Help! Big Dogs vs Little Fushia

Hello from a Newbie! I am absolutely certain that some of you wonderful gardeners can telll me what I should do: I was getting ready to plant some new hardy fushias, and had placed the fresh-from-the-nursery potted plants in the general area they were to be planted. My two BIG, PLAYFUL DOGS decided to chase the cat right over one of my new plants!!!!!! ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!! They broke the plant at the soil line. The leaves at the top are wilting, and the new buds are also looking very sad. Is there some way to salvage this great little plant? I've propped it up with a stick and wrapped some cloth around it to hold it upright. Now I'm seeking help from you all....

Try to realign the broken part like setting a broken bone, then wrap the injury with wax to keep moisture in. Sometimes this works and the plant grows back together, I've never tried with a fushia. Maybe it will grow back from the base if the "graft" doesn't take, make sure it gets enough water. Good luck (I own 2 Newfoundlands, I know how it goes!)

Dogs 1, Fushia 0

My list goes something like this
Dogs 3400000000 bazillion strawberries 0, 0, 0,0
sage 0
viola 0,0,0,0,0
daylily0,0
cat 0,0, 1 etc

sorry

Sulvi74...wax! I've never heard of that, but am really anxious to try it! Do I need to extend the wax up from the base of the plant? In other words, is the purpose of the wax to act as a "prop"? Should I try to apply the wax just below the broken spot as well? In this case it would be right at the soil line, and perhaps a bit below. I'm thinking that this just might work if I do it right. The main branch was totally demolished, so I tried to salvage a couple of cuttings from it, just in case I can't save the plant. There are three smaller branches that I propped against a bamboo stick, but I know that they won't stand up against any kind of a breeze...let alone a pack of happy dogs!

Mobi, your tally looks a little bit like mine! I love my dogs! I have a Golden Retriever and a Collie/Golden mix. Even though they get in plenty of trouble, I forgive them every time. This morning, after the fuchsia insident, I have to admit, I was thinkin': "It's puppy stew for you two!" HA! only for 1/1,000,000,000th of a second!

tracyra

One day all the dogs and all the cats were being trouble, I told them they were all going to the pound, but they didn't believe me. Kitty fajitas is what we always say, but the dogs are so much nicer than the cats and not as much trouble......

The wax is to seal the moisture inside so the plant can try to heal. It is like a bandaid to keep the "blood" in and the germs out. You can find grafting wax at many florist's shops. Yes, you will want to brace the plant so the broken part can't move. Maybe slide your bamboo right down the stem into the ground and gently tie the plant to it.
As for your pack of happy dogs, I recommend rebar stakes and hardware cloth from the hardware store. That is about the only thing that stops Newfies. At my house, we threaten to make rugs out of them!

I have 165-200 lb dogs (Wolfhounds) and after years of things like this I got serious about successfully combining gardening and dog keeping. I have a stack of low "border" fencing that I use around any new plantings until the dogs get the sense of where a new plant or bed is.

If you are consistent and work closely with each new dog/puppy this works really well- I have effectively trained all my dogs to walk/play on the grassed areas only and they all know that their feet are never to walk on mulch.

The barrier is not so much to physically keep them out of an area (they could easily step over it) but functions more as a visual barrier for training purposes. Like any other dog training endeavor consistency, supervision, and frequent reinforcements are key, but it truly can be done.

Hello, Cearbhaill!

I would love to train my dogs to stay off the mulch! I would love to train my dogs not to wrestle in the house, not to chase the cats, not to bark at every person that walks by my house, and not help me garden by digging up what I have planted! Last year, I planted some iris. My collie/mix would gently take the rhizomes out of the soil, and place them on the grass. I was so mad at her! This went on for days! I would plant the rhizomes, she would move them to the grass! I tried putting cayene pepper on the rhizomes, around the soil...! She just sneezed, curled her lips, and moved the rhizomes! HA! We finally got to where she was only moving one rhizome. I let her keep it out, and she finally stopped messing with the others! You gotta love 'em...

Sorry for the ramble...

You have made a very good point. I never thought about really training the dogs not to walk in the forbidden areas. I guess I always thought that they could easily get over any barrier I put up, so I didn't give it much thought. These dogs are very bright, and are eager to please, so with some serious training, I think I could make some progress. You sound like you know you dog training, and so I'd like a couple of pointers, if you don't mind.

First, my dogs are 2 years, and 4 years old. When I am outside with them, they are usually following me around, and not getting into trouble. It is when I'm not out with them that they turn into rambuncious muts and get into trouble. How would I work with them? I guess I'm not sure how to train them not to cross the barrier unless I set up a situation somehow...or would I focus my training on the barrier itself, rather than the garden beds...?

I'm really very interested in your opinion...

Thanks!

Well my Dane would have been trainable if he hadn't gotten a new little brother last summer! The other one is a very rambunctious pitbull/boxer mix. Sweetest dog on the planet, which is why he has not been turned into a rug, or stew, or fajitas!!! :) The problem is they get to chasing each other and playing real hard and they just can't stop themselves when they get to the edge of a flowerbed. So I installed one of those radio fences and it works great! It is so funny how they can be running full speed and get within inches of my beds before they peel out and turn around. Those dogs can turn on a dime! Who woulda thunk it? Funny thing is I have Willis' collar set on the highest setting for big dogs and Apollo's is set on the lowest setting. That setting is for dogs under 10 pounds and that's what I have it on for a Great Dane! He is very attentive and obedient. Always has been. But Mr. Willis is a wild man and gets Apollo riled up and off they go. They stomped many plants to death before the invisible fence went in. Willis has chewed an entire nandina bush down to a stick in under 20 minutes (but I didn't care) and he kept pulling one of my japanese maples out of the ground and carrying it around the yard like a big stick. Grrrr! Anyway, now I have garden areas they don't get into and a yard area where they can play. Win/win for all of us. Good luck!

Jamie

Hi, Jamie! Your dogs sound exactly like mine. They are so busy having fun that they tromp all over everything! I love the story about the maple...I can SOOOOOO relate!

I used an invisible fence for the older dog at my previous house. It worked really well! I used it as a fence to keep her in. Here, though, portions of the yard are narrow enough so that the beds on either side have a 3 foot path in between. I'm afraid the dogs would be zapped for just walking by...of course...this may keep them in one end of the yard...which may not be a bad idea...hmmmmmmm...I'm not sure...

thanks, Jamie!

ps: Do they still have the Black Eyed Pea restaurant in Big D? I used to live there in the 80's! Big D, that is, not the restaurant!!!

Oops! I almost forgot to tell Sylvi74: In response to your advise:

"The wax is to seal the moisture inside so the plant can try to heal. It is like a bandaid to keep the "blood" in and the germs out. You can find grafting wax at many florist's shops. Yes, you will want to brace the plant so the broken part can't move. Maybe slide your bamboo right down the stem into the ground and gently tie the plant to it."

I found grafting wax at a garden supply store that had a large specialty Bonsai section...am picking it up today and will let you know how it goes. Thank you very much...

Tracy

Yeah, Black Eyed Pea is a chain so they are all over the place! :)

I basically planted border beds around the perimeter of my yard. But we do have a pathway from the backdoor to the detached garage and I wanted them to be able to walk on it without getting zapped. As you walk down the path I have a bed to the left and the lawn to the right. So I just kept moving the wire further and further back into the bed until the warning beep didn't occur until their head actually went over the bed. That was the worst part to me- tweaking it! Because it warns them with a beep as they approach the boundary, then zaps them if they keep coming at it. So you can use the control box to expand or contract the amount of space/time between the warning and the zap. So I messed with that as well as the physical placement of the wire until I got it exactly where I wanted it. Now when they play in the yard, they use the sidewalk pathway as their visible boundry and they both turn right on the sidewalk. Which is great for two reasons- they don't get in the bed AND they do their little peel out move on concrete instead of the grass so I don't have big puppy paw print chunks out of my lawn... at least not on that side. Ha!

Good luck!
You know, I totally agree that dogs are very smart and very trainable, but I am very lazy! A friend's dog was trained not to walk on carpets. She knew she had the run of the tiled parts of the house and never entered the carpeted rooms. To keep her out of a space, all they had to do was put down a throw rug, she would make a detour around it. I wish I knew how they taught her that. With invisible fence, I would be afraid that a big dog would "fall" out of the yard and not be able to get back in. It's the kind of thing that happens in my life!