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Dogs and gardens: 10 tips to enjoy your dog and your garden too

For as long as I’ve been gardening, I’ve shared my love of the outdoors with unique dogs (“mutts” to most people). I certainly can’t imagine gardening without a dog keeping me company. Here are some tips to help you make this work for you, too.

Set the ground rules first

  • Be clear about how you want your dog to behave in the garden. Set ground rules for your dog early on. As with people, pet habits, once established, can be challenging to change.
  • Remember that bored dogs are more likely to get into trouble, so use walks and games to use up excess energy that could otherwise turn into destructive behavior in the yard. (Your dog burns calories this way, and so do you!)
  • Decide where your dog can go and where you don’t want him to go.
  • Be consistent. It doesn’t help if you let the dog do what he wants when the flower bed is overgrown with weeds, but then expect him to respect the garden when it’s all tidied up.

Dogs and gardens – training tips

Dogs like to be where people are, so when you’re out in the garden, take your dog with you at least part of the time, and when you’re not, keep him inside with you.

  • When you’re with your dog, you have many opportunities to encourage and train behavior you like and discourage acts that are destructive to the garden.
  • To keep dogs out of flower beds, use a verbal signal such as “out of the garden.” This works best if you are actually in the garden with your dog.
  • It can be expensive, but a fenced yard is a boon to dogs and gardens.
  • Some people use invisible fencing, a system that delivers an electronic shock through a receiver on a special dog collar. Real fences are more effective because they keep your dog in the yard and other animals out. Also, your dog can’t escape, ignoring the electric shock when he chases a squirrel, for example, and then gets an electric shock when he tries to get back into the yard.

Garden safety and your dog

When you have dogs or other pets that spend time in the garden, choose alternatives to chemical lawn and garden care.

  • If you use pest control products, even organic ones, keep pets out of the yard when you’re applying them.
  • Keep your dog away from treated areas for the recommended amount of time, usually until the treated area is dry or 24 hours.

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