DOG FRIENDLY GARDENS: GARDEN FRIENDLY DOGS

By Cheryl Smith

People love their dogs. They also love their gardens. But sometimes these two passions seem to be in conflict. Dog Friendly Gardens will show you how to design your garden with your dog in mind and be your guide to dog-friendly training efforts. Every part of this book shows you how garden design and gardening tasks can blend harmoniously with dog ownership. Just like a dog can be trained to respect your indoor living space, she can also be trained to respect the garden and its many features. Garden design, pet-safe products and dog friendly training.

What reviewers are saying...

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
“This terrific little book is packed with ideas and suggestions on how to design garden spaces for any yard, big or small, that will please both the resident dogs and people. It will please anybody who loves both plants and pets, and would make a fabulous holiday gift for dog owners whose darlings are not yet garden friendly”. Ann Lovejoy, author of Gardening books and columnist

CORNELL PLANTATIONS MAGAZINE
“If you have a dog in your garden, this book would be a great addition to your reference library. If not it still offers a useful opportunity to see and analyze your outdoor space from a new, four-legged perspective.” Mary Hirshfeld

DOG FANCY
“A thoughtful foray into the twin perfection of home -- woofers and flowers. Whether you want a low maintenance yard or a formal garden, consider her successes and failures before you unleash the hounds”. Terry Winkelman,

THE OREGONIAN
“Dog Friendly Gardens is written by a dog trainer who is also a master gardener. It’s full of practical, useable suggestions for designing a dog-safe yard and protecting plants from pooches.” Deborah Wood, dog book author and columnist

“This book not only offers down-to-earth, dog-friendly (and garden-friendly!) advice, it contains lovely photos that inspire readers of every persuasion. Suggestions on garden design, plant choice, and easy maintenance planning helps readers get the most enjoyment out of both their gardens and their dogs. The book also offers great tips on teaching your dog acceptable garden etiquette--welcome advice from an author who is also a dog trainer. I give it five green-thumbs UP!“ Amy D. Shojai, author, Complete Care for Your Aging Dog

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dogwise Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2004
• ISBN: 9781929242863

Book preview

DOG FRIENDLY GARDENS

Garden Friendly Dogs

Cheryl S. Smith

Dogwise Publishing

Wenatchee, Washington, U.S.A.

www.dogwisepublishing.com

DOG FRIENDLY GARDENS, GARDEN FRIENDLY DOGS

Cheryl S. Smith

Dogwise Publishing

A Division of Direct Book Service, Inc.

PO Box 2778 • 701B Poplar

Wenatchee, WA. 98807

1-509-663-9115, 1-800-776-2665

Website: www.dogwisepublishing.com

Email: [e-mail]

Illustrations: Judith L. Winthrop

Cover Design: Anderson O’Bryan, Wenatchee, WA

© 2004 Cheryl S. Smith

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

Photographs:

All-America Selections, 1, 2, 3, 4

Arch Wood Protection, pages 1, 2

Bernd Guenter, cover and pages, 1, 2, 3, 4

Better Lawn and Turf Institute, pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Danielle Young, pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

Donn Dobkin, pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Easy Gardener, Inc., pages 1, 2

Garden Media Group, pages 1, 2

Isser & Associates, page 1

Jerry Vavra, page 1

All other photos by the Author

Limits of Liability and Disclaimer of Warranty:

The author and publisher shall not be liable in the event of incidental or consequential damages in connection with, or arising out of, the furnishing, performance, or use of the instructions and suggestions contained in this book.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 1-929242-07-7

Printed in U.S.A.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Author Note and Biographical Information

Chapter 1. Keeping a Dog and a Garden

Chapter 2. Inviting Dogs In

Chapter 3. Planning and Planting

Chapter 4. Hardscapes, Ponds and Odds and Ends

Chapter 5. Lawns

Chapter 6. Vegetable Gardens and Fruit Orchards

Chapter 7. Compost and Mulches

Chapter 8. Avoiding Pests and Poisonings

Chapter 9. Good Garden Behavior

Climate Zone Map

Resources

Acknowledgments

While I am an avid gardener and devotee of heathers, rhododendrons, and bonsai, my own knowledge is admittedly weighted toward the dog side of the equation. So I solicited advice from plant specialists Laurie Fox (Horticulture Assistant at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), Kathy Burkholder (Program Coordinator, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at Ohio State University), Susan Cruver (Tsunami Landscape Design), Katy Fraser (Virginia Horticulturalist), Josh Schneider (Proven Winners representative), Miek Stap (Project Manager, International Flower Bulb Centre), Ed Markham (Ornamental Horticulturalists), the American Nursery Landscape Association, and the Better Lawn and Turf Institute.

While they are all quoted directly from time to time, they also provided a solid grounding in the topics that should be featured in the book, and I appreciate their generous sharing of information.

I also thank Donn Dobkin, Bernd Guenter, Danielle Young, All-America Selections, Better Lawn and Turf Institute, Easy Gardener, Inc., Isser & Associates, Arch Wood Protection, and the Garden Media Group for the use of their photographs.

I hope that when you have read this book, you have a newfound enthusiasm for both your gardens and your dog. Enjoy.

Dedication

To Sundance, who never bothered a garden plant; Spirit, who insisted on eating wisteria beans despite being told repeatedly they weren’t good for her; Serling, who teased me that he was going to crush my favorite plants but never did; and Nestle, who uses the paths when he can, but just has to run through the lavender—the gardens always look better with you in them.

Author’s Note

My mother is a gardener. My early memories include squeezing the snapdragons to open their mouths and make them roar, and taking bunches of lilacs to my grade-school teachers (no apples for this kid). I liked the flowers well enough, but I wanted a dog (and a horse), and I wasn’t allowed to have one. When I went out on my own, my first purchase after a place to live was a dog, a wonderful Keeshond I named Sundance. I got my horse, too. So I had my animals, but there were no gardens and no one with the time and energy to make them.

I moved cross-country, and acquired a second dog, a Springer mix named Spirit. We lived in a rented house, and part of the deal was that I would landscape the property in exchange for keeping the rent low. So I combined dogs and gardens for the first time. There were no books on the subject, and I was pretty much making it up as I went along.

The next house was mine, and it too needed landscaping. In the midst of planting, I lost my Keeshond and found a Newfoundland mix I named Serling. Serling and Spirit played with much greater abandon than Sundance and Spirit had, and they soon ripped up much of the back yard. There was still no book about dogs and gardens, so I tried ideas and found some that worked. I also started a lifelong training program with the dogs.

Both dogs moved to Washington with me. The only existing garden here was the foundation planting in front of the house. But when I started this time, I already knew a lot of things that didn’t work and a lot of others that did. We soon had an improved front garden, a secret garden, a shade garden, and a bulb and roses garden.

During all of this, I had managed to fulfill my other lifelong ambition to make my living as a writer, starting with some travel and humor writing, but moving quickly to a specialty in dogs. After writing a few books, I realized I had the opportunity to write the book that had never been there when I needed it, the one on having both dogs and gardens. And so, after seeking the expertise of gardening professionals to be sure I had it all right and hadn’t overlooked anything, here is the result of all those years of trial and error learning. I hope it saves you from the errors, minimizes the trials, and maximizes your enjoyment of your dog and your landscape choices.

Cheryl S. Smith

Port Angeles, Washington

Biographical Information

Cheryl S. Smith has won the Maxwell medallion from the Dog Writers Association of America and the canine award in health writing from Eukanuba. She hosts her own radio show, PetSmith, and her website at www.writedog.com. In addition to Dog Writers, she is a member of the Garden Writers Association, the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Pet Dog Trainers. Her books include The Trick Is in the Training (with Stephanie Taunton); The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Showing Your Dog, Quick Click’s (with Mandy Book); and The Rosetta Bone. When Cheryl isn’t busy working in the garden or training the dogs, she tends her chickens, sheep, and bonsai, spins or felts some of the wool from those sheep, investigates new dog-friendly places, and competes in agility.

1 KEEPING A DOG AND A GARDEN

P

eople and dogs and outdoor environments seem to go together naturally. Being outside with your four-footed friend for company can be pure bliss, whether you are a dog-loving gardener or a garden-loving dog person. I don’t know of any statistics showing how many families include both a dog and some sort of garden, but the number must be enormous. With gardening given as the most popular outdoor leisure activity of American families, and dogs as the number one pet (in number of households including a dog), there have to be millions of households that combine the two. That combination should be a joy to all.

Yet what you hear most about are the problems—yellow spots in the lawn, digging in the flower beds, running willy-nilly through the borders, chewing on branches. But stop and think a minute—the dog doesn’t know these are problems. It’s all just the great outdoors, part of his turf, to him. We humans are the ones demanding everyone walk here, not there, or play only in that open space over there. So it’s our job to plan a dog-friendly garden that will accommodate your dog(s) as well as explain our garden-friendly rules to the dogs, and in a nice way, if you please.

Instilling good behavior in a dog is actually less complex than organic gardening. Just like a beautiful landscape, however, it doesn’t happen by itself. The effort you put in to lay the foundation for good behavior will pay off many times over in future problems avoided, just as proper soil preparation before planting your garden results in years of trouble-free enjoyment.

You can do a lot to further a stress-free blend of plants and animals by keeping the dog in mind when you plan and install features of your landscape. This doesn’t mean you can’t have the beautiful borders and winding paths you desire, just that you need to think about where your dog will be permitted unsupervised access, where you will be together, and if there’s anywhere the dog won’t be allowed at all. That’s what this book is all about—combining dogs and gardens. Just as no two gardens are precisely the same, no two dogs are exactly alike. So the information in this book allows for flexibility, whether talking about the gardens or the dogs.

Your needs will vary based on your particular garden style and your particular dog. So will your joys. One of my fondest mental snapshots remains my very first dog, a Keeshond, lying contentedly in the snow beneath a bush bursting with red berries, with birds darting in and out just over her head. A second picture shows her and a pet French lop bunny grazing face to face on some fresh spring grass. Though that lovely dog, Sundance, has been gone for 20 years now, those pictures remain bright in my mind. Now my current dog Nestle is imprinting his own images—sunbathing amid the lavender or tearing down the garden paths toward open space and a rousing game of chase. I enjoy my garden and even include garden art in my landscape, but nothing comes close to the beauty and joy of seeing dogs at home in the plantings.

If You’re a Gardener at Heart

If you are already a confirmed garden fanatic, down to your ragged fingernails, you’ll be delighted to find out how your experience will be put to good use in plant selection, garden design, and maintenance in creating your dog-friendly landscape. You’ll probably be surprised to learn that normal, natural doggy behavior that doesn’t appear to ft well with a garden can be redirected, retrained, or avoided so your dog and your garden can peacefully coexist. Don’t tell the dog people this, but believe it or not, if you’re a gardener who’s getting a dog, you’ll likely have an easier time of it than if you’re a dog owner who’s decided to garden! Bringing a dog into an established landscape lets you set the ground rules right from the start. If you do it right, you’ll encounter minimal conflict.

If You’re a Dog Person at Heart

If you are a dedicated dog lover, as evidenced by the dog toys strewn about the yard, you’ll find the garden design, material and plant selection information in this book (along with some great training ideas) can make a huge difference in your enjoyment of both your dog and your garden. You’ll learn how to lay out and plant your garden with your dog’s needs in mind. You can help your cause by observing how the dog already uses the patch of ground you now intend to claim and compromising where you can or planning on some retraining where you can’t. Putting in a garden where a dog already lives will probably be asking the dog to change some of his habits, and dogs are just as resistant to change as the average human, so make it fun for both of you by following the steps suggested here and enjoying the process together.

Doing What Comes Naturally

So what are these problems between dogs and gardens? Just natural doggy behavior that occurs in places you don’t want it to, mostly—digging, breaking things, peeing and pooping, chewing, and high-spirited running around. It’s part of what makes a dog a dog. You can enjoy life with your dog without damage to your gardens by planning for it.

Obviously, peeing and pooping have to take place but they can leave dead spots in the lawn and kill small plants. Fortunately it’s no harder to train a dog to use a particular area than it is to housetrain a dog in the first place. You just need the foresight to provide an appropriate place.

Breakage usually results from the dog being where he shouldn’t be or the plants being where they shouldn’t be. Designing the dog into, or out of, the garden helps avoid the problem of young rambunctious dogs and delicate prized plants, which don’t make a good mix. Be sure to provide a place where the dog can feel free to run around like a wild thing, and play with him there often, and you’ll avoid most of the plant damage. Any remaining problems can be solved by some garden redesign, adding a few dog-friendly amenities, maybe some fencing, and perhaps a little training.

Compromise is the keyword here. Trying to squash these problems entirely will likely prove frustrating for both the human and the dog, and they’re only problems because of where they’re occurring. Redirecting natural dog behavior such as random digging to a special digging pit and limiting chewing to approved chew toys will avoid some of the most common bad behaviors.

Breed Can Predict Behavior

Dogs are individuals. But because most breeds do come with built-in predispositions toward different activities, based on the work they were originally designed to do, it’s useful to know something about breed characteristics. Reading a good breed selection book can be helpful—try Your Purebred Puppy, A Buyer’s Guide by Michele Welton has good information on the personality and drawbacks of specific breeds. (See the Resources at the end of this book for this and other reading recommendations.)

So Dachshunds and the smaller terriers are often driven to dig because they were bred to eradicate vermin, even if that meant digging them out of their holes. If you have moles in your yard and bring home a Jack Russell Terrier, be prepared for the dirt to fly! Larger terriers might not be as likely to dig, but they might be prone to guarding behavior, running the fence or yard perimeter and barking. The barking is the more serious problem overall, with possible legal complications if your neighbors start complaining, but the constant travel along the same path will soon wear a trail into whatever landscaping you may have placed there. This behavior might also be exhibited by the guard dogs from the AKC Working Group, such as the popular Rottweiler and Doberman Pinscher. They may be quieter than the terriers, but they’ll be just as inclined to patrol. Others in the Working Group are the dogs who pull sleds—the Siberian Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes, and Samoyed. They

Reviews for DOG FRIENDLY GARDENS

[rosanahart_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dog Friendly Gardens, Garden Friendly Dogs is for you if you love both dogs and gardens, and sometimes have trouble combining those two interests. This attractive book, with numerous color illustrations, provides lots of great ideas which will no doubt spark your own imagination. It certainly did mine! It's a nice coffee-table or bedside book.Author Cheryl Smith knows both dogs and gardens, as she is both a dog trainer and a master gardener. She writes from both points of view. (I was interested to see that she has written extensively about dog training, including clicker training dogs.)In this book you can learn about garden design that will work with your dog: Observe your dog or dogs and their habits before you create your ideal garden design. Choose materials that work well with dogs, and avoid those that don't. Select your garden plants not just for their beauty, but also for how dog-hardy they are!And learn about dog training with your garden in mind: How the different sizes and temperaments of the various breeds and mixed breeds affects what they do in a garden. Train your dog with boundary training, to keep him on the path. Provide places for your dogs to dig and to eliminate, and train them to use these spots.