My dog is destroying my yard!!!!

[KHunter]

My husband has had his rottweiler for about 8 years. She is the sweetest, most obedient dog (for the most part). I've been here since October and have been trying to fix up the house. I've been planting flowers and different kinds of plants in the backyard. She has been real good about not getting into them. Now I started putting potted plants all around and she keeps getting into them and destroying my plants!!! I've tried putting dog repellents on them, but it doesn't even phase her that there is anything there. I take her for walks and spend a lot of time with her outside when I'm gardening. When I go outside to check and see if she's done anything she'll go straight to her house if she's gotten into one of my plants. If she hasn't done anything, she'll follow me around until I pet her (I praise her for not touching anything). So she knows that I'm going to get mad if she's gotten into my plants.
Does anyone have any advice on what to do to get her to stop getting into the plants? PLEASE HELP!

[Rachel27]

This is not an encouraging post, I am hoping and praying our dog soon grows out of this behavior. LOL!! We have a 12 mo. old female who is also destroying our yard. She is digging holes everywhere. Just today we were working on our flower beds, which are HUGE. She kept digging a hole in the same spot. Everytime she dug it, she was repremanded (obviously not enough, or incorrectly) and the hole was filled back in with dirt. We'd turn our backs for two minutes and she dug up the same exact hole. We thought perhaps she might have buried something there, but there was nothing. Needless to say, there are these types of holes everywhere in the yard. I need advice on how to curb this as well. Since she was still very young this time last year, she was not digging so we did not have to make any attempt at correcting it. Now that all the snow has melted away we are discovering holes everywhere and we have not a clue in the world how to correct this. She has a fenced in yard and loves to be outside, therefore she is not watched constantly. If anyone has any suggestions on how to correct this as well as your problem, (which is potentially my problem) I would love to hear.
Good luck to you as well.

[Michael C.]

Yeah, forget about plants in the back yard. Unless you can fence of an area that the dog cant get into, forget about it! We fix up the front yard and try to keep the back looking nice without planting anything.

[KatMc]

My back yard is nonexistent. There was a lilac bush, but I say "was". It became a dog toy. I'm surrounded by trees so when the branches break and land in the yard, Sooner normally mulches them for me.

These guys don't dig too much, but I had a Norweigan Elkhound that did, I used black pepper, red peppers, and it was a convenient place to bury the doggy poop (nice of him to be so accomodating). But he did the same thing, he's just dig another hole. He eventually did quit digging though and then my garbage collectors didn't care for me... Oh well.

I have a big inside plant and everytime I turn my back the dogs do go in for a bit of potting soil treat, nothing seems to faze them from that, so I know my backyard will never be pretty!

Good Luck.

Kathy

[Judi W]

First, an 8 year old is not likely to "outgrow" the desire for container gardening. I'd just put them out of reach. I tend to agree, that if you want fancy flower beds put them where the dogs are not. That doesn't mean we LIKE divits in the turf, just being realistic. For the pup that digs in the same place - hey, give it to her for her own gardening spot. I have a place behind my storage shed that is a digging zone - big holes!!!! As long as the shed stays upright I'm glad they've chosen one spot for deep digging. For the occasional lawn divits, I just fill in with some dirt periodically. Well trained, good dogs are still dogs and will enjoy a bit of doggy activity here and there. Outdoor gardening is much more acceptable that indoor redecorating. ;)

[Rottn in Alaska]

Rachel27 and KHunter,

I had the same problem with my rotti. She would dig a hole I would fill it and she would dig it out again. One day I was in the yard cleaning up all her droppings and I decided to put some dirt in the hole and leave just enough room to fill the rest with her droppings. Then I put a thin layer of dirt on top. When I let her out she sniffed around where the hole was and then left it alone. Unfortunaltely a few days later I found another hole in a different area and so I did the same thing (puting droppings in it) and she left it alone. Eventually toward the summer I found holes on a less frequent basis. And then last summer she didn't dig at all.

It's just an idea to try, it may work. Goodluck. :D

[K9-man]

03/26/2001 12:06 PM CST

Yep, just gotta fence em off. :)

We’ve got 2 gardens in the back yard, both fenced off. The fence around the rose garden is not that high. My Dane could practically step over it but she respects it as a boundary that she can’t cross.

[rottmommie]

I agree.....i have all the pretties in the front, and the side...anywhere but where they are inside the fence...i reserve that for hanging geraniums!!!
I AM going to have a garden with good veggies this year in the fence, but chicken wire will enclose it!
If i cant use my land to see pretties, i will at least EAT GOOD SALADS this year!!!!!
and i can still look at the hanging plants! :D

[LORHEL]

I don't think there is much hope for any flowers in the backyard with the rottie around. We have a flowerbed that runs along the house by the kitchen windows, which Zeke proceeded to dig a large hole in the corner, and then numerous other deep holes in the rest of it. We finally tore everything out in the fall after they died. He also likes to bury the rest of his rawhide bones once he is done with them for the time being. He will go to the door with it in his mouth and cry if we don't let him take it out to bury it. He has even dug at a tree root, starting a hole there. He also flattened one of our plants, I don't know what it is, but it looks like a big fern only thicker. He gets out in what used to be a garden but now is his kennel and a few misc. plants, tree, and lays on this plant. He has totally flattened it! It is so funny to watch him. I gave up and am working on just the front yard. The only time he is out there is on a leash for walks, or to go for a ride. Good luck. They love to dig :)

[Chloesmom]

Chloe just dug up all the bulbs around the tree in my front yard. Sigh. She loves the soft dirt and just goes nuts. The backyard is a little roughed up, but not too bad. She's taken to lying on a bed of low bushes to chew her sticks. She keeps them all there in a nice pile. So tidy! ;)

I think if the dog poop idea doesn't work then separating the two (dog and plant) is the answer.

[lblax]

we dont have the digging problem but we have a nice evergreen hedge(well it used to be nice lol)that he would stand and tear branches off , now i dont believe in shock collars for training but to end negative behavior it worked good for us i put it on him and let him out after he done his bisness he went right for the bush as soon as he stuck his head in it i shocked him wow did he jump . he looked around then right back and i shocked again (of course you be somewhere where he cant see you) after the 3rd time now he just walks on bye the hedge and sometimes helooks back over his shoulder at it as he goes bye but i dont suspect any more problems out of him

[maryh]

i found out the hard way why my rott.loves to dig in the potted plants. the nurseryman gave me "organic" soil that includes bone meal and some other substance that includes animal blood of some kind. I think ALL dogs are attracted to this stuff.
I have never found anything other than a good fence that separates neighbors and dogs from flowers and flower beds.

[guberdog]

Well, I can tell you what I did. Had a flagstone patio installed over half the back yard, and then instead of shrubs between the patio and house, I had them deliver very large flatstone stones and put in a "rock garden." I do have some container shrubs, which I move around as I please. I'm getting ready to put very small moss boulders in my flower bed. It's just too much trouble to try to plant anything out there.