Karen has the following problem:
“I have two golden retrievers (ages 9 months and 3 years) that love fruit and vegetables. They have completely stripped my apricot tree and have now moved on to the peaches. They eat tomatoes, strawberries, even watermelons right off the vine; they dug up all of my carrots and potatoes. Some of this problem is easily corrected by fencing in the vegetable garden, but I would really like to find the solution. Catching them in the act and screaming, “No!” has not been successful. Any advice?”
Here are a couple of tactics that may help…
- Use a deterrent to keep the dogs away from the general area. Commercial products such as “Scoot” and “Get off My Lawn” can be effective at making it a less pleasant place for your dogs to go. Citronella oil can also be quite effective, but it can kill some plants if it comes in contact with them, so only use it on bare soil or hard surfaces like paving.
- Although you have done the right thing trying to catch them in the act and correct the behavior, I would suggest you try an alternative form of aversion than shouting. Catch them when they are about to go near the fruit or vegetables and use some form of sound aversion such as an air horn or clanging two metal saucepan lids together. Do not make eye contact with the dogs, so that they associate the noise with the bad behavior and not with your presence. With a bit of luck, it will have given them such a start that the problem will stop immediately, but you may have to catch them a couple of times for the correction to sink in. Goldens are clever dogs, so it should be quite easy to correct them using this technique
