Waging war with my dog

Meet Kaiser...

Isnt he cute!? Ah, if only they stayed that way! Haha! We got Kaiser last year. He's just over a year old now. They grow so fast!

April 2017

July 2017 (yes...same dog!!)

So now, we have ourselves a delightful teenage dog one year later! Haha!

Kaiser presently

For the most part, he's an amazing dog! He has his quirks... like tail-chasing (obsessively) and being an overly hormonal teenage dog... but otherwise he's a big suck, and LOVES to play and be loved by anyone who'll give him the time of day! :) And we really lucked out in that he's not generally a digger!


However, I'm noticing a repeating problem from last spring with him... And it's probably just the same spring enthusiasm I have... but the first signs of life in the garden... seem to be either dug up, or CHEWED up by this guy! (Can I blame him!? I'm excited too!)

I was hoping maybe it was just a puppy thing he did last year, but we were gone for 3 days this past week, and when I came home, I saw that Kaiser had decided to do a little "gardening" of his own... In my flower bed (yes... I have a grass issue lol!) I have noticed that he disapproved in my choices of tulip bulbs!! Yes, he's been digging them out! He must be able to sense when they are waking up and coming to life, cause it's not every bulb... But he's been digging up my tulip bulbs!!

What's a person to do? If you don't have a dog outside of Winnipeg, then you're guaranteed to have all sorts of other pests in your gardens like deer, squirrels, coyotes etc... So my logic is I'd rather train one domesticated animal, than wage war on all wildlife in the area!  Last year I trained him too late. I didn't get to enjoy my tulips or other spring bulbs. He just ate them all. So this year, I'm gonna establish my turf earlier on.

 My first line of defense, is a spice! This is from the ethnic aisle of superstore. And though it says "hot chili powder" it's actually just a giant bag of cayenne pepper for dirt-cheap! :) This tip was given to me by the dog trainer we worked with in Kaiser's obedience classes! The dog's sensitive smelling really dislike the spicy burn of cayenne pepper. She recommended sprinkling this all around the garden. I did it last year and it definitely helped! We also used this trick when we were planting new grass. We sprinkled cayenne on the burlap that covered our grass seed, and on the mud we used to fill in holes around the yard. This worked well (granted, he's not generally a "digger").

 So armed with my cayenne pepper, I set to work!  I'll give you a pointer (to learn from my mistake). wear sunglasses or some kind of eye protection! And also potentially a little drywall mask if you have one. My eyes and nose were burning when I did this yesterday! Now granted, yesterday was also quite windy... Never-the-less, this stuff burns! So use caution, stand up wind, etc...

I started off by putting a little in my hand and letting Kaiser sniff it. I then used our command "Leave it!" to teach him that  (not only is it nasty stuff) I have instructed him to leave it alone!

It was pretty cute. He snorted it out of his nose and defintely didn't like it! So I proceeded to use the entire bag in my two flower beds, my 4 flower barrels, and at the 3 openings to my veggie garden patch. It's a strong enough smell, and the weather is dry enough that I'm hoping he'll figure out the boundaries in this one!

But just to be sure, I did 2 other things.

After I was done my "cerimonial sprinkling", I squatted down in my garden and caught Kaiser's interest. I then (very confidently) let him know when he was crossing the line of "my territory" (aka: the garden) with a smack on the foot, a little growly "eh!" etc... Kaiser is quite submisive, so it didn't take more than a couple attempts for him to follow me in, before he layed down and submitted. "okay lady, you can have this spot!" ;)

And lastly, I invested 20 dollars in some dollar store fencing! Once the plants are in full swing, I'll take it down and won't need it. But for now, it gives a more prominent barrier or beginning line to "my territory". An in-ground garden is simply part of the lawn at this point in the year, and I can't expect our dog to know differently when he's been able to walk on the snow all winter long! :)

That's it for now! :) There are commercial products you can buy called "critter ridder" and such... I bought some last year and I may again if this doesn't work. But from my quick google search, hot pepper powders, mustard powder, coffee grinds mixed with bitter orange oil etc... bad smells to the dog are a pretty accurate line of defense! :)

I'll let you know how it goes!