Can honey locust survive dog damage?

[bettiepagegirl]

I just planted a 10 gallon honey locust this past weekend, and awoke this morning to a leafless trunk. Our St. Bernard puppy had chewed off all of the leaves. I'm wondering if it has a chance of surviving (since it was about to drop it's leaves anyway), or if I should just invest in another tree (along with puppy-proof fencing!).

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

A tree can lose its leaves and still be ok. It does cause a stress but if it is in otherwise good shape it has latent buds that will resprout, or late in the year it may just wait until next season.

Trees tend to make a bit more food than they need and store that extra food in the woody parts of the plant. It's kinda like cash for people. Hopefully your new little tree hasn't had too bad a time up to this point and has the necessary starch reserves to deal with the new puppy.

To help it along, try to give it idea growing conditions, and keep Cujo away.

 

[Stumper]

I agree-if the bark on the trunk hasn't been seriously damaged losing the leaves at this time of year should not present any significant problems.