I have lived at my current home for 28 years. In that time, I have had the extreme pleasure of having 3 German Shorthaired Pointers, a west Highland White Terrier, and our current extended family - a toy and a standard Poodle as my friends and companions. All the dogs were loved to the Nth degree and never mistreated in any way. That said, one of the first commands these dogs were taught is "NO". They are made to understand that when their behavior is unacceptable, the "NO" command means STOP IMMEDIATELY and that if they do not stop, I am immediately ready to make them stop. Each of these dogs was trained as a puppy to stay OUT of the gardens. I'll probably get in trouble for saying this, but, if your dog(s) will not obey your command, the dog is training you to be subordinate in the pack. Your dog must know exactly who is boss and that it is not him/her. I can raise my hand as though I was going to hit my dogs, or pull back my foot as though I was going to kick them and they will not respond by flinching or cowering because they are never abused. While training the dogs I use a 4 ft piece of dowel rod as an aid. I do not strike the dogs, I only use it to tap the dogs for attention or to move their position. Often, I only tap the ground for attention. The dogs recognize the training aid as a symbol of dominance - even though I never strike them. When I pick it up, the dogs are immediately attentive. Tapping the stick on the ground or carpet has about the same effect as an alpha dog growling at a subordinate. Our dog's main fault is they think everyone is their friend come over to play. If you came to my home, they would want to nudge you to solicit pets. If I tell them no & they forget or ignore the command, I simply pick up the stick without saying anything. The dogs immediately are reminded they are subordinate and give up their aberrant behavior. This is not cruel, nor does it cause your dog to shun or hate you. Our dogs are extremely loving, seeking our constant companionship, and have no fear of being "punished". A stern word puts them in a submissive posture and anxious to please, unlike many other dogs I've seen that are obviously afraid of being struck. From this you can gather that my advice is to establish yourself as pack leader and never give a command you are not immediately in position to insure the dog will comply with. Al

You need to fence them off for a while. And if you're using organic ferts (as asked above), don't do so whenever the dog has access to such plantings. My dogs can dig up organic fertilized plants faster than I can put them in the ground. My veggie bed is now fenced off. And other plants don't need fertilizer in our clay-based soil.

We don't have dogs of our own only cats and fish. We live in the city and the "parkway strip" although it belongs to the city because of access to water and gas stuff most gardeners plant it up with something if only grass. We are trying to have grass. Two people down the street insist on walking with their two dogs on our strip of grass. We have asked them nicely to please keep their dogs off the grass. their response - "It's not your property it belongs to the city you don't pay taxes on it" Who do they think plants the grass and mows it and waters it? I'm all for planting cactus. My husband is determined to have grass. These two jerks have trained their dogs to use our grass and trees as fire hydrants and they get a big kick out of it when their dogs kick all the mulch onto the sidewalk for us to clean up. I'm afraid that my husband is going to have a stroke literally. He now has to take valium to get to sleep because they have him so worked up. Any suggestions short of shoting these two jerks? Thanks, Rosalie

Good luck asking her to keep them home...if it works, please come ask my neighbors to keep their dogs home- they poop in the yard, drag stuff out of its place in the barn, bit my dog and myself.... Anyway- there is a product that you put in the soil- I'm sure someone here will know the name- it is supposed to repel dogs and cats also, I think. I'd hate to use mothballs, as they stink to us and I do not know if mothballs really work. Can you temporarily put rocks/shells- something like that so the cat can't dig in the dirt to 'cover-up'? If it can't 'cover', it might not want to use it as a litterbox??? Spray the cat with a waterhose if you are able to...might make it think twice..