Wild mushrooms (husky, chewing, failure, grass)

[Niftybergin]

I've become convinced that my Siberian Husky must be part truffle-pig. The grounds of my apartment complex have a lot of wild mushrooms growing all over the place. There's a number of different species, I think, as they don't all look the same. Some of them my dog completely ignores, and others he treats like they're smeared in bacon-fat. He roots around in the grass and the pine-needles and the next thing I know he's going to town on something, chewing away as fast as he can. If I catch him at it, I jerk him away from the mushroom and order him "Off!" (which is his command to drop whatever is in his mouth). When we're out on leashed walks, I can run herd on him pretty well. However, he does it at the dog park too, and it's harder to control there.

I know that some species of wild mushrooms are deadly, just as I know some species are harmless. Am I supposed to assume that he's got some doggie sense or animal instinct that steers him away from the poisonous ones? Does anyone else have experience with a mushroom-eating dog?

[leorah]

Many dogs have died from eating toadstools/mushrooms. Google "dog dies mushroom" and you'll get lots of hits. I doubt if dogs can discriminate between harmless and deadly plants. If they could, animal poison control centers would be far less busy.

[Viralmd]

DO NOT let your dog eat ANY mushrooms!!! They have no way of distinguishing the poison ones from the harmless ones. And it may take a few days for the liver failure (the cause of death from eating poison mushrooms) to be apparent. Don't let your dog out unattended if you even THINK that there are mushrooms around!