I just lost half of my garden!!

So my husband convinced me to let him get this dog that was going to go to the pound if he could not take it. I was very hesitant because I am really not a dog person. I said yes because I felt bad for the thing and the pound is such a horrible place to go. So it's been about a month and a half now and no real problems with the dog until this morning. I woke up and went out to check on the growth of my garden and to my dismay the dog had dug up almost half of my plants. All but one corn stalk, all but 1 bean plant, all my cucumbers, she chewed the tops off my turnips and some of my radishes. I don't know if I will be able to save any of the plants. I have tried to replant a few of the ones that are not too damaged but they look almost sadder than I do right now. I'm not sure if the turnips will grow properly with their greens chewed down and the radishes either. If not I guess I will have to replant in the empty spaces. I know there is still plenty of time to do that but it was coming along so well and I'm just so upset right now. Just had to vent.

Am so sorry about your veggies. The turnips will probably come back ok.
There is hope for the sad looking ones. They look terrible for a week or more but might possibly come back but doubtful.

I'd be ranting too and i'm a bigtime doglover.

Is your dog still a puppy? Am glad you took the lil booger in.

I would have to vent, too, Annabelle. We have the problem here with squirrels, but when it's an animal you've taken in and tried to love, it seems like a betrayal, doesn't it? But she's just being the animal she is - don't take it personal. Give her something else to keep her busy and take the opportunity to train her to stay out of the veggies. There's a great book called "Don't Shoot the Dog." that might help. :-)

Oh, I am so sorry about what happened to your garden. However, the garden has another chance at life/growth next year. The dog, if you hadn't rescued him/her, didn't have another chance.
Now, if you can take the dog to the garden with you and tell the dog "No" in a firm but kind voice when he/she starts to step into the garden, the dog will quickly learn that this is a place to avoid. We got a collie/St. Bernard mix from the pound (and there are few dogs more stubborn than a collie) that we taught to stay away from flower beds and the vegetable garden this way. It takes persistence on your part, but your diligence will pay off in years to come. Also, you now have a gardening buddy!

Looks like your husband may have a fence installation job in his immediate future.

I am so sorry to hear about that. Speaking from personal experience, I thought I had lost my whole garden earlier this year when we had a freak late season SEVERE hail storm. I came home to find my beautiful seedlings reduced to this:
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i291/kbumgar/Vegetable%20Garden/IMG_0303.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i291/kbumgar/Vegetable%20Garden/IMG_0304.jpg

I thought all was lost. I burst into tears a few times that day. Miraculously, this is what emerged only two weeks later:
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i291/kbumgar/Vegetable%20Garden/IMG_0322.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i291/kbumgar/Vegetable%20Garden/IMG_0326.jpg

It is amazing how tough our little gardens are! Water the damaged ones in, cross your fingers and build a fence. I'm sure the dog didn't know it was doing anything wrong, and the best thing is to prevent it from happening again.

This message was edited Aug 9, 2009 12:48 PM

My daughter has five dogs which is why my veggie garden has a four-foot dog wire fence around it. Only two of the dogs, a Corgi mix and a yellow lab/bassett mix, are a problem, but I have neither the time nor the patience to work on altering their behavior. The fence works fine. Dog wire is cheap, too.

Karen

I replied above with my sad story about almost losing my garden, and I forgot to mention our fence.

We have a very active german shorthaired pointer, and we realized that we needed a fence the day that we put the garden in. Fortunately, we realized this before we actually planted anything. :)

Our fence took less than an hour (metal stock fence posts and some stock wire fence). It's not pretty, but it sure does a good job of keeping the dog out. The best part is not having to worry about whether it's getting trampled!

Oh, I had one of those German short haired pointers once - rescued him from a shelter. He would point at butterflies then follow them over the fence, so we found him a home on a farm. LOL Sweetest dog, though!

Put down an underground fence. They really work great. One or two shocks and he will learn the boundaries. Best of all you mow right over it.

When we built the house, I insisted in a fence around my garden. My Jack Russell loves to dig. I am so thankful I insisted. Even so I had to add rabbit fence on the inside along the bottom. Not only for the rabbits. Invisible fence would work for some dogs but not mine. He would be so interested in the critter he was chasing, the shock would just slow him for a second and then he'd keep on chasing, and digging.

Guys thank for all the kind words and advice. I spent a good part of the day crying yesterday (I'm such a sap) and then I got up andd to put some of the plants back in the ground. I think I may have saved 2-3 cucumber plants, 4 beans, and maybe 2 of the corn. The corn stalks are broke though so I don't know if they will make it. Everything looks really sad right now though. As for "Missy" the dog, she is still a puppy, only about 6 months old right now. My husband promised me he would put a fence up "soon" so hopefully that will work until then I am keeping a close eye on her when she goes outside. I will be looking into fencing ideas today and hopefully get something up ASAP. I will update on how the veggies are doing. Thanks again.

Oh, heck, six months old - no wonder she's digging! Dear hubby owes you one good fence "now." LOL

Annabellle790,
And while he's responding to those tears, be sure to request anything ELSE your garden needs. Turn these lemons into some lemonade! Here're some suggestions:

A drip irrigation system
A new trellis
A new composter
Rain barrels
Benches to sit on and take a rest

Gymgirl, Thats funny because I am trying to get him to let me purchase some drip irrigation. He isn't completely convinced but I'm working him still.

annabelle - bless you for taking in a new puppy. My little multipoo is really dumb, but she knows not to put a paw in my raised beds. Sometimes she will sit on the opposite side of the bed and look at me on the other side, and I can see her little mind trying to work out how to get from there to here without going into the bed. Sooner or later she works it out and walks around the bed and climbs into my lap as I'm kneeling.

How I taught her was to put both her front paws on the wooden board surrounding the raised bed, wagged my finger back and forth in front of her while saying NO, NO, NO repeatedly. I did the same thing at the end of our driveway to keep her from running into the road.

Of course, she made mistakes in the beginning, but when she did, I picked her up, put her on the edge again, and repeated the message. Then I would walk her around the bed to the spot where I was before, and praised her. She lives for praise :)

My DH resisted the drip watering too, but once he did it and saw the results, he was convinced.

Honeybee, you are smart. So many animals (including birds, in my experience) love praise as much as treats. You painted a sweet picture with words of that little one being in your lap.

Thanks, KaperC - she is the light of my life (shhh. please don't tell my hubby I said that)

I've heard that the underground fence has worked for some people. Didn't work for us. When my daughter adopted the yellow Lab/Basset hound, he would continually jump and/or climb over the three-foot dog wire fence around the houses. I had no idea Labs could jump like that over fences nor did I know they will actually climb a wire fence by sticking their feet into the holes in the wire fence.

He kept going out on the road and stopping traffic, so he had to be restrained. We installed an underground fence around the outside of the house fence, thinking it more humane than an electric fence wire on the top of the existing fence. Well, after nearly $200 and two days work to install the "humane" fence, it was ready. Put the collar on the dog and turned it on. Dog tried to climb the fence and got a shock. Dog then decided to jump the fence, got a shock for a second, and kept on going. Turned the device up full blast -- same result. Anybody want to buy a "humane" fence cheap?

We installed a regular electric wire around the top of the existing fence -- it cost less than $75 and only a couple of hours to install. It works.

annabelle790,

How big is the dog likely to be when grown? That will pretty much determine the height you need the fence to be.

Karen

Karen, She is a miniature pinscher so she is only sopposed to get to around a foot tall. But boy can she jump so I will need to factor that in as well.

We had neighbors who had one of those underground fences and it worked pretty good for them. They used it in conjunction with obedience training. However, I'd bet that the results vary just because each dog is so different from the other. I'd look for a good training program using positive reinforcement - it's a proven method and would save a lot of $$ and frustration. It would also benefit all areas of behavior. Just my two cents. :-)

annabelle790,

Probably a 3-4-foot fence would do it. I don't think most dogs will actually climb a fence using it like a ladder. I was surprised to find out that this is common behavior with Labs though. I read on the Internet that a four-month-old Lab can and will climb a six-foot fence!

KaperC,

We had to have a solution right away. He was going up on the road and running out into traffic. He was causing the drivers to need to stop suddenly, and if left to continue he could well have caused a serious wreck. He was smart enough to try the electric fence on more than one side and also try it when we were not in sight in case it was our presence that was the cause of the shock. He's very smart, but he's also very pig-headed.

I think the invisible fence may work better for smaller dogs that are started with it right away when they are very small and that have a more timid, docile personality.

Karen

My daughter has an invisible fence for her little multipoo (we both have multipoos - hers is black, mine is white - my neighbor has one too, hers is grey)

The fence works well, unless she sees a squirrel/cat/rabbit and then she's "off"

Daughter's dog stays with my hubby during the day, and she visits sometimes on weekends, too. The other day I was out in the front yard with the two of them - we have no fence there - and they saw a squirrel. They took off, but before they could reach the road I yelled NO! To my amazement they stopped in their tracks. Thankfully early training paid off that day.

Annabelle790,

How are things coming along? Did you manage to save any of the plants that were dug up? I have been thinking about your garden...

Karen

Karen, it looks like 2 of the cucumber plants are going to make it, 3 of the bean plants and I'm still unsure how the corn is going to do. Some of the corn plants were so bad there was no way to save them, but a few were broke low in the stalk so I tried to replant them covering up over the break, they seem to look healthy but are not growing straight up and down. 3 of the corn plant look good though. As for the turnips and radishes they seem to be doing fine without the majority of their greens. I guess I will just have to wait and see on them. I am still having problems with the dog going in there though so I'm a little worried about everything still. I can't get any kind of fence up til hubby gets paid so for now the dog has to be babysat while she is outside.

Karen, don't blame you - we live right near a very busy highway and several neighbors have lost dogs because the didn't put a fence up or train their dogs not to wander. If the road doesn't get them, the coyotes do! If that's what it takes, it needs to be done.

My son used an underground fence effectively and my son in law as well. You have to train your dog to it. Flags he can visually see. Walk him on a leash to get him to hear the beep and then a good shock. Takes several days of training but once he realizes that beeb comes just before the shock, he will reverse his direction. Like any thing else, you have to do it properly.

Well I have been babysitting the dog everytime she goes outside and the other day I went to the Home Depot to get some type of fencing. I bought this wire fencing stuff that is about 2' tall. It seemed high enough so she couldn't get over it. I replanted my cucumber plants, zuccini, and corn. I was out all day the other day and left the dog out so there would be no accidents when I came home. Lo and behold the dog had chewed and squeezed her tiny self between the the wires and dug everything up again!! I am at my wits end and out $50 for the fence. Not to mention my poor little plants that were just coming up died before ever having a chance at life. So any ideas on cheap fencing that can keep a tiny chewing dog out?

I don't know how much it costs, but you might try putting chicken wire up with the fencing you already have. She wouldn't be able to crawl through that.

Good Luck!

Oh, I am so sorry to hear that. You must be really frustrated and upset about all this.

We have had very good luck with our fence. It is inexpensive, easy to install, and very sturdy. We use steel stock fence posts like this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BQQ5DY/ref=asc_df_B000BQQ5DY885807?smid=A27BUQSY3E84IP&tag=nextag-tools-tier4-mp01-delta-20&linkCode=asn&creative=380341&creativeASIN=B000BQQ5DY. They are sold at Home Depot, farm and ranch stores, etc. If you are very lucky you will find some on craigslist. They are very strong and sturdy, so you can probably get away with only buying a few posts. For the actual fence, we just use stock fence. It is very inexpensive and you can get it in a variety of sizes. I would recommend at least 3 feet high in case your little dog is a jumper. Attached is a photo of the stock fence. Obviously, you don't want to put up the barbed wire part. :)

Good luck and keep us posted.

Ok I just got back from the Home Depot where I got some rabbit fencing. I am gonna put it up here pretty soon and see how that works. It was also like a whole heck of a lot cheaper than the other stuff so I am gonna return the two sections the dog didn't chew up. I really think this stuff should work. Will keep updated. Gotta replant the veggies today too.

OK, I'm gonna think like Caesar on this one... my dog (jack russell terrier - they are bred to dig) decided he was going to make it his mission to destroy my garden beds. It was a matter of who the pack leader was. This WILL work if you are persistent enough. This is what I did:

I would not let the dog out without me being there. Whenever he went for a bed, which was basically the entire time we were in the yard, I made myself look really big (arms out, shoulders way up high) and stood in front of my bed, in front of him, and walked toward him saying "NO" in a really deep, loud voice. As Caesar would say, I claimed my space and made him back up away from it. (I also said "mommy's bed" in the same deep voice).

It really didn't take long for him to get the picture that if he messed in the beds, he was up &&^%$%#$ 's creek with mommy.

It WILL work. If you give up before they get the idea, it won't. I have no problem with my dog now, the most he does is sniff the edge. Even when he's out there alone.

And before Caesar there was Barbara Woodhouse:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Woodhouse

I used to watch her on British TV running around a field training dogs.

"Walkies!" ^_^

O, my goodness, someone who is a Woodhouse fan too!

Never know who/what you will find on DG! LOL

Here is our Babs giving advice to Captain Kirk! http://www.livevideo.com/video/719084DDFD254DB19854C28747D146A2/1982-barbara-woodhouse.aspx

Yep, that's our lady. Would have been nice to hear her say, "Walkies!" though. :-)