What Did You Do Today? I Poisonned My Dog!

So ever since I visited the Garden store 6 weeks ago, I've been dreaming of buying some of that heavenly smelling cocoa hull mulch. I got this great idea. I had this derelict herb garden and so I decided my next project would be to  revamp it and i owuld put cocoa hull mulch in the bed which would make it smell divine. A lovely idea in theory, but it turns out my dog loved the smell too. A few minutes after I had tossed the mulch on I noticed my dog scarfing down something in the garden.

And that's when it hit me! Dogs are morbidly allergic to choclate. I quickly pulled up Snopes to see if I was in trouble and it seemed indeed I was! It seems the mulch can kill dogs, although for the most part few dogs have died from the ingestion of the mulch. I do have to add that the jury is out. Some companies claim to have washed their mulch sufficiently that this should not be a problem for dogs, but of course nobody wants to take the chance when a beloved animal's life may be at risk.

For more information go here: http://www.poison.org/poisonpost/june2012/cocoabeanmulch.htm

The bottom line is that it depends on the concentration of theobromine and caffeine in the mulch and the size of the dog, but these are variables that no one can easily determine - so when in doubt induce vomitting.

How to induce vomitting: For a 50lb dog give 1 tbsp of Hydrogenperoxide and a tablespoon of water. Repeat  up to two more times. You may want to bring your dog to the vet especially if any time has passed.
So take a look at my garden. It will never look like this again. I covered the cocoa bean mulch with cypressand sparayed with bitter apple to keep dogs from wanting to ingest any more mulch in the mean time.

Before Mulch:

After Cocoa mulch: (sigh) Of course the angles are completely different, so it is hard to tell that the garden looks better.