I have about 100 potted plants in my garden and two 9 month old French Bulldogs. I have removed any toxic plants - well I think I have anyway - but the dogs are just chomping their way through all my lovely shrubs, rose bushes etc. I keep finding whole branches chewed through and just strewn around the garden! What can I do???

Don't leave the dogs in the garden unattended.

They are puppies, and even worse, there are two of them the same age (never a good idea I'm afraid) -it's what they DO. Chew and play. Either remove the plants or add a fence in front of them so the dogs can't get to them. Most of us have even got rid of grass as it just doesn't work when you have more than one dog. :)

Unfortunately they run in and out of the garden via the large cat flap constantly so unless I lived in the garden it would be impossible to be with them all the time. I've already had the garden completely paved,to stop the grass getting ruined, hence the pots, so unless anyone can come up with any brilliant ideas it looks like something I'll just have to live with then!

If everything is potted and standing on paving can you not put the pots UP on a couple of bricks/block to get the plants out of reach till the pups 'grow out of this stage'?

We put about 10 big pots up onto breeze blocks because one of the dogs kept peeing IN the pot, the other peed against it and I could regularly water/hose the outside with 'yardfresh' stuff

Hanging baskets :)

I have the same problem and paved an area with the hope of putting pots down. The terrible two are now almost 16 months old and still pull up, chew, dig etc. so I still can't put pots down. At least yours are small dogs, my Golden Retrievers can reach practically anything.

Know that feeling Pedlee, my golden is particularly fond of anything growing in the pots. Anything precious has been put out of reach, the rest are bare.

> If everything is potted and standing on paving can you not put the pots UP on a couple of bricks/block to get the plants out of reach till the pups 'grow out of this stage'?

And when exactly will that be? my 9 year old will chomp or dig up any potted plant I try to have in the back garden :)

> Unfortunately they run in and out of the garden via the large cat flap constantly

If that's your preferred option then I'm afraid that you have to live with the consequences.  If you want to TRAIN them to leave your plants alone then you have to be with them ALL the time.

There are lots of good training solutions to redirect their attention but it's much harder with two pups so I'd suggest you train them separately and take them outside one at a time. I wouldn't allow them unsupervised access to the garden particularly if they are still at the eat everything stage as even non toxic plants aren't going to be good for them    ...but if I'm honest I wouldn't have two pups at once or to use a cat flap either.  Although I appreciate that's probably not what you want to hear!

Do they go to training classes - have you taught them the 'leave' command?  That one is a godsend, as is 'swap' :)

I have quite a few of these in my patio area and build them high so pups cannot get in there.

http://www.primrose.co.uk/-p-9634.html?adtype=pla&kwd=&gclid=CI3Wj-jqg74CFUTMtAodUhMAVQ

The rest of the garden I section off so that dogs prior to training cannot reach anything I don't wish them too, you cannot always have eyes in the back of your head especially if you have two on the go......so it is best to contain them in areas that are safe and cannot be damaged.

But, I agree with dogs a babe in that I am constantly play training my pups and they are always being watched, if the whole garden is to be their playground to come and go as they please without continual observation you will have to think about removing plants or doing one of the above suggestions. :-)

Lovely planters but quite costly. How about a lock on the cat flap when you can't supervise.

Hi, thanks for all your help and suggestions. The suggestion to lock the cat flap unfortunately can't work as I also have a 3rd elderly dog and four cats, so the traffic is pretty non-stop!!

The rest of your suggestions will all be taken onboard and I really appreciate your help.

Thank You.

We have the same problem with a 12 month old bullmastiff, in the end we dug up all the plants popped them in pots and put up little picket fences to keep him out :) bless his plant chomping cottons :) I did think of a raised boarder for about 10 seconds then realised how tall it would have had to been.

>I did think of a raised boarder for about 10 seconds then realised how tall it would have had to been.

:-)  :-)
I have a couple of planters very similar to those that Carrington has.  My Collies don't touch them.  My smallest Yorkshire Terrier does a running jump and only goes up there to have a poo.  I just assumed that the toys wouldn't be able to jump that high.

>Unfortunately they run in and out of the garden via the large cat flap constantly

Would you be able to 'pen off' that section of the garden (around the cat flap)? That way they could all still run into the garden, but you have some control over the area they have access to. There are many variants of 'pen panels' on the market. Just google it :)

I've already raised up pots onto a wall but Frenchies are brilliant jumpers and they just hopped up- no problem! Same with picket fencing around my rockery - straight over and squashed all the little rockery plants.
Think the idea of penning the area outside catflap is good, but they have such fun tearing around the garden after each other at 100 miles an hour, I would hate to spoil their fun.

But it might be the only answer...

I have the same problem here,  spent all weekend potting  plants,    got the garden looking lovely and all pots placed where they should go.......... came outside about an hr later and my 11 mth old pup  had decided they were not in the right place, he rearranged them all over the lawn................why did I bother !!

I have just bought 0.9 m high Border fencing off amazon.My 10 month Buhund pup is obsessed with moles and digs endlessly. So far it has kept him off a long border. It needs some support with bamboo canes.
Louise

Don't leave the dogs in the garden unattended.

This answer does it for me too - my Basset when a puppy demolished the raspberry bushes which as he didn't suffer (like they did) presumably meant they weren't poisonous!!!     I just had to keep bringing him in and running a few panels of our old ex-pen around the bushes.

"Hanging baskets :-)"    LOL   Now there's a plan!!

Hanging baskets were the answer for me......until someone chewed through the watering system pipe work.

Just tagging on the end here.  With my last house I only had a 40ft garden, and it was my pride and joy.  This is years ago, and I only had Toy Poodles.  I religiously deadheaded and there were lots of lovely flowers.  Until I adopted a terrier cross.  She only watched me remove the dead heads once.  Next time I went into the garden she had dead headed the bloody lot!  Only they weren't the dead ones she'd removed.  I could have cried.  I just stopped being so pernickety about my garden.  Did I want dogs?  Yes, very much so, problem over.

When I moved here with lots of space for my beloved Collies it was exactly what I needed.  I haven't got rid of the grass.  I just get used to the permanent rut in the mud where the dogs race out in the morning.  I have clay soil, and it's like a bog when it rains.  At the moment, due to loads of rain, the grass is looking lush, and I can cope with the bare bits.  I do have some waist high planters, but in the 20 years I've been here I have added loads of tall shrubs to compliment the trees that were already here.  The house was built in 1931 so the trees are very mature.  It's now a dogs heaven as they have loads of places to hide and jump out on each other. 

I am no longer the gardening fanatic.  :-)

I was doing very well with container gardening at one time, and especially pleased with my scarlet runners. Then a puppy arrived, and all I had left was has-beans.

:-)

I've already raised up pots onto a wall but Frenchies are brilliant jumpers and they just hopped up- no problem!

I wouldnt risk anything like that, if the dog(s) knocked one off it could kill a dog - there are many things in normal everyday life which can cause serious injury if risked for the sake of convenience.....such as...

Little Nimo
http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/board/topic/67666.html
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