The chap who helps with the garden came today - it's a tiny garden, but I got lucky with finding this chap, he really knows what he is doing, and plants lovely stuff for me as well as keeping it all tidy. Anyway, I asked him to cut back the Spurge (euphorbia - I had two quite good, large upright plants) because Betsy had made a bit of a mess of them, pulling down the stems. He said these were poisonous to dogs, and insisted that they were removed. So I agreed...he said that he had always known these were toxic but had left them because Charlie never bothered with them. Anyway, Betsy seems fine...my garden has another two holes though. I'm planning to replant next year with fuchsia to fill in all the gaps. Betsy is doing her best to kill the few remaining ferns and patio roses I have too.... and Charlie is inspired by Betsy's puny gardening efforts to show her how it's done by dragging down small branches off the larger shrubs. Sigh....
Glad you have a gardener that knows his plants and removed them or that could have been nasty! Glad to see Charlie knows his shrubs too - bless him!!
mmm.....have now looked it up on the Dog's Trust website. Says 'toxic if eaten in large quantities'. Not sure the shredding and spitting out of the lower stems quite justified digging them all out. Still. I suppose you can't be too careful.
I decided my garden would be completely bare if I took out everything that posed a risk! I've been lucky so far. Riley was never destructive. Obi is a stick muncher but there's generally a reasonable supply of sticks so he doesn't feel the need to provide his own
Willow is a real copier when it comes to gardening. If I'm pulling at something, she'll come and help pull. If I'm digging, she wants to dig. Yesterday, I was trimming some cut branches for making fence posts, so she was "helping" me remove all the smaller shoots. Sadly, she doesn't seem to be so interested in the constructive parts of gardening!
Doug kindly emptied a pond of all its weed and floating plants and put them in the kitchen for me when he was a pup, it looked stunning. He would also help by diggin up anything I planted and puting it on the sofa The hungarian Viszla website used to have a list of poisonous plants it a huge list
Some of you might remember that we had an issue with Ella getting sick when she went to my parents property (sick enough that the vet thought that she had a reaction to toxins that caused slightly elevated liver function levels). We managed to narrow down the area an now have a section of the fenced garden roped off but we still have no idea which plant is causing the problem. Luckily the parents have decided to turn the area into another veggie patch so we'll rip out all of the plants that are currently there.
We have a big garden with lots of stuff in it, so I did quite a lot of research when Pongo arrived. Euphorbia are a definite problem, but I believe mainly because the white runny sap is such a powerful irritant. If the dog is insisting on chewing the stems, keep an eye on his mouth / skin / paws - and particularly in sunny weather (one of the effects of euphorbia sap is to increase the skin's sensitivity to sunlight). I try to persuade Pongo he doesn't want to lie down RIGHT on top of the euphorbia plants (he doesn't always agree with me). I found a "plants toxic to dogs" list (I think on the KC website) which seemed to include pretty much everything we grow . But rather than dig up the entire garden, we chose just to keep an eye out and minimise high risks. I think I'm right in saying that toxins tend to concentrate in seeds; so, we are now careful to try to pick up any seed pods falling off the wisteria (listed as "toxic"), but we don't fret too much about Pongo picking up wisteria stems that are lying around. The biggest problem when we was a puppy was his ivy-fixation - we have a lot of it and he loved chewing it, apparently NOT a good idea. Thankfully he grew out of that after a few weeks. Pongo seems to have got through it so far without being poisoned! (But I guess that might be famous last words...)
WE have quite a bit of ivy that is growing across our back fence on the ground.Coco never bothered it at all, but at her age she didn't go to the back much. I'm concerned about the new pup we are getting in about six to seven weeks. Should I be concerned and rip it out? Our neighbors behind us planted it and it crept under the fence. We never really cared for it. I have decorative fencing around all other areas of flowers, etc., to keep pup out or at least I hope so! There are bushes across the back and it was Coco's favorite place to save her sticks but she never got into the ivy.
Getting rid of ivy can be a bit of a mammoth task. I'd suggest wait and see if Coco shows much interest. The sap of ivy is sour and nasty, so even if she has a nibble the chances are she won't like it. But if she develops an interest / obsession with it, constantly seeking it out and chewing (like Pongo did), then I'd try to get rid if possible.
Thanks much for your reply and advice. It would be the new pup, not Coco -- Coco crossed the rainbow bridge 5/16/16. I still miss her terribly.
So sorry Renees.. Hope you'll better and happy with your new pup.. I have a 1 year old lab in my home. I just love him so much. Since it's too young I have to take much care of it. I've been searching for all safety measures to take care of a puppy well. That's when I came across this article http://inthebackyard.ca/4-backyard-plants-that-are-poisonous-to-your-pets/.. I'm just lucky to find this article now, because as said in the article I have Aloe Vera and daffodils in my home. Don't let your ever loving pups near those plants.
We have lots of ivy in our garden, none of the pups have tried to chew it, not even Gypsy who loved to chew on any wood or vegetation. ...
Cooper loves to chew on the wisteria branches.....and also loves the pods which I try to get rid of as soon as they fall onto the deck but,when they start to fall, you can't keep up with them as quickly as Cooper does.....I believe they have to eat a lot of them to get sick. The seeds of wisteria look very much like kibble but he seems to mainly stay away from them but, of course, the pods have the seeds in them!
