Gardening Dogs

Does your dog trash your garden? Does he dig up your newly planted plants and lie on top of your Impatiens? Don’t you just want to scream???

Relax. This all takes place because your dog loves you. Think about it. You’re a dog. Your owners go to work 5 days a week and spend a part of the weekend playing in the garden. That newly planted Camellia must be interesting because my favourite people in the world have just spent half an hour fussing over it like it’s some sort of treasure. The next time you go out your dog wants to check this plant out. Now, a dog doesn’t check it out the same way as us, oh no. Dog checking out involves a different approach. A sniff here, a little dig there, and, when that’s a bit dull an overall rip and shred is in order. That was so much fun it’s now time to trash last weekends planting to see what is so special about this gardening game.

This behavior is hard to change unless you’re able to give your dog lots more attention. Don’t despair because you have a situation which you can use to your advantage. Do you hate that Grevillea which is half dead near the clothesline? Spend Saturday morning fussing over it while hubby sneaks off and plants the petunias along the driveway and gets the real gardening done. The more attention you give the Grevillea, the more it will be gone when you return from your next outing. Do a bit of rummaging around in the soil too, because freshly disturbed soil seems to be irresistible to a bored dog. If you play your cards right, you can have the whole lousy Grevillea reduced to mulch while you pop out and buy the newspaper.

Give in and designate part of the garden to your dog. If Rover loves to lie on the impatiens, let him have that spot. Sure, he’s chosen the highly visible area right next to the outdoor furniture in full view of everyone but that’s true love and nothing to be sneezed at. He wants to be part of the action and rightly so because he is a member of your family. If you want to beautify the area, plant some pots of impatiens nearby and leave the dusty dog bed in peace.

Why not go all out and place a bowl of fresh water in his new haven? You’ll have a best friend forever.