Nothing brings a tear to your eye quicker than seeing your freshly planted garden trampled, or your neatly mowed lawns sporting fresh new holes. While your garden and lawns may have been your pride and joy, your dog evidently wasn’t happy with them and felt they needed some minor alterations.

If you’re inclined to disagree, it’s time to take action. While a stern word and a sit-down chat aren’t going to stop that troublesome behaviour, some of these tips below might.

Supervise Their Yard Visits

Rather than leave your furry friend to their own devices in your backyard, why not take the time to go with them? The less time they spend on their own, the less likely they are to resort to destructive behaviour that requires a significant clean-up job. While dogs love being outside, they do have relatively short attention spans. Therefore, that fluffy tennis ball begins to look far less appealing than your gorgeous flower bed that’s lacking a bit of trampling courtesy of Rover.

Take the time to play tug of war, throw a frisbee, play a game of fetch, anything that both stimulates your dog and stops it from adding new and unappreciated focal points in your yard.

Utilise Fencing

To protect your prized peonies from your destructive dog, it might be worth investing in fencing that acts as a deterrent. While the fencing doesn’t have to be six feet high, serving as a barricade, it can be a way in which to show your dog their intrusion into this area is not appreciated. Whether you had a gardener complete the work or you did it yourself, any method of protection is going to save you both money and time in the long run.

Distract Them

Dogs require constant distraction, and you’ll soon learn what happens when you don’t. That’s when holes are dug in your freshly seeded lawns, and when garden beds become flattened. While you can hire experts to fix the problem, isn’t it best to avoid it in the first place?  To distract a dog from causing havoc in your yard, be sure to exercise them every day.

In most cases, a brisk stroll around the block won’t do. Trips to the dog park, ball games, and beach adventures are all valid ways in which to tucker out your pup and stop that destructive behaviour. After all, it’s not a naughty dog that sets out to trample the tulips; it’s a bored one.

Try Home Remedies

If emotions are running high because your previously immaculate lawn is looking like a battlefield, it’s time to try absolutely everything. If exercise, distraction, and fencing are not enough to stop your pup, then maybe home remedies are. Dogs are not fond of the smell of white vinegar. Therefore, you can use this dislike to your advantage. In your dog’s “hot zones” – the areas in which they tend to flex their destructive muscles, spray the area with vinegar.

Alternatively, cayenne pepper is equally as beneficial if your pup tends to dig in the same spots over and over again. A smattering of cayenne pepper from your spice rack can often be enough to have them opting for “tamer” hobbies such as chew toys.

Create Their Own Space

While there’s no denying that man’s best friend loves to roll around in the grass and enjoy the fresh air, they might not have enough stimulation in that space to keep them entertained for hours on end. So, instead, they make their own fun at the expensive of your beautiful gardens and lawns. 

If you find that stress, anxiety, or separation is not the cause of your dog’s destructive behaviour, but boredom is, then creating their own area in the backyard can help to at least partly solve the problem. Offer plenty of toys to play with and chew, or even tunnels to run through if they’re agile and active pups.

To create a space just for them, you may like to take it one step further and attach them to a proximity lead. This lead system is a stake installed in the ground with a wire that’s available in various lengths. While your dog can still run around and enjoy themselves, they may be just that little bit too restricted to gain access to your gardens. Just remember that dogs are social creatures and alone time should be kept to a minimum.

Your dog doesn’t set out to be naughty, even if it seems that way. However, even being compassionate to your dog’s anxiety, stress, or boredom doesn’t fix your now trampled lettuces. If you’re getting ready to contact the experts to recreate your garden or mow your lawns, then there’s no time like the present to begin altering that destructive behaviour.

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