I have a 6 months old german shepherd puppy who has recently started ripping out plants from pots in our back yard. Does anyone have any suggestions on ways we can stop him doing this? Are there any toys that can be bought/built to keep him busy while we are at work and keep him out of our garden?

Nomes

You really need to cratetrain us or we will play havoc with your homes and gardens. Don't leave us is in there too long though otherwise we will grow up to be a total nightmare!

If you let us in your garden unsupervised then you have to keep someone to watch us otherwise we will tear up anything that's bedded down to shreds. The same goes for inside of the house.

If you're busy in the day and don't have anyone to watch my friend and give him regular exercise during the day then he is going to be one unhappy GSD and you will have more problems then an uprooted garden in the future!

He will love you but he is going to need a lot more time and attention from you and his breed is very demanding. Are you sure you can give him what he needs?

Dogs are individuals regardless of their breed. We had good luck leaving our German Shepherd access to our garden, but fenced it off before keeping a friend's Lab for a weekend. It wasn't the Lab, but the 2 chasing each other we wanted to keep out of the garden. No matter how many toys you leave it, it will get into anything else it finds attractive. The one Lab we had would carefully dump the house plants and dirt out on the rug before chewing up the pots if I left the gate to the living room open. Can you move the plants out of the fenced area or fence them off? There are also sprays that are sold to protect plants and shrubs.

Moving the dog into the house in a crate is a good option. The house is warm in winter, dry in the rain, and cool in the summer. No danger of kids teasing the dog, or it being stolen. It won't annoy the neighbors with barking.
It is only natural that a puppy resists its crate at first. What the puppy
Wants more than anything else is to be others, you, anyone else in the
Household, and any other pets. In our modern society, even if we are home,
Other things distract us from the attention an uncrated puppy must have. The
Only real solution is to crate the dog when you aren't around. The dog may be
Happier in its den than loose in the house. It relaxes, it feels safe in its
Den. It rests, the body slows down reducing the need for water and relieving
Its self. Dogs that have been crated all along do very well. Many of them
Will rest in their crates even when the door is open. I think the plastic
Ones give the dog more of a safe, enclosed den feeling. Metal ones can be put
In a corner or covered with something the dog can't pull in and chew. Select
A crate just big enough for the full grown dog to stretch out in. A 6 month old may be OK in a crate all day, but it would be much better if it has a mid day break. If nobody can make it home at lunch, perhaps a neighbor or even a professional dog walker could give it a break.

Leave it some toys. Perhaps a Kong filled with peanut butter. Don't leave
Anything in the crate the dog might chew up. It will do fine without even any
Bedding. You will come home to a safe dog and a house you can enjoy.

A dog that has not been crated since it was little, make take some work.
Start just putting its toys and treats in the crate. Praise it for going
in. Feed it in the crate. This is also an easy way to maintain order at
Feeding time for more than one dog.

The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy. Very few houses even have a
Safe room. How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing
Else? Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else. In addition
To destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have
Intestinal blockage from the pieces. I had a friend that left her dog in a
"safe" room. It ate a hole in the floor covering. The safe rooms fail to
Give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires. Nor
Do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving
Itself.