I have been working hard to fix up my partner's garden and property since moving in with him, and he is more than happy to let me do it, and actually likes the results. My greyhound Achilles has a different opinion. He has let me know exactly how he feels about some of my choices in the yard decorations.
I have left the back area mostly alone so that the dogs have somewhere to play when we are not at the park where they can run. I'm actually talking about my dog and my brother's dog, who is half whippet and also loves to run. I had a small area where I chose to keep some largish smooth river rocks where I can stand and rinse off my shoes or feet after gardening, and Achilles disapproves! To tell me this, he waits until I'm watching him, then he walks over to the area in the corner of the patio where the rocks are placed in an area that is 2 foot by 2 foot, and then my drama queen dog works hard to position his 80 lbs self so he is standing with all 4 feet on the rocks, then looks at me with his head down and whimpers at me. He has the whole yard of grass and soft soil to stand on, but he does NOT want that little area of rocks off to the side, and he is going to stand there and tell me all about how much he dislikes those rocks. I can see him struggling to balance in that little area, so he is really working hard to make his point! Then when I shoo him away from the rocks, he gets a huge dog smile on his face and runs off to play with my brother's dog, Dusty.
The other point he has been showing his disapproval is in the Danish pinwheel yard decorations. When they are moving he watches them and refuses to go near them. The first time he stood about 3 feet away and sniffed at them, then he looked at me, looked at them, looked at me again and began to whimper. He repeated this a few times, before I lead his majesty away from them so he would quit acting like a nut! A few days later, one of the pinwheels was missing. I looked to see if it had been blown down somewhere, but nope not in the area. As I turn around, it was just in time to see Achilles grabbing one of the other pinwheels, and trotting off with it. I follow him, and watched him shove it under the couch cushion, NEXT to the other one! Then hop on the couch and lay right on top of them, and look at me as if to say, "HA! let's see the creepy moving thing spin NOW!" I love my dog, but he is a total primadonna!
Applestar, He thinks he hates the rocks now, wait until we build the dog bathing station in the backyard! He'll have a REAL reason to complain, LOL!
Marlingardener, I do have a cat, but he's more complacent than the dog! Houdini only bugs me when he wants me to sit down so he can lay on me. He has no complaints about the yard. However he does watch me and has this look on his face like he is trying to make sense of what I'm doing. "First you pull plants out of that spot...then you put plants back in that spot...MAKE UP YOUR MIND! Do you want plants there or not?!?"
Marlingardener, I do have a cat, but he's more complacent than the dog! Houdini only bugs me when he wants me to sit down so he can lay on me. He has no complaints about the yard. However he does watch me and has this look on his face like he is trying to make sense of what I'm doing. "First you pull plants out of that spot...then you put plants back in that spot...MAKE UP YOUR MIND! Do you want plants there or not?!?"