After having started a garden from scratch last year, we decided to get a dog. The puppy has eaten the sedums to the ground, stripped leaves from the hellebores and heuchuras and eaten the remaining leaves from the rudbeckia!
Esther: firstly congratulations on your new hound!
As your training continues and puppy learns the word NO you'll find it easier and easier to stop them from chewing things they shouldn't (same applies in the house!) Don't be scared of disciplining them from an early age; puppies are keen to please their pack and of course need to learn their place.
Some people say that chilli powder helps keep dogs away from certain areas (ours however seems to love the smell and it actually encourages him to dig). But I found when I'm out in the garden (we never leave our dog in the garden unattended) a spray bottle with water is a good distraction when he starts digging where he shouldn't or runs off with the pot I'm trying to plant up. He thinks the spray bottle is a game not a punishment so much so that when we go on a walk on a hot day the bottle comes with us as an easy way to transport water for a drink and cool down!
Good advice from Clarington. I have a Border Collie, he is old now. I have had BCs for the last 40 or so years. The first word to teach them is "NO". I never left them unattended in the garden when they were little.
There was an area for the loo and on the formal lawn going to the loo was forbidden. In this house I am lucky to be surrounded by woods that belong to me (I live in France), but with a smaller garden the loo area must be cleaned up when the puppy isn't looking. You don't want him to think he was wrong after all or that you are his servant!
He will chew much less as he grows up. My currant dog stopped chewing things after about 6 months, but he's not really a chewer.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
With our VERY lively springer pup (now 5 years old) I resigned myself to the fact that for the first year we had him that my garden may look scrappy.
The issue wasn't eating plants at all but the 'formula pup' racetrack he made for himself (out the back door, through the first border, up the steps to the decking at the back of the garden, round the decking, back through a second border and back through the front door - and repeat, again, and again!!!).
Loads of things got trampled and broken off but most seemed to survive until the following year.
Hes now very well behaved in the garden and just needs the odd 'no' if he follows a butterfly into the border.
Highlight of the summer? Seeing him in the hot weather sat in his own paddling pool to cool off his paws - love 'im!
Thank you everyone for all the suggestions. It's a small urban garden with little space to fence off - plus they'd have to be pretty high as he's a jumper. Luckily we can see him from the windows so he can't go out of sight. I'll try the chilli and the water spray and hope it get's better. I think we are resigned to it looking scrappy this year and will have to plant out larger plants so he doesn't destroy them before they can get established.
Sadly Esther, that really is your only solution. You can look at giving him toys like kongs with food frozen inside when he is out in the garden and that may help keep him occupied. Lots of shouting when he is doing stuff 'wrong' won't really help him learn.
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I prescribe puppy (and owner) training classes and lots of toys and activities to keep him occupied.
Good luck
Do we get a photo of the puppy? We're a dog-friendly crowd (well, most of us are
)
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Some friends of my parents had a Basset hound puppy that chewed all their rose bushes down to stumps!
Esther: firstly congratulations on your new hound!
As your training continues and puppy learns the word NO you'll find it easier and easier to stop them from chewing things they shouldn't (same applies in the house!) Don't be scared of disciplining them from an early age; puppies are keen to please their pack and of course need to learn their place.
Some people say that chilli powder helps keep dogs away from certain areas (ours however seems to love the smell and it actually encourages him to dig). But I found when I'm out in the garden (we never leave our dog in the garden unattended) a spray bottle with water is a good distraction when he starts digging where he shouldn't or runs off with the pot I'm trying to plant up. He thinks the spray bottle is a game not a punishment so much so that when we go on a walk on a hot day the bottle comes with us as an easy way to transport water for a drink and cool down!
Good advice from Clarington. I have a Border Collie, he is old now. I have had BCs for the last 40 or so years. The first word to teach them is "NO". I never left them unattended in the garden when they were little.
There was an area for the loo and on the formal lawn going to the loo was forbidden. In this house I am lucky to be surrounded by woods that belong to me (I live in France), but with a smaller garden the loo area must be cleaned up when the puppy isn't looking. You don't want him to think he was wrong after all or that you are his servant!
He will chew much less as he grows up. My currant dog stopped chewing things after about 6 months, but he's not really a chewer.
With our VERY lively springer pup (now 5 years old) I resigned myself to the fact that for the first year we had him that my garden may look scrappy.
The issue wasn't eating plants at all but the 'formula pup' racetrack he made for himself (out the back door, through the first border, up the steps to the decking at the back of the garden, round the decking, back through a second border and back through the front door - and repeat, again, and again!!!).
Loads of things got trampled and broken off but most seemed to survive until the following year.
Hes now very well behaved in the garden and just needs the odd 'no' if he follows a butterfly into the border.
Highlight of the summer? Seeing him in the hot weather sat in his own paddling pool to cool off his paws - love 'im!
Thank you everyone for all the suggestions. It's a small urban garden with little space to fence off - plus they'd have to be pretty high as he's a jumper. Luckily we can see him from the windows so he can't go out of sight. I'll try the chilli and the water spray and hope it get's better. I think we are resigned to it looking scrappy this year and will have to plant out larger plants so he doesn't destroy them before they can get established.
Sadly Esther, that really is your only solution. You can look at giving him toys like kongs with food frozen inside when he is out in the garden and that may help keep him occupied. Lots of shouting when he is doing stuff 'wrong' won't really help him learn.
I agree Steve - distraction is best! You can even play in a small garden with a rope toy and kongs, you don't need to play throw and fetch.
Awwwwwwwwwwww
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.