Wow, please don't tell my dog about this. He's only interested in eating grass at this point; there's Vb all over the garden but he's never sampled it.

I wonder how your dogs figured this out? Trial and error, or did they read about it on the web?

Strange...I did a web search on 'verbena' and 'dogs' and the only thing of interest I found was that Verbena was on a list of plants poisonous to dogs!

I don't think anybody told my dogs this...they have all been happily sucking on Verbena stems for several years and they're all still here :-)

Great photos, Monique.

My little monster has found the everbearing strawberries in their big pot. His manners leave a little to be desired, though, as far as picking the berries. I just haven't been able to show him how to get the ripe ones off the stems without pulling the plants out of the soil; guess you need thumbs to be a considerate berry picker.

Monique - cute dogs :-)

Nan,
"Little" ??

Idabean - Are you referring to "His manners leave a little to be desired" by any chance? LOL

Monique, wish I had pictures of my cairn terrier removing green tomatoes to show you!

thank you for my first big extended laugh of the day!!
mindy

Capecodder, would love to see a photo of your Cairn with the tomatoes LOL. My Emma eats ALL of our strawberries. Luckily they haven't discovered the blueberry bushes, mostly due to our low yield b/c of the birds. Must net them next year but then the dogs will figure out a way to get them thru the netting.

monique and capecodder,
Your little guys are missing some of the tastiest stuff!!

KT-Crabapples? If so, our branches are high and my dogs are low-so Emma eats them off the ground. Cute photo!

My dogs have eaten all my Verbena this year. Now I know why I guess!

I just noticed my dog was eating verbena bonariensis and I had never seen him do this before . When he finished with that he went on to eat some comfrey leaves which I have seen him eat many times before. I am assuming dogs know what they need. I hope so anyway! He doesn't seem sick at this point.

Our verbena bonariensis reseeds itself allover our property and I have to keep it growing because Buster loves it. He's a 65 # mutt who gingerly picks lives off the 3' stalks and just munches. He even dug up a root in March and chewed, as there were no stalks and leaves to be had. He looks like a cow! Buster has also taught our two other dogs to enjoy this treat. I'm baffled! I've tried it and it certainly doesn't taste like anything, but now I have three dogs with a Verbena addiction that has been going on for years!

I haven't had Verbena bonariensis in years, but it popped up in the vegetable garden this year. I have not seen our dog approach it. She does go into the beds and she always looks for the same plant which is a weed, but, I didn't know if it was a good plant for a dog to eat, so one day I tried encouraging her to eat the borage that was in the vegetable bed. I figured she wouldn't know what I was talking about anyway and forgot about it, but sure enough, she started eating that in the bed. Now she usually takes a bite of it going past.

She never likes berries though. She spits out fruit. I did get her to eat apple slices with some peanut butter on it. [g]

Well, today, I let the dog out. The vegetable beds with the borage is cleaned up and has mulch on it now, but the Verbena bonariensis is still there, waiting for it to make seed. Sure enough I looked out and saw her eating the Verbena!

My dog eat my Verbena bonariensis then throws up, put noting more serious. just disgusting.

My dog is addicted to the bark

One of my dogs loves to eat it, then comes in and throws up. I have finally had to remove plants inside fence that they run. She also likes to eat Lantana, which I can't under stand since had prickly stems and it stinks. It does reseed and comes up everywhere.

My dog has started doing the same. After he has been near the plant, eaten the leaves he immediately throws up! Are these plants poisonous??

Hi, I found this thread on a search to see if other peoples dogs love to eat the purple topped vervane as much as mine does. He goes outside and munches some leaves after his meal. He really likes it.

My dog likes it too. She has an eating disorder though.

My little Hugo a yorkie Jack Russell loves verbena bonariensis. He has now discovered my verbena bedding plant plugs and has taken to having a nibble on those too. He is sometimes sick afterwards, the same as when he eats grass. He’s almost 14 and has been eating verbena for years. He also helps himself to my mini cucumbers in the greenhouse

Elaine, what a really cute dog!!

My two dogs love verbena and its the only plant in a potted mixture that they look for! i wonder what the appeal is, they also havent had any serious side effects from eating this piosonous plant. if anyone knows the reason that dogs are attra to it, i’d love to know!

Yes my cocker bitch (11) started eating it as a pup and now my sprocker eats it. I wondered if it was because I give them keepers mix. I now cannot grow it. They have eaten it all. They do not eat V. rigida so I now grow that

One of my english setters treats it like candy. I checked online yo make sure it was not toxic. We had another dig up a tiger lily bulb in winter that I did not know was there. He spent two weeks in icu. We were told daily he probably would not live but thank God he did. So I am very cautious when I see them forage on plants.

GarlandTeam - So glad for you that your dog made it through. Very scary though!!

We dog sit our daughter's dachshund and she LOVES the yard. She can spend 4 hours a day out there, exploring or visiting with the neighbor's kids and dog through the fence. She does put things in her mouth all the time, but I don't see her eating green material. I only see her finding twigs, which we seem to have a lot of and she can keep herself very busy chewing those. Haven't seen any verbena come back this year. She'll definitely eat pea pods if we give them to her.