I'm considering planting a "beer garden," with hops and specialty grains for my homebrew. But I recently read that hops can be toxic to dogs. Should I be concerned about this as a dog owner? Are hops on the vine an attractive taste/flavor to dogs?
I have two dogs and no problems. The only time they are interested in the hops is when they need to mark their territory. Both dogs are labs.
ugh, sorry to hear that - at least the pooch is ok now (note to the naysayers: the dog got sick but didn't die).I have a year old golden retriever that got into mine a few months ago and was sick and had diarea for 3 days. I now have a 4' fence around them. If I were you, I would put a fence around them.
the potential danger isn't the "main plant" (bines, leaves, roots, etc) but the cones. one would assume that if your dog is going to dig up the plants, he/she will do so before they come into flower in august/september.One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that some dogs are destructive and will dig up and chew on any thing they can. I have a boxer that destroyed 30 juniper plants and two hard days worth of work. She chewed on every single plant. She will dig up anything I plant and chew it up. I quickly learned to plant things in areas she has no access to.
If you have a dog like this, take the same precautions you would with anything else you plant, not only for the dog's protection, but for the plant's as well.
sweetcell said:ugh, sorry to hear that - at least the pooch is ok now (note to the naysayers: the dog got sick but didn't die).
did your dog get into fresh hops/hop plants, or post-boil hops?
Oh sure, they may be harmful to dogs, but what dog is gonna jump that high - or tear down the bines - to get to something that's not meat?
it's the isomerized - i.e. boiled - hops that are deadly to certain breeds. this is akin to peanut allergies in children: fatal when it exists, but extremely rare. what dog owners need to be careful of are hops discarded after the boil - not only are they isomerized but they are also covered in sweet wort.
ThreeDogsNE, are you sure it was your dogs? We have raccoons that eagerly dig up any freshly planted plantes - we had to pile bricks around and on top of my rhizomes, as well as all SWMBO's tomatoes. I found, after extensive interweb research, that human urine is a strong deterrent to such activity. So, a couple times a week during spring and early summer, after a few homebrews I go out to protect my plants. I think of it as "pre-cycling".
Cheers!
it's the isomerized - i.e. boiled - hops that are deadly to certain breeds. this is akin to peanut allergies in children: fatal when it exists, but extremely rare. what dog owners need to be careful of are hops discarded after the boil - not only are they isomerized but they are also covered in sweet wort. THAT is something the puppies will happily gobble up.
i have a dog who takes great joy in chewing/eating everything under the sun, and she too hasn't shown even the slightest interest in any of my seven hop plants.
go ahead and grow hops.
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