Can Dogs Have Strawberry Yogurt? The Benefits & Risks

As a devoted dog parent, you probably love treating your pup with tasty snacks. But with all the tempting human foods around, it’s essential to know which ones are safe for your best friend. One question that often comes up is, “Can dogs have strawberry yogurt?” The answer is a little complex: this sweet treat comes with its own set of benefits and risks. In this article, we’ll explore the ins and outs of strawberry yogurt for dogs, helping you make an informed decision about whether to share this snack with your pup.

Benefits of strawberries for dogs

First, let’s touch on the benefits of strawberries for dogs in order to answer the question of can dogs eat strawberry yogurt. If prepared properly, most dogs can eat fresh or frozen strawberries safely. They’re one of our favorite plants to put in a garden in a dog friendly backyard, too!

Strawberries are full of a variety of helpful vitamins, minerals, and other compounds. They also have a large amount of fiber, which is helpful for improving gut health and keeping your pup full longer.

Strawberries also have high amounts of antioxidants and other anti-inflammatory compounds. These compounds have a wide variety of benefits, such as improved skin health, improved joint health, and improved cell health. Reducing inflammation can really have a large impact on your dog’s wellbeing, so it’s hard to overstate the benefits of these compounds.

Strawberries have sugar in them naturally, but it’s not too much considering how sweet they are. Unless your dog is sensitive to sugar (diabetes or other sugar-sensitive conditions), the benefits outweigh the cons in small amounts. Check out our favorite fruits safe for dogs or guide on when strawberry preserves are safe for dogs if you want more information.

What are the benefits of yogurt for dogs?

Yogurt is another healthy snack for your dog, as long as the ingredients are safe. First, it’s a low calorie dog treat which makes a great base for frozen enrichments, like Toppl recipes or in a Kong Extreme. Our pups love yogurt, even Goomba, who is our resident picky eater.

As with humans, dairy products like yogurt are substantial sources of calcium. In addition, yogurt is an excellent source of protein for your pup. Protein is an essential component of almost every body function and can help your dog maintain muscle mass or even get stronger. This is even more important as your dog ages, as decreased muscle mass can significantly decrease their quality of life.

Yogurt is also an excellent source of probiotics, which can help improve digestion and improve your dog’s gut health. A healthy gut can improve your dog’s absorption of nutrients and reduce the chance of gastrointestinal (GI) issues. Your dog’s immune health is also directly related to their gut health, which means probiotics can help your dog be less itchy.

We’ve noticed an enormous difference when we started giving Primmie probiotics with her ear and skin issues. We use Pawzitive Pets probioitic bites, and the difference has been night and day!

Risks of strawberry yogurt for your dog

To answer our question, when can dogs have strawberry yogurt, we need to understand the potential risk of yogurt to dogs. Fortunately, these are straightforward and are easy to avoid or detect. Let’s go through them.

Ingredients to watch out for

The most important ingredients to watch out for answering “Can dogs have strawberry yogurt?” are artificial sweeteners. The most likely is xylitol, which causes a rapid release of insulin, which results in low blood sugar. This can cause vomiting, loss of coordination, seizures, and death. Symptoms present quickly, so if your dog ingests a substance with xylitol, you need to head to the nearest emergency vet clinic and call the ASPCA’s poison control hotline immediately. Other artificial sugars are bad, too, and we highly recommend staying away from all of them.

Next is regular sugar, which is not nearly as bad, but still should be minimal in your dog’s diet. As in humans, sugar can cause a variety of issues with your pup, including stomach upset, heart issues, dental issues, and weight gain. There’s really no reason to feed your dog anything with added sugar, but foods with sugar in them naturally (dog-safe berries, apples, etc) are fine and even healthy in small quantities.

High fructose corn syrup is a sugar substitute with essentially the same negative effects as normal sugar. It’s easiest to treat the same as added sugar for your dog.

You should also avoid artificial colors and flavors. At the risk of stating the obvious, your dog does not care at all if your yogurt is white or pink, so there’s no real reason to have artificial coloring. It’s almost impossible to get a good read on what the actual artificial flavors are, which means it’s extremely risky to feed to your dog.

It’s really easy to flavor your own yogurt. For example, if you bought plain strawberry yogurt and want strawberry banana yogurt, mash or blend some banana and mix it into your yogurt. That’s it!

Interactions with medications

An important consideration when you’re deciding when can dogs have strawberry yogurt (or any dairy product) is interaction with medications. It’s impossible to list every interaction, but we wanted to point out a few specific cases.

From our own experience, dairy products affect Primmie’s medication for hypothyroidism. This means her thyroxine (used to treat hypothyroidism) is less effective than normal. Untreated hypothyroidism results in very obvious behavior changes, such as altered energy level, anxiousness, intolerance to cold, and skin irritation. We make sure she doesn’t get dairy products around her scheduled medicine.

Some antibiotics also have interactions with dairy products, which will lower their effectiveness. This means the infection might not disappear after your treatment, which is especially concerning as the veterinarian prescribed the antibiotics for a specific reason.

Dairy products, such as yogurt, can also affect iron levels. The calcium inhibits, or prevents, iron from being absorbed as efficiently by your body. We recommend discussing any prescribed medications with your vet in order to avoid negative interactions.

Lactose intolerance in dogs

Another factor to consider in answering when can dogs have strawberry yogurt is if your dog can handle lactose. Fortunately, the symptoms are generally mild and rather obvious if your dog can’t handle lactose. Symptoms vary, but can include soft stools, gas, or stomach upset. In some cases, vomiting can occur as well.

If your dog has similar symptoms with a small quantity of yogurt, we recommend discontinuing yogurt and discussing your dog’s lactose tolerance with your vet. It’s not too difficult to manage your pup’s situation, as long as you’re aware of it.

Can dogs have strawberry yogurt?

Can dogs have strawberry yogurt? Yes, but you have to be careful of the ingredients.

Like most prepared foods, you need to be aware of what’s in your strawberry yogurt before feeding it to your dog. We recommend introducing yogurt slowly in case your dog has an adverse response. This will minimize the distress to your dog (and to you!). We’ll take you through how to introduce yogurt to your pup safely.

How to introduce strawberry yogurt to your dog

It’s easy to introduce yogurt to your dog, even if you have a picky dog like we do! Not all dogs will like yogurt, so don’t worry if that’s your dog! There are plenty of other treats that your pup will like, so we recommend trying a different food. We find that almost every dog will like something on this list, so don’t be afraid to give it a shot!

Yogurt dog treats

Now that we’ve answered when can dogs have strawberry yogurt, let’s discuss their favorite ways of eating it!

Treats are by far the easiest way, especially for a picky dog. Baked treats have the least strong flavor and texture combination, which means your dog may not even notice yogurt is even present. You won’t get many of the benefits of yogurt because it’s cooked and in a small quantity, but technically it’s yogurt.

There is a lot of variety in dog treats containing yogurt, and even some that have strawberries and yogurt. We’ll touch on our favorite options in the Strawberry yogurt treats for dogs section that follows.

Frozen enrichment with yogurt

The next easiest way to sneak some yogurt into your dog’s diet is by adding it to frozen food-based enrichment. There are an enormous amount of options, but almost all function the same.

Dog-safe yogurt works great in frozen enrichment, and it’s one of our favorite ingredients to use. Our pups’ favorite frozen enrichment are the Woof Pupsicle for Primmie and the Toppl for Goomba. It’s a great intermediate step between baked dog treats and straight yogurt. They’ll allow your dog to taste the yogurt without it being an overpowering taste and texture.

Check out our two favorite frozen enrichment guides: frozen Toppl recipes and Woof Pupsicle recipes for a more thorough explanation of each and additional ideas.

Lick mats

Another great way dogs can have strawberry yogurt is through lick mats. Depending on you do it, they’re a more spread out Toppl or Pupsicle. Lick mats (our favorites are Frisco’s silicone lick mats) are great for all dogs, but work better than other frozen enrichment if your dog doesn’t have a high food drive. If you haven’t used a lick mat before, check out our post on the benefits of lick mats for dogs.

Lick mats are great not frozen or frozen, but their duration will be much longer if you freeze them. We usually blend ingredients for our dogs, but that’s just because we’re usually batch making frozen enrichment most of the time. We recommend spreading out your ingredients and then filling the rest of the mat with low-sodium broth or water. Check out our favorite frozen lick mat recipes for dogs if you want more information!

Frozen yogurt treats

Making frozen dog treats is the same process as any other enrichment, you’ll just need a mold for the treats. The refill tray we use for our Pupsicles works great for standard frozen treats, too. We love our Woof pupsicle treat tray mold and it’s saved us hundreds of dollars over the years on refills for Primmie’s favorite enrichment.

Whichever mold you choose, you get to control the recipe so you can put whatever your dog likes in it! Our recommendation is to mix 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, and a handful of strawberries into a blender. It’s super cheap, easy, and if your dog particularly likes them, you can put them in a Pupsicle or your dog’s favorite food-based enrichment toys.

Off the spoon

Perhaps the most obvious way to determine if your dog likes strawberry yogurt is to let them try it off the spoon. Not all dogs will like the taste or consistency (just like humans), but it’s by far the easiest way. Mixing yogurt into your dog’s dry or wet food is also a great option. The extra food will reduce the risk of stomach upset if your dog has a sensitive stomach.

The previous ways will have a higher chance of success, especially with pickier dogs, but off the spoon and in Toppls & Pupsicles are our favorite ways to give our dogs yogurt. Lick mats (check out our favorite lick mat ideas for dogs) are also something we use a lot, but we end up using the Toppls & Pupsicles more.

Strawberry yogurt treats for dogs

If you’re wanting to take it slow to see if your dog likes strawberry yogurt, we have a variety of treats to recommend. We’ll put these in order of least strong to strongest tasting for your pup.

The best option to start with our treat options is Pawfect’s yogurt with strawberry dog treats. These are basically cookies for dogs, so almost every dog will like these. They only have 5 ingredients, which we like, and they are extremely cheap. They’re also only 4 calories per treat, which makes them a great option for low calorie treats for dogs.

Next up, we have Ultra Chewy’s yogurt treat bones. These are always a hit with our dogs, and they’re usually in one of our local stores, too. They are higher in calories, so if you have a small dog or a calorie-restricted one, you can break them in half. We haven’t seen a dog refuse these treats yet, so they should be a pleasant introduction to yogurt for your pup.

Finally, we have freeze-dried strawberry yogurt bites. Our two favorites are Pawup freeze-dried yogurt bites and Arya Sit!’s freeze-dried yogurt bites. We don’t have a strong preference between one or the other; we typically get whichever is a better deal. Both are great limited ingredient options, which is helpful if your pup has a lot of allergies. We (and our dogs) love freeze-dried treats, and they’re always a hit with our pups!

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Can dogs have strawberry Greek yogurt?

Yes, as long as the rest of the ingredients are safe for your pup, both regular and Greek yogurt are safe for your dog. The only actual difference is that manufacturers remove the whey from regular yogurt, which makes Greek yogurt. This results in a thicker, high-protein yogurt but uses the same process and ingredients. Like humans, your dog may even like Greek yogurt better than regular yogurt!

Can dogs have strawberry banana yogurt?

If you are wondering, “Can dogs have strawberry yogurt with bananas?”, the answer is yes! If you want an easy way to make specific flavors, purchase some plain unflavored yogurt and add your own flavors! Strawberry banana is a great option as both are safe for the vast majority of pups. Our local grocery store even has a blend of both fruits frozen. Check out our favorite dog-safe fruits and vegetables for more ideas!

What brands of yogurt tend to be dog-safe?

The safest options are plain Greek yogurt that you flavor yourself, and most stores have a line that is great. Some of our favorites are Friendly Farms (Aldi), Great Value (Walmart), and Kroger, but that’s based on the stores we have around. Oikos and Chobani also have plain Greek yogurt that is safe for your pup.

We’d recommend Siggi’s strawberry Icelandic yogurt or Whole Foods 365 strawberry Greek yogurt as our preferred option if you want something pre-mixed. They both have a bit of sugar in them, but it’s fine in small amounts for most dogs as long as it’s infrequent. If you want to use a larger amount, we’d recommend mixing your own strawberry yogurt to avoid the higher quantity of sugar.

Conclusion

Can dogs have strawberry yogurt? The answer is yes, but you have to be careful with the ingredients. We recommend flavoring your own plain Greek yogurt, but safe premixed options exist, too. If your dog is a picky eater, try mixing it into a frozen enrichment or into their normal food. Even our resident picky pup, Goomba, loves it in treats!

Thanks for stopping by. We would love to hear from you! Drop us a message on Instagram @TheRullyBully or on our Facebook page.

Have fun!