Keeping the puppy off the veg?

Cyaniide

Basically, he decided it tastes nice and is eating everything that grows! What can we do to stop him eating it all? Of course it saves on buying so much dog food but that wasnt really the idea! :rotfl:

moneymabel

Hi, To puppy proof my small patch I used bamboo canes hammered into the ground to make a sort of fence and then tied wire mesh to that. Depends how big your garden and/or puppy is! Good luck though ;-)

Cyaniide

We tried that and he chewed his way through the fence. He eats bamboo sticks like they're made of tissue paper. And he chewed through the mesh too after a while. He's pretty large too. Sort of the size of a small great dane. Which obviously isnt great with veg >.< We were going to spray something on the veg but then we wouldnt want it to be harmful to us or him. And of course he has to go outside sometimes to go to the loo.

Optimisticpair

One I had learned after supervision and saying "no" when about to go on it that the flower border was not hers to play with / eat. That was the "Dim but nice" pup. She didn't need much teaching right from wrong.

"Bright but naughty" pup was easily bored and doing it to get attention, I got her a kong toy, which kept her occupied when I was busy, kept up with the supervision and planted a type of mint called "Eau de Cologne" which tastes absolutely vile and smells very strong. One bite of that put her off sampling plants and planting bits near the flowers and sprinkling the chopped leaves around to protect plants put her off until she grew out of that stage.

If you have trained your pup to leave the plants alone and it isn't bordeom or excessive attention seeking is it a teething problem? "Bright but naughty" had a hard time while teething and needed far more chew toys than "Dim but nice".

moneymabel

Um...land mines??!! sounds like you have your hands full certainly!
Good tip about the mint-I'll try that when my puppy gets big enough to get over the fence ;-/

Optimisticpair

moneymabel wrote: »

Um...land mines??!! sounds like you have your hands full certainly!
Good tip about the mint-I'll try that when my puppy gets big enough to get over the fence ;-/

Eeh, they were great fun. I smile when that dog food ad with the little white terrier and the red tulips comes on telly as Naughty demolished a container full of "Red Riding Hood" Tulips before I got the mint. I was appalled becuase I heard the bulbs were poisonous.

Mankysteve

Sounds like you need a decent picket fence.

jimbugalee

oh dear, our puppy arrives in 4 weeks and counting and I'm just about to plant out some lovely veg. I thought he might eat/tread all over it but sorta hoped he wouldn't ... fingers crossed!!

valk_scot

Training? Seriously? Don't let him out unsupervised and spend a few outings making darn sure he knows what he can and cannot do in the garden? we've got plenty of folk that bring their dogs up to the allotment and they're all trained.

Kay_Peel

You might have to make one part of the garden puppy friendly and start training him/her to use it.
Put puppy on a lead when you go into the garden and take him/her to their area to do their business. Let them off the lead and play with some toys. Have some interesting things for them to explore - a ball on a piece of string stuck into the ground, a child's windmill, a plastic bucket, anything. Have a spray bottle of cold water in your hand but behind your back.

If they go anywhere near your veg patch, don't go all gooey eyed at their michievousness, or take half measures with discipline. Mean what you say. Squirt them with a dose of cold water, but say nothing. Calmly, put them back on the lead and return to their part of the garden. Take off the lead again.

Give them no attention whatsoever when they threaten to jump on the veg, just squirt them, reamin silent and calmly remove them.

At the moment, they get a lot of attention from you when they are doing something wrong - you want to give them more attention when they are doing something right, like playing in a place that they are meant to be playing in. They should begin to associate playing on the veg patch with something horrible - cold water, no attention and silence.

Good luck - if you train them to respect certain parts of your garden NOW you'll reap the benefits for the rest of their lives. You have to make time and have considerable patience to train a puppy - so never leave them unattended until the training is complete.

chelms38

Wrap it in bog roll so it can't move an inch. :rotfl: