Suggestions to keep your Doodle out of the garden beds

[Adrianne Matzkin]

I used to have a beautiful pondless waterfull and planting bed around it. I placed every single black rock (forget what they are called) exactly where I wanted it. Samantha would never go near it. That is until Charli!!

 

That little black, loveable rat just loves to run through it kicking up every rock I so lovingly placed so the water would sound like the Philhormanic. Again - BC (before Charli). At first I got so mad at her for ruining what took me hours to do - but then I saw the humor in it all. Now, the sound be damned. I just love her silliness and the look on my face when she realizes what she just did - how can you stay mad?

I have, or should I say had, beautfiul perinnials - sedums, dead nettle and a few others in the bed around the pond. They may have been deer resistent but not Charli resistent. She doesn't eat them, she runs threw them, sits on them or just grabs a piece of plant and dodges away knowing I will holler at her.

My goal this spring to teach her to stay off my pond beds! Any suggestions on how I might accomplish that? The deer hate cyote urine but will Charli?

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Well, we don't have deer that come into our yard. Only skunks, opossums and cats! I had low garden fencing around my planted "mounds" which are filled with Agapanthas (don't know if you guys have that plant where you live) and Azalea bushes (Rhodedendrons in the East). I wanted to keep Gracie Doodle out of the areas. That worked when she was a puppy but she is now a 70 lb 29" high Doodle who took Agility classes and is a beautiful runner and jumper. She is in and out of all the plants and her neighbor friends follow. We took the temporary fencing down since it was no longer doing any good. I will be very interested to hear what people have to say. Not too keen on Coyote urine idea and haven't a clue where I would get that!!!!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Agapanthus is really not usually hardy here. We have azaleas and rhododendrons too. You can buy coyote urine (you don't have to follow coyotes with a ladle) in garden stores but I don't know if it will work for dogs.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think the water is the major attraction; not sure what you can do about that, though.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Here are pages with some suggestions to combat this problem.
http://www.odordestroyer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Category_Code=D...

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/organic/natural-homemade-dog-repell... This site has homemade and a commercial repellent.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Thanks for the link. I can't tell you how many times the boys have pee'd to death a couple of my planting beds in the back yard. This may help Brogan break his digging habit as well.

[F, Calla & Luca]

You are welcome.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

Thanks for the link Freda!! I am going to try using the vinegar soaked cotton balls. I might work my way to amonia if it turns out that Charli doesn't mind the vinegar. You just never know with her - she is so driven by searching for something to eat she might just like it.
I think that the chili pepper sounds inhumane! I would rather have 'Charli ruined' plants before I would intentionally 'irritate the skin of the dog, particularly the sensitive area in and around the nose'.
As much as I love my gardens and my pond, I love Charli more!!

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Just a bit of red pepper trivia... If you suffer from headaches the capsicum in red pepper is great natural headache cure. Just sniff a wee bit of ground red pepper into your nasal cavity. I suffer allergy related migraines during pollen producing seasons. The ground red pepper really helps.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And just to clarify, Nina is not talking about red bell peppers, but rather, the hotter peppers from the chili family.

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Boy, if you sniff a little ground red pepper into your nasal cavity doesn't it sit there and burn?

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Just for a little bit and not as much as you might think.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

The dogs yard is Easy Turf and concrete - wonderful. The backyard where they are allowed only with a human ( because of the pool) is pool, concrete and planting beds. I have mostly iceberg roses, lavender, false heather, agapanthus, mondo grass, and asparagus fern. The canas and the kangaroo paw bit the dust - dogs or heat I am not sure. Everything else has held up well to the doodles. I had to take out the "dwarf" purple feather grass because Tigger eats it and it really does not agree with him. The mondo grass is very well established as are the agapanthus. Mondo grass is hard to get going anyway, and a tried to put some new in and the dogs won. I also have a small tea rose garden, but the doods are discouraged from going into that area. Part of the reason that my yard is maintaining is probably because of the pool. It gets most of the action as the doods love it. However, the rest of the area takes some romping, retreiving and chase punshment and is still prospering.

I don't use insect sprays or snail bait etc. Most of the plants I choose, even the roses are pretty disease resistent. I use an organic fertilizer or bone meal. Or nothing. Here in Southern California, things either die from the heat or not enough water or they become enormous and don't need any fertilizer encouragement - at least in my yard. My yard was an old orchard, though, until the early 1940s so the soil is good.

I have possums in my yard too. Possums are gypsies supposedly and just pack up and move on. You would think they would not pick a yard with two dogs!