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.

citrusnut, My friend (who is also president of our local animal welfare group) had a collie who died from eating pork chops. She only ate a few & you would think it wouldn't matter to a dog that size. I think she said there is an enzyme they can't digest, I will check with her & find out. Karyn, Tell her to get her dog to obedience classes & quick. What would happen if the dog drug her in front of a car? You really need to be able to control your dog to keep both of you safe & a well trained dog is a much better family member. 15 to 20 minutes of training twice a day for 6 to 8 weeks is all it takes. After all the excitement last week, Abbi took a whole head of cabbage off the kitchen table & started to eat it! I have spent her entire life hiding food from her. In the past she has eaten several loaves of bread (plastic & all) & she knows how to get a full pan of food off the top of the stove without spilling much. She clamps her mouth over the edge & lifts it off, I wish I had a video of it, it's amazing. She has also figured out how to open both the oven & fridge doors but she doesn't do it very often. In her younger days, she could clear a 4 foot chain link fence (Newfs are not supposed to be able to do that). She is 9 now & slowing down & she hasn't jumped the fence for a couple years (I have an American Eskimo to do that for me now). Linda

I have a Tahoe. I have always crated her in the back. But let me back up a minute. When she was less than a year old, I started taking her to obedience classes that were just a short 5 minute drive from my house. I put her in the seat behind me with the type of harness that threads through the seat belt so that she didn't have free reign of the SUV. I don't believe in letting an animal have that type of freedom in a vehicle. She never had car sickness strapped in like this. These classes were held at my vet's so I also used this system to take her to the vet. Classes ended, but vet visits didn't. Since I really felt more comfortable having her in her crate, she is crate trained, I started putting her in her crate for vet visits. This meant all the way in the back of the Tahoe. Her crate is huge. I didn't buy the next size harness for her for the seat because of her continuing to grow and face it, the harnesses aren't cheap and I was quickly getting quite an array of them since she was a growing girl, and still the fact that I felt more comfortable with her in her crate. Then the hurricane came and we evacuated. This was crate all the way to Oklahoma. Puking before we could even get out of town, just about 20 minutes in to the drive. And puking all the way up for that 18 hour drive. After getting there, I called a vet that recommended the benadryl, and no food for as long as we could before we made the trip back home, and limit water if we could. Ever since then, trips to the vet in the crate prompt puking. Trips anywhere, prompt puking. But I do think that I may be on to something with the "anxiety" of the trips. For the last week, my husband has taken her in his truck (easier to hose out...rubber floors) once a day for a ride. The ride being short, each day increasing, but always ending at a park. Different park each time so she really doesn't know where she's going. Only once did he take her that she actually started foaming heavily at the mouth and did the heavy drooling usually signaling an "episode" to come shortly. None of these times have been in a crate or harness though, just free reign in the vehicle. (ugh) This morning, I went for the ride with them for the 1st time. We had taken her leash out of "her" closet and placed it somewhere else in the house. We didn't want her to get all excited like she does when she hears that door open thinking that we're getting the leash for a walk. Trying to minimize the excitement as much as we can here... We drove for 10 minutes there, with her having free reign, then walked at the park for 30, came home with a 15 minute drive. This is the 1st time with me in the car. She didn't have any problems whatsoever except for wanting to go from seat to seat, which I don't approve of, but we're taking baby steps here. We will take her again tonight and try to build up the drive time some more. The big test will be if we can get her in her kennel without her throwing up during the ride. I really want to be able to travel with her. I just don't want to have to drug her to get to do it. I used to cat sit for a colleague of mine when she'd bring her cat to work in it's carrier, right after she returned from a flight. (I could hide the cat carrier under my desk, she couldn't) I always wondered what the joy was in traveling with an animal if getting there and coming home was so traumatic. Anyway, if anyone is interested, I'll keep posting my results with my wonderful dog and her car retraining. And I still need anymore helpful hints that some of you may remember. And I'm so sorry for the length of the post... Thanks for your help, PJ

I totally understand about the carpet too. Aleks ruined the carpet in my office when he was sick, and I had to tear it up and put in laminate flooring. Of course renting, you don't have that option. Before he got sick and didn't vomit so much, I had him trained to puke in a wastebasket. When he got sick he didn't feel like moving around that much. Honestly if I were your vet I'd deworm the dog regardless of fecal results. It's cheap, easy, and does not cause any harm to the dog. Fecal tests are hit or miss as far as finding parasites in the one tiny sample you look at. False negatives are common. I might do a fecal and if it is positive recheck after deworming, but if negative I'd deworm anyway just to eliminate parasites as a possible cause or exacerbation of the problem. In addition to a fecal float, I would also do a fecal cytology to check the bacterial balance, and a direct smear to check for protozoan parasites. These tests are generally pretty sensitive for what you are looking for, so if they came up normal I wouldn't worry about a bacterial imbalance or protozoa. Typical dewormers cannot treat bacterial imbalances nor protozoal infections. As far as switching foods, give him something he has never had before and with limited ingredients. Since you were giving Beneful, avoid any diet with chicken, soy, corn, and beef, anything with BHA/BHT, anything with artificial colors or preservatives. I have used Natural Balance and Nature's Recipe for the limited ingredients and quality of foods. I now feed Solid Gold Wolf King, but since it has 2 protein sources- buffalo and salmon- it wouldn't be good for your dog until you figure out exactly what he can eat, one ingredient at a time. The other suggestions are also good as long as you get one protein and one carbohydrate source, neither of which your dog has had before. That is the key when working with food allergies. As mentioned earlier homemade diets and raw feeding are also good options if done correctly, but can be detrimental if done wrong, so get lots of advice and information before trying that. My Max is on a home-cooked diet from a boarded veterinary nutritionist because he has many health problems and no one commercial diet worked. All of my dogs get raw food 2-3 times a week. As soon as I get a job, they'll all be switched to home cooked foods with occasional raw bones (Ana gets an upset tummy with too much raw), and I'll have some Solid Gold on hand for emergencies. But until then I'm doing the best I can afford, which is all anyone can do.