Why are dog owners so unaware of gardens? We have a leash law, but it doesn't matter. The OWNERS walk their dogs right up to and through my gardens that are clearly marked, layed out, mulched, etc. The poop is bad enough, but to have flower stalks broken that you have tended too and waited a year for them to bloom, is MADDENING. Two days ago and very nice woman walked her dog right in my garden and stepped on some plants HERSELF. All while I was weeding in the same garden!
Clearly, I'm in a flustered state of mind right now, but come on. My 6 year old is more considerate! I need the best dog deterrent money can buy. I'll take any and all suggestions, PLEASE.
Catherine
Dogs & OWNERS in my gardens!
Try one of those motion activated hose controllers. That way you get the dog and the owner at the same time.
kudos dole ,I've done pretty much the same thing and it works wonders
Thanks! I'll google it and try to buy one immediately! I just have to make sure the hose will reach?
I sooooo understand your frustration! My yard is shaped like a long one acre pie-wedge with streets on either side meeting at the point. Our house is at the "crust" side of the wedge surrounded by lawn & plantings. Further towards the point has pine trees and other mixed trees, with bridal wreath spiraea and azaleas along the street on either side. (previous owner) We keep the brush mowed and the area well maintained. Over the last year I worked my tail off in the yard, I planted bulbs and iris around the base of each of the trees, they are mulched and each type of iris or bulb has a large marker (from the DG co-op) with the plant name (so I would remember, LOL). The bulbs are up and some are blooming.
I was hand weeding with no gloves after work Thursday late afternoon. I had just walked towards the house and was weeding in another area when I saw one of my neighbors cut straight through the middle of my yard with her 2 dogs. She stopped twice at the areas I had JUST WEEDED (with bare hands- ick!) to have her dogs pee on my flowers. This wasn't even on the edge of my yard, she was cutting straight through the middle of my property to avoid walking around it! I just stood there and watched her, obviously this was no new thing.
I don't want to be "the cranky lady with the flowers" but that just burns my biscuits! I have a dog, we go for walks, I understand that they have needs, but I am very conscious of other people's yards, and would NEVER be this rude! The really ironic part was if the dogs are the ones I thing they are, their owner has people maintaining her yard daily....
Plantnut, I soo understand you too! We have a dog, and just posted a thread about 2 daphne's I planted last autumn and one had slight yellow spots on it. We think now that it's prob. male dog pee! Very frustrating while we always yank our dog away from peeing at mailbox and flowerbed areas,.Once, when my mother in law was still alive (and still did some gardening in spite of her near blindness), we sat at dinnertable when a lady with a huge dog walks up (she :reading newspaper) and her dog sat down in front flowerbed ! I was furious and with food still in my mouth rushed out to front and not so nicely asked the owner to not do this anymore. She looked at me as if I was the most stupid and rudest person in the world!
Lesson learned: I NEVER EVER work in ground without gloves. I take it you did yell at her for cutting through your lawn like that?
"This wasn't even on the edge of my yard, she was cutting straight through the middle of my property to avoid walking around it! I just stood there and watched her, obviously this was no new thing."
IMHO - you need to be a bit more cranky. I used to have a huge magnolia in a small front yard and I had to rake the leaves with rubber gloves because of all the dog poo. I got angrier and angrier. So at some point - every time a dog would be getting ready to do it - I'd rush at them saying "no-no-nO-NO!" and the dog would freeze, in position. The owner would stammer out some excuse about how the dog just stopped to go, they couldn't help it - hello, it is on a LEASH, I'd point out - and some would even say the dog was NOT going in my yard when I was seeing it.
I made all these people very nervous and after a very short time, they would cross the street when they came to my yard. I got to where I liked running out and stopping them. Better than fuming in silence.
Many counties have leash laws and they can be enforced. If you don't have a leash law, you can still yell at them.
My 2 cents - Sterling
PS - I had a dog then and I took her to approved areas and cleaned up property. I know it can be done.
Maybe put up a "caution..poison ivy sign"...
or.... "plants poisonous to animals sign"....
ok, hmmmm actually what I would do is pay my kids a quarter for anyone they could hit with a water balloon (from the upstairs window) that is on our property. Then an extra quarter for yelling "SORRY... was trying to water mom's flowers.
Wow, that kinda makes me wish some of my neighbors would walk their dog on my property.
Chris
This is funny and tacky...But here goes.....
Place a sign (It can be small, less tacky) in your garden that says "Walking in my flowers could cause you to get mulched" Now lay a pair of men's shoes upside down in your bed next to the sign.
Not making light of your problem. I had the same problem but this can get your point across.
I make garden markers in my pottery class, so I will definately be following the advice of Cordeledawg & lcf530 (Chris)! I appreciate the ideas. I'm aslo going to try yet another spray PROMISING to get rid of them. It was in a catalog I was just looking at yesterday, but now can't find. Anyway, dogs supposedly hate the smell, but it smells minty to humans. I'll give anything a try. This is to my Biggest/MOST annoying problem in my world of gardening. Somedays I avoid the area all together because I just don't want to survey the damage. Oh please, Oh please, Oh please, let me find the cure!
I don't understand why you are trying hard to be so neighborly when your neighbors are being absolutely rude, and are tresspassing on your property. I am very sure they would not be pleased to have you wandering on their property.
TAKE PICTURES. Be very clear that you are taking pictures when you take them. If need be, you have evidence for a community board, or if you need to take things farther along...
When we moved here kids, adults anyone disrespected us and our property by walking or using/playing on it. Photographs made quick work of the issue. It didn't take long for people to figure out what I could do with those photos.
I think you should be very clear and direct with these people. Go ahead and tell them: do not walk in my yard, do not let your pets walk in my yard. Do not let your pets deficate in my yard. The 2nd time you see them doing it, make sure you tell them once again your expectations and tell them you are going to be taking photos. Let them know that they are disrespecting you in a way you would not do to them. You can be polite and concise. The key is not getting into a fight or argument over it.
GGG
You are exactly right, in theory. But I have to decide if the negativity of coming home is greater with ruined gardens, or from being shunned as the neighhood B****. I know I would be in the right, and they should too, but in reality, I would be the one considered "unreasonable". Part of that is because some dog owners think you are a cruel, "bad" person if you don't love their dogs like they do. I'm going to try some "undercover" techniques first to try to scare them off. But if it continues to fail, I may bite the bullet and start calling people out on the spot. Thanks and I'm still looking for anything dogs HATE to keep them away. Tomorrow I'm putting cayenne (?) pepper powder out to try to make my gardens unpleasant for dogs and chipmunks!
Catherine
I live in the country and we dont have leash laws but hey in my yard we do and we dont have many people who live around us but if your dog comes on my land it is not going to like what it gets... I own 2 very big dogs and most dogs wont even look at them twice.... when we first lived here I bought a cattle box and put up a wire and when the dog would just come into my yard ZAP and they ran like HELLo... I am not a mean person but my own dogs which I own 7 do not crap in my gardens... Now I could tell you what the farmer told me when we first moved here and he has beef cattle and dogs run them and buy law he has a right to protect them... you have to learn the 3 S's of the South... Shoot,Shovel,Shutup. now I have not done that to a dog but before we had our bigger dogs I have shot with a paint ball gun when a big German Shepard would growl at me when I would be working in the yard and unaware he had come on to our property... Now these people we did take to court... we lost... yup we lost... The county forgot to summons the dog wardon and they lied that they had not been read a vicouce(sp) bad dog) dog warning. so the next time I was in the front of our yard and this lady was spraying bug killer on her land her dog came into my driveway and she would not call the dog off ... I told her this was her last warning and I stood up and the dog came closer and she heard me cock the shot gun and I must admit had the dog come closer I would have shot it... she called her dog to come and he did ....
I just get so mad when people dont think they should tend to there animals... thank god they had no kids.
sorry will get off my soap box now... Oh and my dogs are behind an invisible fence so they dont go to your yards... and my little dogs have a BIG chain link fence.
Susan
Many times I thought about an electrified wire, but I KNOW that would result in a trial date! And it seems like in this world today a dog would have a better chance of winning. And I can just see a neighborhood kid tripping on it. I'd be in JAIL. Unfortunately, I don't have the freedom you do in the country. I LOVE the paintball idea. Sorry you lost, you can't win in court against a liar unless you are a liar too. You know the saying: Nice guys finish last :(
Anyway, enough negativity, this is a gardening site, where we can forget our troubles :) I didn't mean to get on a rant, I really just wanted a safe alternative to shooting them! Ha Ha HA!!! Have fun gardening in Georgia's wonderful weather these next few days!!
Catherine
What a disturbing problem to have. So sorry to hear so many people have rude neighbors. I think we all suffer in some form from them. I have to pick up dog pooh occassionally in my yard to and I don't even have a dog! Other day a kid kicked a ball from the street at my house...narrowly missing a window. GRRR. DH ran out there and told him to play with his ball at his house or in the field near his house. The kid just got a smart mouth but he did walk away. LOL.
I planted boxwoods around my entire front (on a corner lot) but it will be years before they are a proper screen. It detours people from cutting across my yard being on the corner which I am happy about. I thought of using roses (thorns) but being near a sidewalk and with todays liablities I didn't want the hassle.
The motion sprinklers sounds awesome! I'll check into that for my next place!
The roses with thorns sounds like a great idea. I had once told our neighbor that we might put up pampas grass between us (the edges can cut like a razor) due to their dog. Secretly I'd like to put up chain link with razor wire at the top like prisons, electrify it with 120V, and put machine gun turrets at the corners. Wishful thinking. I had even thought of chicken wire at the mailbox with an electric charge on it so when the dog takes a leak, he would think twice about ever going again.
Now that we have a dog, we leash him when going to the front yard and have the entire back yard fenced in for our peace of mind and his recreation. I may have to fence my prize plants in so he doesn't make a mess of them this summer. It's just a shame we can't fence the entire yard due to covenants. So our front yard is an open invitation for inconsiderate dog owners to make use of it. The fence is a two way street; it keeps our mutt in and other mutts out.
The invisible fence won't keep other dogs out and when the dog being trained to stay inside learns they can bolt across it with a small shock, then it becomes almost useless.
Mothballs and hot pepper usually won't deter a dog from doing their business.
yep...covenanants...that's what ruins it for me to. =( hate it. but it's hard to find a neighborhood without it these days. and they touted (spelling?) that it was good to have because we are practically "living on each other" when we have neighbors and this way we won't have as much contention. LOL. good fences make good neighbors comes to mind. =) but ours WILL allow hedges so I put one in.
HCMSdole, can you tell me about these motion detect. sprayers??? I think I would like some. Although I am glad we don't have the unpleasant neighb./dog situation, I still cannot be around all day to watch the front.
Yesterday, when I was walking our dog we passed sign on a lawn (adjacent to street/trees-no frontlawns there) that said: "pesticide been used, do not tred on lawn!" I quicly pulled our dog off!
"Secretly I'd like to put up chain link with razor wire at the top like prisons, electrify it with 120V, and put machine gun turrets at the corners."
OHHHHHH MYYYYYYYY GOSH LOL FUNNY!!!!!!
I am currently doing a huge redo of my front beds.. just cut out lots of sod and making more room for plants.. I have made signs and had them laminated that say
"I hope you enjoy our garden
We Really Love it too
We don't let our dog go here
And neither should you."
I haven't purchased the holders yet and if anyone has any suggestions as to what I can use to affix them in the garden, that would be a great help.. i figure if I have put the signs out and them someone still does it, it's open season. People really are clueless... i had to call one neighbor and she was "insulted" when I told her I had witnessed her letting her dog go in my property time and time again. she claimed she picked up after her dog and i said, yea well the pee burns my grass I and she became silent. i went on to say I don't know another woman in all of East Cobb that works her self as hard as I do to make as much out of my garden and considering I headed up the cleanup crew to clean up the adjacent wooded slum, she's got plenty of options for her dog. Crazy thing is.. I've given vegetables to all the people who are clueless letting their dogs go in my yard. They really are clueless.
I personally came running out of the house to tell another neighbor, (my dog lets me know when we have other dogs over) whom I've gifted home grown watermelons, to please take her dogs to the adjacent woods and again she was like "oh, we always pick up"... really?? How do you get pee off my burnt grass?... they walk on the other side of the street now.
Well I have decided not to wait till I'm old to become crotchety about neighbors unknowingly being rude and stupid. I have had neighbors speeding by.. it's 25 mph and I have two small boys that do play outside when I'm gardening. This use to be a quite street until the soccer fields sold some property and 11 mansions were built down the street. Now the trend is knocking the original 1970 homes down and building huge mansions on these 1 acre lots.. So traffic has increased and so have the speeds...
I purchased signs from http://www.keepkidsalivedrive25.org/ and it really has made a difference with most people........... However, their is always the village idiot and she was the primary reason i bought the signs in the first place. After I had been using the signs for months when I was gardening and kids were playing I had to personally call her... She has slowed down... next, i will just start throwing bricks. it is a felony.. As the officer told me that I called out to my home for the speeders.. and he couldn't do a thing about it.... but ya know, sometimes bricks just fly out of hand...
Yesterday I just screamed at the top of my lungs for this teenage girl in a truck to slow down... Ya'll start screaming with me!! Gardeners unite!! :)
Also, I'm looking for a bull horn so that I can just yell from the door and not have to run down the drive.. if there are signs out, they have been warned.
Susan
This message was edited Feb 26, 2007 11:46 AM
I have a neighbor with a rotweiller who for some reason loves to do doodles in my flower bed. The dog, not the neighbor. I have two dogs who I'm sure could poop up a storm in his yard if I'd let them, but I don't. But last weekend when I cleaned my flower bed, I gathered up all the rot doo and "returned" it to his yard. Right by his mailbox!
This message was edited Feb 26, 2007 2:18 PM
Can you place some unobtrusive low fencing along the street. I know you can get very cheap dark green wire border fence that is only a foot or so high. It might be enough of a deterrent though.
Because of covenants, I can not put up a fence like that in the front yard.
cn
I hate covenants. Ok, off soapbox. lol
How about you take a few small stakes and place them out of site at the edges of the property. Then string some fishing line really tight about 6" off the ground, then get a cup of coffee, a good book and sit back and watch the show.
chris
I've got to come up with some way to make it amusing! I need to laugh instead of cry!
cn
TulipLady,
I don't have a sprinkler motion activated system (but maybe I should). I have seen these for the past several years in a lot of garden catalogs and soon as someone needs more information, then it becomes almost impossible to find it. It looks like the price has gone up quite a bit as well.
It is called the motion activated scarecrow and just gives the intruders a good spraying for a few seconds. That should scare off most plus give the owner some idea that you mean business (unless they get nasty).
Here is one site for the "scarecrow".
http://www.luxuryhousingtrends.com/archives/2006/12/motionactivated.php
Susan,
I admire you!!!!! I aspire to be as bold!!!!! "Village idiots" bawhahaha! SO true!
oooh - I forgot about this one - takes a bit of effort but REALLY works. I knew someone who used it around their mailbox plantings. You need to get a roll of hardware cloth. If you don't know what this is, think screen material but with the wires 1/2" or 3/4" or 1" apart. You can get it from Lowe's, Home Depot, hardware stores... You'll need some wire cutters and a pair of needle nose pliers. Cut the hardware cloth in 4' sections (or what ever works for your area, the idea is the roll is too big to work with). Lay it flat. Cut in random areas and bend the wires straight up. You want as many of the sharp wires sticking straight up as you can have and still have the hardware cloth hold together. Put pine straw lightly over these "pads".
When the animal steps on this, they will step back quickly. Somebody came up with the idea for cats but it works for dogs too. You will need to place bricks or stepping stones where YOU need to walk as you don't want to step on this and flatten it or cut yourself.
I like yelling too, Susan - it really feels good!
Sterling
Wow! lots of creativity......and venting.....
I was proud of myself, my LH and I went for a walk this weekend, on the way back we walked from the point of our property towards the house so that I could show him the bulbs that are up and starting to bloom. We saw the same neighbor cutting between us and the house- I called out to her, then walked over and in a very calm and friendly manner explained to her that although she probably didn't realize, where she was walking was private property, it's our yard, and those are my flowers. She was very embarrassed and said that she hadn't realized....she's only about 19 so that might be possible. I told her that I thought she probably didn't know when I saw her do it a couple of days ago, so I wanted to let her know. Very diplomatic.
So.....hopefully that will take care of the most blatant case. If not, well, then I know it's time to be more, shall we say, "firm."
I don't think it will stop anyone from walking their dogs on the edges. The weird part is that we don't have sidewalks on my part of the neighborhood so people walk in the street. They actually have to walk their dogs up over the curb in order to get to my trees....
Good for you!!
Thanks yall! I love the backup to be crazy.
Susan
We don't have sidewalks here either. I watched a woman walking a big dog the other day - she was hitting every lawn. When she got to mine I said - do NOT let your dog go on my lawn. But by that time the dog had dragged her up onto the lawn! I motioned her to come back onto the street and she was trying very hard to drag the dog back down there.
I told her she really needed a choke chain and you'd have thought I said she should shoot the dog 'oh no! Choke chains are too cruel!' I have had them for every big dog I've ever had and I love my animals.
A choke chain is a wonderful device. BUT you need to learn how to use it. You don't just let the dog go flying off and choke it suddenly to return. You teach the dog to go no further than your side. You teach it NOT to go running off, pulling your arm out of the socket. I told her all this and said she could get her vet or any trainer to show her how to use it. She seemed interested but went off down the street with the dog pulling her!!!
A modification of the choke collar is the pinch collar. It doesn't choke the dog and is much more effective - the dog will not strain once it has been pinched a few times. My wife wouldn't take our dog for a walk outside our yard without it. He has pulled her off her feet a couple times in the past but with the pinch collar she has total control.
When I took my dog to classes years ago when I first got her from the dog pound, that was the first requirement of the class.. a collar that taught her who was in control.
Susan
wow im sorry im getting late in on this one, the motion sensor sprinkler will to the job ive got them and short of that you can decorate your house like mine and theyll even stop waving when they drive by!
Congratulations...is that you or do you just hold weddings there? :)
They stopped waving huh? I wave so much that there were these particular neighbors that just looked at me strange for over a year when they first moved in. Now I guess they see I'm not trying to sell them anything and they wave :)
Susan
hey susan the pic is from my 25th wedding anniversury we re-nude our vows,thats my family and my pastor fred piepenbrink, i tried to renegotiate our vows but my wife was not amused.
How about the neighbors' cats that use gardens for a litter box and the front door as a urinal?
Hey Shug! Hot Red Pepper flakes or powder!!!! Get the Wholesale box at walmart or Sams! Once treasured Poochie gets a case of red eyes , sniffling and sneezing, and even worse a case of Hot red butt,because he has licked his Nose and Nether parts to rid himself of the Pepper , maybe neighbors will be more socially adjusted!
E.
Well, I just lost another battle. I put a sign out kindly requesting that people stop letting their dogs walk through, and tinkle and poop in the beds. Probably those same jerks (names not given to me by management co.) called in and complained that we are not allowed to have signs in our yards. They are right, covenants prohibit it.
I am steaming, but I am hog tied. Problem is, these people are spiteful enough the come in the dead of night and pour clorox on everything. Why is it that in the world now-a-days, the bad guys always win?
I am racking my brain still. I want to try the scarecrow, but KNOW that will result in retaliation from the scum. I really have an owner problem more than a dog problem! My Dog-B-Gone product smells like garlic so we can't enjoy the gardens and neither can the neighbors who admire it.
Whats a girl to do.
Catherine