Alison wrote:

"William Clodius" wrote in message
...
A friend from when I frequently volunteered at the shelter has sent me
an old photo of me at the dog park with many dogs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3008183...et-72157607679
976492/

What lovely dogs! Why were treats banned at the park?

There was a fear that treats would cause resource guarding, which in
turn would cause dog fights. That can happen if the person with the
treats doesn't insist that the dogs calm down before they get them. It
didn't happen with me and was rare with others. While I have seen fights
at the park they have been more often over dominance issues


I have added photo of our new garden, mostly off topic but Smoky appears
in some of them
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3008183...7624380061994/

Nice garden. That must have taken a lot of planning.
Al
Thanks.

Our landscape architect took about a month to prepare his plans, but I
think we weren't the only project he was working on at that time. I
decided that his plan for the patio was too large and had the landscaper
put in the western wall garden. The landscaper decided the east wall
would be too high to show plants if it were the right height for
seating, so its now lower than the south and west sides. Then, of
course, the subcontractors didn't follow the architect's plans for the
outer wall, making the wall lower and the metal fence larger than he
showed = no lavender for the south wall.

I put in a lot of time on plant selection. Landscape architects have a
reputation for being more knowledgeable about hardscapes than about
plants, and I considered ours to be no exception. For example most of
the perrenials he reccomended for the rock garden were over one foot
tall, when that is generally considered the upper limit for a classic
rock garden. But the hardscape was only finished by mid-June when it is
too hot for planting most woody plants, so some plants have not yet been
planted, while other plants were installed before work was completed =
crushed plants by careless workers, or plants dead due to improper
irrigation. (The irrigation layout was undergoing frequent changes until
mid-May, so no irrigation until then. Of course we had a dry spring.
Then they retained the timings set up by the old landscaper,, although
they replaced her drip system with a sprinkler system = overwatering
for about a month.)

--
Bill Clodius
los the lost and net the pet to email