If you’re like many Americans, you love dogs. Not only are you interested in keeping your dog safe, you also are interested in keeping your yard looking nice while having dogs. This can be difficult, particularly if you have several dogs or they spend a good deal of time outside. Most people want their animals to be able to enjoy some outside time, but don’t want their yard to suffer as a result. Keeping your yard looking perfectly manicured with dogs who spend a good bit of time outside might be impossible, but keeping your yard and dogs both healthy is relatively simple with a little care.
Three Ways To Dog-Proof Your Yard
- Use rocks as landscaping instead of mulch
- Keep your dog’s nails trimmed
- Plant only shrubbery, trees and flowers that hold up well to dog urine
Mulch is enticing to dogs to dogs to dig in, use as a potty, and generally destroy. Landscaping rocks and pebbles are much hardier and less enticing to them to want to dig in, and are easy to spread around and fill in if they do frolic a bit in them. Most dogs aren’t interested in ingesting rocks, either, but if you have a young puppy, it may be worth keeping an eye on.
Keeping your dog’s nails trimmed is good for various reasons – one being it’s better for their paw health and easier on your floors, but it also is much easier on your grass. When your pooch’s nails are sharp and long, they act like mini-tillers every time your dog runs, tearing up the yard in the process, so the areas where dogs particularly like to run (along the fence line, especially) may start to be bare.
Unfortunately, dogs seem to like to urinate on plant life. It’s just a fact of nature. Most flowers cannot withstand this. Take your cue and save yourself time and money by planting colorful shrubbery and trees instead of flowers. A few hardy types of rose bushes (such as knockout rosebushes) may tolerate dog urine better than other plants, but it is likely dose-dependent. Encourage your dog to use another area of the yard for elimination purposes.
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