Cool you're getting dog! A GSD would work well for racoons.Have a backyard pond.
When we bought the house the prior owners had a rectangular faux terracotta fountain base (about 4'x4') in the middle of a grass patch in our backyard, with no actual fountain.
It sat empty for years as my wife and I argued over what to do with it. Racoons would come around and shit in it every once in a while. Pretty sure we saw some mountain lion scat in there as well. I wanted to crack open the bottom to expose some dirt and plant a shade tree. Failing that I thought we could fill the base with terraced pots and create a nice cascading garden thing. Wife wanted to make it a pond.
Finally my wife pulled a coup and did the whole "I bought a bunch of pond shit I can't return, so we're turning the base into a pond". Wasn't worth a fight, and frankly I wasn't going anywhere with my ideas, so I rolled with it.
Plugged the electrical conduit at the bottom of the base with a PVC plug + a shitload of caulking, then sealed the whole thing with a sort of "flex seal" coating. Our neighbor just so happened to be redoing his yard and was giving away a massive pile of river rocks, so we used a bunch of them around the base and inside for decorative purposes/reduce the required amount of water/provide habitat for anything that lived in there.
Got two 3 gallon pots, filled with aquarium gravel, cut off the rim so they didn't sit above the waterline, and planted water lilies in each. Placed a pitcher plant and a swamp iris in the pond as well and they're quite happy. Put some Taro bulbs in there as well.
For mosquito control we were able to get mosquito fish from our local vector control (initially they wanted to come by and spray mineral oil on the water to suffocate mosquito larvae, but the oil would brown and kill the leaves of the lilies). Those things WENT TO TOWN on the mosquito larvae and we're mosquito free to this day.
Also grabbed some aquatic snails to munch on the algae.
For water circulation we have a solar powered fountain that floats on the water and sends up a 1' high spout of water.
Wife has placed a bunch of "frogs doing yoga" statuettes around the garden as totems to lure in frogs (since we actually love the sound of fogs croaking on a summer night) but no luck on those yet.
BUT THE FUCKING RACOONS. They come back now and again and just gad damn wreck the pond. We find massacred snails, dug up Taro and lily bulbs, shredded plant leaves. The pond bounces back each time, but right when its hitting that zen garden look it gets hit again.
So that's our next hurdle, how to repel racoons that are up to no good.
Have you ever seen a racoon that was up to good?Have a backyard pond.
When we bought the house the prior owners had a rectangular faux terracotta fountain base (about 4'x4') in the middle of a grass patch in our backyard, with no actual fountain.
It sat empty for years as my wife and I argued over what to do with it. Racoons would come around and shit in it every once in a while. Pretty sure we saw some mountain lion scat in there as well. I wanted to crack open the bottom to expose some dirt and plant a shade tree. Failing that I thought we could fill the base with terraced pots and create a nice cascading garden thing. Wife wanted to make it a pond.
Finally my wife pulled a coup and did the whole "I bought a bunch of pond shit I can't return, so we're turning the base into a pond". Wasn't worth a fight, and frankly I wasn't going anywhere with my ideas, so I rolled with it.
Plugged the electrical conduit at the bottom of the base with a PVC plug + a shitload of caulking, then sealed the whole thing with a sort of "flex seal" coating. Our neighbor just so happened to be redoing his yard and was giving away a massive pile of river rocks, so we used a bunch of them around the base and inside for decorative purposes/reduce the required amount of water/provide habitat for anything that lived in there.
Got two 3 gallon pots, filled with aquarium gravel, cut off the rim so they didn't sit above the waterline, and planted water lilies in each. Placed a pitcher plant and a swamp iris in the pond as well and they're quite happy. Put some Taro bulbs in there as well.
For mosquito control we were able to get mosquito fish from our local vector control (initially they wanted to come by and spray mineral oil on the water to suffocate mosquito larvae, but the oil would brown and kill the leaves of the lilies). Those things WENT TO TOWN on the mosquito larvae and we're mosquito free to this day.
Also grabbed some aquatic snails to munch on the algae.
For water circulation we have a solar powered fountain that floats on the water and sends up a 1' high spout of water.
Wife has placed a bunch of "frogs doing yoga" statuettes around the garden as totems to lure in frogs (since we actually love the sound of fogs croaking on a summer night) but no luck on those yet.
BUT THE FUCKING RACOONS. They come back now and again and just gad damn wreck the pond. We find massacred snails, dug up Taro and lily bulbs, shredded plant leaves. The pond bounces back each time, but right when its hitting that zen garden look it gets hit again.
So that's our next hurdle, how to repel racoons that are up to no good.
Like kids.Have you ever seen a racoon that was up to good?
We had a pet racoon years back, the thing was a menace, cute, fun, and a menace.
We raised one on a bottle after his mother was killed. He wasn't a menace he was a Demon Racoon from hell! The most destructive animal on the planet. He was cute as hell and fun when we were raising him... My Mom and Dad hated him!Have you ever seen a racoon that was up to good?
We had a pet racoon years back, the thing was a menace, cute, fun, and a menace.
Sounds about right. Ours was pretty cute when he weighed a pound and would run up my side to sit on my shoulder. Not so much fun when he weighed twenty five pounds and would leave me bloody from ankle to neck doing his climb.We raised one on a bottle after his mother was killed. He wasn't a menace he was a Demon Racoon from hell! The most destructive animal on the planet. He was cute as hell and fun when we were raising him... My Mom and Dad hated him!
Trash bandit.
Farkin trash pandas.Sounds about right. Ours was pretty cute when he weighed a pound and would run up my side to sit on my shoulder. Not so much fun when he weighed twenty five pounds and would leave me bloody from ankle to neck doing his climb.
The TV repair guy saw the my excellent compatriot sitting on the floor eating a banana and reached down to pick him up, dude was lucky to escape with his arm reasonably intact. Pro tip, never try to grab a racoon that's eating a banana, no matter how cute he looks.
Word filter for the loss.