I have a raised bed in my front yard with no
fence between it and the road...neighborhood dogs and cats just loved to mess in it. My final solution was a hot wire, and I haven't had a mess in that raised bed in years now! My dogs have access to my raised beds in my fenced back yard which is chain link, that can be interesting...all my puppies have dug at one time or another, some hold onto that digging some do not...we rescued a full grown male St. Bernard one time, after he got "well" he taught every dog on the place how to dig out from under the fence...my whole back yard fence is either buried in
concrete or attached to 2"X6"'s nailed together in an "L" shape and then attached to the bottom of the fence. Then I have had 2 other dogs that could climb a chain link fence like a child! Hot wire at the top finally stopped that escape route. I will say I absolutely try to not let my dogs see me dig in my beds...I think that monkey see, monkey do theory applies to dogs sometimes! And, I am downright "ugly" about my beds...I run them out diligently every time I see them even eyeballing my beds! I have 3 dogs, a full grown rescued mutt Dalmation/Lab mix which was separated from her Momma way too early and has "attachment" issues...not a lot of confidence when approaching new things for her. Then I also have two Australian
Cattle dogs (blue heeler) pups who just turned 7 months, they are a brother and sister from a
local litter and they are an absolute handful!
Dog ownership comes with pretty much what you put into it is what you will get out of it. Even at 7 months old I just returned from vacation by myself with my pack of 3 and my pups are invited back. I have rescued dogs and done a bunch of fostering through the years...we have had a LOT of dogs. It is a lot of work...but, I train them all immediately in basic obedience, keep them well exercised and fed and "vetted" and then the "routine" settles in. So, in
answer to the question of destroying garden beds...mine have. But, I learned through the years the "anticipated behavior" and have gotten pretty good at "avoidance". I have 6 ducks, who had access to the whole back yard, when I brought those heelers home the ducks went behind their own sub-fence. I have a pet door which leads to the back yard, the grown dog never dreamed about chasing a duck...she "helped" me raise them when I brought them home, they are part of her pack and will even let her sniff them and they will follow her. The ducks were full grown when I brought home eight week old puppies, the ducks will have absolutely nothing to do with the puppies and run every time! Well, these are herding dogs and they are learning how to "herd" ducks but they are a very "mouthy" breed (they actually make bite contact) so, under no circumstances are these puppies allowed to be alone with the ducks! When the pups are grown and conditioned to their job...then I might be able to trust them unsupervised...we'll see!