Hi,
I have Conocybe and Galerina (unlikely to be G. Marginata) growing in my lawn. I’ve fenced off the area so to protect my two dogs from infesting them and poisoning. The temperature has warmed a bit and I haven’t seen any mushroom activity for about a week. Do you think that this would likely mean that the mushrooms will remain dormant (unless weather changes drastically)? I’m just wondering if it’s safe to allow the dogs to use the lawn again.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
It’s good you’re looking out for the mushrooms. I’ve never heard of dog-infested mushrooms but better safe than sorry.
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Thanks for your reply. Sorry for the typo - I meant ingesting not infesting 
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Fungi in your yard mean that you have a healthy yard ecology - that’s a good thing!
Generally specific fungi will fruit when certain triggers are met - IMHO temperature and moisture have a lot to do with this. After a good rain is when you’re going to see the most.
You don’t happen to have good pictures of the mushrooms in question do you?
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If you are looking for help with identifications, please post any photos as observations to iNaturalist.org and not on the forum. Good luck!
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Yup, this.
Feel free to tag me though! I’ll do my best to help.
has anyone eaten a suillus picked in the wild just based on the slippery cap and the spongy gills?
Dogs do ingest and die from eating mushrooms.
More information here…https://namyco.org/interests/toxicology/mushroom-poisonings-in-dogs-and-cats/
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If the mushrooms are not there now, then it is safe to let the dogs there now. But keep an eye out – especially after rain, as @lothlin said – in case they reappear.
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I’ve eaten Suillus that I’ve positively IDed to species, and they are a fairly easy and safe group to forage. That said, they have pores, not gills.
Thanks for your reply and advice. I’ve attached the main mushrooms that have appeared in the lawn over the past two months. Hopefully they came through ok.
Very interested in your assessment of them.
Thanks Jason - I check every day before letting the dogs out. I can’t see any obvious mushrooms. It’s possible that there might be a small one hidden in the grass. I try to be thorough. Also I don’t let them wonder into the grass in the evening because I know that’s when some of the mushrooms have sprouted.
Not sure what else to do other than not overwatering the lawn and removing anything that could decompose on the lawn (no dog poo, leaves etc).
Being an anxious person, it’s a big step letting them in the lawn. I’m watching them like a hawk!
Cheers, Jason
Thanks for the tip. I’m new to this. I’ll also try the website you suggested. In the interim happy to receive any advice.
as @cthawley mentioned, it would be best to post this as observations on iNaturalist, the forums aren’t really meant for identification.
That said, for mushroom identification you really need to clearly post pictures from all angles - gills, stem, cap, etc are all important identifiers for mushrooms.
That said, I tend to not worry overmuch about small, grass-growing mushrooms like these. They’re very ephemeral and tend to not have much substance - if there’s a lot of them and your dog is prone of just eating everything they see, I might worry .
I’m not sure what the first, closed one is - there’s not enough details. Same for the second picture. Third/fourth picture are IMHO conocybe (most of them are harmless,) last is IMHO coprinopsis or something similar - also not really of worry.
If your dog does ever ingest something you are worried about, this group is useful https://www.facebook.com/groups/144798092849300 - but only post there for cases of confirmed ingestion, they are necessarily a very strict group.
Since the forum isn’t for posting photos for IDs, I’ve removed these from the main thread to preserve it and unlisted them. Please don’t post any additional photos for IDs as these will be flagged. Thanks!
Thanks so much for your advice. Since moving from a dry climate to a city (Melbourne) that is cooler and wetter, I have had a steep learning curve when it comes to mushrooms and dogs! I know I have Fly Agaric in the front yard, possibly mica caps and yellow strainers around the garden as well (using the Ai phone Apps). Plus a whole bunch of others around the neighbourhood.
Hopefully the warm dry summer will continue so I can relax a little bit more. Especially with a puppy who is 1y/o but still prone to eating all sorts of things.
Thanks and my apologies.
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Not related to the narrative in this particular discussion, but here in South Africa, many shroom foragers go by the rule of thumb that if the cap is duller than the stipe with fawnish gills, then its edible, whereas the reverse means it is harmful. While true some of the time, its certainly not a silver bullet rule and one of our deadliest mushrooms, the Death Cap, straddles a very grey area between these 2 descriptions
Not worth risking your life over.
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Fly agaric and yellow stainers are more of a worry for your pup - AI apps are, in general, not great to rely on though, they do a very poor job with mushrooms - iNat’s computer visions is probably the best and I still wouldn’t rely on it for determining if something is toxic.
My suggestion would honestly be to look into a local identification group that is familiar with the fungi that grow in your area - I’m assuming there are some on facebook for Australia.