Just Hanging out

Beautiful day today.  Big male leaves in a couple days so I wanted to get another picture of him.  Do you notice how tight his ear set is. They are touching at the top! Absolutely totally natural, untouched ears.

Fun in the "Grasslands" and having dogs in the yard

Both girls are on the left and the boy is on the right.  

We have a grouping of Carex "Frosty Curls" beneath a Sweet Gum tree that the dogs, both puppies and adults, love to roll and play in.  The grass doesn't look pristine, but it looks pretty darn good considering all the dogs roll around in it.  I use other evergreen grasses, sedges, and heathers to border my flower beds to make a little boundary.  I also have several temporary fences that help protect more delicate plants until they get established.  Sometimes, I'll fence off a plant if I find the dog's can't resist it (right now, that's a Princess Diana rose that is getting chewed down to the ground by the puppies).  There are so many garden plants that will make your puppy/dog sick that it's a good idea to discourage eating of plants by your puppy/dog/cat. Having sidewalks and raised flower beds also helps keep your dog out of the flower beds and out of trouble.

Also, a warning that weed killers, herbicides, Glyphosate (Roundup and generics), insecticides, fungicides, fertilizers, etc. can have very harmful effects on your dog (and kids).  If you must use these, keep the dogs out of the area for several days.  Shelties love to lick their feet and legs and ingest these chemicals when they do.  Also keep the dogs away from any slug bait (use beer in a tuna can to trap instead or go out at night with a pair of scissors and flashlight and cut the slugs in half...yuk but it works).   Use organic fertilizers on your lawn and hand pull weeds.  A healthy, weed free lawn needs plenty of sun, water and organic fertilizer (1" of compost added on top every Fall).