The Garden Dog: Man's Best Friend in the Permaculture System

I've spent a lot of time researching permaculture and while animals are taught to be an important part of a permaculture system, dogs are generally not seen as terribly important aspects.  Dogs are uncommonly talked about, but important part of a (my) permaculture system.  Especially when you raise them from a puppy, a dog can be brought up to be a help to a good working system, even if only in small ways.  When I got Rebel, I resolved that because I'm a farmer, he'd get to know the garden.  Here we are over a year later and I've developed what I like to call the Garden Dog.

Everyone knows dogs love to chew, it's in their nature.  Rebel has always been especially chewy so I had him chewing on sticks and wood pretty much immediately.  He also took to butane caps as they were around, everywhere and REALLY fun for him and his puppy sister.  The red shards in the pictures are the remains of butane caps, a habit he isn't interested in shedding from his puppy hood. My floor looks pretty similar to this just about every morning, sometimes worse if Tequila gets scrappy and decides to chew a stick or a toilet paper roll.  I've given him paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls since puppy hood, he both shreds them and eats them depending on his mood. 

This is an example of what I sweep up just about every day.  This is great for compost, or mulch (which eventually composts).  Depending on broken glass content (my glass shop is in my kitchen, glass gets everywhere) I may put this pile outside in the compost pile, or mulch an area that doesn't get much attention. 

He gets upset every morning when I sweep, I think it has something to do with him spreading his scent around.  As a wolf mix, his scents are very important to him.  His wolfy odor does matter too, as he'll drive dogs I'm normally friendly with away from me just by me being covered in his smell. Interesting times with a wolf dog. Rebel is useful in this manner because he keeps chickens and other dogs at a distance, partially because they aren't interested in crossing paths with an animal that sort of smells like a wolf.  When he gets out, you can tell because every dog in the neighborhood starts shrieking, no joke. 

He's spent a lot of time outside with me gardening at this point, his favorite things to do are to weed and to dig.  He likes pulling plants out of the ground, so when he notices I want certain ones pulled, he'll get right in there and do it for me, acting like he's killing something in the process.  I've trained my dog to weed, but this has another darker side to it.  He's got an affinity for ripping plants out of the ground by the stalk, which he has occasionally done to my vegetable plants when angry.  If you're dog is spiteful, reconsider teaching him to weed.  I came up with the term Chomp and Drop for his weeding style, a fun play on the permaculture phrase chop and drop, which refers to chopping foliage and dropping it on the ground as mulch.

One obvious one is that they fertilize the garden, both with pee and poop.  Urine is sterile but a bit strong, so we don't let the dogs pee in the garden, only nearby.  Fecal matter is just fine to use composted, so we have the dogs go to areas we intend to farm in awhile from now, to give things adequate time to compost. They're returning lots of nutrients to the slightly eroded hillside. 

Rebel has diggin in his genes, as his Mom is a husky wolf mix, and huskies are known to be diggers.  He mainly does it to get dig a pit to hang out in hot days, but if he's outside while I'm digging he'll try and take over to dig himself.  I generally let him.  This is another cool trait that can be trained, but it also has a dark side.  A dog that loves to dig might do so wherever he wants including your garden.  I let Rebel dig in special areas when playing and whenever I'm gardening and digging, I'll let him get his fill where I'm digging.  It doesn't take much to keep him out of the garden beds.  

Both Rebel and Tequila are avid bug killers, and I appreciate them for it.  Rebel is the best though, because he likes to play with them while he kills with him.  Not only that, but he grins at them with his teeth, like a human, and pokes them with his nose while smiling.  He uses his paws to smack them around, growling and making yipping noises.  Eventually he stamps down too hard and smashes the bug.  After smelling it to ensure it's dead, he walks away.  Tequila gets to the point and eats them, but Rebel leaves just about every one.  Sylvester comes in after him though to eat them, so they never go to waste. 

Having a dog in the garden has its drawbacks, like when Rebel goes trampling through freshly transplanted corn or Tequila poops next to a tomato plant.  Sometimes I catch Tequila or Rebel stealing tomatoes, something I see becoming more of a problem with more food.  Dogs with long tails WILL kill your weed plants, so if you're a cannabis grower with a scrappy pitbull, keep them away from your plants! 

Honestly though, properly trained they really are a great help and they're a lot of fun to have around.  Anytime I'm doing anything gardening related around Rebel, even planting seeds, he'll end up face in front of mine staring at what I'm doing with the most interested look.  He makes me think he's a kid when he does that, like he's super interested in learning what the hell I'm doing.  At this point he's realized I'm producing food, he's just working on figuring out how. When I throw weeds through the air and he runs after them doing backflips to catch them, I can't help but smile.  Sure, they can be destructive, but dogs sure are a fun and useful fixture in the garden.