Good news, I've just invested in some nice clay pots!

Chew that, dog! Hahahahaha!

Surprisingly enough, the dogs may chew on them... I have Goldens and if they get bored, they chew... make sure they have plenty of bones and toys to chew... just learned from experience that clay pots don't mean a thing :)
Brittany

Brittany, really? Chew on clay pots?

What is wrong with dogs? :)

We went out the other day and got them lots of toys and nylabones and it seems to be helping the chewing problem. I've also moved all of my meaningful plants to the side garden and we built them a doghouse to say in when the dog run goes up (soon hopefully..). I am not ready to give up gardening in the backyard!!!

Thanks for your input, I never would have thought they'd chew on a clay pot, but I wouldn't put it past them!!!

I hear your cry. Dogs and plants do not mix. I have lost many a plant from housemates dogs. I now live without one, and it is sheer delight. I like dogs, but not more than my plants. good luck.

It's the breed... but I hope you've gotten it figured out. We built a dog run and it helped a lot... good luck. Were you able to recover some of your plants.
Brittany

Yes Brittany, I have figured out it's the breed. But they are good pups and I love them, so the dog run is the next thing on the to do list (a list that is already pretty long...).

I was able to save two of the plumies and my Russian Sage. So that's good news. And the pups have been much better behaved since we built the house and got them TONS of new toys. I havne't come home to no water in the pond since.

Thanks for your input guys.

I feel your pain! We had a yellow lab puppy, papered with champion blood line, that a friend of my husbands GAVE to my kids several years ago. He chewed everything in sight, refused to be housebroken, ate the furniture, and finally the last straw came when he laid on the bottom bunkbed in my sons room and dug a hole through the wall so that he could stick his head out into the hallway without having to get up. I gave him to a kennel that trains hunting dogs, and they were thrilled to get him! We have a rottweiler now, and he is pretty good about chewing. Except when he gets upset with me for one thing or another. Then he goes for my gardens! If he get shut outside when everyone else is inside, he will drag my potted plants all over the yard. Plastic, clay--even metal! It doesn't matter. I have a couple of square metal planters that have teeth marks in them from one of his tantrums. I recently lost one of my prized plumeria babies, and I suspect he played some guilty part in its demise. It just flopped over and died in its pot one day. Maybe he peed on it? I don't know. But hang in there...I hear that lab pups outgrow the chewing thing---when they are about four years old!!

Hollywog, a hole in the wall?!?!

I think I'd have fallen over if I found that. Oh my goodnesss, that's horrible but super funny at the same time!!!!

hi all. i lurk here occasionally, rarely post. i've had dogs of all varieties all my life but i have never seen anything like a lab/labmix for being destructive. someone gave us a 5 yr old hunt-trained lab last year. she is a delightful dog in most ways - except....she has completely destroyed one bed of roses/iceplants in its second year - destroyed is actually putting it mildly - demolished, annihilated. a 4'wX8'l bed has been transformed into a gutter about 2' deep. she did it all in one day. a 6 yr old rose with coloration not unlike kasie's 'kauka wilder' pictured in the gallery - laying on the ground in 108 degree temps! most plants chewed to bits! along with deck posts, clay pots, and anything else she can manage to get ahold of! we have tried everything short of locking her inside an air conditioned house while away...and probably would have had we not feared the condition of priceless heirlooms upon return. i've come to believe that a run is the only solution. argghh.
lesson: dont assume a lab will 'outgrow' this tendency.
Jo

Roxy-
Looking back (five or six or maybe seven years later, now) it was kind of funny! Can you possibly get any lazier than that? He wanted to see who was coming down the hall (we usually use the door from the garage when we come in) but he didn't want to have to get up to do it. My son slept on the top bunk, and as it was darker underneath we didn't even notice that dog doing it until we walked in and saw his head sticking through the wall. That picture makes me laugh now--but as we weren't even all the way finished with our house at the time, it was SOOO not funny back then!! (Upside--at least we still had all the sheetrock mud and other 'patching' materials laying around!)

Someone told me that there are hunting labs and show bench labs, I, fortunately, must have gotten one of the latter. It only took her 6 years to stop destroying my garden for sport. She's 9 now and only buries bones, rifles through trash bins and steals food off the table when my back is turned. She has alot of virtues and I have no regrets despite the long puppy stage. Working dogs need a job to do or they create "work" for themselves, LOL.

I only took the time to skim through these posts so dont know if the answer has been addressed.
Any animal will find something to entertain itself when it becomes bored. If you have a problem with destructive dogs you can bet on boredom as the root cause. Most, if not all, of the breeds mentioned generally want and need human companionship. If left alone, even for a short time, they will entertain themselves with what they can find. I leave it to you to figure out something that will keep them entertained and away from your precious items.

Omgeeee! i think we have the same dog 🤣 Hes recently eaten several stems from my plants. mine are 7’ tall & bushy but he wont stop. so annoying. he digs at the roots too & not anywhere else in my yard - just my precious prized plumerias. just discussed a dog run to my husband tonight.