Puppy munching plants

[rhi167]

Minnie is almost 14 weeks old and seems to have developed the delightful habit of munching through my plants when in the garden (she also seems to be able to tell which ones cost the most or that I've spent the most time cultivating and goes for them first).

It's not like she nibbles a leaf but just goes straight in for the kill at the lowest part of the stem. I made sure that all the plants in the garden are dog friendly and not dangerous to her tummy but I'd like some left if possible!

I do tell her off and keep her out of the flower beds as much as possible but I've caught her a few times jumping in to pots to get her prey. Am I going to have to fence everything off or is something she'll grow out of??

[MaggieR]

  The only plants I have left are the ones in pots on my decking and even two of those went for a burton! I met a guy down the park before Xmas who told me how he'd just been thrown out of the house with his working cocker, as for the second time in a fortnight Dylan had dragged a plant out of the pot, back in through the dog flap and proceeded to do the cocker death shake on it all over the kitchen, cupboards, worksurfaces the lot 

Personally makes no odds to me, am not very green fingered - but if I was I might be looking for some fencing! 

[BabyB]

One of my little 'darlings' decided to help prune the base of our large hydrangea at lunch time, oh, and decided that one spot of grass in the middle of our lawn was not how is should be, and it needed to be just dirt (after a bit of digging).

The said little darling is 2.5yrs old 

Trust me, they don't always grow out of it the older they get.
In our case, he's just getting quicker at ducking and diving once he's knows he been caught 

My mum reckons he's an angel as he doesn't do that in nanny's garden 

[millyann]

Carlo (4 1/2 months) is currently banned by OH from the back garden altogether for acts of vandalism and destruction. Puppy now has to wee by the bins in the basement-area and go to the park if he wants to run around. I was hoping he would grow out if it ....

[Little-Miss-Molly]

Poppy is 4 months old and she was and still is  a nightmare in the garden, I dug up the plants that I didn't think was safe but to be extra careful we have fenced off the plant area and then I went and brought low wire fencing to put round the top of my pots because she started jumping up them and trying to eat the dirt and any young shoots that had just started to emerge, that cost me a small fortune because I have so may pots   I then read that pyracantha berries are dangerous and I have one covered in berries in the garden, she can't get to it because it's in the fenced off bit but soon I would like to move the fence back and then if the berries fell she could possibly reach them so I spent 3 hours yesterday hand picking all the berries off   We also had to buy some wire netting to cover over the pebbled area in the garden because she kept trying to eat them   you really do need eyes in the back of your head with them  don't you

[Karma]

The only way to stop it is to supervise her in the garden and distract her away from the plants. 
We didn't succeed!!!   

[Sheepscheeks]

Freddie (4.5 months) is a devil for this too and was munching new shoots so I have fenced off a lot of the garden where the perennials are with 0.9m high green plastic covered wire fencing. I don't think I have any poisonous plants but I'm not sure what some of them are cos labels have gone so have done it for his sake and for the sake of having something to look at in the garden later in the year! It's not very rigid but I didn't want wooden fencing or bare wire. If Freddie ran at it it would probably collapse but he hasn't tried it yet!  (Put it up a week and a half ago)

[elaine.e]

Louis was a complete nightmare for this when I first got him last August. I used to distract him as much as possible with toys and training, but it's impossible to do that all the time. William and my 2 previous Cockers were much the same but eventually the novelty wore off and they pretty much gave up digging and pruning.

Louis is much better now, although he dug up my very cherished overwintering Agapanthus from it's pot last week and he still gnaws on twigs a bit, but now they're mainly ones that have already been pruned  by me.

I've always let mine have the run of the garden in the belief (or hope) that eventually the garden will become such a familiar environment that it will lose it's excitement for them. I don't know if I've just been lucky, but so far it's worked.

[LouiseH]

I have one who is 16 months and steals children's toys from the sand pit and chews them up! We have also replaced 3 fence panels this year that have since been munched but are still surviving!

We haven't managed to get anything growing for long enough to get it established so gave up but are growing potatoes and a few other veg this year so we'll see! Jenna seems to prefer digging and stealing things off the washing line to plants 

[maggieann]

Perhaps I've just been very lucky, but apart from chewing on a couple of young plants and munching on some fruit - none of my dogs caused damage in the garden.


They always had the run of the garden, so perhaps it wasn't that exciting for them.

[bobbylfc]

I found a daffodil bulb down the side of my couch the other day that bobby had decided to dig up 

[BabyB]

I found a daffodil bulb down the side of my couch the other day that bobby had decided to dig up 

[Dudleysmum]

I have given up planting anything as it just gets destroyed! First Dudley started and now Millie is joining in.  Only the hardy will survive!