keeping the pup away from the plants

our new puppy nola has eaten several of our little plants on the balcony, and we're not pleased. we've put up a "barrier" by laying a chair on its side to keep her away, but we move it for ten minutes and she's mangled two of our morning glory seedlings. does anybody know of anything we can put in the dirt perhaps to detract her? or some other suggestion perhaps? we certainly scold her, but it would be nice to let her walk around the plants without worrying for them...

 

some plants can be very poisenous to dogs so you might want to research that and make sure the plants you have within her reach are OK. how do you scold her? spanking (if you personally believe in that) is never a good or nice thing to do and has never taught a dog anything except to fear their humans. not good. the way i "scold" my dog is i just clap my hands together and give a firm "no no" and she seems to respond to that well. i cannot think of anything you could put on the plant without actually killing it......but puppies are puppies and will get into just about everything.....alot of times there is nothing you can do about it. perhaps when she is older she will mellow out some but with a puppy things like that are to be expected. you can always build a little square fence around your plants to keep her out. my plants were all dug up by my dog lily so i just decided not to plant anymore.....it's just too tempting for her. if i was a dog i'd probably want to eat and dig up the plants too. also at petsmart they sell "dog and cat grass" which are made to be eaten. she may be simply trying to get some fiber into her diet so that might be a good alternative.

 

by scolding we use the low stern no, like a momma dog barking at her. if she makes a mess in the house we'll usually put her in the bathroom until we clean it up... kinda like a time out i guess. we don't think physical punishment is ever called for. as for the plants i guess we'll just have to keep up our "barrier" since all we have is a little balcony and potted plants.

 

What about buying like some kind of tall "stand" thing to set the plants up on. like a really tall table like thing. i've seen them before but i dont know what they are called. that way the dog cannot reach them. or you can hang them with the macrame nets.........

 

spray the plant with some sour or bitter taste and the pup will probably leave it alone

 

One method that works on cats and maybe dogs (?) is using a water bottle. It does not hurt them but they HATE it. I have never had to use it except once on my dog and he didn't respond to it, but it was a situation where he had a lot of adrenalyn and a bit of water wasn't going to help.
I do not believe in spanking animals, especially formerly abused animals. Water is more humane. A "NO!" can work wonders though.