It's that time of year :-)) mushrooms tend to proliferate in fall with ideal growing conditions. Those found popping up in lawns or planting beds (even containers) are almost always saprophytic fungi that live off of the nutrients found in decaying organic matter - mulch, leaves, compost, buried dead roots, etc. They are of no harm to the plants living there, generally indicate a healthy, biologically active soil, appear only for a few days or weeks then vanish. But the fungi they derive from are still there doing their job as unseen decomposers.

Hi @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) - thanks much for the reassurance! So, I should leave them alone rather than picking up? I haven’t seen my pup show any interest but she’s sneaky & some of the shrooms are really hidden. I haven’t noticed they disappear but I’ve been picking them. The large portobello sized ones are hard to miss. If they’re beneficial to any wildlife I’d be inclined to leave them be.

Many saprophytic mushrooms ARE edible - morels, shitake, oyster, button or portobellos, puffballs. But I wouldn't recommend "shopping" in your own garden unless you are absolutely certain of ID :-)

You can pick them or not - your choice. In a very loose way, you could compare the mushroom to a flower - it blooms (appears), sets seed (spores), disperses them and then quickly fades away.

Not a huge boon to wildlife but various insects and small mammals may find them a food source or habitat.

btw, picking out or getting rid of the mushrooms in no way affects the ongoing decomposition activity of the fungi itself.