Hello. I moved into a house just last year, and my dogs haven't bothered much with the Sago palms (i believe). But with what Ive been reading, I don't want to take the risk of them eating something off of it. Both of them enjoy eating bark, sticks, mulch, etc. I have a couple pictures. The biggest is 5ft from end to end. Base trunk is 1ft across. The only thing that makes me question if its a Sago, is all the pictures I seem to find online, it has a trunk and the leaves grow up from there. Ours is growing from the base. Is it just the way its been pruned? Thank you for your help..Id really hate to kill these 3 bushes if its not neccesary

Hi and welcome! Sagos are very slow growing and take some years to "trunk up". Yours look very healthy and the bigger ones are starting to become little trees. Give them a little encouragement with a small amount of palm-specific fert, and they'll put on nice growth through the summer.

You can trim off some of the lower fronds if you want to. They're very thorny, though so be careful! I would think the dogs would steer clear of them because of their thorns.

Yes, a Sago Palm. Young and growing strong. I have heard of dogs eating them and getting sick or dying. I think it may be the female seed pods they are ingesting? IDK? You won't know if you have a male or female plant until spring. The females will flower and the male plant will shoot up a tall stalk.

All parts are considered poisonous with seeds being the most toxic.
http://www.petpoisonhelpline.c...

Thank you for your quick responses and help. Now that you've confirmed that this IS a Sago palm, my next question, is it worth trying to dig this up for someone else to have? Ive just heard far too many horror stories with dogs, and as much as it hurts me to get rid of this, the dogs come first. Some websites say to cut with a chainsaw as close to the ground, and then pour herbicide on the roots and dig up in 2-3 weeks. Thank you

Sounds like a huge job, either digging them up or cutting them down, then digging out the roots. Could you maybe just fence around that area until the Sagos are big enough to not be reachable by the dogs? They're really beautiful and easy care plants.

Just thinking, there are a LOT of plants that are toxic to pets, but most people don't worry about it because their pets don't ever touch plants. Seems to me that anything you plant there could be a danger to your dogs until they learn that plants aren't on the menu. Don't you have trouble with this when you take them out to exercise, too?

A friend of mine trained her dog to leave the plants alone in one day - she sat on her patio with the hose sprayer in her hand, and squirted them lightly whenever they sniffed at a plant. Of course she rewarded the dogs with treats when they kept away, too.

You can dig up some of the pups at least to give away. I had someone come to take out a 15 year old 8 ft tall Sago that was much bigger than yours. Mine got too big for it's spot. He was there all day. But he got 15 pups, 15 small plants and 4 giant plants. I advertised it on Freecycle. You did and it's yours. They are slow growers. That is why the larger ones are treasured. (The following week someone advertised sod on Freecycle from a new garden bed he was digging. I grabbed some up and sodded in the old Sago space.)