How dangerous is Round Up to dogs?

[Labmom4]

The back yard area, where the dogs go poop, is not landscaped and wont be for quite some time yet. It's full of weeds and hubby was going to spray Round Up on it. I was worried about it hurting the dogs so told him not to; I'd weed-eat it instead. I only got 10 minutes into it and had to stop; my arms cant handle it. Think it'd be okay to spray it? They're not out there too much; they go to the bathroom there and I put two of them out there when I leave the house. The rest of the time they're all inside. Even if hubby weed-eats, the weeds will be back in a few weeks. Opinions please? My arms are KILLING me!

[Shell]

Supposedly it is safe once it is dry. Their own data says it is not harmful to wildlife that eats the plants later.

I'm just not a huge fan of spraying weed killer where I know my dog is going to be rolling around and munching on the grass. I just mow everything to the same height and if its pokeweed, I dig it out since that stuff rapidly turns into a tree.

[winniec777]

I would hire someone to take care of it every 3-4 weeks with a riding mower or weed whacker. We have someone who mows our 1.5 acres and trims around all trees, bushes, and other landscaping for $35. If it's temporary until your landscaping is put in, it's a safer option than having chemicals put out there every 3-4 weeks, IMO. Even if you do it for a year, it's only about $400. Worth it to avoid the chemicals.

[Binkalette]

What is the area like? Do you have a photo of it?

[Labmom4]

What is the area like? Do you have a photo of it?

Probably about 1500-1800 sq ft. of solid low-growing goat heads.

[Shell]

If its all pretty low growing and nothing with thorns/burrs, I'd say leave it. Mow when needed. If you kill all the ground cover before you are ready to put in sod and landscaping, you're going to have problems with erosion and it will turn into a mud pit at the first rain.

[Binkalette]

What I would do is mow the grass VERY short and then get a whole bunch of old newspapers (tons!) and layer them on the area when you are getting close to landscaping it. Layer them nice and thick so no light can get through to the ground. Soak the newpapers down with water every so often to keep them moist and in place. After a few weeks when you are ready to plant, you can till them under and you'll have a great bed for planting!

Other things I have heard of doing is using a shovel to dig in and and flip the dirt over, grass side down. The grass will decompose and make great compost for your new bed. The other is to get lots of 'weed and feed' corn gluten meal and lay that down thick. It is supposed to kill the weeds and then break down into great fertilizer, but I have not tried it myself. You can also water the area thoroughly, then cover it with a large piece of plastic (clear or colored, it doesn't make much difference) and let it bake in the sun. The weeds and grass will be killed by the extreme temperatures and then you can till it up for a nice planting bed.

I agree with leaving it until you are closer to starting your landscaping project. If it's going to be a LONG time before you do start and you want there to be grass but no weeds, then I would start throwing some grass seed on it and giving it some TLC. The more grass that grows, the more competition for the weeds. Nothing kills weeds better than a thick healthy lawn.

[Aqua]

My lawn is also full of weeds, and i am trying to find a pet friendly weed killer (available in South Africa) to try control my every expanding weed collection. I am not after a perfect lawn, and I don't have the time to do the manual weeding thing! I also no not want to kill off the grass that is there.. and lets face it the weeds grow faster than the grass so if i can control the weeds I wont have to mow so often!

[wvasko]

We have a large place and weed-whack and also on fence lines etc do use roundup for many, many years. Our personal dogs when let out to dump are out 4-5 minutes tops and then back in home. We have never had a problem when it's allowed to dry. Does this mean it's foolproof "NO" it just means we never had any problems. But any pups that were out were supervised cause they sometimes get in trouble doing silly stuff like chewing plants weeds etc.

Since there is a possibility of accidental ingestion I would not advise it's use as it's a personal choice thing only.

[katielou]

I don't use chemical anything in the garden. A combination of them not working near as well as natural alternatives and them being expensive.

My best weed control is boiling water followed by a spray bottle of vinegar. Cheap and effective.

[Labmom4]

Oh, this is an oldie.
I've been handling it by mowing it very short. Though now at this time of the year, everything's dead anyhow, so it wont even be an issue again until next spring. I wasnt comfortable using poisons.

Katielou ~ I LOVE that statement on your sig. I'd like to steal that for my FB but I'd probably get accused of 'attacking' a few people IRL.

[Pipspets]

My little hound ended up at the vet clinic because of round up ( well, that was the only logical reason we could come up with)

I worked at a big equestrian centre and she had free run of the place and the farm hand was spraying which had never been a problem before but she had a little water hole/pond filled with rocks that she would crawl into head first to pull them out ( her rock habit is another story!) so the theory we came up with was there was round up in the water and on the rocks around the pond.

It wasn't until that evening that we saw something wasn't right, so rushed her to the vet and she ended up staying overnight.

If you possibly can go without the chemicals I would. We only ever had one problem ( we were pretty paranoid after that) but it only takes one time and we were lucky.

And just think- you'll save on gym membership!!!

[JulieK1967]

I don't use chemical anything in the garden. A combination of them not working near as well as natural alternatives and them being expensive.

My best weed control is boiling water followed by a spray bottle of vinegar. Cheap and effective.

Yep!! Vinegar is a household's best friend!

[Kyllobernese]

I bought a couple of gallons of vinegar but never had any luck with it killing weeds or grass. I used Round Up this spring but as I had had it for a couple of years (never seemed a time when the dogs would not be out on it) so it never worked, probably too old. Never thought about using some plastic over the weeds and grass to kill it off. Will try that next year. I know where the doggy pool on the lawn was sitting, the grass all died off but grew back this year with a little seeding so the plastic would probably work.