Tag: gardening with your dog

Last week Best Bully Sticks talked about reconciling the relationship between your dog and your garden. If you love both, but your dog seems not care for your garden patch or flower beds, read Gardening With Your Dog Pt. 1 from last Monday. After you’ve worked hard to create a beautiful and blooming garden and instill respect in your dog for that same garden, don’t let it go to waste by putting your dog in harms way. 

An overly curious dog or an accident in with garden equipment can be hazardous! Here are some quick tips on keeping your pup safe in the garden. And remember; if you’re not a green thumb, still pay attention to these tricks and tips. You never know when Fido will be around a friend’s garden or what he could possibly pick up in the outdoors.

Poisonous Plants
Obviously, plant choice is a big decision in your garden, however some plants are very toxic to your dog.  Sago Palm and other types of palm in the Cycad family as well as mushrooms can cause liver failure in dogs. Rhododendron, Azaleas, Foxglove, Lily of the Valley, Oleander and Rosebay all affected the heart. The ASPCA has a full list of names and photos of plants to avoid.

Chemical Fertilizer & Insecticides
Chemically laden fertilizers and pesticides are usually an easy and quick fix to feed, weed and kill bugs, but a there is no easy and quick fix for a dog who has serious intestinal or digestive issues or worse. All gardens need to be fed and treated, but whether a dog accidentally or intentionally gets into garden chemicals, it’s never a pretty picture.  The first step in avoiding this common mishap is simply reading the manufacturer’s instructions. These will let you know how long the chemicals are in the environment. It could be only a few days or even weeks, but either way your dog could be affected. Making these fertilizers and insecticides inaccessible to your dog is a good measure to take. If you do use these chemicals, leave your dog inside when applying them to your garden.

Compost
Compost is a wonderful, natural alternative to using chemical fertilizers. Composting natural kitchen waste (egg shells, coffee, fruit and veggie scraps) is a great way to give your garden vital nutrients while also creating less waste. However, make sure your dog doesn’t take your compost bin for a “second-helping” bin. Make sure your compost is where your dog cannot get to it, simply for the reason that certain people foods aren’t good for Fido. Read more

It’s the time of year when veggies and flowers are growing and blooming! Best Bully Sticks knows that this vegetation will not only provide healthy food during the summer months, but creates a colorful array of nature’s beauty. There are many who love their gardens and tend them carefully as if it were a child or masterfully as if it were a piece of art. Many of those same people are just as passionate about dogs; yet canine friends and gardens don’t always mesh well. That’s why this week Best Bully Sticks is going to dole out some fertilizer to the garden patch and pooch relationship with tips and tricks for gardening with your dog.

Garden Needs
Some life stages of your garden are more fragile than others, particularly the beginning stages when sprouts need to be coddled a bit. However, your pooch is 100% indifferent to protecting those plants. Here are a few tips to protect the needs of your garden.

Knowing your dog is the first step in knowing how to address the issues of garden protection. Some dogs may not have any interest in romping in a garden bed, while others may feel a bit more mischievous. Knowing your dog’s behavior and attitudes will give you the first clues in how to pooch-proof your garden.

Training your dog to keep out of the garden can be done by simply utilizing commands he already knows such as out, sit, no, and stay. However you’ll want to start with these commands as soon as you start preparing to plant. The sooner your dog knows that a particular patch of dirt is off-limits, the less likely he is to romp through it when veggies or flowers are growing. Repetition of commands, consistency with training and the sooner the better: all good words of wisdom in training your dog to keep out of the garden. Read more