Gardening With Dogs!

By Margo ‘Mac’ McDowell, FBMG S1997

 

To set the scene – I think I have a nice large yard. I have gardens on both side fence lines, at the back of the house, and one very long, large garden that is towards the back fence. You can walk all the way around it; or in my dogs’ case – run all the way around it. They used to run all the through it.

 

I have 3 great dogs -- a 2 ½ year old Akita/Border Collie mix (Truman), and a 1 ½ year old Black Lab (Big Sam) and 1 ½ year old Schnauzer (Midgett). That’s 2 large males, and one pretty small female. My female Schnauzer that is my ‘culprit’. Midgett can run circles around the two bigger dogs, and she can really tear through a garden! When we first got Truman, he and I bonded big time when I was hand-tilling my vegetable garden. He tilled (dug) right along with me! It was great! I actually positioned him so that his soil (ha!) would be flying exactly where I needed it to! He can really dig.

 

Then we got Sammy & Midgett, and my gardens really took a turn for the worse. Truman became Alpha dog – my biggest nightmare! (Hear the shark music?) The issue in trying to garden with my animals was trying to keep them from digging in my gardens, and literally running through them. Oh! How frustrating that was. I was about to give it all up; I felt just so beaten…and so was my back yard. I thought I was never going to garden again. I never had such diggin’, destroyin’ dogs; I’ve never had so many dogs! But I just could not let myself be beaten by a bunch of hounds – so training began. I started taking them around one by one to all of my gardens and telling them “out!” and of course the word no.

 

The four of us kept this up for what seemed like forever. OOUT! NOooooo! Big Sam is the smartest and most gentle. I haven’t caught him doing anything wrong, and he listens like a champ – he’s my follower. But AH! You know what helped me the most? My garden grew! This past spring, I put in small fencing – that white short picket looking fencing – lots of it! Oh and I forgot to tell you that my neighbor has the most wonderful Boxer named Tyson… he’s a huuuge muscular dog. He too has to come into my yard “through” the fence and visit us. (We’re about to invest in fencing stock!)

 

And then all of a sudden it seemed as though a miracle happened! I think my dogs grew up with my gardens! Truman, Big Sam & Midgett have stopped running “through” the gardens and were actually racing around them! What pleasure we get when we see our dogs run around and around the yard and not in our gardens. They have learned to retrieve balls, chew sticks and lay in the shade of the Drummond Maple. The training continues on a regular gardening basis…Midgett likes to pick green tomatoes, and is now discovered she likes green peppers.

 

Occasionally, they mess up – I yell OUT! -- they stop what they are doing – even if its just standing on the edge of the garden looking in. I can be in the dry stores, and yell OUT, and everyone gets out! I can sit here while I write this and smile. But things are fine; my garden was beautiful last year, and I have discovered the wonderful world of gardening with my dogs. They have created their “pathways” and I’ve created mine ---right on top of theirs! I’m not sure who is smarter … !

 

The neat part of having all these dogs is that they love being outdoors with me so as I now walk around my gardens and work in them, my best pals are right there with me – I’m never alone.