Gardens and Dogs

When you have a garden, and you have a dog too, sometimes there are some things that need to be understood. Dogs like to dig, and they don't care if their humans don't actually want holes all over the place. So your life may involve some hole filling. Get used to it, and move on, watching where you step, of course.

Today in our garden I saw two quite different things, that show how a person can be given delight in quite different ways. The first was the delight that flowers can give. I was out in the back yard this morning, when I noticed our bougainvillea was just starting to flower. This plant is a miniature variety and it grows in a hanging basket. The flowers it has are a lovely shade of orange/pink.

So that was a lovely delight, that any plant lover would enjoy. The second one though was something that might only offer delight to a person with a warpedish sense of humour. It was dog related, and dog owners can sometimes fit into this group. I'd certainly say that about myself!

I'd let out Missy, who is a Pharaoh Hound, and our youngest dog. My husband had gone out, so I was the pooper scooper duty person for the morning. This isn't my favourite dog related task, but when you have four dogs, it's a task that has to be attended to. On a hot day, like today is, it's a task best done promptly.

Our three pharaoh hounds, hard at work! Missy is the one in the middle.

So I was in the back yard again, pooper scooper in hand, watching Missy head out to the dog run we have beyond the actual back yard. Yes, the pooper scooper would be needed, but was she going to make it a quick and easy pick up for me? Oh no, she went the tour, squatting to go, poop holding on as she went, squatting to poop, and letting it go every few awkward steps she took!

So I laughed at her - she's such a silly creature, and she looked so ridiculous! If she'd squatted and gone, with out wandering around as she let go, it would have been easier to pick up, but it wouldn't have been so funny - see, warped sense of humour! When you live with a mini pack of dogs, the warped sense of humour helps!

The Shame of Dogs Who Garden

We have four dogs, and all of them play their own part in our garden. That is in the back of the house, they don't have access to the front yard, or the rest of our property, just the backyard, and the dog run running off the backyard.

It's a reasonable area the dogs have access to, you'd think it would be enough. They also have free access to the inside of the house, until we all go to bed at night. Then they're locked up, either in the main bedroom, or in our son's room, or the spare room. 

Locking them up at night means they don't bark, and they don't damage things. They can't get access to paper, or plates, or electronic equipment, and they don't set get into any strife. Everybody in the house goes to sleep, canine and human. The youngest human goes to sleep last, but that's because of his age, and his wishes. He's allegedly an adult now ...

Anyway, that's not actually relevant to this discussion. Our dogs gardening is mostly in the realm of nutrients, and pruning, with the occasional heavy duty hole digging stint. The title for the book this blogsite was set up for, "Dig It!"relates to these hole digging duties. The dog who was the inspiration for the title has moved on to whatever comes next, now, but his skills in this regard were passed on to his son.

If you were to go into our backyard,and then further into the dog run, you would be impressed at the obvious seriousness of the efforts in this hole digging activity. Digging holes can be done in many different ways. This is what it says in the book about the subject:

"Aerating the lawn simply means putting holes everywhere to improve the drainage. Someone once told me the holes are meant to be really small, and humans do it with a pitchfork  or something similar, but us dogs all know the great big holes are better.

If you make the hole big enough, it serves a dual purpose in that it lets the water get deeper into the lawn, and also the holes are lovely and cool to lie in on a hot day.

If you make enough holes you can move around the yard as the sun moves, so you always have a shady hole to lie in!"

So there you have it, a dog's view on the finer points of hole digging, compliments of Lah Dee, hole digger extraordinaire! Lah Dee doesn't just dig a hole, he digs up and chases the dirt he digs up. He, and two of our other dogs are Pharaoh Hounds, and this breed of dog loves to chase things. 

Often after Lah Dee digs up a big enough clump of dirt, he'll take it to a nice bit of lawn and hunker down and eat that clump, gnawing away at it like it's a choice piece of meat. Or that's what it looks like anyway. I'm not a dog, I don't understand everything about how his mind may go on these issues...

Ridding Garden of Pest Creatures

This picture shows our Pharaoh Hounds hard at work in the garden. Keeping the garden free of unwanted creatures is something they do often. Sadly they are not always terribly humane, and it is up to us humans to attempt to assist these pests finding humane ends to their timer in our backyard.

I don't mind the birds in the garden, if fact I love the birds who visit us. Fortunately, most of the birds are able to avoid becoming a meal to our hounds. It's a bit of a trade off - the pharaoh hound is an imported creature to our land, and the reptiles are all native to our land.

The snakes are one species I don't shed tears over, if they lose their life here. When our dogs capture a lizard though, whether it's a bearded dragon, blue tongue lizard or sleepy lizard, that pains me. I don't like it when the dogs find one of these wanderers... I just wish they would wander further, and stay in the places the dogs can't get to.

Our schnauzer is now an older lady, and she's not of the same nature as the pharaoh hounds, so these creatures, and the birds as well, are all safe from her. I just wish the dogs would all focus on the mice who invade our kitchen every now and then ...

Buster's Thoughts

Getting rid of Garden Pests

            What are garden pests? To my mind a garden pest is anything which either you, or your humans, don't want hanging around in the garden, chewing or pooing  where they’re not wanted.

            Cats, starlings, cats, mice, lizards, cats, sparrows, cats, pigeons, cats, postmen, cats, cats. Im sure you know what to do with these—if you shred the bits they can always go on the compost heap if you’ve got one. If any cats actually live in your house it might be an idea  to leave those ones alone—humans sometimes get a bit hysterical if you get rid of the resident felines. And if you tend to be a bit slow it might be an idea to get a faster friend to deal with the cats — cats are such dirty creatures any scratches they give you tend to get infected.

            Another tip—I’d leave the snakes alone unless you’re really sure you know what you’re doing.  I knew one dog who delighted in chasing, catching and eating the cockroaches that bred under the hibiscus tree where he lived. An acquired taste, I think, and he was a bull terrier cross, which possibly explains it!

I also knew a funny schnauzer who used to do the same to the crickets that were invading her home. She thought she was helping out, and she probably was doing a lot to cut down the numbers (she caught one hundred and eighty in a night when I was visiting!) but her humans laughed and laughed at her. Fortunately she was a puppy still, and had a thick skin as well, so her feelings were not hurt. Personally I think it is beneath a dog’s dignity to expose him/herself to such human mirth! 

Book Thoughts ...

http://myinspiredlife.com.au/finding-self-wisdom-through-dreams/

I recently had a dream about my book "Dig It! Gardening Tips For Dogs". When I say 'recently' it was a couple of months ago, and I wrote about the dream, and what I thought it meant in my life. Then I posted my thoughts to a wevsite I have done some writing for - My Inspired Life - a link to what I wrote is above, and here too.

I don't remember my dreams as often as I'd like to. I know I have dreams, and I know that at least sometimes I dream in full colour. I can vividly remember that a dream I had last week was in colour, but I simply can't remember what happened in the dream, just that it was colourful.

If I got into the habit of writing down my dreams as soon as I woke up, I'm aware that it would be easier for me to remember my dreams. I also know I'm probably never going to do that. Why would that be? I've thought about that, and I'm really not sure why. It may be because I don't want to disturb my husband if he's still asleep when I wake up. But he's more likely to wake up before me ...

Perhaps it's because I don't want to share my dreams, and if I was writing them down, my husband might want to know what I was doing. But I've written down my dreams and shared them with others before, either in real life, or online, so that doesn't follow seem to be true. It may be my innate laziness.

Whatever the reason is, it's a fact - I haven't begun doing in yet, and may never do it. If I do, what a great resource it may be! Creative writing ideas coming to me overnight, and waiting for me when I wake up in the morning - wonderful!

Do you remember your dreams? Have you learned things, or solved problems through dreaming about them? I'd love to know how other people feel about these things.

OK, It's Prize Time!

Hi readers, I've decided it's time to get some stories together from other people with dogs who love to do the gardening. I'm looking for honest tales from people, about your gardening dog. It could be one of those diggers, or a dog who loves to do the pruning, or it may be something else.

If you have a dog who loves being in the garden, and has quirky ways to do things in the garden, please share the story here! I'm offering a free signed copy of my book, "Dig It! Gardening Tips For Dogs" to the best tale I receive here. Entries close on the last day of October 2014.

I will announce the winner of the competition in November. Chosen entries may be put together in a collection, which will then be sold to interested readers! I'm excited about this competition, I hope everyone else is too!

If you'd like more information about this, feel free to contact me at this email address: kittycordo@gmail.com

Thank you, and send your doggy stories in to me!

Spring is Waking Up the Hounds!

Well, the sun is shining down (in between spring showers), and the dogs are leaving their sofa far more often, and venturing out to the garden. As I may have mentioned before, Buster is not a real dog, but the dogs he is based upon certainly are real dogs. They piss and shit, dig and race around, just like all dogs do.

Three of our dogs are Pharaoh Hounds, one of them a Standard Schnauzer. So this means the three hounds add chasing things into their mix of daily doings. The Schnauzer, being an older lady, and a sensible dog, leaves the chasing up to the leaner, crazier dogs... Schnauzers were originally created by German farmers to use as general farming dogs. So they were obedient and useful helpers. They were also child-friendly, earning the term 'Kinderwatcher', meaning child minder.

Pharaoh Hounds were originally named something else entirely, in their nation of origin - Malta. The Pharaoh Hound, or Kelb tal Fenek is the National Dog of Malta. They were used by farmers too, but weren't required to be obedient - their role was to hunt rabbits. Having owned this breed for over 10 years, I certainly know about their love on hunting!

Our Pharaohs will hunt any creatures that are available, outside. They've caught and killed lizards, birds, mice and at least one snake. Inside, they tend to ignore the mice, which is soooooo annoying! I've seen our pharaoh hounds snapping at flies, grasshoppers, butterflies and other assorted insects. And I've seen our Pharaoh Hound girls watching Air Force planes as they zoom by overhead ... It makes me wonder what they'd do if one ever landed here!

So, Spring is here, and the birds are all coming down with a dose of Spring Fever. The birds are so busy gathering nest building material, and engaging in the mating game, that I fear they're not always paying adequate attention to their safety. I suspect our hounds have been getting the odd bit of home killed meat, complete with feathers, here and there. I love birds, I love watching them, and it always makes me sorry when one of them falls victim to our dogs.

I love our dogs too, though, and I know it's perfectly natural for them to hunt and kill. The Laws of Nature can seem cruel, but that's just me beeing silly. Nature has many Rules and Laws, and I'm just one person, who is also subject to the Laws of Nature. I can only hope Nature continues to be kind to me, as I endeavour to be kind to Nature ...