Growing hops with dogs.

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FSR402

FSR402

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When I started brewing I started with extract kits and they all said to keep the hops away from dogs because it could kill them.
Is this true?
I'm thinking of growing some hops this coming spring but the only good spot I have to do this is in my back yard where my dogs get to run.
I could fence some of it off to keep them out of it but there is always a chance that they could still get in there if they really wanted to. I'm just not so sure I want to risk it.
 
I've seen documentation of exactly one case of a dog eating hops and those were post-boil hops placed on a compost heap. I suspect the malt sugar had something to do with it. My greyhounds have shown zero interest in the hops and I know many other homebrewers with dogs & hop plants.
 
The danger is real I assure you. Hops do kill dogs.

It happens when some poor bastard has babied a hop vine for2 years, the first year yielding .12 ounces of hops, but he is hopeful for this year.
The dog is barking at the landscapers that the people next door have hired and, barking like a freak from hell, barrels head long into the hop vine which has been planted by the fence, severing it at the ground (it was in full bloom, the scent of cascades wafting on the breeze) . Said "would be" hops grower bludgeons the dog with his gas grill which happened to be nearby, thus killing the dog.

And so you see,......consider carefully planting hops where a dog might concieveably kill it, thus killing himself.
 
I always heard that and wondered as well. Figured there had to be some sort of truth behind it but it could also be breed specific (like chocolate and dogs). Some are just more sensitive than others.
 
Back to the topic. I have my yard fenced in with an invisible fence. I plan on branching off the fence and creating another no go zone around the hops. May work for you too.
 
I have two 12 pound Italian Greyhounds. They are small but damn fast. They have a top speed of 30mph and can reach that in less then 10 feet. So the invisible fencing does not work for them. They could be thru it to fast, and I tell you what, when they are locked onto a squirrel you could hit them with a hammer and it would not stop them. lol


The other problem is that they will eat anything at least twice.

Maybe what I will do is to do a double fence one close to the hops and one about a foot away from that.
 
Are we sure that there is any basis for this? Do dogs have a bad reaction to hemp or pot? ( I am certain that they do not react well to grills, so I thought I was on topic)
 
FSR402 said:
Maybe what I will do is to do a double fence one close to the hops and one about a foot away from that.
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The one I have sends a signal 3 ft out from either side of the fence/antenna. So it gives yah a 6 foot barrier. You can loop the antenna around 3 feet outside an inner loop and you'll have 12 feet. You would have to be very determined to get through that :).
 
Virtuous said:
The one I have sends a signal 3 ft out from either side of the fence/antenna. So it gives yah a 6 foot barrier. You can loop the antenna around 3 feet outside an inner loop and you'll have 12 feet. You would have to be very determined to get through that :).
Click to expand...

Have you ever seen a sight hound go after something that's moving? There is nothing in the world more determined then that. Some times I feel sorry for my cat, good thing she's pointy on 5 ends. :D
 
david_42 said:
Iggies weren't bred for brains.

http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/comlist.html Humulus lupulus is not listed on this rather comprehensive list. Nor does http://www.vet.ohio-state.edu/ site have anything on it.
Click to expand...
No they are not. If they were not so damn cute I would have killed them a long time ago.

I'll start working on how and where I will grow the hops and see what I can come up with to keep them out of it just in case. I also have someone with some big greenhouses that is talking about growing some for me.
 
Vet friends have told me they(hop plants) can kill dogs. I mentioned to one vet that I was homebrewing and the firt things she said was "keep the hops away from your dogs".
 
JnJ said:
Vet friends have told me they(hop plants) can kill dogs. I mentioned to one vet that I was homebrewing and the firt things she said was "keep the hops away from your dogs".
Click to expand...

Maybe I could feed some to the dog a few streets away that likes to bark at me when I run at night. And then just sit back and wait to see what it does. :cross:
 
I seem to recall reading it gives them heart palpitations or heart failure.
That said, I've had some hop vines for several years, and neither of my dogs have showed any interest in the vines.
 
MikeFlynn74 said:
I doubt the dogs will chew on the grown hops. Thats just weird
Click to expand...

It may sound weird, but I caught our dogs (English and French Bulldogs) trying to steal hop buds from my hops when they were growing up my deck posts this past summer. They also tried to eat the leaves before any hops had a chance to bud.

Austin
 
If I remember correctly it only applies to certain breeds but I would be extremely careful. The hops cause their body temperature to go up until they die. I don't allow any dogs in my store.

If ound this on the interweb:

BREWERS ALERT:

Dispose of sparged hops in a secure and safe fashion.

Hops Toxicity in Dogs:

We have received a report from a brewer whose dog died as a result of eating the spent hops from a 15-gallon batch of Irish Stout.

Unbeknownst to most vets, at least eight cases of hop toxicity in dogs have been recorded by the National Animal Poison Control Center at the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL. Seven of the dogs have been Greyhounds, with one remaining case being a Labrador Retriever cross.

Ingestion of hops results in malignant hyperthermia, an uncontrollable fever. The first symptom to become obvious to an owner is heavy panting. Tachycardia (rapid heartbeat) will also be present, at up to 200 beats per minute. Temperature may rise as quickly as a 2 degrees F every five minutes. Carbon dioxide levels in the blood rise dramatically. Recommended treatment seems to be cold water baths to keep temperatures down, and a quick trip to the vet for temperature control and antibiotics.
Forrest
 
Malignant hyperthermia is a RARE genetic disease of muscle tissue, so it is extremely unlikely that this report is valid. The only treatment is an injection of the muscle relaxant Dantrolene. The only test for the problem is a muscle biopsy. Greyhounds owners tend to be "associative" hypochondriacs and panic at the smallest problem. (I see this all the time on greyhound boards and at meetings). More likely, the greyhounds were stressing from over-eating.
 
FSR402 said:
I have two 12 pound Italian Greyhounds. They are small but damn fast. They have a top speed of 30mph and can reach that in less then 10 feet. So the invisible fencing does not work for them. They could be thru it to fast
Click to expand...

Try the wireless version. When they cross it, it doesn't stop until they come home...
 
david_42 said:
Malignant hyperthermia is a RARE genetic disease of muscle tissue, so it is extremely unlikely that this report is valid. The only treatment is an injection of the muscle relaxant Dantrolene. The only test for the problem is a muscle biopsy. Greyhounds owners tend to be "associative" hypochondriacs and panic at the smallest problem. (I see this all the time on greyhound boards and at meetings). More likely, the greyhounds were stressing from over-eating.
Click to expand...

I would err on the side of caution. I found this on Wikipedia with a credible source:

Hops are particularly dangerous and even small quantities can lead to malignant hyperthermia.[42]

[42]: ^ Duncan, K. L.; W. R. Hare and W. B. Buck (1997-01-01). "Malignant hyperthermia-like reaction secondary to ingestion of hops in five dogs". Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 210 (1): 51-4. PubMed.
 
Man,
Hops are gettin more like pot every day this year.
Payin' a days pay for a dime bag, and now I gotta hide it from the kids too.
 
Germey said:
Man,
Hops are gettin more like pot every day this year.
Payin' a days pay for a dime bag, and now I gotta hide it from the kids too.
Click to expand...
LOL... Also when you get a pound you need to weigh it out a put them in baggies :)
 
Austinhomebrew said:
If I remember correctly it only applies to certain breeds but I would be extremely careful. The hops cause their body temperature to go up until they die. I don't allow any dogs in my store.

If ound this on the interweb:

BREWERS ALERT:

Dispose of sparged hops in a secure and safe fashion.

Hops Toxicity in Dogs:

We have received a report from a brewer whose dog died as a result of eating the spent hops from a 15-gallon batch of Irish Stout.

Unbeknownst to most vets, at least eight cases of hop toxicity in dogs have been recorded by the National Animal Poison Control Center at the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL. Seven of the dogs have been Greyhounds, with one remaining case being a Labrador Retriever cross.

Ingestion of hops results in malignant hyperthermia, an uncontrollable fever. The first symptom to become obvious to an owner is heavy panting. Tachycardia (rapid heartbeat) will also be present, at up to 200 beats per minute. Temperature may rise as quickly as a 2 degrees F every five minutes. Carbon dioxide levels in the blood rise dramatically. Recommended treatment seems to be cold water baths to keep temperatures down, and a quick trip to the vet for temperature control and antibiotics.
Forrest
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info.
Thats what the paper in the brewers best kits say it does.

I'm going to figure out how I can keep them out of it without making it a huge pain to get my car in and out of the back garage.
 
Malignant hyperthermia is can be caused by a myriad of things in humans, too. Usually drug-induced, and I fully believe it could be possible for hops to induce it in dawgs. It's usually lethal if not treated and develops rapidly

I had given serious consideration to growing hopshere on our little slice of heaven, but dismissed the notion for this exact reason. I figure if I had dogs that were very mellow and un-curious, then maybe it'd be okay.

But I don't. I have very busy, nosey dogs who will eat anything that isn't actively on fire right at the moment.
 
MikeFlynn74 said:
I doubt the dogs will chew on the grown hops. Thats just weird
Click to expand...

I doubted my dogs would eat my car title, a rug, organic fertilizer, grass, or anything else that crossed their paths . . . but I was wrong. I lock my dogs up while I am brewing and put the spent hops in the garage before I let them out.
 
batesjer said:
I doubted my dogs would eat my car title, a rug, organic fertilizer, grass, or anything else that crossed their paths . . . but I was wrong. I lock my dogs up while I am brewing and put the spent hops in the garage before I let them out.
Click to expand...

Same here.
I will be growing hops this year but I will be fencing off the hops so they can't get to them.
 
Revvy said:
Here's what I found on Google...From Oregon University Health and Science Department.

http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~ericwan/DOG/hops.html
Click to expand...

Now he had said that the dog ate the spent hops. I wonder if there is something differemt with them after the boil. This bothers me a little. I had one time dumped my hops in the garden thinking that the boiled hops would be fine. Hell I've given beer to dogs before.
But that was over 6 months ago and they are still here. So they must not have ate any.

I would like to know more about this though. Like will the raw hops do the same as the boiled hops?
 
There are far more plants that are toxic to dog than not. The great thing about dogs is that they are carnivores and therefore not prone to grazing like cattle. If you are worried about your dog grazing like a cow than better not have ANY plants in your yard.

I'm a gardener and have a sweet but kind of dumb dog. I also have hundreds of plants in my yard. Some of them VERY toxic but she has never shown the slightest interest in turning into a plant grazer. I wouldn't get too wrapped up in whether to grow hops if you have a dog. Mother Nature tends to protect animals pretty well about what plants to avoid.
 
I dumped my spent hops I'd been dry hopping with beside the driveway in the yard. My dogs roam the yard while outside thanks to my invisible fence (Best invention in the world!). They're covered in snow right now but I will be cleaning them up. Hopefully the annoying black dog down the street will come over and eat them.
 
I would think that generally hops that you are growing would be unattractive to dogs, but spent hops after a boil would draw them as they'd be sweet from the wort. I'd also worry about leaving spend dry-hopped hops around as those could attract the dogs (if they like beer...)
 

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