Every autumn the shelves fill with advent calendars for dogs, and every year the same questions follow. Are they worth it? Do the treats inside suit your dog? How many calories are you adding to December, a month when many dogs already eat more than usual? And what about the calendar on the kitchen counter that is meant for people, with chocolate behind every door? This guide works through all four. It covers what to look for on a label, how to fit a daily treat into your dog's food allowance, what the main UK calendars contain according to their own pages and independent roundups, and how to build a cheaper, lower-calorie calendar from play, walks and a few simple foods. If you would rather make your own, a lick mat such as our Big Spread, which has a removable bowl plus maze, honeycomb and nub zones and is dishwasher safe and freezable, is a handy centrepiece for it.
One thing to say up front. We do not sell dog treats, so we have no calendar to push, and we have not tested any of the calendars described below. Neither, in at least one case, did the reviewer whose roundup we read. We have therefore relied on manufacturers' own product pages for ingredients and calories where we could find them, and on independent roundups and veterinary-charity advice for everything else, and we flag the weaker sources as we go.
Where this information comes from
For the dangers of chocolate and other festive foods we used two Kennel Club pages, one of which carries no publication date and the other from December 2024. For the treat allowance we used PDSA, the veterinary charity. For xylitol we used a 2010 news item quoting the British Veterinary Association and the Veterinary Poisons Information Service, together with a blog from a pet insurer, which we treat as lower-credential because it also promotes insurance. For the calendars themselves we used the product pages for Lily's Kitchen and Pooch & Mutt, plus two roundups: Dog Dad, which was first published on 22 November 2025 and last updated on 21 September 2026, and All Subscription Boxes, dated 16 October 2026.
Be aware that both roundups appear to use affiliate links. The Dog Dad page showed no disclosure in the text we read, although many of its buy links looked like Amazon affiliate short links, and All Subscription Boxes included tracked links and said it had not tested the calendars with its own dogs. Neither is a veterinary source, and prices change, so check a retailer before you buy. We also found one carob explainer, from a commercial nutrition site that names no author or veterinary credentials. We mention it, but we do not lean on it.
The calendar to worry about first: the one meant for people
Before choosing a dog calendar, deal with the human one. The Kennel Club's festive advice says dark chocolate is the most dangerous, but any amount can make a dog ill, and that dogs are around four times more likely to need veterinary care for chocolate poisoning at Christmas than at other times of the year. It names advent calendars as a common source of chocolate theft and says to store them high up, out of a dog's reach. Its December 2024 advice repeats the point: keep advent calendars, chocolate coins and edible tree decorations out of reach, since they can contain chocolate. That same page says that claims for chocolate poisoning peaked in January and that nearly a third of the previous year's claims came during the Christmas period. It does not explain what kind of claims these were, so treat the figure as a pointer rather than a precise statistic.
Symptoms of chocolate poisoning, according to the Kennel Club, can appear four to 24 hours later and include sickness, stomach pain, excessive drinking, dribbling, fast breathing and seizures. If you think your dog has eaten any chocolate, contact your vet immediately, and tell them what was eaten, when, and how much. The Kennel Club also says never to try to make your dog sick. For the science of how much chocolate is a problem, see our guide on whether chocolate is really that dangerous for dogs. The practical lesson for December is simple: the human calendar belongs on a high shelf, out of sight and out of reach, not on the coffee table and not in a child's room with the door open.
What to look for on a dog calendar label
A calendar sold for dogs should not contain chocolate, but labels still vary a lot, so here is what to check.
Start with the ingredients you want to avoid altogether. Dog Dad lists chocolate and cocoa, xylitol, grapes and raisins, excessive sugar, artificial colours and preservatives, and wheat or grains if your dog is sensitive. The xylitol warning matters because it is easy to miss. According to the BVA and the Veterinary Poisons Information Service in 2010, xylitol is harmless to people but in dogs triggers a sudden release of insulin, causing a sharp drop in blood sugar, and can lead to liver damage. They listed sugar-free gum, sweets, dental products, some medicines and baking sugar substitutes as sources. The pet insurer's blog adds that some peanut butters contain it and that signs can appear within about half an hour or be delayed by up to 12 hours. The advice in both is to contact your vet immediately. Calendars made for dogs are unlikely to include it, but a homemade calendar that uses human food or a tub of peanut butter needs the label checked first. Our existing posts on Halloween trick or treat safety and pumpkin for dogs also touch on sweets and spices.
Next, think about raisins, currants and sultanas. The Kennel Club names them as dangers in Christmas cake, pudding, fruit cake, mince pies and stollen, and also lists grapes, macadamia nuts, blue cheese, onions and other alliums such as garlic, leeks, shallots and chives. A dog calendar is unlikely to contain these, but a festive biscuit recipe you bake yourself might, so keep to dog-specific recipes. Then comes the matter of carob. One calendar in the Dog Dad roundup, Jollyes Jolly Dog at £3.00 for 24, is described as carob "chocolate" treats that are cocoa- and gluten-free, with the fat content not published. The commercial carob explainer we read says carob contains neither theobromine nor caffeine and is non-toxic, but warns that commercial carob products are often sweetened or contain added oil, and advises checking the label. We could not find a veterinary source on carob, so our advice is cautious: if you choose a carob product, read the full ingredient list, and do not treat anything that looks like chocolate as a licence to share the human version.
Then check for allergens and the fat content. Lily's Kitchen's page lists peanut butter, yoghurt powder (a dairy product) and honey among the ingredients of its biscuits, though it has no allergen statement. Pooch & Mutt's page lists chicken protein, yellow peas, lentils and collagen and has no allergen statement either, noting that grains may be present because the food is made where grains are handled. The Deli Dog Wagvent contains peanuts, according to Dog Dad, and Skipper's fish-based bundle is unsuitable for dogs with a fish allergy. Fat varies enormously: the Woof Club Naturals air-dried raw calendar has fat contents from 0.3 percent to about 33.8 percent depending on the treat, while Good Boy's Snowman and Snowdog calendar is 6 percent. All Subscription Boxes says Butternut Box's calendar is not suitable for dogs with pancreatitis. If your dog has a history of pancreatitis, a sensitive stomach or any allergy, ask your vet before buying any calendar, and take the label along.
Finally, check age guidance. The roundups list Pooch & Mutt from 12 weeks, Scrumbles from eight weeks, Lily's Kitchen from four months, and Good Boy Snowman and Snowdog is not recommended under four months. Pooch & Mutt's own page confirms suitability from 12 weeks, and Lily's Kitchen's page confirms four months and above. For a puppy on a feeding plan from a vet, a calendar is optional, and fewer treats is the safer choice.
The calorie maths nobody puts on the box
PDSA's advice is that treats should make up no more than 10 percent of a dog's daily food, and that you should reduce regular meals by the same amount. It suggests setting aside 10 percent of the daily food allowance as the day's treats. It also points out that a small treat for a person can be a large amount of calories for a smaller dog. This is the same rule we use in our guide on helping an overweight dog lose weight safely, and it is the one calendar buyers most often skip.
Here is how it works in practice, using an imaginary figure to show the arithmetic. If your dog ate 1,000 kilocalories a day, a 10 percent treat allowance would be 100 kilocalories. That figure is hypothetical, not a recommendation, so ask your vet or use the feeding guidelines on your dog's food to find the real number. Next, find your calendar's calories. They are rarely printed per treat. Lily's Kitchen lists its Breaktime biscuits at 328 kcal per 100g and its Bedtime biscuits at 370 kcal per 100g, but gives no per-biscuit figure on the page we read. Pooch & Mutt's gingerbread calendar gives 3,100 kcal per kilogram, which is about 310 kcal per 100g by our arithmetic, with a recommendation of two treats a day for all dogs, adjusted for activity, breed, age and weight, but no treat weight. All Subscription Boxes quotes Butternut Box at about 8 kcal per treat, with three treats a window, which works out at roughly 24 kcal a day by our arithmetic. Dog Dad gives only one per-treat figure, about 2 kcal per treat for Park Life Christmas Nibbles.
The takeaway is that calendars range from almost nothing per day to a meaningful slice of a small dog's food. A 24 kcal treat might be a trivial amount for a large dog and a sizeable one for a toy breed. Weigh the biscuits in the first window if the box gives a per-100g figure and no count, do the sum, and trim dinner to match. All Subscription Boxes makes the same point in plainer terms: treats should be only a small part of the daily food, so trim dinner slightly in December.
Making each treat last longer
A calendar treat is gone in a second, which is a little sad for both of you. The simplest way to get more from it, without adding calories, is to slow the dog down. These ideas are our own suggestions rather than anything the sources test, and they all work within the same daily allowance.
First, split the treats. If a window holds two biscuits and your dog is small, break each into pieces and use them one at a time over a short game of "find it" in the hall or a few sits and downs. The roundups note that some calendar treats are hard, so for small dogs and seniors, smaller pieces are kinder on the teeth anyway. Second, move part of the day's measured meal into the activity. A Big Slow puzzle feeder has maze compartments and a non-slip base, is dishwasher safe, and suits small to medium breeds, so a few of the day's calendar treats can be scattered through the maze with a handful of normal kibble. Because it all comes out of the same allowance, it adds time rather than calories. Third, use the lick mat for the wet and sticky options: spread a thin layer of something low-calorie on it, freeze it, and let the dog work through it at its own pace, counting the spread towards the 10 percent.
Fourth, space the treats out. One door at breakfast and one at the end of the afternoon walk is easier on a dog's routine than a handful at once. And last, pair the treat with something that is not food. A short trick, a good sniff on a long line, or a minute of gentle grooming makes the same biscuit feel like a bigger event. PDSA lists extra playtime, a new toy, cuddles and grooming as rewards, so none of this is a compromise.
The main calendars, and what their own pages say
Prices and contents below come from the dates given in the sources above, and calendars sell out and change, so check before buying. We group them by type rather than rank them, because the right one depends on your dog.
For baked biscuits, the best-documented example is Lily's Kitchen, at £10.50 on its own page and in the All Subscription Boxes roundup. It has two festive biscuit types, Breaktime (peanut butter and banana) and Bedtime (chamomile and passion flower), is for adult dogs from four months, and lists crude fat of 9 percent for Breaktime and 8 percent for Bedtime. Its ingredients are mostly flours, oats and oils, with the peanut butter, yoghurt powder and honey worth noting for sensitive dogs. Life of Riley, at £11.95 in the same roundup, offers two biscuits per window picked at random from a mix, about 190g in total, described as grain free, plant based and with no added sugar, from 12 weeks. Doghouse, at £13.95, has 24 banana, apple and blueberry bones made with peas and sweet potato, described as vegetarian and from 12 weeks.
For meaty treats, Pooch & Mutt's gingerbread calendar is £9.99 on its own page. It has 24 doors, a recommendation of two treats a day, chicken protein as the first ingredient at 32 percent, crude fat of 5.5 percent, and cinnamon, ginger and anise in the recipe. Butternut Box's calendar is £9.99 according to All Subscription Boxes, with three grain-free meaty treats per window, added to a Butternut Box delivery rather than sold on its own, and it donates a meal to a dog in need for each calendar sold. Dog Dad lists Dogs'n Tiger at £8.51 for 24 treats, described as 85 percent meat, and the Good Boy Snowman and Snowdog calendar at £5.75 with more than 30 percent chicken breast, 6 percent fat and caramelised sugar in the recipe. Dog Dad also notes that Good Boy treats can be hard, so cut them smaller for small dogs, and that some calendars may be hard for senior dogs with dental problems.
For budget and simple options, Dog Dad lists Good Boy Chewy at £4.75 for 24 with 16 percent chicken, about 2 percent fat and corn starch as a main ingredient, and the Jollyes carob calendar at £3.00. At the other end of the range are Skipper's fish-based bundle at £15 to £20 and the Woof Club Naturals giant air-dried raw calendar at £25. For functional treats, Scrumbles offers dental, calming and meaty bites, and Ruff's Recipes pairs bird roast bites with sleepy snacks containing chamomile, passionflower and valerian root. The sources describe these as calming, and we did not find evidence in what we read that a biscuit changes a dog's anxiety, so we would treat them as an evening snack rather than a calming aid. If your dog's nerves are the real issue, our posts on separation anxiety and the vet are better starting points than a calendar.
Which kind of calendar suits which dog
These are our suggestions from the facts above, not a ranking. For a small dog or a dog that is already heavy, pick the calendar with the smallest, lowest-fat treats, and do the calorie sum before you open door one. For a dog with a history of pancreatitis, skip high-fat calendars and ask your vet first. For a dog with allergies, avoid mixed-ingredient calendars unless the label lets you rule out each ingredient. For a senior dog with weak teeth, pick soft treats or break hard ones into pieces. For a puppy, check the minimum age, keep the number of treats low and count them towards the daily allowance.
For a dog who takes treats too quickly, either choose a calendar with tiny pieces or stretch each treat over a few minutes using a toy or a slow feeder. For a dog who is fussy, check that the first window is something they actually like before you commit, and consider buying a small bag of the same treats first, since a calendar that sits half full in December is money wasted. For a multi-dog home, one calendar per dog stops arguments and lets you count calories separately. For a home with cats, keep the calendar well away from them as well, since we have not checked any dog calendar's suitability for cats and the ingredients may not suit them.
Build your own advent calendar for dogs
You can build a calendar that adds almost no calories. PDSA's list of rewards that are not food includes extra playtime, a new toy, cuddles and grooming, and its healthier food options include steam-cooked chicken, dog-safe fruit and vegetables, and frozen broccoli. Blue Cross, as reported in a syndicated newspaper piece with no date, names apples, carrots, green beans and strawberries as safe and says to avoid grapes, onions, leeks and garlic, and to remove the core and seeds from apples. Everything you feed still counts towards the daily 10 percent.
Here is a simple way to lay out 24 days. Use number tags or envelopes on a string and attach one idea to each. Ideas could include: a new walking route; five minutes of scent games in the living room; a game of find-it with a few dry biscuits from the dog's normal ration; ten minutes of gentle grooming; a frozen lick mat with a spoonful of plain, xylitol-free yoghurt or mashed banana; a new toy from a shop or a charity bag; a longer sniff-walk on a long line; a trick session; a game of tug; a cuddle on the sofa with a film; and a few pieces of carrot or apple as a snack, with seeds and core removed. Our guides to indoor activities for dogs in a UK winter and mental versus physical exercise have more ideas, and the puzzle toys explainer covers how to pick feeders and mats.
If you use a feeder or lick mat for any of these days, measure the day's allowance first, put part of the ration in the maze, and count anything you spread on the mat towards the 10 percent. That is how the Big Slow feeder and the Big Spread lick mat earn their keep without adding calories. If you want more gift ideas around the calendar, our gift guide for dog owners is a good companion.
The daily walk is the easiest door to give. A comfortable harness helps on cold, dark mornings, and our Big Trail Harness has reflective strips, padding and a top handle for the icy step. If you want a quiet reward for the end of the month, a good bed is worth more than another biscuit.
How to run the calendar day by day
A few habits make any calendar safer and calmer. Keep it out of reach, because even a dog calendar is a pile of treats behind thin card. Open one door a day, at a regular time, not several in a row. Count what comes out, and write the number down on the first day so you can see the pattern. Take the matching amount off dinner. Have the same person open the doors, so a child or visitor does not hand over a second or third helping. Check that any dog that is on medication, on a prescription diet or recovering from stomach trouble can have the treats at all. And keep a note of the packaging in case you need it later.
If your dog does get into a human calendar, follow the Kennel Club's advice: contact your vet immediately, tell them what your dog ate, when and how much, keep the packaging, and do not try to make your dog sick. Do not wait for symptoms, since the same source says chocolate signs can take four to 24 hours to appear.
Keeping Christmas Day calm
The Kennel Club's festive advice recommends keeping hazards out of sight and smell, and giving your dog new toys and plenty of outdoor exercise during the festive period. Visitors, wrapping paper and a busy kitchen are a lot for some dogs, so give yours a quiet corner with a bed, water and a chew or lick mat, away from the noise. A supportive bed such as our Big Snooze Pro, with its memory foam, bolster sides and non-slip base and a cover that washes at 30°C, gives a dog a place to retreat to when the house is full. The Kennel Club also lists cooked poultry bones, onions, raisins in Christmas cake and pudding, blue cheese, alcohol and tinsel among the hazards, so the calendar is only one of several things to keep out of reach.
A quick plan for December
Before the first of the month, choose the calendar or build your own, check the label for chocolate, xylitol, raisins, onion and garlic, and your dog's allergens. Work out the daily treat allowance, the calories per door, and the trim to make to dinner. Put the human calendars out of reach. Decide who opens the doors. Keep one non-food door in every three or four. And if your dog starts to gain weight or has a tummy upset, stop and ask your vet, because December should be fun for both of you.
Then, when the calendar is empty, do a quick check. PDSA's home body-condition check uses your eyes and hands: look from the side and from above for a waist, and a tummy that tucks up rather than bulges, then run your hands along the ribs, which you should feel with a light touch, with the skin moving freely over them. If you cannot find a waist or have to press to feel the ribs, trim the January portions and book a weigh-in with your vet practice, which PDSA says many practices offer through weight clinics or waiting-room scales. A month of small, counted treats should not change your dog's shape, and if it does, that is useful information too. Either way, a calendar, shop-bought or homemade, is a nice way to make the run-up to Christmas a bit more special for your dog, as long as the maths and the label come first and the human chocolate stays on a high shelf.
Q: Can dogs eat chocolate from a human advent calendar?
A: No. The Kennel Club says dark chocolate is the most dangerous but any amount can make a dog ill, and it names advent calendars as a common source of chocolate theft. Symptoms can appear four to 24 hours later and include sickness, stomach pain, excessive drinking, dribbling, fast breathing and seizures. Contact your vet immediately, say what was eaten, when and how much, and do not try to make your dog sick.
Q: How many advent calendar treats can my dog have each day?
A: PDSA says treats should make up no more than 10 percent of your dog's daily food, with regular meals reduced by the same amount. Work out your dog's daily allowance from your vet or the feeding guide on its food, take 10 percent, then check your calendar's calories. Manufacturers give different information: Pooch & Mutt recommends two treats a day, while Butternut Box's treats are about 8 kcal each according to one roundup, and Lily's Kitchen gives only per-100g figures.
Q: Are carob treats a safe alternative to chocolate?
A: Carob does not contain theobromine or caffeine according to the commercial nutrition site we read, but that site names no author or veterinary credentials, so we would treat the claim with caution. It also warns that commercial carob products may contain added sugar or oil. We found no veterinary source on carob. If you choose a carob calendar, read the whole ingredient list, check for sweeteners such as xylitol and for anything your dog is allergic to, and keep the human version out of reach.
Q: Is a dog advent calendar suitable for a puppy?
A: It depends on the product. Pooch & Mutt and Doghouse say from 12 weeks, Lily's Kitchen says from four months, Scrumbles is listed from eight weeks, and one roundup says Good Boy Snowman and Snowdog is not recommended under four months. Even when a puppy is old enough, count the treats towards its daily food and talk to your vet if you are unsure.
Q: What if my dog has allergies or has had pancreatitis?
A: Read the full ingredient list and ask your vet before buying. All Subscription Boxes says Butternut Box's calendar is not suitable for dogs with pancreatitis, and fat content across calendars ranges from about 2 percent to 9 percent in the biscuit and meaty calendars we checked, and up to about 33.8 percent in one air-dried raw calendar. Common ingredients to watch include peanut butter, dairy, honey, chicken, fish and peanuts. A non-food calendar is the safest option.
— Joseph, The Big Pet Shop, Bacup, Lancashire 🐾