Thursday, April 28, 2011

Far From Happy / Help

The day started out to be quite lovely. I went for a long walk and enjoyed the breeze and sunshine. Later after lunch and hubby off to work I worked in the yard digging up dandelions. Oh how those yellow flowers take over. I filled three walmart bags full. If they are outside the rock beds I don't bother with them but inside the rock bed I remove them then spray. I took another walk in the woods looking for some not so thick flat rocks to put around the pond. I was in luck I found four. I dug out the dirt & layed the rocks. I am on my way to having stepping stones around the pond. In between the rocks I plan to plant violas. I have them planted in a mini greenhouse. They are just starting to sprout. The boys arrived home from school & I took Lucas to the church to do the mowing. He now has two jobs. Yay! When I returned home I cleaned the kitchen. The tarts in the warmers needed changed. As I was removing the old wax I looked out the window and saw hubby's dog around the pond. I knocked on the window and said no. I thought he was going to get a drink. It was to late he jumped into my fish pond. I grabbed the camera and got this shot of him trying to get out. Well he could not get himself out. I had to go drag him out of the fish pond. I called my hubby at work and told him what his dog had just done. He laughed and said he would have to have a talk with him when he gets home. He told me I should have shown his dog his own swimming pool and told me he was probably hot. I was far from happy. In the three years since my hubby's oldest son dumped this dog here it has killed many shrubs dug holes in my flower beds and gotten into my first fish pond and ate my fish. I moved that pond and he did it again. He knocked the rocks around the fish pond into the pond and dug up all my flowers I planted around the pond. They were flowers I put alto of TLC into growing myself from seeds. Hubby would not believe his precious lab would do something like this. Well this time I have a picture. Again I am far from happy. This dog gets treated better than the kids and I and never dose no wrong. I have been working on this yard for fifteen years. I have carried rocks from near and far. I have planted every year. After the dog came hubby insisted I needed to remove rocks to make openings for his dog. There are now five openings. I need to find something to put around the outside of the rocks and the openings that will deter the dog from entering into this yard. Something my hubby can not see or smell. I had the dogs two story dog house moved from inside this yard two summers ago and added the gazebo. The dog thinks the gazebo is his personal home. He has scratched the floor of the gazebo. I want to scream. The dog has his own pool and lots of open ground to roam and dig holes. Yesterday hubby set up the dogs pool before he left for work. The ugly purple dinosaur pool is set up in the area I want to put a potting shed and garden boxes. Not a pretty view from the dining room windows. I know why the neighbor added an electric fence around his box garden. TO KEEP THE DOG OUT OF IT. No one wants to have their garden trampled and dug up let alone their veggies pee'd on. Hubby is now worried his dog will get shocked by it. Well an electric fence is not an option for me. For that matter no fence is an option for me. I put much of my time into making the homestead grounds beautiful only to have this monster tear it up and dig it up and kill what I have planted. Got any ideas? How can I keep this monster outside of the rock beds? HELP!


Blessings Til Next Time!
Lara

10 comments:

  1. I'm sure it is very frustrating for you when the dog keeps doing these things but just look at that picture, you can't help but smile! I know, you're probably frowning at me right now ;-) Anyway, my sister-in-law had similar problems with her pond and they put some post around the pond and then put some kind of mesh over it, even over the top of it.It's hard to explain but it doesn't look bad I don't think. If you would like I could take a picture of it and send it to you so you could see what I'm talking about.

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  2. LOL sorry to hear about your doggie problems. Labs are very affectionate dogs and love to be with their families. Maybe he is lonely and craving attention. Basically, labs are very sweet and intelligent dogs. I hope you two come to an understanding this summer. best of luck!

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  3. What if you put in an invisible fence to keep the dog in a certain area.

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  4. I really feel for you. Labs LOVE water. You might have a hard time keeping him out of your pond. Our daughter and her husband lived with us for a year and had a lab...he ate all of our bushes and dug holes in our newly landscaped lawn. Good luck!!

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  5. Hi, Lara
    Tie him up!!LOL~ not sure if Hubby would allow this but he needs tied up or in a big pen~ then when Hubby comes home from work he can take the dog for a walk!!!!So you can relax~LOL
    Good luck~
    smiles
    Teresa

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  6. I have to smile and laugh at this because I have a lab too as well as 3 other dogs. I give up landscaping our backyard now. You can understand why! :-) good thing i LOVE dogs...lol
    Have a great weekend!
    Blessings,
    Jill

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  7. I'm with Teresa, tie him up!! I loved my dog until she died, love her still and miss her dearly, but when she dug in the flower beds she got swatted with newspaper. She quickly learned who the boss was going to be and what the boundaries were. I am from the old school I guess, I even believe in spanking children.8-) She was a very smart dog, Border Collie and Kelpie sheep dog and was trainable. But if she hadn't been, she would have been in a pen unless we were out with her.

    Good luck and I do feel for you, it is obvious how much hard work and love you put into your yard and home. I will pray for you that your husband will understand and make some kind of provision.
    Blessings,
    Lorna

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  8. That would be frustrating! I know when we first had our Lucky~ he's been gone 1 year now as of yesterday. Anyhow, he would dig and dig! We tried everything! Finally, we borrowed our friends' shock collar, we only had to use it for about two weeks, that did it! He never did it again!
    I would try some type of fencing or something I guess, or tie him up. Maybe the boys could walk him sometimes too. They have lots of energy and need to run.
    I do hope that your husband will come around to helping find a resolution here. Gardening is a lot of work and very rewarding, he needs to respect that as well!
    I wanted to add, I appreciate you coming by my blog! I do feel we have much in common. You are right, it IS hard to juggle it all, and for us, this was right for this season in life, but now, things are changing once again.
    I hope that you will have a nice weekend!
    Blessings,
    Renee

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  9. Hi, so sorry you are having this problem. I would find a way to take control by teaching. I would contact an animal trainer or behavioral dog person to consult. You could tie him up or shock him, but hubby wouldn't like that. There are also natural sprays that deter animals check on line recipes. But, I would start training right away.

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  10. Well, it makes more of a problem for you when hubby is not on the same page with you. This breed of dog does love to run and play and if they don't get to exercise to help wear them down, then they're a bundle of energy just waiting to bust out in ways that we usually don't like. They are alot of responsibility. Good luck with him and may God grant you the patience needed.
    Carol

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