According to Daily Express - Showbiz, Monty Don described Ned as being in a complete state at the moment, with the dog not eating, not sleeping, and barking due to being completely sex-starred, a situation triggered by the presenter's son's dog being in season. It is unclear how long Ned has been in this condition or whether Monty Don plans to take any action regarding it. Monty Don has two dogs: Ned, a golden retriever who first featured on Gardeners' World in 2022, and Patti, a Yorkshire terrier.
He has kept dogs for the majority of his life and is seldom in his garden without them. According to Daily Express - Showbiz, Monty Don described that dogs will pee on the lawn and cause brown circles, with not much that can be done about it, and he believes if you have dogs with you in the garden from day one, they will go where you go and do what you do. He also noted that anxiety about dogs in the garden can transmit to the dogs.
They will pee on the lawn and there will be brown circles and there's not much you can do about it.
On his website, Monty Don wrote that his dogs do absolutely no damage and respect the garden completely, rarely digging holes or crashing through flower beds, and they treat long paths as bowling alleys for chasing balls. Additional context includes that Monty Don's son's dog is in season, though the exact age or breed of that dog is unknown.
I do think actually that if you have them with you in the garden from day one, they will go where you go and do what you do and I think there is something in that.
Whereas, if there's anxiety involved from the beginning and you let them out and it's all, 'I hope they don't do this or that', I think that transmits.
He's in a complete state at the moment. My son's dog is in season and he's not eating, he's not sleeping, he's barking - he's completely sex-starved. And of course, being Ned, he doesn't know what to do. [It's] not good.
I have lived with dogs all my life and so it is absolutely natural to me that wherever I am in the garden I should be accompanied by a dog or two. It is their garden as much as mine or any other members of the family.
Something that I take for granted is that, by and large, they do absolutely no damage and respect the garden completely. They rarely dig holes or crash through the flower beds.
They do treat the long paths as bowling alleys down which they career in chase of the ball that we are obliged to throw, but it is harmless enough.