landscaping with dogs

KatieCutie05 · December 2015

When I say landscaping i really should say "just keeping grass!" We have tried DIY the past 2 years and by the following year it looks like we did nothing and now we're considering hiring a landscaper this spring. but i can't imagine that being affordable. we could do just the fenced in portion of back yard and not our full acre

We have a fenced in back yard and 2 dogs that are outside multiple times a day to run, play, do their business, etc.

Consequently our yard has been destroyed and we just can't keep up with it. the last two years we put down seed, fertilizer, watered it twice a day, and kept the dogs off of it for atleast a month or 2 (which is a huge pita because they have to be walked seperately) Despite the fact that the previous years efforts didn't help, My husband put a lot of work and money into it last year convinced he just didn't do enough, starting fresh and buying fresh soil to lay down on top so the seed had something to grab onto - it worked well for the time being giving us a nice thick grass patch. Now ofcourse less then a year later and you would have NO idea - our entire yard is one giant mud pit- which makes my house a mud pit with muddy paw prints tracked throughout the house- onto my white carpet. And thats a good day - if they decide to run or play they end up covered in mud needing a bath after.

H said he has to till the whole yard and aerate the soil and we need to buy a sprinkler to keep it watered. and he would easily have to spend $500 + and a whole lot of time on it not to mention keeping the dogs off it for a few months. And i'm not convinced that would even hold up to the following year.

Does anyone else have this problem, has anyone hired a landscaper, i am thinking about sod at this point but i'm sure thats more expensive. i am about ready to put down all fake grass and just give up. I told my husband to put the leaves back so the mud is atleast covered- i'm sure he thinks i'm joking. lol

Erikan73 · December 2015

A family member of mine installed fake grass. And no not the cheap astro turf carpeting. There is stuff out there now that looks like real grass. They did it because they have a small yard and by doing this they don't have to mow or invest in fertilizer. Their dog loves it. They do hose it down occasionally to clean it up from the dogs doing their business. It's not cheap, but if you are having to go through all that work & money each year, it would probably would pay for itself very quickly. And you would be the envy of the neighborhood as that area would always be perfectly green, weed free and you will never have to mow it either.

csuave · December 2015

Erikan73 said:

A family member of mine installed fake grass. And no not the cheap astro turf carpeting. There is stuff out there now that looks like real grass. They did it because they have a small yard and by doing this they don't have to mow or invest in fertilizer. Their dog loves it. They do hose it down occasionally to clean it up from the dogs doing their business. It's not cheap, but if you are having to go through all that work & money each year, it would probably would pay for itself very quickly. And you would be the envy of the neighborhood as that area would always be perfectly green, weed free and you will never have to mow it either.

I saw this advertised at a 5K animal shelter event I went to and loved the idea for all the reasons mentioned here. We have a very small yard so I was thinking it might not cost as much. I'm not going to look into it though because we aren't sure how long our dog will be with us.

Xstatic3333 · December 2015

The mud comment raised a question in my mind-could you have a drainage issue? Look at where your downspouts are discharging and see if they could be contributing to the mud. That could be easily fixable.

We have a dog and a yucky yard too, but aren't considering a landscaper. It's not a priority for us. H does the best he can, given I won't let him use chemicals. He aerated, over seeded in the fall, and put down compost, and are hopeful to see results in the spring. We do have sprinklers. Make sure if you water, it's one big (1" of water) watering event per week instead of light watering everyday, with the exception of keeping seed moist before it germinates.

Also look into getting your soil tested for pH (usually around $15 at a local university). You may need to put down lime if your soil is too acidic.

Leaving some fall leaves actually could help with the mud and protecting new grass, but I know it's a tough sell. We'll be looking at actually removing some lawn to replace with wild flowers to minimize the maintenance, but I know that's not for everybody.

brij2006 · December 2015

Our backyard is very wet and we have this issue as well with our dog.

What we've done so far is re-routed our downspouts from the gutters, to drain toward the edges of the yard rather than the middle. We also aerated (paid a local guy who already had one, $30 to do it for us), and laid down seed in the fall so it will grow in the spring.

We also actually stopped watering the backyard. That seemed to help it be less muddy, but it's still a wet mess back there and the dog tracks it all in.

Other than that, I have her trained for "paws" after going potty. So she knows she has to get her paws wiped off right when she comes in. We installed vinyl tile right when you walk in the back door, and I keep a towel there to wipe her off.

It also helped us to re-train her that the backyard is used for potty only. If she wants to play, she does that in the front yard where it's less muddy. I usually toss DD in our Tula carrier and go out front to play with the dog and keep an eye on her. That's helped her get some energy out, but not be covered in mud from doing so in the backyard.

short+sassy · December 2015

csuave said:

Erikan73 said:

A family member of mine installed fake grass. And no not the cheap astro turf carpeting. There is stuff out there now that looks like real grass. They did it because they have a small yard and by doing this they don't have to mow or invest in fertilizer. Their dog loves it. They do hose it down occasionally to clean it up from the dogs doing their business. It's not cheap, but if you are having to go through all that work & money each year, it would probably would pay for itself very quickly. And you would be the envy of the neighborhood as that area would always be perfectly green, weed free and you will never have to mow it either.

I saw this advertised at a 5K animal shelter event I went to and loved the idea for all the reasons mentioned here. We have a very small yard so I was thinking it might not cost as much. I'm not going to look into it though because we aren't sure how long our dog will be with us.

I was going to suggest this exact same thing. It's impossible for me to have grass in the back yard year round because it gets full sunlight. It's way too hot in the summer, so it dies. A bit too cold in the winter, so it dies. Plus I have one dog also and usually have tenants with at least one dog (though not at the moment)...so even in good weather, there are bare areas.

The artificial grass is spendy, but it looks awesome year round and is still soft like real grass. That is what I am planning to do for my yard. The only reason I haven't pulled the trigger yet is we were putting in a deck and a fire pit and wanted to finish those projects before putting in the grass, so the area would be accurate. The deck is done (yeah!), but the fire pit still needs one of the seating areas installed.

maple2 · December 2015

It's also possible you have some things living in the soil (like grubs) that make it difficult for your grass to get established and stay healthy. They cause problems for us, and I haven't quite figured out how to deal with it without chemicals.

It also might be worth a few minutes of your time to call around to some lawn care places. Several of our neighbors use a place that charges $75/visit, and you can pick what treatments you want. You can also choose whether you want to minimize or eliminate chemical applications. I think they usually do 4/year. Their yards look so much nicer than ours, and they all say the lawn service has helped tremendously. They also say that it's not really that much more expensive than buying all the supplies to do it themselves. Not to mention the time.

jtmh2012 · December 2015

Personally, I don't think you'll ever have grass out there as long as you have the dogs. From the sounds of it, it doesn't sound like a big area, so you have the dogs constantly running over the same area. Grass doesn't do well in high traffic areas. Pee is also awfully acidic which also doesn't help which again becomes a problem if it is a small area and the dogs are peeing in the same area over and over.

als1982 · December 2015

Do you have lots of trees? We had trouble keeping grass growing from year to year (and we don't have pets) but after having our trees trimmed in 2013, we've had more success. We did it for safety and the health of the trees, but having them thinned out offered this nice benefit.

hoffse · December 2015

I agree this sounds like a drainage problem if you're getting mud.

Landscapers are $$$$$. Like.... really $$$$$.

maple2 · December 2015

hoffse said:

I agree this sounds like a drainage problem if you're getting mud.

Landscapers are $$$$$. Like.... really $$$$$.

Yeah, just to clarify, landscaping is very expensive. The people I mentioned earlier have lawn care services, which basically means they pay someone to come out and do the seeding, fertilizing, aerating and/or inset control. That's a lot cheaper. It's basically what you've already tried doing on your own. Our neighbors have just found it to be more effective and less time consuming to hire someone than do it themselves.

brij2006 · December 2015

hoffse said:

I agree this sounds like a drainage problem if you're getting mud.

Landscapers are $$$$$. Like.... really $$$$$.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Landscapers are very big $$$.

I'm also going to ditto PP, it sounds like it's a smaller area where the dogs run and play often. It's going to be hard to get that yard back to normal with all of that traffic on it. I would try and get them out in the front yard as often as possible to play, or take them for walks a couple times/week to get some energy out.

julieanne912 · December 2015

Just adding that landscapers are expensive, we did our front yard with pretty basic stuff and it was $15,000 (to be fair our yard is large, but we got a great rate since we used the neighbor who is a friend). It was sprinklers, 4500 sq ft of sod, 4 blue spruce trees, 2 aspens, and some rock borders, and some various small shrubs and boulders. Some of our neighbors have spent upwards of $50,000 just doing front yards.

We maintain it ourselves. It gets a lot of sun and pretty much no traffic on it, except for when we occasionally let our pups run on it (they're basset hounds so it's not high energy running LOL). So, I agree w/ the others that since your grass is going to get a lot of traffic with the dogs, you're not going to get a pristine green lawn. Also, our water bill goes up $100 in the summer just to water it to keep it nice looking.

JoanE2012 · December 2015

hoffse said:

I agree this sounds like a drainage problem if you're getting mud.

Landscapers are $$$$$. Like.... really $$$$$.

Agree - this sounds more like a drainage/grading issue. I think if you fixed that, your lawn would be fine! We had dogs growing up and my parent's lawn always looked nice - but they didn't have any drainage problem.

We had someone come out this past summer and regrade and then seed part of our backyard and it was around $4k, but we live in a HCOL area. You would want to get someone who's experienced in drainage and grading - we had a regular landscaper do some work first and it was a crap job and had to be redone.

dragonstarjk · December 2015

julieanne912 said:

Just adding that landscapers are expensive, we did our front yard with pretty basic stuff and it was $15,000 (to be fair our yard is large, but we got a great rate since we used the neighbor who is a friend). It was sprinklers, 4500 sq ft of sod, 4 blue spruce trees, 2 aspens, and some rock borders, and some various small shrubs and boulders. Some of our neighbors have spent upwards of $50,000 just doing front yards.

We maintain it ourselves. It gets a lot of sun and pretty much no traffic on it, except for when we occasionally let our pups run on it (they're basset hounds so it's not high energy running LOL). So, I agree w/ the others that since your grass is going to get a lot of traffic with the dogs, you're not going to get a pristine green lawn. Also, our water bill goes up $100 in the summer just to water it to keep it nice looking.

Hey, I see that UW flag ;-)

dragonstarjk · December 2015

Ours isn't as bad muddy as yours sounds, but we do have two big dogs so our back yard certainly isn't the prettiest. Something we have been considering is a different type of ground cover that is hardier and would be dog friendly. We've looked into clover and some other things but haven't tried anything yet because the back yard just isn't a priority.

Another thing we plan on doing when we fix up the back yard is putting in natural 'dog runs'. By this I mean you can see the trails/tracks where our dogs like to go the most--along the fence line and straight to the back gate--so we'll probably plan to have pavers or stepping stones or gravel to make paths in the areas they are most likely to use.

I don't really think spending money on a landscaper would help, because they are going to install landscaping but they aren't going to be there to maintain it.

kmurphy2131 · December 2015

JoanE2012 said:

hoffse said:

I agree this sounds like a drainage problem if you're getting mud.

Landscapers are $$$$$. Like.... really $$$$$.

Agree - this sounds more like a drainage/grading issue. I think if you fixed that, your lawn would be fine! We had dogs growing up and my parent's lawn always looked nice - but they didn't have any drainage problem.

We had someone come out this past summer and regrade and then seed part of our backyard and it was around $4k, but we live in a HCOL area. You would want to get someone who's experienced in drainage and grading - we had a regular landscaper do some work first and it was a crap job and had to be redone.

I'm going to third this one. My parents have an 85lb lab who runs like a maniac and plays hard and rough. Even though they have an acre of land she plays fetch in the same area &runs the exact same loop around the house everyday. It doesnt get worn/muddy/have any issues because of her (my 35lb dog dug a small - about 2" - hole in their yard once though haha). They had their yard regraded when they got it though because it was a weird layout, and I think that really helps with drainage. They have one area that gets muddy but it's not where the dog plays, it's where the water drains.

brij2006 · December 2015

If I'm remembering correctly, you're in major debt payoff mode. I would tell my husband we'll have to deal with it and tell him to get the idea out of his head about spending hundreds or thousands on the back yard.

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