Dogs (puppy) and poisonous plants

gfplux

We are due to welcome a puppy (King Charles) into our home in a few weeks. I have read a great deal about how certain plants are piosenous to dogs. The list is very long and I am wondering How dangerous these plants are. We have a medium sized garden with many plants on the poison list. Should I dig these up?
I would welcome any opinions and advise.
Thank you

DaftyDuck

In my opinion, no you should not. I'm a keen gardener, and scientist; my wife is a vet. When I showed her the list I'd found, most came as a surprise to her, and the same to me.

Most are not highly toxic, and your dog would have to start chewing the stuff all day to make it ill. So, I'd get the dog, and see what it does. If it eats grass, and not much else, it'll be fine. Probably.

When I grew up, there were no lists.

DigForVictory

Enjoy your garden & your puppy. Dig up nothing yet - that's what puppies can do & enjoy.

They will undoubtedly eat things they shouldn't, from your best shoes to potentially toxic plants, and part of the fun of puppies is the bragging rights - "mine ate X", "hah, mine ate Q and then vomited onto the visiting Mayoress..."

Watch over them, love them & distract them. Have an insurance policy and reasonably local vet?!

arbrighton

Teach them 'leave it' as soon as you can and a firm NO, then keep an eye on them.

My pup has just turned one and tried a lot of flowers last summer, but mostly not really eating them- she did seem to be playing he loves me, he loves me not with the ox eye daisies and had a bit of an obsession with rotting grass cuttings on our walks. She also enjoyed chasing the unripened apples that fell off the tree but didn't really eat them.

She's currently eating the seeds off dandelion clocks which is rather amusing but mostly only goes for the grass these days.

JP08

arbrighton wrote: »

She also enjoyed chasing the unripened apples that fell off the tree but didn't really eat them.

Our old retriever used to eat windfall apples (and greengages) every time he got the opportunity. We used to collect them as much as possible, but invariably some get missed, or we just weren't quick enough. Three or four small apples and he'd then go and crash out for the afternoon. We came to the conclusion that maybe they were fermenting a bit and he was getting smashed on them :beer:. (ISTR a programme on elephants of the Kalahari having similar issues with a sudden glut of fruit).

He'd also help himself to cherry tomatoes straight off the plant, and the wild strawberries. Thankfully retrievers are very gentle mouthed otherwise it would have been curtains for the plants !

bouicca21

Sadly I no longer have a canine friend but when I did, there was never a problem with garden plants. Dogs are sensible creatures.

I did once take the dogs to a groomer who worked from home. I think it stressed the older one out. He ate or at least nibbled her pot plant, which I think was a sansevieria. Result instant diarrhoea. All over her carpets. He was a mess and we had to bath him all over again. Fortunately no lasting effects.

That groomer never wanted to see us again. It didn't occur to her that we didn't want to see her either.

nonnatus

I echo the other answers, just popping in to be nosey really!

Is it a King Charles you're getting or a Cavalier King Charles? The pure King Charles has a MUCH flatter face and is a far rarer breed - we have one and I'm always chuffed to spot others, knowing that the Breed is doing well etc.

Feel free to tell me to butt out if you don't want to answer -

lostinrates

My farming neighbours are horrified I have a yew hedge with our pets. There has been a yew tree at this house for many, many years, by the gate where livestock pass in and out, and dogs, cats and horses have lived here during that time. I don't know if any have died....but mine haven't.

I also smile, because our shared hedgerows are full of things I know aren't that great but which in reality I cannot do much about. With horses we electric fence off.

My most common thing to say in the garden is 'off ' [the garden]not for the sake of the dog but for my garden. We steer clear of some stuff. Lillies for example, things with pollen fall that animals cannot really help and then might groom off, but otherwise they are expected to leave. So would children be I'm afraid though.

Liljo104

I have had my lab puppy for 7 weeks now and she eats EVERYTHING in the garden, it's a huge garden so I can't supervisor her all the time. I have spent hours looking at what is safe and what is not on the Internet.
Before she came to live with us I did dig the rhododendrons and daffodils up as these can be fatal if eaten. Luckily our project is to do the garden this year so I'm only planting what is safe or considered mildly toxic. Some plants will only give them a mild upset tummy yet it's classed as toxic. Older dogs tend to know what to leave alone but with a puppy they tend to explore everything with there mouth.

sheramber

I have had dogs since the 70's and have not had any problems with garden plants.

Puppies need supervision , just as toddlers do. Depending on what your pup is like around the plants will guide you as to what action you need to take- fencing off an area to contain the dog away from the plants or fencing off the plants, digging up plants, whatever

Some are more inclined to eat things than others. None of mine have shown any interest on eating the garden plants. They were too busy doing other things.

One used to bite off the unopened heads off the carnations and spit them out around the bush.

She also carefully dug up any new plant and gently laid it in the middle of the lawn. It usually needed two replantings before she left it to grow.

Another took a fancy to eating the potting compost in the pots.

Your pup/ dog will come across a lot of these plants on walks so teaching them to leave them when young might be prudent.

I had more trouble with my dogs pruning my bushes for me by charging through them and trmapling the daffodils down.

lostinrates

Liljo104 wrote: »

I have had my lab puppy for 7 weeks now and she eats EVERYTHING in the garden, it's a huge garden so I can't supervisor her all the time. I have spent hours looking at what is safe and what is not on the Internet.
Before she came to live with us I did dig the rhododendrons and daffodils up as these can be fatal if eaten. Luckily our project is to do the garden this year so I'm only planting what is safe or considered mildly toxic. Some plants will only give them a mild upset tummy yet it's classed as toxic. Older dogs tend to know what to leave alone but with a puppy they tend to explore everything with there mouth.

Sadly little puppies do need lots of supervision. Better a secured safe area IMO, than removing all things. Dogs need the opportunity to learn things like 'no' or 'leave' in home environment. Similarly, we cannot remove radiators so that small children or small pups do not get hurt by the heat, or cookers etc. we need to teach 'leave'. If you don't like daffodils....fine. If you do, I'd be teaching a puppy to leave them.