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The number of common plants that will poison a dog! Daffodil, bluebell, nettle; ragworts and foxgloves, of course; and apples and cherries and box; hollies and horse chestnut; rosebay willow herb. Privet.
There's definitely a perverse witchy pleasure in learning off all the plants that will kill an animal; but I've been depressed too, because my garden is my small haven and I let it run over with the dearest weeds. I love my ragworts. Big, floppy-haired mops that are covered with caterpillars and then moths - there's a particular species that feeds on the ragworts, and thats how they become poisonous moths. The poison they eat from the plant stays in their bodies, and if birds do not pay attention to their red-winged "stay away", they'll get a sore tummy.
My husband and I have compromised; I've dug up many of the ragwort and re-bedded them in hanging baskets, but some are still there and we're supervising doglet closely when outside. The internet says most animals are repelled by its smell, and won't eat it unless dried. He seems to be past the puppy stage of "try out everything with my mouth" too.
But the privet. We have a privet hedge, and I'm already quite desperate to rip it out and replace it with native hedging; but that'll take time to grow, and I'm looking uneasily at the financial investment as we rent here. But I'm trying to justify it on the basis that - even if we do move, the hedges will still give pleasure to our sparrows.
There's definitely a perverse witchy pleasure in learning off all the plants that will kill an animal; but I've been depressed too, because my garden is my small haven and I let it run over with the dearest weeds. I love my ragworts. Big, floppy-haired mops that are covered with caterpillars and then moths - there's a particular species that feeds on the ragworts, and thats how they become poisonous moths. The poison they eat from the plant stays in their bodies, and if birds do not pay attention to their red-winged "stay away", they'll get a sore tummy.
My husband and I have compromised; I've dug up many of the ragwort and re-bedded them in hanging baskets, but some are still there and we're supervising doglet closely when outside. The internet says most animals are repelled by its smell, and won't eat it unless dried. He seems to be past the puppy stage of "try out everything with my mouth" too.
But the privet. We have a privet hedge, and I'm already quite desperate to rip it out and replace it with native hedging; but that'll take time to grow, and I'm looking uneasily at the financial investment as we rent here. But I'm trying to justify it on the basis that - even if we do move, the hedges will still give pleasure to our sparrows.
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With dogs, you're really trying to teach them how to be a human, but in this short and very high intensity period of time; like, he doesn't know how to play fetch. & we're working on training him how to calm down, which you'd think is a thing creatures would just Get. But no; I have ADHD, which is a very border collie energy, so I can definitely relate to "so intently focused on a thing I forgot I had bodily functions and I need to sit down now and rest". Like, you don't really think about it, but he needs constant guidance atm to figure out "what am I supposed to be doing right now?"
He's doing well, though! He's learned that when me and my husband both sit down on our laptops, he goes to his mat and we have sitting time. & it's kind of amazing, he comes over now to say hi and you can see the tension in his poor little body as he tries not to bite us, his mouth clamped firmly shut and his eyes looking awkwardly around; he wants to say hello! you say hello by biting! He doesn't want to be rude, he wants to bite and say hi, but we don't like that, but why not? It's just normal friendly biting? Poor little creature, but it's very sweet.
I'm trying to focus on what he is good at as well; he housetrained himself, he doesn't bark, he's stopped biting my organ, he learned "don't jump up at people" really fast. Not a fan of the fact he tries to eat glass, however.