How much do you allow?! We have done the bestvwe can with puppy proofing our garden. All flower beds are fenced off, fences around our stone areas, cut down a much loved yew tree and hoovered the lawn for stray needles. Cut down as much as possible our climbing ivy but it's rather impossible so it is fenced off as well. We have an amazing cherry tree that is gorgeous in full blossom now but after he ate an entire flower the other day (and puked in the middle of the night, had diarrhea 24h later) we are debating chopping it down as well. That makes me cry! It provides some of the only shade we have in the sweltering summer. We have a cedar hedge separatingbus from the neighbour On the neighbour's side there is a fence so he can't get through. But our puppy spends his day inside the hedge eating it. He digs holes in the soil and eats mouthfuls. Swapping for treats doesn't work. He just takes his treat and goes back for more. If I stand next to him and try to gently encourage him away he bites me. I try to throw a ball or toy and engage him in a game but he knows what I am doing and only sometimes will leave the hedge or dirt but goes right back to it. Do we just allow him? There is the safety aspect - how much soil and grass and hedge can a puppy eat?! And also we worked hard on a beautiful garden and dont want our hedges eaten. If we allow it now it now will he eat hedges for the next 10 years?
Xena, at least, grew out of those behaviours, although she still chews on sticks like she's a beaver. She didn't have free range access to our garden until she was maybe 6 months old, just a small fenced patio area, but there was plenty of mischief to get into even in that small space. Sorry, that's not really advice, just some room for hope!
He needs free range in the sense that we dont have a separate patio area but we do try to walk around with him. it doesnt stop anything though. He just snaps and bites at us if we try to gently steer him away.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the plant eating, as long as there’s nothing obviously poisonous available, and I definitely wouldn’t cut down your cherry tree (I think later in the season you’ll just need to pick up any fallen cherries as I believe the kernels can be dangerous). You mentioned trying to engage with your puppy by throwing a ball but you might find he’s more interested if you tie a soft toy to a thin rope or bungy cord and drag it along the ground for him to pounce on. Molly munched quite a lot of my garden but she grew out of it and the plants recovered.
with the cherry tree, the petals from the blossoms are poisonus, so are the leaves. So all the blossoms will drop for a month and then in autumn the leaves will fall for two to three months. we do our best to clean them without a dog and struggle to keep up but with the extra wirk of a dog I am not sure how we will manage. Right now I am barely able to keep my family fed and in clean clothes because ofvthecwork with this puppy let alone clean up the blossoms from the cherry tree! Two years ago we had a fruit fly infestation and had to throw out all of our cherries. My husband and I climbed and picked for 3 days and i paid the neighbourhood kids to collect them from the ground for us. I counted one bucket worth and then they tallied their own buckets, and I paid half a penny per cherry LOL. So I know there are somewhere in the range of 5,000 cherries on that tree! I'm dreading doing that with a puppy. They fall constantly, we try to get them every morning and evening but the birds knock them off or drop them through the day and it's just not possible. I fear if we allow him to eat grass and hedges it encourages or allows eating anything he finds on the ground?
I made the schoolboy mistake of letting our new pup have free range of the garden for the first few days. He, seemingly by instinct, very quickly figured out all the 'naughty' things to do; eating gravel, doing a Steve McQueen under that one bit of fence where there's a tiny gap, finding the muddiest bit and digging for China etc I bought an enclosure after the fact but Pandora's Box had been opened and he wasn't having that at all. My solution thus far is to furnish myself with some cooked chicken and entice him to walk beside me, drop a bit then run a few yards, drop another but, run in a different direction, walk to heel (sort of) using the treat as a lure, practice a sit, no hand mugging repeat repeat and it seems to have calmed down his wanderlust a bit...still plucking stones from his gob though Bonus pic of evidence: https://www.instagram.com/p/BhzwGyxhQM2/
Could you fence off an area that is just for him? Give him some toys to chew on or a stuffed kong when he is in there and do some training games with him. This might keep him stimulated enough to keep his mind off other things.
I have a fence so that, when I can’t supervise, the dogs don’t go in the garden. Keir is a terror for eating sticks, leaves, you name it.
I am an avid gardener and I feel it's ok to get rid of the cherry tree. To me it's not worth the worry or the work to keep puppy away and or safe. However if you really love it, you could fence the cherry tree in. See if puppy grows out of his chewing and eating stage?
Just another thought about the tree.... Have you tried tarping the ground around tree then two of you could pick up tarp and funnel into a bucket. Easier pickup?
Hi @Kobe, can I ask how old your pup is just now? My 11 wk old has the same issue with eating everything. In the garden I wasn't overly concerned as it was just twigs and leaves in there but now we're out walking the mean streets I'm a lot more concerned as I just don't know what he might find! I'd love to know from some of the owners of older labs if this is something that they just grow out of or if it has to be actively trained out of them? I'm actually finding taking him walks to be a chore rather than a joy because of it and clearly he is too because whenever I bring out his lead and harness he goes straight into his crate
I've always found this to be the case, that most puppies eventually find that twigs, stones etc are not really edible and just lose interest as they grow up. I do think though that it's a tricky area, finding the balance between preventing them eating something that may harm them and increasing the desirability of whatever it is by trying to take it from them. When Cassie was little she wasn't too bad but she did want to eat cigarette butts, horse poo and apples. She was discouraged from all three -- she no longer has any interest in cigarette stubs, or horse poo which easily could eat as there is plenty around . But apples ! She's almost addicted, and other sorts of poo which we won't go into He's still really teeny tiny ! Is it possible to take him somewhere he can be off lead and run around and explore? I loved doing that with Cassie when she was tiny. Hopefully @Boogie will be along with some advice
I'd love to do that, there are some really nice hills close to where I live which I feel confident wouldn't have any horrible things for him to pick up, but I worry that given his age it would be too much on his joints
At 11 weeks he's unlikely to go far from you, it's the ideal time to encourage early recall games. He only needs to explore his world, and being off lead is better for their growing joints and ligaments than the repetitive action of lead walking Apologies OP, for going off the original topic.
I’m having s I’m having a similar issue at just under 5 months - the mulch. Initially I purchased and ultimately returned some of that push in fencing. I couldn’t tolerate how it looks. At the suggestion of a friend I squirt Ashima with a water bottle when she goes after the mulch and have left some large, more appropriate sticks in the yard. And some other toys. I know some people are anti stick but because we have this issue she’s never alone outside so I’m constantly supervising. Sitting outside in the garden is not the worse way I could spend the spring. It seems to be working and when she does get a hold of the mulch I can more easily get it away from her.
Some types of mulch can be poisonous to animals. I would check which type you have. sticks can give pups and dogs upset stomachs as well do serious damage to soft tissue so I don't let any of my dogs have them. I have a small dog area which I can keep clear for my pups I let them play under supervision. When they are older they can go into the main garden still supervised until they can be trusted. Using a method like squirting water at a pup will lead to trust issues and fear for the pup I would avoid such methods as they are counter productive and unkind. Distracting and encouraging the pup from things you don't want them to chew have always worked for me.
Yes i . Yes I did double check. I see your point about squirting. In my case the water is fun so it’s no generated those issues.
My mulch warning. My Max (RIP, sweet boy), a then 12 yr old golden retriever, died because he ate a piece of mulch. It was not poisonous, it had been in my yard for years. For some unknown reason, he decided to swallow a piece, and had to have surgery as it caused a blockage. He died two days later. There will never be another piece of mulch in my yard again.
I am so sorry for your loss and I agree. Luckily this year would have been the year I added and I will not. I’m going to let this deteriorate and be done with it. And she won’t be alone in the garden for quite some time.
