Creating Dog Friendly Gardens

Dogs often spend a lot of time outside, particularly during the summer month.  The paw worn paths, dug hole, and dirt piles often don’t mesh with most people’s idea of a backyard haven.  That doesn’t mean you can’t have both.  In honor of National Gardening Day, here are some tips for creating dog friendly gardens and how to deal with the common outdoor frustrations.

1. Create a ‘Dog Garden’ – Humans aren’t the only one who love the smell of fresh flowers.  It’s not just flowers.  Dogs will seek out a variety of herbs like marigold or mint instinctually for their calming or medicinal benefits.  Check out the infographic below of different herbs you can use to create a garden for your dog. Popular scents for dogs include Marigold, Willow, Birch, and Catnip.
2. Create a ‘Dig Pit’ – you won’t take the ‘dig’ out of the ‘dog’, but you can give the dog a space designed for the purpose.  Much like a sand pit for children, utilize a small area with back board and fill with pea gravel.  Bury a meaty bone inside and watch your dog put his skills to work. We used an old playhouse with a pool liner as the base of our dig pit which helps keep the rock in one place.
3. Partition Different Areas – Creating different areas of the yard with objects or features to channel your dog in certain direction.  Adding natural features like tunnels to fun spaces where they can run, stalk and chase.    Various heights or spaces with restricted access to give children and smaller dogs a place to escape from boisterous play or pursuit.  Dogs love to run around things and play ‘hide and seek.’ Separate spaces to run between helps break up some of the momentum.
4. Add a Dog Run – Fence lines and high traffic areas are never going to grow grass.  We’ve tried.  If wet conditions turn your yard into a mud pit create a fenced dog run lined with river rock to keep your dogs out of the muck.  Fencing can be disguised with ornamental plants that help soak up rainwater.
5. Use Semi-Permeable Pavers – these pavers provide stability to sodden ground, allow rain water to absorb, and grass to grow in areas that otherwise would be compacted or tramples.  We actually use rubber commercial kitchen mats that you can purchase at home supply stores.  These go down in high traffic areas and once the grass grows up you can mow over them!
6. Use Flat top Tie Out Stakes –

Not just one more garden design book.

Every part of this book shows you how garden design and traditional gardening tasks can blend harmoniously with dog ownership. Not just one more dog training book. Just like a dog can be trained to respect your indoor living space, so too can she be trained to respect the garden and its many features.
Learn how the breed of dog (or mix of breeds) can affect garden behavior. Find out how boundary training, creative use of outdoor equipment and directed digging and elimination can prevent problems before they occur. 

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