I think I’m going to have to become an expert at picking out toxic plants.
When we take our puppy for walks she tries to investigate everything and often tries to taste everything she encounters. I don’t know how many small stones I’ve pulled out of her mouth!
Now that the cold weather is here the plants in peoples gardens have all withered up and I can’t tell what the heck they are. As a result going near enough to any plant to taste it is taboo for our little pup.
It’s bad enough that I have some very toxic plants in my own garden, but since I haven’t been walking around the neighborhood much this year, now that I’m out everyday walking around the neighborhood I have no idea what everyone else has been growing or whether it might be harmful to my pup if she tries to taste their plants.
I guess for proper dog walking etiquette it’s best anyway if she’s not wandering onto everyone’s lawn to investigate their gardens.
For those of you with dogs how do you keep them out of the plants? – your own or your neighbors.
HI,
Yes puppies will and can get into anything and everything. Thankfully the grow up. Your right training is the best way, start young. We had some nasties in our garden,mooks hood,foxglove, rhubarb, etc luckily most of these plants taste really bad and one little taste is enough for the pup to remember it a no no, and not touch it again, they won’t get sick from a little taste, the problem come with ingestion of the leaves or fruit. (Castor Beans). In your own yard use a lease or line when your not paying attention doing other things, so you don’t have to worry. For out cat I found a spray bottle of water was a good deterrence when it came to eating my plants. Good Luck.
wendy
Hello,
It can be really scary knowing that there are tons of seemingly harmless beautiful plants outside, but many can be toxic to humans or animals or both. We are taught at a young age not to eat anything from outside, but dogs taste and graze on grass and other plants into adulthood sometimes. Training them to not eat plants can help, but there is always the chance they might get into some toxic plant someday and that would be it. I have heard that most plants carry toxins as a natural defense, some carry more than others. Some plants are only poisonous to humans and some are poisonous to certain animals. The big one I know of is the Oleander. I have heard it is one of the most toxic of all. That may be why they plant it down the middle of freeways in my area, to deter animals from crossing the road. There are many good resources online to look up and identify poisonous plants that are house plants, outdoor plants, and native species. I would say just find out where the “bad” plants in your neighborhood are and stay away from them. If you know the people with the poisonous plant you may want to politely let them know about it, because they might not even know. I just had to look up plants in my area because I have two toddlers and a little dog. Its spring here and everything is growing everywhere. We should all have more knowledge about what is growing around. Good luck to you. We are in this boat together.