Any hope to save my flower border from Newf smashing?

[Mr.King]

Hi all,

This is my first post (Tina not Steve "Mr." King).

I'm watching as my daylillies are coming up and remembering how our sweet Gracie absolutely smooshed them last year as a crazy pup. I wondering if there is any hope this year to keep my calmer, more mature, super sweet 17-month-old Gracie from doing it again.

The mulched flower border indulates the entire length of my large suburban backyard and I've spent years nurturing the daisies, black-eyed susans, hydrangeas and such. It's very cottage garden-ish, and would look terrible with fencing in front of it. (It's planted along a six-foot wooden fence.)

Has anyone had luck keeping their flowers in a Newf's play area? I've tried sprinking cayenne pepper throughout the border, and Gracie hasn't acknowledged it at all. I thought about planting a Knockout Rose carpet, but I couldn't bear it if she hurt herself on it. I'm hoping to jump on a proactive solution now, as I can see the hosta shoots poking up already.

Any ideas? Please don't save give up! Surely plants and Newfs can co-exist? If I try "leave it" training where the grass meets the mulch, will she have any clue of the distinction in materials?

 

[graybird]

I have totally been in your shoes...lovingly designed and newly planted big floofy perennial border...+ adolescent Newf. We put up one of those cheapie rolled-wood-slat 3-foot fences as a temporary measure until she got some sense, and it worked pretty well. Emphasis on "temporary", to soothe your injured aesthetic sense, as I know all too well how much that hurts. The other thing that's saved the landscaping is the dogs ONLY go out in the back yard on leash -- they get their zoomies out elsewhere, like at the park. I haven't followed my own advice this winter as it's been so wet, and now what looked like a little park is a muddy quagmire of pee spots.

 

[KodysGrandma]

I put up some rather cheap wire fencing- the curved stuff with lot of see through space that you just push into the ground and connect to another section to extend. Thunder is not a jumper so it is enough to keep him out of areas, the Lab is old with bad hips so she stays out too and for the other 2 that are out in that area it's as tall as they are so they stay out.

 

[Jeannie]

When we lived in town I did extensive landscaping in my back yard. Hundreds of dollars worth. Never again will I waste my money on flowers/landscaping where my dogs are. When we moved here I did not one thing to the back yard. All my landscaping, fountains and flowers are out front.

 

[Newfs Forever]

My experience is if they have access to yummy flowers, buds, etc., all bets are off.

You do whatever you have to do. Even though I have a raised bed in the back yard, I haven't planted in it for years, simply because they will munch on goodies.

JMVHO

 

[newfx's2]

I wish my only hope was to save a flower bed. I dare not even think of planting anything. I'm still not over Aurora going through our sunroom window, vinyl and screen.

 

[Abbey]

Hi Tina!
Remember Abbey? We TRIED to keep her out of the garden. It didn't work, Seeeeeee.....

She was quite proud of herself, DH....not so much!

Do you think she thought the baby plants needed to be kept warm? :goofy:

 

[Kay]

Abbey, your pictures made me laugh out loud! It is such a struggle to have nice plants with dogs. For the first three years of his life, our lab bit off every peony blossom we had and proudly pranced around with them. So now that he's grown out of that what do we do? We introduce Nicky, who already has shown a talent for "pruning" and "making mulch". Sigh ...

 

[Summer Skies]

My son and husband planted hundreds of tulip bulbs two years ago. I noticed they are getting trompled as they emerge. Quickly put up cheap wire fencing until we retrain Sky to "sidewalk" on her way out the door. No shortcuts through the flower beds. We too got a little lazy with the cold, wet winter and now we're paying.

 

[Clifford the big dog]

Good Luck!
The only flowers I can keep in the back yard are right next to the back wall of the house. Clifford likes to go out and just lay on top of the flowers. I have tried several kinds of fencing, metal, plastic, wood. If it's low he steps over it. If it is high he just walks or runs into it like a tank. I work all summer reseeding just to keep some grass growing. In my center garden I plant some low ground cover type plants that seem to survive being layed on better than others. Wish I could be more helpful. There must be some people that have better behaved Newfs.
Clifford does like the roses at the back of the house

 

[Mr.King]

Oh, Abbey and Clifford's photos made me laugh! At least I'm not alone!

Although I love daisies, I do love sweet goofy Gracie so much more.

 

[NessaM]

I've found that the more densely planted a bed is, the less the newfs seem to be inclined to mess with it. A solid miniature boxwood border helps, too - though they can step over it, of course, if the boxwood border is containing a heavily planted bed, they seem to see it as an inhospitable part of the landscape.

All bets are off in spring and winter however, when most of the plants in the bed are dormant and the soil is exposed - Pooka LOVES a good dirt wallow and will make himself one in a heartbeat. I've lost quite a few decent perennials that way. (sigh)

It might help if you plant a bunch of evergreen-ish sorts of bushes - boxwoods, sweet box, etc - with the more fragile plants in between and around them. If there isn't ROOM for a newf to make a wallow, it helps. My sarcococca is blooming now, and it is HEAVENLY!

 

[AngusMcDubhsMom]

I'm going with chicken wire this year....not because of Newfs but because of chickens. The totally decimated my flower bed...even the daylilies are GONE~Vanished!!!

 

[NessaM]

Spend a bunch of time outside with your newf, and see what she does. She where she goes, and why. If she sets paw in the garden bed, be ready to verbally correct her, and then steer her to places where she is allowed to be. If she wants a place to dig, to make herself a cool damp place to lie down, then try and provide your newf with acceptable areas to make wallows in - find a spot predominantly in the shade, preferably against a wall, and make a bed with just dirt in. Then train your newf that THAT area is okay, and the others aren't. If I give Pooka a bone or bully or something to enjoy outside, he receives it in his wallow area, and no where else. He doesn't get it until he's politely lying down in his wallow area, either.

If she's just all about the sniffing, and walking around, verbally correcting her will help. So will extra exercise or a brain puzzle. It might help to set up a fence as a visual aid for her, at least temporarily. With my two, all I have to do is say "eh eh! Out of the garden!" and they book it back to the flagstones. I do let them lie down or do their business in the pachysandra, but that's it!

 

[wrknnwf]

Newf smashing...sounds like a new sport, at which my dogs would excel.

 

[sendchocolate]

I have very little flowers, just some Birds of Paradise in the front, protected with a low metal bed border. Poppy doesn't mess with them at all. Guess I got lucky.

 

[Annetteb]

I work hard on my gardens so they are off limits to the dogs.:nono:

In my last house we had the invisable fence so that made it easy. Because of the IF Sami learned that she shouldn't go in the gardens. I got Kona after moving and have worked on boundry training around the yard. Any time she sets a foot in the garden she is corrected. Eventually she learned where she shouldn't go and for the most part stays out. The problems end up being when the dogs are playing and they don't pay attention where they are going and run over and through... by the time they are back out it's too late to scold them.
Kona doesn't even have to go in the garden to eat the blueberries off the bushes in the summer.... not sure how I fix that one without a fence..

 

[sara722003]

After spending several miserable years with our first Berner in our back yard (a gardeners delight.....and tons and tons of work.......totally trashed). We got smart. We isolated dog areas into small penned areas where we would take them if they wanted to spend time outdoors. Other trips in and out consisted of us holding them on a leash in our huge front yard. Real FUN during the winter and thunderstorms, I promise you.

But here's the bright side: our dogs have learned to 'do their business' on command...very handy when traveling. And we spend at least 45 minutes every day in the off leash park for them to run free and chase stuff.... and we have glorious flowers and actual pristine acreage around our property. Takes a ton of personal time to 'deal with the dogs separately', but for gardeners, it's worth every precious moment.

JMHO.

 

[heather pluciennik]

Morgans been playing in my flower garden too this winter. I hope some things come up since she's achieved to plow through and tear most of the vines? She's only 1 so it was easy to keep her out last year. We were looking into different fences that we could step over and teach her to stay out. Don't know if she'll like it but oh well.

 

[CMDRTED]

I figure if I put in the Pool this year they will be too busy swimmin, to get into the flowers - LOL. Seriously, we put in some nice 3 foot high metal ornamental fencing. It's looks like a professionally installed fence, they have gates you can install. Nice looking when done. So far it has worked, it's been in-place for about two years. And we are putting in a pool and was thinking about putting a flower bed around it to give it a pleasing appearance.