I have an older male Lab that gets sick (he vomits)every time my husband fertilizes the lawn. So now I keep him away from the grass for a few days to prevent that. Now that I have females for breeding, (they are too young just yet, but will be bred later if they turn out), I have also kept them out of the yard for about 72 hours after the fertlizer goes down. Everybody goes potty in the front yard during this time.

First off, is there any residual effects of using fertilizer, I really don't want to risk anything, and would prefer he use something safe for the dogs. What do you all do? He likes his green grass, but the dogs' safety is paramount.

Any thoughts?
TIA!

I don't use any fertilizers or weed killers. Having said that, my dad aerates and uses a chicken poop fertilizer on his lawn and it works beautifully.

What sort of fertilizer are you using?
The safest I have found is milorganite.

We have to be " Green" here, we have well water and our house is on a lake with all the run off from our property going into the lake. I have used Milorganite in the past but this year tried that Cocka doodle doo fertlizer and really loved the results. We had a very dry august , no rain, and I water the lawn sparingly and this year it stayed green. I also used it in my Hosta garden ( 250+ different varieties!!!) and they did superbly too!
They also have a corn gluten product for weeds too. We use the Milky Spore treatment to get rid of grubs the natural way. The only downside to the CDD fertilizer is it does smell a bit like chicken poop when it is wet but it is far better a smell than the fish emulsion fert I used to use, hubby forbade it after one evening sitting on the deck and all he could smell was the odor of something dead from the planter boxes, did not go over well!!!

Years ago I used to take care of a family's Min Schnauzers while they were on vacation, they had lost 2 to cancer and they used Chem Lawn. They had an 8 year old female that never liked to be picked up, she went out one morning and when I let her back in the house she could hardly walk, and I knew she hadn't been running, Took her to the vet immediately and they thought ruptured disk, left her for x rays,they called me only moments after I got home and told me this dog needs to be put down NOW!! She had endstage Bone Cancer, I saw her xrays and she had NO hip sockets left! One was worse than the other and the cancer had started down her leg bones and pelvis, I don't know how she even was walking. I had them give her as much pain medication to keep her really comfortable and the family came home 2 days later and put her down. It was truly sad and after all these years I still remember that dog -Heidi - coming to the front of her hospital cage when came to visit several times a day, I didn't want her to feel abandoned.
So I won't ever use any of that stuff all I have to think about is what happened to Heidi...

I once had a puppy go home and get horribly sick after a Chem lawn application of "safe" chemicals. I now strongly discourage the use of lawn chemicals in my contract (which I view as an educational tool). Need I say that my own lawn is a display of weed, crabgrass and dandelion varieties. But, (knock on wood), I have never had a cancer here.

This is a very helpful thread...I am wondering if some of the breeders in Florida (or sourrounding southern states) would reply. Given our year round "pest" & Fungus problems, how do you maintain a lawn w/ dogs? Or, do you even try?

"The safest I have found is milorganite"

Ditto.

It is organic. Freeze dried human feces. sounds gross but as it is safe for my dogs I'll use it.

Also helps keep rabbits out of the garden. Sprinkle around plants but don't work into soil.

My husband is looking at Dr. Earth lawn fertilizer. It is made up of fish emulsion etc... Is it really going to smell like fish? For how long? LOL

Milorganite... Hmmm.... I am not really sure how I feel about putting freeze dried human feces on my lawn. Does it have an oder about it also? Uhhhgg.... I just cant imagine. Is it really that good? What we do for the good of the dogs.

I can't believe that freeze dried human waste would be good for a lawn. I think it's the same as dog poop--not good for lawn or compost pile b/c the dog (and human) have eaten meat. Horse or cow waste will fertilize --all grain diet.

I thought the same thing about using human waste as a fertilizer, so I checked it out. I'm not sure that calling milorganite freeze dried human waste is entirely accurate. There's a little more to it than simply freeze-drying human waste:

http://www.milorganite.com/home/

We live in hot sunny Florida. I have Labs and live on 5 acres that is all field fenced. The dogs run freely. We have beautiful St.Augustine grass (around the house area not the entire 5 acres) that we are be able to keep nice. When we use weed and feed we do so in the late evening, water well and so far so good. No problems with the dogs.
When we use fetilizer or bug killer we make an effort to run out the door on the sidewalk off the fertilized grass for them to relieve themselves.
We don't leave then unattended for the 1st few days after we treat the yard and until after several good waterings.
We never use any yard treatments during breeding and puppies.
We clean up any droppings daily and have had good luck so far!! Nice green thick grass. Chinch bugs are the killers here when it gets hot.
Good Luck!!

Milorganite does not have a bad odor. Sorry I didn't post all the ingredients. All I know without looking at the bag is the ingred. I mentioned.

I would think fertilizer that smells like fish may be attractive to dogs - wonder if they would be licking the ground.

If you must fertilize, apply before a rain or WATER it in before letting your dogs on it.

I gave up on a lawn long ago. I have native plants, ground covers, and thick mulch.

I have always watered in the fertilizer, but my boy still got sick even a few days later. Then I saw that fertilzers can cause cancer in dogs, so I want to go to something netural.
I think I'll try a small bag of Dr. Earth, and if the fish smell overcomes me, we'll try the Milorganite.... I think... Maybe. We'll see.

Thanks for the answers, I appreciate it!