Subject: Re: garden+dog=yikes!

From: [email-masked] (Walter Vose Jeffries)
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 95 21:49:13 EST

In article <[email-masked]> (rec.gardens), [email-masked] (Dick Gilman) writes:
> if you have hunter
> breed dogs they are naturally going to go after the butterflys and
> birds in the garden.  It is their NATURE to do these things.  So
> either get a dog that is not in their nature to hunt, poodle, grey
> hound etc etc or get an electric fence, 

I _strongly_ disagree with you on this. We have a large dog
which loves to hunt. But, he was very easily trained _not_
to hunt in the gardens or go in them at all. He also is not
allowed in the greenhouse and is very obedient. It takes
training and training is far better than an electric
invisible fence in the long run. If you use the invisible
fence then he learns not to go in your garden but may go in
the neighbors, etc. If you train him not to go into
gardens, then he will stay out of yours, out of the
neighbors, etc and you will have developed a means of
communicating that can extend to other things in more
general terms. Our dog knows about 200 words at this point
which makes him able to do things with and for us. (e.g.,
when we are working in the woods on the sugaring lines we
can give him tools to carry to someone else or have him go
get things. He loves it.) Every dog I've ever had has loved
learning and being able to communicate. They want to
please. Dogs, like children, should be well trained and the
investment pays off well later.

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