I made a first feeble step toward this item today by making a pre-sale order for hop rhizomes from MoreBeer.com.I ordered two each of the Chinook and Columbus Rhizomes, the web site having claimed that both varieties do well in hot dry areas, for which I'm sure Temecula qualifies.
So, now while I wait for the folks at More Beer to receive their order and then ship mine, I'm busy researching Hop Toxicity in Dogs. Thanks to Lia, a frequent commenter on my Jake's Rehab blog, I'm aware that ingestion of hops can cause Malignant Hyperthermia in dogs. A good thing that she mentioned that actually, because I probably would have been composting the spent hops from my homebrewing. It appears that most, if not all, of the documented cases involved dogs eating the spent hops, which makes sense, because they'd be soaked in all that good wort which would likely attract any self-respecting dogs. It also turns out that greyhounds are particularly susceptible to MH. Leo is not very greyhound-like.
Interesting factoid: were you aware that there is a National Animal Poison Control Center. I wasn't.
Anyway, I have explained to Leo that if he eats my hops he will be receiving a gastric lavage, an enema, activated charcoal, IV fluids, cold baths and a sternly worded lecture. He seems to understand the concept, but I'll be fencing them in (or him out), just to be safe.
He's probably at very low risk: with my brown-thumb there's little likelihood that my rhizomes will actually produce.
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