Dogs In Gardens.

[oneponygirl]

The trick that has worked for me regarding holes - when you go around scooping poop use it to fill the holes, then top off with dirt. This works like a charm for same spot diggers like my old rottie who used to dig under the fence. Doesn't work quite as well for dogs who dig for other reasons like my old Belgian Sheepdog who used to go after moles. She would leave a trench 6 inches wide, 12 inches deep zig zagging all over the yard. But we didn't have a problem with moles after a while. It can work for this though if the moles are digging in the same places.

If you don't mind a bit of ugliness I have known people who use the gallon milk jugs, rinsed and (I think) half full of water to line their garden space every six feet or so. For some reason dogs don't like them. I haven't personally tried it myself but know some people swear by it.

There is also invisible fencing you can look into. It's spendy and some people don't like to use that kind of collar on their dog but you can fence off your garden space (and any other space you don't want them to enter) as well as your yard perimeter.

My sis put a white picket fence around her garden so her dog couldn't enter. That's another option.

My dog is wearing paths around our brand new beautiful lawn with his "patrols" so after a while I'm going to let it wear down and then put in a path there so instead of torn up lawn I'll have a nice looking path. That doesn't necessarily help it when he goes looney and rips up a bit here and there with his tearing around and braking but it helps for a lot of it.

Our solution for the mud issue was to teach my current nutball dog to sit the moment he enters the house (we have an area rug there we can shake out and wash) and have taught him to hold up one paw at a time so we can wipe his feet with a towel we keep by the door. It would be nice if we had a mud room we could keep him in while he dried off, a lot less work anyway, but we don't anymore so this is what we do.

 

[PlecMama]

Ah and on it goes. Nothing like a big dog to destroy a perfectly good lawn

I love the dobe digging! Sasha has a Sash-hole under one of our trees, it's right down at the bottom and she regularly digs in it, then tries herself in it for size, then digs a bit more, I don't know when it'll be finished, but it's obviously a work in progress. She is making it "just right" for her own reasons and we are leaving her to it.

The grass isn't so bad now it's drying out, it's less easily ripped out - which is a really good thing, it actually looks nice out there just now

 

[Cheffi]

My westie won't do anything in our garden, we have to take her out into the field at the back. If we are a bit late with her walk she comes to find us with her legs crossed

 

[Neal]

For little dogs, small wooden fences work. Also, it's only a bitches wee that kills grass, not a dogs.

Neal

 

[PlecMama]

Perfect, if I could persuade Sash to wee like a boy dog I might have solved one of my problems

 

[Neal]

It's not the way a dog cocks it's leg, it's because there is something present in a bitches wee, probably some type of acid.

Neal

 

[ulster exile]

It's not the way a dog cocks it's leg, it's because there is something present in a bitches wee, probably some type of acid.

Neal

We have a small garden and have 2 dogs. One is a real digger (when we were getting an extension done, we once found him in the foundations digging them away... ) and the other will consitently pee on the same plant until its dead.

In despair, we had the garden paved and we now only have container plants and hanging plants. Its such a relief I can tell you, we can have plants again!

 

[wendywc]

I'm lucky; my dog is a dainty girl. She doesn't like to go out when it rains and doesn't like to get muddy. Only thing is she runs the perimeter of the fence alot. I'm thinking I'll just have a dog run all along the fence, but what do you use for dog run material??

 

[ulster exile]

I'm lucky; my dog is a dainty girl. She doesn't like to go out when it rains and doesn't like to get muddy. Only thing is she runs the perimeter of the fence alot. I'm thinking I'll just have a dog run all along the fence, but what do you use for dog run material??

Here you go

Clicky Link

 

[PlecMama]

It's not the way a dog cocks it's leg, it's because there is something present in a bitches wee.

Yeeees, I meant more if I could train her to make boy-pee - but nevermind.

probably some type of acid

Oh for sure, hydrofluoric no doubt, if you've ever tried getting it out of your car seats you'd know that was a dead cert

 

[Tangerinefizz]

We have two big labs, both females, who leave lots of brown spots on our lawn in the early spring and fall. We've learned to fertilizer the heck out of it.

Healthy grass can take just about any kind of beating imaginable. There are some pet friendly-ish fertilizers out there if you dont' want to use the regular old stuff, (which I recommend if you can find it, the pet friendly does just as good a job and you have peace of mind), however, last year we couldn't afford the pet friendly one and wound up using "normal" fert. We just kept the girls out of the back yard for 2 weeks and made sure it was really watered in.

Looking at pictures from our first year in the house to now (6 years later) you can really tell the difference. Even with the addition of a puppy last year who liked to butt tuck, who is now a year old and loves to butt tuck still, the grass is holding up very well. No brown spots at all over summer, just spring mainly when it is coming back to life.

Good luck!!

 

[PlecMama]

Digging a hole (look at my poor grass):

Playing fetch (first spring we were here - garden = jungle):

Alien idiot, fang on Dan's toe:

Trusted friend:

Beautiful Sasha.

 

[K.J.]

Our dog doesn't dig. So we're good. She's trained to stay out of the garden.

 

[littlelegs]

We have a GSDxcollie
And we fenced off a quarter of the garden, just for him. He has his own house, and he can ruin as much grass as he likes in there.

We used to have a really bad lawn, where he would do his 'patrols. He once came through the fence into our side when someone with a dog walk passed the garden.
I le him in our side on occassions, but every time I do, he digs a 2 foot hole deep in seconds, in exactly the same spot every time. I keep filling it in, but he goes a digs it up again.
It is directly above a sewer pipe, do you think that could be the reason? Or is he just being scatty?

We have also taught him to sit as soon as he enters he house, where he sits on his mat (by the backdoor) and lifts one paw at a time, so we can dry him with his towel.

 

[TigerIssey]

Hate to tell you this, but from that last picture, it looks like you have a kind of runway to the bottom of the garden. This is always a problem, dogs usually run a line in any garden set out so that they run down the middle most. Happened with my parents dobes (Gorgeous dobe Bloo).

If your problem is mainly caused from die off by ***** urine, it arduous but you can follow them around with a watering can to dilute (especially in hot sun in summer when grass burns quick).

I have to say after many many years (and im only late twentys) of watching lawns destroyed by dogs, even dogs kick up grass after peeing, I have concreted the back garden where the dogs go out and I garden out the front. My front garden is enclosed and double gated, so I do sometimes take them out with me when pottering.