Dog In The Yard, Oh No!

Miss Pepper is absolutely terrorizing my poor yard.  She loves to run through the flowerbeds, chew off branches, play keep away with the bushes, hiding her toy somewhere within its branches, then pouncing on it to re-claim her prize.  Crazy dog has really done a number on my yard.

 

Hoping to get a fence going sometime this season to give her access to the lake (so she can cool off when she needs to) and give her plenty of space to run, without doing figure eights through my flowerbed flinging mulch in all directions as she goes.

 

See those bare spots at the bottom of this bush.  I couldn't figure out why the limbs were turning brown and dying until I went a little closer.  Crazy dog has chewed off many of the lower branches.  She "plays" with the bush, using it to hide her toys.  I guess those bottom branches get in her way because she has systematically removed them all.

 

 Here's just a few of the branches.  There are three of these bushes and she runs through them, over them (straight into them at times) and has cleared herself a nice little running path.  I've never had a dog be so destructive in my landscaping, I am really surprised at how good things actually look because she's been just a tad hard on them.

 

 Here's one of my grasses that she hasn't destroyed yet but this is a perfect example of what she does with her "toys".  Yes, it's a sock, she steals them all the time and plants them in the bushes or grass and then proceeds to "attack" them, doing a number on the plant while she's at it.

 

 This is one of her favorites.  Normally, this is a beautiful grass, full and beautiful.  Not this year!

 

She LOVES Knockout Roses, go figure.  I've chopped them off at the ground before and they always come back but look at how she chews them off.  I was sure she'd killed this one.  All that gnawing was bound to let some type of disease in or kill off the plant somehow.  Shockingly enough, that rose is beautiful this year. 

 

 

 One final example of this crazy dog's love for my flowers:  

This is an indoor plant that she "nibbled" on.  Chewed off a huge beautiful limb.  I was so mad at her, but look at what it's doing, new baby limbs are sprouting out.  Wow!  Maybe she needs to chew off a limb every once in a while.

 

  I am hoping a larger space will help dissuade her and I'm sure a little training would be a good thing but really, I'd rather move it all and give her the yard than spend time trying to keep her out of it.  Lazy, yes, but there are so many other things to do in a day and so many other training needs that this one, really, is the least of my worries.  Now, if the fence, which will allow her access to all the rest of my flowerbeds, doesn't dissuade her and she rips into them, that might change my mind.

 

Does your dog do things like this in your yard?  How do you handle it?