A friend has ask me for suggestions for a long( 30ft long and 3 feet deep) full sun area along a fence. They have 2 golden puppies that have eaten most of the shrubs in their yard so they want to avoid poisonous ones. Are these safe?
mexican milkweed
pink skullcap
yarrow
gaura
salvia greggi
russian sage
japanese silver grasss
artemesia powis castle
angelonia
zinnia
lantana
blue daze
Plants for full sun that are not poisionous to dogs
According to this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrador_Retriever
"They are prone to chewing objects (though they can be trained out of this behavior)." So they are doing what comes naturally to them.
The Sheltie we used to have when our children were small would also chew anything and everything. We were at wits end and consulted out vet. She recommended a product called Bitter Apple. She also recommended that we increase the time spent playing and walking our dog to use up all that pent up energy. Most destructive behavior comes about from boredom. She said we needed to redirect that energy. The Bitter Apple tastes bad to dogs, but doesn't hurt them. This is not a quick fix and given that labs take several years to mature, your friend and her family needs to realize this may be a long term project. They need to spend more time with the pups before the behavior becomes entrenched and then they are dealing with adult dogs not pup. The problem literally gets bigger.
http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/poison-control/plant-list-dogs.aspx
http://www.cybercanine.com/toxicplants.htm
http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/dogs/index.html
Jealous of your plants are they? They think that time is theirs, and can't imagine what it is about those plants that takes all that time, ya kinda give up a lot of time for puppies just like young children, and put Everything away until later if you place any value in those things, Enjoy your pups!
With three goldens in our house, we've run the gamut. :) Most of those should be fine. Milkweed is actually toxic, but with texture and taste will keep them away if the smell alone doesn't. Lantana is the same thing. Our pup took a bite of one leaf and than spit it out and ran. Zinnias might prove snacky yummy. It's up to them to correct them. :)
Thanks for your answers and links. They have some health concerns that prevent them from spending as much time as they would like, but they have had golden retrievers for many years and these 2 are the first pair that happen to be ravenous. I pass on this info.
if they wished to add plants to the snack list for pups- any plant a man can eat a pup can. Might check and see if the pups would like a banana ( potassium deficiencies in growing bones) or cantaloupe (calcium and potassium) the food could indicate a higher need of a different mineral they arent getting. My horse would eat dirt from the bottom of the old sloughs where floods had sat so I told my grandfather and he bought a salt/mineral brick for the horses. Or he would allow them molasses-which that ol Paint would get on him from ears to tail he loved it so much.