Weed for my dog?

March 10, 2006 2:11 PM

Is there an equivalent of catnip for dogs? I used to love revving up my cat when I was a kid and watching her act silly after a few munches on the weed. My dog lumbers around and only gets jazzed up when there's a rolling ball or a squirrel or deer outside. That's fun to watch of course, but I'm looking for the silly stuff. Any suggestions?
posted by terrier319 to Pets & Animals (23 answers total)

My dog once licked out a baking dish of salmon that was being marinated in about half a bottle of rum (he pulled it off the counter)...he was acting a little silly after that...
posted by johnsmith415 at 2:50 PM on March 10, 2006

Beer did it for my dog.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:12 PM on March 10, 2006

Here's what my googlefu found in regards to "Dognip" Straight from the Hip, November 1998.
posted by plokent at 3:16 PM on March 10, 2006

My dog loves it when I jam half a biscuit into the center of a Kong ball. She easily breaks the outside half off and eats it, and spends about an hour trying to wrest the other half off, which is pinched inside pretty tightly. It's slobbery, but it's big fun.
posted by cajo at 3:20 PM on March 10, 2006

Frozen meatballs in a Kong also really work well.
posted by maxpower at 3:22 PM on March 10, 2006

We used to blow marijuana smoke in our friend's dog's face. Sometimes he'd like it bust most of of the time he'd get paranoid after and hide under the sofa.
posted by furtive at 3:28 PM on March 10, 2006

There really isn't a catnip equivalent for dogs that we know of. As I understand it, catnip contains nepetalactone, which is structurally similar to endogenous cat sex pheromones. So a cat's reaction to catnip is probably more like sexual excitment than it is like being stoned.

Obligatory Wikipedia link is here.
posted by killdevil at 3:29 PM on March 10, 2006

I'd read that anise seed is like catnip for dogs. I haven't had much success with it, so YMMV. (Of course, not all cats like catnip, either.)
posted by luneray at 5:01 PM on March 10, 2006

Apparently a dog went crazy around my knapsack when I had some catnip in it (I wasn't around at the time), so it may affect (some) dogs as well. Then again, that was a 9-month old Rottweiler puppy who's pretty crazy to begin with.

Also, some dogs enjoy "chasing" the beam from a laser pointer. I know a dog who will look around for a beam any time you're holding a pen/whistle/brush/anything that looks vaguely like a laser pointer.
posted by needs more cowbell at 5:21 PM on March 10, 2006

I've heard peanut butter works...
posted by ozomatli at 6:51 PM on March 10, 2006

Food.
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:00 PM on March 10, 2006

My friend George had a puppy that ate a half-ounce of George's best weed. George recovered, but the puppy was always kind of out of it after that. It's when he got his name: Bogus.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:24 PM on March 10, 2006

Another googlefu came up with some dog trivia - Stinking Goosefoot is also known as Dognip. This weed smells like rotten salt fish when it is touched.

On another note there is a company called DogNip Brand that manufactures doggie treats that are made from fish.
posted by plokent at 7:30 PM on March 10, 2006

The Happy Voice always turns my dog into a klutzy whirling dervish of glee.
posted by cmyk at 7:35 PM on March 10, 2006

Or just pointing at random things and shouting "get it! Get it!"

Dogs go nuts.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:46 PM on March 10, 2006

A deer's chest cavity will delight a trio of dogs for hours on end. Alas, I can not find the web link to the story. It was one of the funniest stories I've read.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:01 PM on March 10, 2006

DOGS.
IN.
ELK.
posted by LimePi at 8:31 PM on March 10, 2006

This weed smells like rotten salt fish when it is touched.

That would make sense--the dog version of catnip in my experience has always been a dead fish or some similar sort of rotting carrion. Our bulldogs would got nuts when they found a dead fish, roll over in it, get jacked up and just tear off running back and forth, roll over in the fish again, going tearing off like a superball dropped down a stairwell, rinse and repeat, until we had to subdue physically subdue them.

But, the ah, rotting fish smell part is probably why Stinking Goosefoot Dognip will never be exactly commercially viable.
posted by y2karl at 9:55 PM on March 10, 2006

Wet, 4 day old decayed squirrel.
They'll eat it, roll in it, and
maybe even bring some back for later.
posted by the Real Dan at 11:30 PM on March 10, 2006

dead fish or other smelly dead things ... yes, it drives them crazy like catnip ... no, you do NOT want to deal with that ... they'll be happy ... but you'll be holding your nose as you give them a bath
posted by pyramid termite at 6:53 AM on March 11, 2006

Dognip is a solution to a non-existent problem. Catnip exists because cats need something to force them to care about something, even if it's imaginary. Dogs already care. Cats only care about catnip and not caring. They're a lot like people from Southern California.
posted by mumeishi at 9:37 AM on March 11, 2006 [1 favorite]

Good point, mumeishi. From all I've seen, merely playing "fetch" with a dog is the equivalent of a bushel of catnip for a cat.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:05 AM on March 11, 2006

My otherwise lazy dog goes nuts when he "sees" dogs or similar structured animals like lions running around on tv.
posted by lampoil at 10:48 AM on March 11, 2006