Dog Damage

[boondog]

Here are two Windmill Palms I bought to plant in my backyard. My lab pup decided they would be good to chew on and I was wondering if the fronds would grow back? Will this put the tree in jeopardy in any way?

Thanks for any info,

Roger

[boondog]

Here's another one.

[Tad]

you should be ok, it will look RUFF for a while but i think you will pull through.

ok, that was way lame but I just couldnt resist

[STEVE IN SO CAL]

Roger....A Livistona Saribus would break that dog from petiole chewing.

[Kris]

Dear Roger  

that does not seem to be a problem,but make arrangements

such as fencing or wire mesh around it.

since tommarrow it will visit this palm once again.and next

attempt will be to destroy the rug like cloth that covers &

binds all the leaves bottom giving the needed support for the palm structure.

i lost 2 well grown Pritchardia Sp.due to dogs chewing it

when ever they are left free..

your palm condition does not look so bad at all,there is lots

of hope provided you start protecting it rightaway !  

Love,

kris.

[Patrick]

I'm voting for the Livistona fix-it! They ought to have a chinensis down at a nursery near you right now! But definitely look for the saribus....

[DoomsDave]

ROGER!!

A Palm Board Greeting to you!  Welcome to our large but happy family of totally insane palm fanatics.   We're all mad, and comfortable with the fact.  Here you are safe from the men, women and hermaphrodites in the white suits who, at the behest of family, might come to take you away . . .

Ah, yes.  

You have the Perennial Puppy Problem.  They chew, and big pups -- gadzooks!

Way back in prehistoric times I adopted a German Shepherd, about a year old at the time.  Grown, mostly, but still very much a puppy at heart.

Aww, she was as sweet as a pie, with melty brown eyes, and she liked to stick her head under your arm so you could put her in a hammerlock around her thick, furry neck.  

She was also as destructive as the [expletive expletive expletive] Huns!  She chewed EVERYTHING.  

Seriously.

Rubber tires, plastic screwdriver handles, bags of manure, shoes, and -- ROSE BUSHES!  I kid you not!  I wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it.  It cut up her mouth and tongue and she bled and she didn't seem to care.

Bet a Livistona or Washie wouldn't faze your pup one bit, while it's going through the fanatic chewing stage.

I'll bet that your pup probably oberserved you engaging in some interactions with you chewee palm, like planting it, or trimming off leaves, or even weeding around it.

My pup bonded to me immediately, and she seemed to think that any object I interacted with (i.e., handled, touched, etc.) was okay as a toy for her.  

I was able to get her to not chew on the plants by not interacting with the plants in her presence.  Whenever I planted anything, I confined her out of sight.  (Yeah, she cried, arff!  awhooo, etc., but this was for her own good, too.)  When I did that, she stopped chewing.

I confirmed my observations with an experiment; I made a big point of planting an expendable shrub in her presence; she promptly dug it out and chewed it.  I put her in the house, and planted another right next to the first and she ignored it.

Also, as my dog got older, she made more discriminating choices.  And I got her a giant beef bone from a Vietnamese grocery (cow femur) for her to chew on, which she did, delightedly.  Why chew on a palm when you have a delicious animal part?  Yummy!  MMmph, oomph, crunch crunch, etc.

As time went on, the plants became part of the "furniture" of my dog's world and she lost interest in chewing them.  I had her confined in a big yard, with plenty of things to bark at, so she didn't get bored and chew to keep from losing her marbles like some dogs do.

If your pup's really young, you'll have a period of about a couple of years while it gets over chewing.  Meantime, you'll need to protect the plants.  You might, unfortunately, have to confine the pup if you have to leave it alone, which I didn't like with my dog, but it was necessary.

How old is your dog?

In any case, I hope this helps.

Dave

[boondog]

OK, here's the rest of the story.

I planted two mediteranian fan palms about a year ago, we got the Lab pup last september. She promptly made short work of those but never touched a kumquat tree in a pot. After the initial damage I fenced around the palms and she ignored them for awhile but eventually as she got bigger she went thru the fence and chewed some more. Then, after I took the fence away she didn't chew them anymore. The Meds are looking better now and I wanted more palms (which seems like the norm once you get a couple) and I thought her plant chewing might be over. I got the windmills and put them, still in their pots, where I planned on planting them. The first day I was able to watch her and when she would start smelling them I would tell her no and she would walk away. The next morning I let her out and went to work and so did she. The thing is she knows she's done wrong but she can't seem to help herself. I now have the palms in the back yard but up on my trailor and she could easily get to them but she hasn't. I'm hoping she's getting used to having them in her yard and will ignore them when I move them back to their final destination. But, I will take precautions when I do move them. I'm really glad that the damage is not fatal.

Thanks for the info, and I'll probably use the Tarraw solution just because it's a good excuse to get another palm.

Roger

Down by Houston

[STEVE IN SO CAL]

Don't rule out a shock collar (or as I call it, the "Edison Medicine")

Set the dog up to chew, then correct with the collar. They think the plant bit back...that's how I snake break my dogs, with a dead rattlesnake. Sounds mean, but it's not. A mother dog will correct its pups by biting them, usually in the neck area. The E collar recreates this...

[Jim in Los Altos]

Steve's right. Your pup needs some good training in order to discourage him from chewing. Labs love to chew and, in my experience, they do for their entire lives so a shock collar is probably in order. I researched a lot before my last puppy adoption six years ago and ended up with a collie. He worked out as planned and never chewed on, sat on, walked on, or even tinkled on a single palm or other plant in my yard without special training in the past six years.  My golden retriever, God rest his soul, was the opposite and I gave up on a nice landscape until his passing.

Your Trachies should recover fine in the coming months. I had to saw several volunteer ones down to the ground and just left enough of them to make a nice grove on a hill but the ones cut to the ground kept resprouting for a couple of years: they're very resilient palms!

[CrazyPalm]

 

My 6 month old puppy decided (suddenly) that it would be a great idea to RIP the life out of my palm. I found the base kind of shredded and possibly the heart in bits all over the yard. I taped the base up as much as I could. Any ideas if this palm will make it? What should I do? So sad - this was a gorgeous palm and only in the last few months started to really grow. It's been in the ground for years -- just sitting there....

Thanks for any help/ advise.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JLM]

@CrazyPalm Welcome to PT! I wish your first post was a much happier post.

If you found the heart of the palm shredded in the yard, this palm is no more. Once the heart is gone the palm cannot survive.

[doubravsky]

I struggled with this when our 4 year old chocolate lab came- she actually ate an entire banana plant - and ripped out some palms. I ended up getting a Sportdog brand collar that is a combination barrier and training collar. wired the garden so she doesn't go in and get the palms, and use the training collar to train for desired behaviors. Worked well and saved the garden. Now, she only wears the collar once every few weeks to ensure she doesn't "forget" her limits.  

[CrazyPalm]

@JLM - thank you! I will be sure to post some happier palm posts....after I get over this disaster....My husband did say to me last night that if the heart is gone, the palm is no more. I couldn't quite bring myself to take that in - - but now I guess I have no choice. Oh well - i will keep her taped up and see what happens over the next few weeks. 

 

@doubravsky - indeed - - I didn't post what my pup has been doing to the bananas. She leaps and tears down entire leaves. I will certainly think about that dog collar...thank you for the suggestion/idea.

[WaianaeCrider]

13 hours ago, CrazyPalm said:

 

My 6 month old puppy decided (suddenly) that it would be a great idea to RIP the life out of my palm. I found the base kind of shredded and possibly the heart in bits all over the yard. I taped the base up as much as I could. Any ideas if this palm will make it? What should I do? So sad - this was a gorgeous palm and only in the last few months started to really grow. It's been in the ground for years -- just sitting there....

Thanks for any help/ advise.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I "once" had a dog that did stuff like that.  "once"  got rid of him after he wouldn't stop.