Google TOXIC PLANTS and you will get several different lists.

The number of commonly-grown garden plants that are "toxic" (which is not the same as "deadly poison") will astonish you.

I know a woman whose donkey died after eating a quantity of avocado foliage.
It is toxic.

Jeri

(For obvious reasons I suspect flowering tobacco and Papaver somniferum would probably be wise to avoid!)

This isnt plants, but I have horses and had some Golden Maldrin for flies [yellow powder you put out on a plate to attract them] that about a tablespoon spilled on the floor. My beloved Sophie must have licked it and was dead within minutes and I could do nothing for her. Broke my heart.......this should be taken off the market. Wisteria beans are poisonous to horses, I think Lantana is also poisonous.
Judith

I have searched the internet and found both toxic and non-toxic list. The only problem is some of them contradict each other. So how are you suppose to know which ones are correct? I would hate to learn that the hard way, so I am assuming that if it appears on the toxic list it is toxic, even if it is on the non-toxic list at another site. We have already had a toxic experience with my golden when she was a puppy and we do not want to ever go through that again. We were very, very lucky last time.

I printed out the lists and will be taking it to the nurseries with me. I jsut thought that I was probably not the only one on the forum that has dogs and that someone would know from experience which companions are safe.

Some things are toxic, but not deadly.

IOW, chewing on an azalea, after he pulled it out of the ground, made my puppy throw up a little.
Other plants are toxic to a greater or lesser degree.

To be honest, it is difficult to avoid everything that is toxic to some degree. I would avoid brugmansia and datura, but what do you do about rhubarb, which is toxic when raw?
Or tomatoes? Their foliage is toxic.
Or Azaleas? Avocado leaves? Dumbcane?

To be honest, once past puppyhood, most dogs will avoid most toxic plants. (But I would avoid that coco mulch they sell for garden use. That IS dangerous!)

Jeri

As Jeri said, the cocoa mulch should be avoided around dogs. I've used it and I have to watch my dogs closely when I first put it down to make sure they don't try to eat it. Once it's been there for a day or so then they don't notice it anymore. But I found it more trouble and worry than it was worth so now I only use it in the front yard (the dogs have the fenced in back yard and I use a cedar mulch back there).

Foxglove and monkshood are both poisonous and you should probably avoid those. But I've got several foxgloves and my dogs don't bother them at all.

Another thing to avoid - don't use bloodmeal around your plants. My dogs dug up my raspberries when I tried to use bloodmeal to scare the rabbits away.

Alyssum is a nice annual that smells good and is perfectly safe to use.

Thanks for all the info. I am looking at the alyssum. It is one that has not been on any of the toxic list. I was hoping for some variety in styles, but I will take what I can get.

I don't think the golden will intentionally eat the toxic plants at this age, but I don't want to take the chance. Also, she has a love-hate relationship with the lizzards in my garden. She is constantly chasing them, never catches them, but has fun trying. I'm afraid she might accidently grab some leaves or flowers by mistake while going for the lizzards. She has learned to avoid the roses, although she likes to smell them.

I agree about the coco mulch. I have two goldens, and we have given them their own yard. It is nice and long where they can run, but they don't have free reign in the rose garden.

Hydrangeas and lilies are not supposed to be good for them, so that stops me right there. I found a list on the ASPCA web site.

I would really watch out for pesticides or products that companies put on your grass. In my opinion, it is worth checking the safety of those products with the manufacturer rather than the people who spray. We haven't used them for years except for termite treatment, but that stuff can be licked off their paws.

Sammy

For what it's worth, I've had both dogs and gardens for decades, and never an issue with the dogs poisoning themselves. Pesticides and fertilizers are much more dangerous.

Once one ate the dirt where I'd fertilized with blood meal, and then puked it all up on the living room floor, but it wasn't poisonous, just the dirt particles irritating her stomach. Same dog once ate rat bait and had to be rushed to the vet to have her stomach pumped. She was sick as a dog, so to speak, for a couple of days afterwards, but recovered just fine. Wasn't my rat bait, we were in a public park. I complained to the maintenance department but was brushed off since it was just a dog. Could have been someone's toddler, I pointed out, but since it was just a dog they didn't care.

Slug and snail baits can be very dangerous. The traditional metaldehyde products are very poisonous, and often beef-flavored to attract the slugs. I've known dogs to die from slug bait. That's why the new iron phosphate baits are so popular, they're nontoxic and not attractive to dogs.

Another dog chewed a rhodie down to the ground but was not at all sick afterwards since he spat it all out as he worked on it, and rhodies are definitely poisonous.

Another dog would eat the lettuce and tomatoes right out of the garden. Not the tomato plants fortunately, but the red ripe tomatoes.

I get poisonous amanita mushrooms coming up in my back lawn every year, but the dogs never give them a look so I don't worry about them.

I've found these lists of toxic plants to be darn near useless. Some include absolutely every plant that might cause any kind of adverse reaction, like allergies. Strawberries make these lists that way. I mean let's get a grip here. Strawberries are not poisonous. And toxicity varies by the species of animal, as well as by degree. Some plants might cause a mild discomfort while others are dangerous in moderate quantities. Those are the only ones that should get the label 'toxic'. Horses cannot vomit, so plants that are just mildly irritating to a dog might be very dangerous to a horse. Dogs throw up at the drop of a hat. It's how they're made. They eat garbage for a living and vomiting is their safety valve. I don't worry about mine, I let them live their lives as dogs. They eat grass but rarely anything else in the garden. They pick the berries themselves after having seen me do it, but that's it.

Reg, you're a caution! :-)
I agree with you completely.

I had a Dalmatian decades ago who was so passionate about carrots that he would carefully pull them up, bite the leafy top off, and eat the carrot.
I gave up growing carrots.
I knew another Dalmatian who was nuts about oranges, and a Dal girl who would jump up and pull down branches full of apricots to share with her pack mates.
(And I plant my tomatoes where the dogs can't get to them.)

Jeri

The two plants you should not have anywhere are Datura and Brugmansia. These plants are so extremely toxic that the tiniest nibble would cause death and there is no treatment for the neurotoxin in these plants. There was a heartbreaking letter to Fine Gardening or Horticulture (I forget which) a number of years ago from a woman whose cat ate a small bit of a leaf that she had trimmed from a plant.

My dogs don't usually eat plants other than grass, but once my dog bit a small tip off an Iris versicolor (possibly because of its similar appearance to grass), which I knew to be on a toxic list. I called the emergency vet, who was able to check a reference on the toxicity of various plants, and it was helpful, of course, to be able to give her the scientific name. She was then able to tell me to stop worrying. Your vet may be able to give you a list of the extremely dangerous plants. And keep a phone number handy to call for help.

This is a scary thread!! I also have two goldens and as all golden parents know, they're like toddlers--they get into everything. I will say, though, that I've found that they tend to leave alone things that are on deer-resistant lists. That's been handy for me. My very best rose companions, for that reason and others, are catmints/Nepeta. I am in love with Walker's Low and heavily underplant all my roses with them. Not only do they keep the deer (and dogs) away, but they look lovely, they're ironclad, need next to no maintenance, and have a very similar look to lavender which struggles in my soil/zone. There's also a new pink Nepeta that I'm thinking of trying this year, for some variety.
Good luck to all the doggie moms and dads out there!