Having dogs around your home is sometimes a really wonderful experience, enjoying our fun times spend with man’s best friend, but when it comes to gardening dogs can be a real nightmare if you don’t train them to respect the fruits of your labor. The following tips will explain how you can do that safely and without making things too hard on yourself:
• Start training them young
The earlier you train your pups to respect your garden, the better. Older dogs may be trained, but puppies are the best time to deal with this as they will be more pliant to said training. You will need to drill them to understand which part of your garden happens to be a big no-no and which ones they can run around. At six weeks old most puppies can handle basic commands and are smart enough to understand.
• Never leave your dog alone in the garden
Sure you may trust them when you see them, but dogs are also quite inquisitive and curious creatures, so they may want to check out the forbidden areas when your back is turned. If you leave them alone for extended periods of time they will find ways they can amuse themselves, so make sure that happens rarely or never.
• Teaching them obedience
There are some basic commands each dog needs to learn if you want them to stay in domestic conditions without making a mess of things. Down, stay, sit and of course the universal *NO* are a big must, no matter how cute your puppies may look now, they may soon grow to become really big dogs that trample your carefully planted work. Take your time to teach them to obey basic commands and you will have an easier time overall.
• Latch your gate
If you want to make sure your dog never gets out of the yard, you should make sure you have a strong garden gate with a good latch. This will keep them from becoming too overenthusiastic with deliverymen and strangers outside. Make sure they have an ID tag as well so even if they make it outside and run away people would know where they come from.
• Put up a strong fence
If you want to ensure you have a good way of keeping your dogs out of your garden, you can always separate it into areas and keep those isolated with a good, strong fence they can’t jump over. Even setting up a simple barrier and drilling it into their head that they can’t cross it will be an effective solution.
• Use a kennel
A kennel will allow your dog to stay safe during the day without making a mess outside while you work on your garden. Kennels are usually made of chain link, but you can use other materials for greater effect and aesthetics. Gardening outside while your dog stays free, but within reasonable limits will allow you to do your job without worrying about their interference.
