Hi.I am hoping to get my first Utonagan puppy in early November and I can't wait. I have enjoyed reading the various posts on this site but am now rather worried about my garden. No, not that it may well be full of holes, I know they love to dig but rather that they seem to eat plants too. Some could be poisionous.........what have others done about this.
Joce

hi and welcome.
yes they do love digging when babies and do tend to trim the plants up for you,
yes some plant are dangerous ive takern them ones out if i had any but the ones i have got dont seem to do them any harm.
they mainly just like pulling them out

do watch out they are collectable i started with 1 merlin now got 2 more as well mia and shadow., merlin and shadow are litter mates and mia is sister to cariad and lona.

Hi Joce
I got Timber my ute puppy 6 weeks ago he's 15 weeks now he has been really good in the garden and hasn't dug up or eaten any plants. He is completely obsessed with tennis balls and chews them up regularly but other than that he's really good outside. I totally agree with Carol about them being collectable though we are already thinking of another one in the future. Timber has fitted into our lives so easily house training was a breeze these dogs really are unique and very loveable. So be prepared to fall deeply and madly in love with this breed

When I first got my puppy she didn't touch the garden at all. When she was a bit older I let her outside with me when I was doing some weeding, now she thinks she can give me a helping hand and always digs up the area that she knows I have been working on.
Recently I haven't bothered doing any weeding as my garden looks better when I don't lol

Hiya Joyce, lovely to hear from you. Don't worry too much about your pup, just make sure you have it well fenced as they are real escape artists when they want to be. You will really enjoy him/her, they are a fantastic breed and very loyal and loving, so that more than makes up for the holes dug in the garden, and the chewed underwear and other things

Hi Joce,
glad that you found us [ it is me, Lyn B. ], I am looking forward to meeting you both . Hope you like the site as it is a nice friendly one. I like the openess and honesty and of course I get to see my grown up babies aswell as their babies growing up [Michelle,s pup is one of the latter ]. My pups are getting bigger by the day now, can you believe that they will be 3wks on wednesday! I will be putting some more pics up of them this week.
Speak soon.

Hi Lyn...I thought I had found every site about Utonagans on the web but only found this one yesterday. It does seem a nice firendly site and less'political' than some! I will know where to come for advice if we should get a puppy. Gosh I hope we do after all of the reading I have done in preparation!!

I can't help looking at my three lovely peaceful cats and thinking your world is going to turn upside down soon. Just hope they eventually all get along. My youngest cat loves to go for walks and is about the same colour as Harrison so they could make an interesting pair of walking companions.

Looking forward to meeting you to but looking forward to meeting the puppy more lol
Bye for now
Joce

oh he or she will get on good with the cats my merlin [ sulin hokee] just loves our ferrets, shadow, merlin's sister is not bothered by them at all and mia [sulin miakoda tala] has only just noticed them
merlin was up stairs the other day with rebekka i didnt no but badger the ferret was in there as well and merlin was washing him then trying to following badger round the room

your pup will be half sister or brother to mine mostly merlin and shadow and they are nearly 19 months old mia is about 3/half, lyn'sbeen great help with advice and telling me who's who to which dogs and who's got this and that wrong or not, and is always on the end of the phone for any reason you need to talk to anyone,
and ive finally got all the health test back after waiting a long time it seems for them.
glad to say they are all very very healthy dogs and good results on the tests.

your have so much to look forward to with your pup your wonder why you never got one years ago like i did and so glad got mine from lyn couldnt have picked better

, That is such a nice thing to say Carol, thankyou .
Like Tawney said, dont worry too much Joce. we have all been there and would not part with them for the world dispite their shanannigans.

I second Carol, Lyn is a tower of strength to me, I know I can call on her at any time if there is the slightest hint of a problem and she will give me the answer virtually instantaneously, we are so lucky to have her there for us.

That is good to know about Lyn. I am sure I will have lots of questions when the time comes!!

Hi Michelle, your pup looks adorable, but he will want to landscape your garden one
day! I have a two year old rescue 'Mishka' good as gold for the first few month's went into the garden one morning and thought a Timber Jack had been in!!

She had dug up some bushes, chewed some young shrubs up, and dug about four holes!! Have managed to calm this behaviour down a bit(not much) and have
stopped putting new plants in(a lot easier!)

However just a word of advice, please do keep an eye on your pup with the
tennis balls, my other dog Tammy loves toys, balls in particular, she did
unfortunately get half of a tennis ball blocking her intestine and had to have an
emergency op to save her life, she survived but I still have to keep a look out
for her with balls. I should hate for this to happen to your pup.

But I wish you many years of fun and joy with your Ute, they are so
very special.

Kind regards
Gill

Well now not sure what I would do. Are you saying that these dogs will ruin your garden and you just accept it?? Should this behaviour be corrected and stopped? Over to you more experienced owners. My instinct would not be to accept something I did not like but in the case of digging holes.........would this be correct??

They seem to dig holes instinctively and it is very difficult because they just literally go for it like machines and within a few minutes you have a very deep hole. They love to eat grass and other vegetation as well, mine love blackberries, they are raw fed and have pureed veg with their food as well as eating bananas and carrots. I think you will find they are very different from other breeds in many ways and you have to be very open minded and aware of this. They are extremely intelligent, I have often told German Shepherd owners that a Ute will run circles round them and I can tell they don't believe me, then a while later they tell me I am right.
What breeds of dogs do you have experience with.

Just a mongrel and a Border Collie. They can be quite demanding!! Are Uts more demanding than a border collie do you think?