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Oh dear, I am heap big trouble. Came downstairs to find I hadn't put my son's advent calendar away.., and the dogs stripped it totally.

Got an 8 year old whose going to be fairly upset when he comes home.

I live in quite a small town. So I think I'm in trouble trying to find a replacement.

My son, unfortunately is going to want an advent calendar with chocolate something in it. Offering a donation to charity instead isn't going to cut it lol.

Best answers:

• Can't help with the calender I'm afraid, but I hope your dogs are ok after eating chocolate.
• I would be more worried about my dog eating chocolate than my son being upset, hopefully your dog will be okay and I'm sure a quick trip to a sweet shop will make your son feel better depending on how deep your pockets are.
• Chocolate contains theobromine and is highly toxic to dogs. There is no antidote to it. I would be going straight to the vets, if you aren't there already.
• Chocolate with high cocoa content is poisonous to dogs.
  They would have to eat a ton of the type of chocolate put in an advent calendar for it to have serious repercussions.
  Unless it was a fancy advent calendar from hotel chocolate or green and blacks etc. I don't think its right to be sending the OP into a panic!
  The dog might have an upset tummy but eating some 'chocolate' that probably has 0.002% cocoa in it as these regular advent calendars do is hardly cause to run screaming to the vet.
  The only place I can think of that might have one OP is a pound shop, failing that get on Amazon and try and get one of the cheap ones with toys in instead of chocolate, they're usually down in price now that advent has started.
• I agree with Damzel-in-Distress, advent calendar chocolates are so tiny and the cocoa content is so low that I doubt it will harm the dog, and I'm sure you'd go to the vets anyway if you were worried.
  You could leave the torn up calendar where it is and tell your son that naughty elves stole all the chocolates and hid them round the house, and hide a chocolate for him to find everyday for the rest of the month. You could use a bag of chocolate buttons or box of roses etc and hide one a day for him to find.
• I also agree about the amount of theobromine in advent calendars but it's amazing the amount of people who don't know that chocolate can make your dog seriously ill if they eat enough of it, if someone gets a bit of a scare then good especially if it'll make them a wee bit more careful in the future. I'm in no way getting at deannatrois who may or may not be aware of the toxicity of chocolate but it's just possible someone who doesn't know might read this and now does know.
• I have just seen on HDUK that Aldi have advent calendars for 9p if that is any help OP
• I purchased a fabric calendar and went to pound shops to fill it. Son loved it.
  The dogs were fine, no ill effects whatsoever. I'm not the sort of person that gives the dogs human food anyway, but on this occasion they were both fine, no sign of stomach upsets or illness whatsoever.
  The fabric calender was kept on top of a very tall book case, there's enough chocolate in that one to cause problems.
• We have had a fabric advent calender that we were given when my dd's were born. As they grew up I would put a piece of paper in each pocket with a 'clue' to where they would find the 'treasure chest' (a box I filled with chocolate coins) and each day I would hide it in a different place......as they get older the clues got harder and they loved it (even their friends would join in with the 'clue' and searching when they came round.