That has been a question asked by many people for many years. There has been many remedy ideas thrown around and very few of them I have had good results with. Moth balls, Hot pepper powder, shooting water, all these things don’t give good results.

We have two issues going on; Lora’s problem is the neighbor’s dogs are coming over and killing her bushes. Other people have their own dog’s killing their bushes.

Dogs are creatures of habit. My operations manager at my garden center was/is a dog trainer for the last 24 years and I asked him what solutions he had for this problem. He gave me the answer of training them to not use the bushes as a bathroom. If the dog is yours and you have lots of time to train, then using a shock collar or a citronella collar works well. Every time you let the dog out, you watch for him to hike and then you shock. If you are consistent, then the dog will start associating the bushes as a bad thing and will stay away. The citronella collar, instead of shocking will put off a mist of spray, and dogs hate citronella scent.

Now, for Lora’s problem of neighbor’s dogs. She obviously cannot use a collar on those dogs, so what are her options? Well, according to my friend, she needs to invest about $40 in an above ground electric fence. They are designed for dogs and you set them up around the perimeter of the shrubs. Let the dog pee on an electric fence and I would say that after the second time, your problem will be solved. Remember, dogs are creatures of habit, once he associates peeing on that bush as painful, he will not come back. Then you can remove the fence and sell it to a neighbor to get your money back!!