Man(or woman)'s best friend -OR- the mortal enemy of the mounted orchid

[DirtyCoconuts]

hahaha none in my yard but i think that is because the beasts patrol and keep them away in general.

i do hope the cold does cull their numbers a bit...they have become a nuisance and the only way to keep them in check is cold and it has not been cold here in a few years.....

[DirtyCoconuts]

due to an unfortunate blanket accident, Pete has lost his ears, and the majority of his fur, ()
Little treasure by J Solo, on Flickr


fortunately, my daughter is a master prosthetics maker and outfitted him with these

Little treasure by J Solo, on Flickr

he's adjusting fine

[WaterWitchin]

Oh Good Golly! What a treat! I had a german shorthair for my first dog, given to me around three. That poor dog was dressed in clothes, I'd put into my old baby carriage (remember baby carriages anyone?) and I'd push him down the sidewalk in his carriage. Looking back, that was by far the most patient dog I've ever owned. Wish I had pictures of Poochie in his dog carriage.

[JScott]

I don't have any mounted orchids, but I do have to daschunds who are just about a year old who are brothers from the same litter. One morning, I got out of bed, went into the kitchen (my artificial grow light setup is in the kitchen in front of a big bay window), and I found orchids strewn all about the house. There was potting media everywhere, empty pots, disembodied tags, plants out of their pots on the floor, plants with leaves chewed off; it was about the biggest mess I'd ever seen. We'd had the dogs for several months by then, and they had never bothered the orchids before. They can only reach the ones on the bottom shelf, and I guess they decided that morning it might be fun to play orchid massacre. I got the mess cleaned up, got the plants back in the pots, and I think I got all the tags in the right pots. They only managed to irreparably destroy three plants, and one of them was a plant I had two of, and the other two are common ones that I could easily replace. So at least there's that. They didn't destroy anything expensive (I paid like 80 bucks for Rechingerara Honky Tonk Woman, and I paid 75 for Cattleya skinneri 'Carpenteria', and I have a few others I probably paid in excess of 70 or 80 dollars for). The three plants they completely killed probably cost less than 20 dollars each. I was so mad tho. I could have murdered those dogs that morning. But I didn't, becuause I love them, and murdering dogs is a serious crime. But I took some metal things that you are supposed to stick in the ground along the perimeter of a fence to keep dogs from digging under the fence, and I lined those up around all the side of that bottom shelf. They could knock those things down and get to the plants if they really wanted to, but I guess they don't want it bad enough to put any effort into it, and they haven't bothered the plants since. So yes, to answer the question, I think it can be both. Dogs are man's best friend, but they can also be the mortal enemy of our Orchids.

[DirtyCoconuts]

i think that all dog owners are familiar with that moment....the what the F@^$ did you do!!!
where white hot rage fills your body and then you see those remorseful eyes, ears tucked so tight that it looks like they are wearing a skull cap...and you just give them a stern talking to and start cleaning LOL

---------- Post added at 11:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:19 AM ----------

WW- that sounds EPIC...my Bubby had one of those carriages at her house and we had so much fun with it...it had four HUGE springs for shocks and we figured out that also allowed it to handle some decent holes and bumps on the summer sledding hill!!!

we DESTROYED that thing

[Leafmite]

What lovely dogs!

We currently have a sixteen year old American Eskimo who has always been too lazy to ever attack plants and the Orchid Destroyer, the twelve-year old Maltese-poodle mix. She is pictured with one of the orchids that, two years later, she completely shredded.
Our Eskie just loved people...all people but she would have given her life for any child. She has let toddlers practice learning to walk with her help, not minding at all that they had tight grip of her fur just because she loved children so much. We could take her anywhere and she would always be affectionate with everyone she met. She has always been very laid back (even sleeping while people would step over her to deliver packages or ring our doorbell for a visit). Now that she has Canine Cognitive Disorder, she remains the friendly, laid back dog she has always been...she just doesn't know who anyone is anymore.
The Malti-poo is...an imp.

[DirtyCoconuts]

hhahaha the Imp!!!

your Eskie is adorable too, you are lucky that they are calm and placid in their senility...a friend had to put down an otherwise (relatively) healthy dog because she did not know or trust anyone and was always terrified....awful

[Leafmite]

I know that we are lucky. She is even happy most of the time.... When she started going in circles and all the other stuff, we were quite worried and the vet even said that we should consider having her put to sleep. But, thankfully,her nature is to her advantage. It is hard, though, to see how fast she is going downhill (we started noticing changes nearly two years ago).

Love your dog, too!

[Diane56Victor]

We have recently got a puppy. This was Holly at 16 weeks.
She is a broken coated Jack Russell Terrier. Lively little thing and smart as a whip! Taught her to high 5 in just 2 hours. She already had down, sit, stand sorted.
I had planned to tske her to the local obedience classes for social interaction but they have been cancelled due to Covid 19.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

he's adjusting fine

Looks like a very nice gentle giant!

Man,Woman, Boys and Girl's best friend. With some training, he will be known as Orchid Guardian.