I have a 15 week old Cocker Spaniel puppy who is a lovely little chap apart from the fact he wrecks my garden.  He flattens plants, chews them up and even pulls them out of pots!  If I tell him off he just sneaks back to do it as soon as im not looking in his direction.
Would anyone have any tips to help me?  He is driving my garden proud husband mad.

Welcome to the wonderful world of owning a Cocker :-) I'm afraid most Cocker puppies are like this so I always warn new owners that an immaculate garden and a Cocker puppy are not really compatible :-) Could you temporarily fence off a part of the garden for the puppy to use while he is at this stage or try putting protective barriers around particularly precious plants or instead of having plants in pots/tubs at ground level, use hanging baskets etc. The only consolation is that your puppy will mostly grow out of this eventually although our adult Cockers will still have a crafty nibble at certain plants now & again ;-)

Jane

Unfortunately puppies do this :) Ours dug huge holes, dug up the potatoes, tipped plants out of tubs, made dens in the shrubs etc etc :D By the next summer, she had stopped :) Is it possible to fence off a part of the garden until the winter until he has grown out of it ?

Daisy

Indeed they do! we have had to make a seperate area for our dogs with pea gravel and a fence and its easy to hose down and keep clean.  Its about 6m by 5m fence and gate, 3 tonne of gravel, two skips to get rid of the soil that  i dug it out and it cost about £600 the best money i have ever spent it has taken about 2 years to get the garden looking anywhere near decent! When i got my first dog i didnt think i needed a puppy crate how wrong was i the following damage was caused in an hour:-
tumble dryer door chewed and dust filter eaten
door frames chewed
walls biten into
the contents of the bin all over the floor!
The worst of it was i had left toys/chews for him but he obviously thought they where boring
How quick i learnt!
Good Luck

I agree the best thing to do is to separate with a fence and gate and allow them up the garden only with you present .I have always had my garden fenced off and my girls appreciate the garden more when its playtime and I open the gate !!
Of course they have a big area of thier own to play in but its concrete and much easier to clean and in the winter we dont have muddy feet all over the carpets!!
luckily we have a v.large garden so this isnt a problem and I can understand that its not possible for everyone to do.

It comes with the puppy I'm afraid - first the bigger car, then the caravan, then the house with a bigger garden so you can have a "theirs" and "ours" section!

Either fence off part of the garden that you don't mind him wrecking or fence in the flower beds, or just accept that you won't have a back garden for at least two years, and confine your husbands efforts to the front.

Just think if he wasn't wrecking the garden he woudl be wrecking the house, and gardens regrow :D :D

I'm so glad other cocker owners have this trouble and it isn't just mine!  I've never known anything like it.  I'm trying to establish my pond but each plant gets removed almost immediately, despite being weighed down with stones.  I've got a lovely Datura that the others have never worried with, but I am concerned that our 'pup' (now nearly 12 months) will eat it and I believe they are toxic.