Guest Author - Katelyn Thomas

Dogs and gardens usually don't mix, but I've tried to come up with ways to enjoy my gardens with my dogs. I know many people try to keep them out of the garden, but I’ve trained mine to be canine helpers.

The first game I taught my dogs was "move the bag." I use this trick when people aren’t available. Any dog can be helpful, but the best ones are the larger breeds. I bought 10 big heavy bags of topsoil and I had to move them to a place where the wheelbarrow would have trouble going. Train your dogs to move bags of heavy garden materials such as topsoil or mulch. Lay the bag on the ground and drag it several feet. The dog sees what you are doing, becomes interested, watches you, and says ,”Gee, that looks like fun, as he responds to your excited cries of ,”Come help me. Pull, pull.” After all, it’s kind of like tug of war. It’s much easier if a St Bernard, Golden Retriever or Standard Poodle is tugging on one side, while you’re tugging on the other. There is a downside to this as well, however. Please be sure you do not pile your bags around in your yard unless you want them to be moved. I’ve left a neat stack at one end of my yard, only to come out several hours later to find them scattered about on the lawn.

The next game is only for the brightest dogs. I call it "help me dig here." If your dog is liable to get carried away and overly enthusiastic, do not teach him or her this trick, but I’ve had a couple of very trustworthy dogs I’ve taught to do this trick. Take the dog to a spot where you want to plant a tree or large bush. Dig off any sod and hard packed soil. In excited tones, tell the dog,” I’m digging. Look at this! Dig!” The dog will become very interested in what you’re doing, if he’s not already. Eventually, the dog will begin to dig with you. Please be careful not to dig while the dog is digging, as you do not want to injure him.

The least challenging trick to teach your dog is "get my tool." Only use this command for items the dog cannot injure himself with, such as plastic trowels, gardening gloves, etc. Be sure you have not handled anything toxic with these tools. It is a good idea to have a dog already trained to fetch before you attempt to teach this valuable skill. For dogs that aren’t quite smart enough to figure out how to go fetch an item on command, this trick can still be modified to make them feel they are still helping in the garden. Give them the tool to carry from place to place in the garden while walking beside you.

There is one thing dogs do not need any training in and that they enjoy doing. "Chase the Pest" is always a favorite with my dogs. They eagerly patrol the garden area, looking for the vicious red tailed squirrel who executes my tulips, daffodils, and any other blooming plant in my garden. What upsets me most is that he just cuts the heads off the plants and tosses them beside the bodies. The dogs also chase birds, rabbits and other garden pests.

A trick you do not want to teach your dogs is "Pick the Veggies." My dogs taught themselves this trick. It never has ended with good results. I find my tomatoes scattered about the yard with teeth marks in them. However, you can still teach your dogs to enjoy the bounty of the garden. I’ve found that most of my dogs like to stop and smell the roses, literally. I leave enough space around them so that the dogs will not flatten surrounding plants when they sit in front of the roses and correct them firmly if they try to do more than smell. But they’re quite content to sit with their noses buried in the flowers, inhaling the scent.

An excellent task for your dog, which should only be carried out if you plan to bathe your pet when you go in that evening, is the turning of the compost pile. It is not a good idea with a compost pile with food scraps as the dogs might eat them and become ill. However, my pile is mostly oak leaves and grass clippings (I do not use chemicals on my lawn) and safe for them to romp in. They dig in the pile and stamp about until the pile is turned.

For general yard pickup, there is nothing better than a dog that loves sticks. Even though I have yet to persuade them to pile them where I want them, the dogs will take stick after stick from my hand and drop them at the top of the hill, close together.

A final task my dogs always enjoy, no matter how hard I work to discourage them is pruning. They especially love to prune my forsythia right before they bloom, much to my horror. I really can’t think of a good use for this task, since splinters could lodge in their mouths or they could chew on a poisonous plant.