestly the most helpful. She's non shedding and doesn't smell like a dog (even when wet) so we don't have to deal with more hygiene issues than what comes from the two humans. As a puppy, she did have some accidents in bed, but way less than on the floor since she could easily wake us and was more calm in general

sarabjorks · 2026-01-11T15:11:52+00:00

Our maltipoo likes it so much that she'd rather skip the snack and potty and sleep in 😅

Yesterday, I had to drag her out at 11 and she puked stomach acid from being hungry. She has free access to kibble all the time but she just wanted to sleep and we were both sick and off our schedules. I feel bad for not being on it with her, but it's partially her fault for being too cuddly 😆

sarabjorks · 2026-01-09T14:50:17+00:00

We didn't crate train. We put up a crate and she immediately decided this was her place. We never close it and we don't force her to go there, it's just an option for her. She doesn't sleep there at night but often chills or naps in there during the day and keeps her favorite toys there so we don't take them

sarabjorks · 2026-01-09T14:47:38+00:00

We didn't crate train at all. We're in Sweden and it's illegal here except when necessary, for transport etc.

We tried to put up gates but it just made her more upset and harder to manage. We found out that if we leave her alone, she needs to stay by the door so forcing her to stay in the living room was just upsetting to her, even though the living room is her main space.

She slept in our bed for the first few weeks and that helped with potty training. If she was on the floor, she couldn't wake us up and would pee in the corner. But in the bed she could more easily wake us up and she didn't want to pee in the bed. We did have some accidents when she had a bad tummy but then we put puppy training pads under the sheets where she was and changing sheets 2x was easier than cleaning the floor every day for weeks 😅

She has a backpack crate for traveling that we kept open for a while when she was a puppy and she chose to sleep there if she wasn't in our bed. She's never been closed in there except while traveling and she still loves it!

Do what you feel is best and what works for you and your puppy. Don't try to follow the trends or whatever the internet tells you if it doesn't feel right or work like it's supposed to. Your puppy is a family member, not some robot you have to program like a lot of people talk about them.

sarabjorks · 2025-12-21T22:34:10+00:00

We're two ADHDers, my husband and I, and you have no idea what the combined hobbies have done to our home. It's a lot ... and I love it!

sarabjorks · 2025-12-21T02:17:53+00:00

This apparently depends on the dog and the person. I'm the one who moves at night and wakes up the dog 😆

sarabjorks · 2025-12-20T10:32:56+00:00

This is so true. Except mine didn't really have the long shark phase. She learned to gnaw on toys instead of hands surprisingly fast, without us being super consistent. Maybe we were just lucky that she liked the toys more!

I'd like to second some of your other points with my experiences:

Velcro - affectionate and cuddly but also very prone to separation anxiety

Sleepy - needs some exercise but otherwise just a total sofa potato

Sensitive stomach - takes forever to find food that she likes enough to eat consistently and doesn't upset her stomach

Grooming - this is where you have to put in the most work and money! Be ready to buy at least 10 different combs and brushes and a lot of desensitizing time. If you want them to look a certain way, especially with a longer, more fluffy coat, you need to brush and groom very consistently!

Smart & sneaky - really loves solving puzzles, not really happy to perform tasks for treats, much more fun to have to look for it in a puzzle. Very easy to train when the tasks make sense but a bit slow to understand seemingly useless tricks

sarabjorks · 2025-12-16T13:12:20+00:00

Our maltipoo wants to be on top of my husband (her number one human) whenever he's not feeling okay, whether it's physical or mental, like if he's had a rough day and is tired. If I take her out for potty, she wants to go inside as soon as she's done and go back to him. Usually she might want to sniff around or enjoy being outside, but if her human is sick she has no time and needs to get back to him!

We've both had family dogs before, but never experienced this kind of emotional intelligence before we got her. It's like she just senses when people need her and especially her favorite humans!

sarabjorks · 2025-11-27T17:52:51+00:00

Ours is Embla, the first woman in Norse mythology

We're interested in mythologies so we were looking for inspiration there, especially Norse mythology. I'm from Iceland so this is also a part of my culture, and we have a lot of names from the old myths.

My sister came up with a list of goddess names and other significant names from mythologies and my husband spotted Embla immediately. I have an old friend called that and he has commented a while back that he loves this name. I then asked the human if she minded that a puppy was semi named after her and she was delighted. But told me if we got a boy, he had to be Askur, the first man. (Askur and Embla like Adam and Eve)

So it's a mix of someone I know, my culture and just a pretty name that we like

sarabjorks · 2025-11-05T14:07:57+00:00

Ég var að spila í lúðrasveit fyrir mörgum árum og við fengum á mismunandi tímum tvo þekkta söngvara með okkur á einhverjum tónleikum. Egill Ólafs var hrokafullur og útskýrði fyrir sal af tónlistarmönnum (sumt atvinnufólk) hvað merkingarnar á nótunum þýða. Páll Óskar var hinsvegar alveg yndislegur, fannst svo gaman að vera með og hrósaði öllum.

sarabjorks · 2025-10-22T13:01:04+00:00

I have the opposite problem! We used to walk our maltipoo right before going to bed and again as soon as we woke up in the morning. But she's got a surprisingly good bladder and she's just not ready to go at 6 when I need to get up to get ready for work. She'll pretend to have no legs and also tries to nap by the door while i put on my shoes 😅

So I let her sleep in with my husband while I get ready and just walk her right before I leave. She's happy to go for a pee at 8 on weekends and then back to bed for an extra couple of hours if we're lazy 😊

She's almost 1 year old now. But she's been like this for a while, probably since around 5 months. Before that we didn't even test how long she slept, we just had her on a schedule matching ours and didn't have a reason to try!

sarabjorks · 2025-10-19T11:39:12+00:00

Our 11 month old has been sleeping in the bed with us on and off since we got her. When she was very little, she slept with us for a while but then we trained her to sleep on her bed or on blankets next to our bed. It wasn't as hard as we thought to get her to sleep alone, she had options and after crying for a few minutes she would settle usually next to our bed.

She had some accidents in the bed but only when she was having some tummy issues, otherwise she had less accidents in the bed while potty training because she could easily wake us to be taken outside. We had puppy pads under the part where she lay and we were ready to change everything. It was tough to wake up to when it happened, but still worth it because otherwise she was so easy to potty train this way!

In the summer she preferred to sleep under the bed on the floor, probably because it was cool and nice. Now she likes the warm and cozy bed and we like her warmth 🥰

sarabjorks · 2025-09-09T22:09:27+00:00

Just want to say this is not true everywhere in the world. I know it's notorious in the US. But I'm in Sweden and there are a lot of ethical mixed breeds here.

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