Is the Poison in Your Yard the Real Danger to Your Dog?
I almost killed my own dog trying to get rid of the gophers in our backyard. Here is what no one warned me about.
9 min read
If you have a dog and a gopher problem, please read this before you do what I did.
Last spring I finally got serious about the gophers tearing up our backyard. New mounds every morning, the lawn sinking in places, my flower beds collapsing. So I did what every hardware store guy and neighbor told me to do. I put out poison bait.
Three days later my golden retriever, Bo, was at the emergency vet at two in the morning, shaking and throwing up on the exam table. He had caught and eaten one of the gophers that ate the bait. I have never felt so helpless in my life.
The part nobody tells you when they hand you the bait
The vet explained it while we waited for Bo's bloodwork. A poisoned gopher does not just die in its tunnel. It comes up to the surface, slow and confused, and that is exactly when a dog or a cat catches it. Whatever poison is in that gopher goes straight into your pet.
It gets worse. Some of these baits build up in the body over days, so your dog can get a deadly dose from catching a few poisoned gophers without a single moment that looks like an emergency, until suddenly it is one. And some of them have no antidote at all.
I sat in that waiting room realizing the truth. I had put the poison in my own yard. To kill a gopher, I had nearly killed the member of my family I was trying to protect the yard for.
If you have tried any of these, you already know they do not work
Here is what I had already wasted money and weekends on before the poison. Maybe this list looks familiar.
- Snap traps that can break a dog's paw or a curious kid's finger
- Ultrasonic stakes that the gophers completely ignored
- Flooding the tunnels with the hose (they just dug around it)
- Burying the dead ones fast and hoping the dog did not get there first
- Calling an exterminator who wanted to use the same poison I was scared of
So I made myself a promise in that waiting room. No more poison. No more traps. There had to be a way to make the gophers leave without putting anything in my yard that could hurt Bo.
It is not your fault. You were just handed the wrong tools.
You are not a bad pet owner for trying poison. Almost everyone does, because it is the first thing they hand you. The real problem is that the entire gopher-control aisle is built around killing the animal, and a dead poisoned animal in your yard is the one thing a dog cannot resist.
The answer was not a stronger poison. It was to stop relying on poison at all, and to make the gophers simply not want to be there. Gophers navigate and breathe through their tunnels with an incredibly sensitive sense of smell. Flood that tunnel with a scent they cannot stand, and they pack up and leave on their own. No kill. No carcass. Nothing for Bo to find.
That is the whole idea behind the pouches a friend at the dog park finally told me about. Four plant oils, peppermint, cedarwood, cinnamon and castor, sealed in a weatherproof pouch you tuck right into the active tunnel. The gophers will not dig through the scent, so they move off the property. There is no poison anywhere in your yard.
Poison-free
No bait, no rodenticide, nothing toxic sitting in the yard your dog plays in.
4 plant oils
Peppermint, cedarwood, cinnamon and castor. Safe around dogs, cats and kids when used as directed.
Placed in the tunnel
Tucked into the burrow where pets cannot reach it. The dog walks right past.
Lasts about 90 days
Slow release. Drop it in and forget it for the season. No mess, no cleanup.
Real results from people like you
Tried every trap and poison for three years. Placed these in the lawn and garden and eleven days later, not a single gopher. Six weeks on, still nothing. My wife feels safe letting the dog out again.
My cat is an outdoor hunter and I was terrified of secondary poisoning. This was the first thing I felt safe using. The mounds stopped in about two weeks and there is nothing toxic out there for her to find.
Wasted over 200 dollars on traps and a plug-in gadget. Dropped these in the active tunnels and the yard went quiet. No dead animals to find, which is the whole reason I bought them.
What happened in our yard, week by week
How it stacks up
| Poison bait | Snap traps | These pouches | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safe around your dog & cat | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
| No dead animal to find | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
| No secondary poisoning risk | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| No cleanup | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
| Lasts ~90 days | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
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30-Day Money Back Guarantee
If you are not happy with your gopher-free, poison-free yard, contact us within 30 days for a full refund. No gophers, no risk.
Comments
Denise H. · 3d
This is exactly what happened to my neighbor's lab. I will never use poison again. Ordered the 2 pack.
Mark T. · 5d
Put them in the tunnels along my fence. Mounds stopped in about ten days and my two dogs never bothered them.
Carol P. · 1w
Bought it for the gophers, stayed for the peace of mind with my cat outside. Worth it.