Dog friendly yard surface ideas????

[Itsnotforsale]

Hi All,
At the moment I have fenced off a 25 sqm area outside the utility room door as a yard for the dog. The surface is currently rounded gravel and it goes right to the steps. As there is a compacted base layer beneath this - every time he is outside; usually all day as I leave the door open, he is tearing round the gravel, digging it up and covering the utlity room in dust and mud when it is wet.
Does anybody have any good deas for a more easily cleaned / maintainable surface? Without spending a fortune!
I am fed up of mopping out the utility three times a day.

[SpicyBear]

Don't laugh but artificial grass? You can get some quite realistic looking ones now and it probably wouldn't be hard to lay as you already have a compacted sub-base.

[Owllady]

I'd just pave it tbh as its easier to clean
Bark works well but I think you would have the same problem with it that you have now

[soddinghormones]

Definitely not bark!!! We have an area of bark around the trampoline and even though it's at the other end of the garden, ddog still manages to traipse it into the kitchen (and from there into the rest of the house ... sigh ...)

A couple of friends have artificial grass and dogs and it seems to be fine

[Toooldtobearsed]

Not bark - it is a bugger when wet!

Yes to artificial grass. We had ours done a few years ago now and worth every penny.

Our old girl would only 'go' on grass, so suited her brilliantly. Current boy couldn't care less, but has been trained to use it as his toilet.
Easy to pick poo from and we even use the karcher on it to keep it fresh and lovely

[Itsnotforsale]

Thanks for all the great suggestions - i'm glad to hear its possible to pick up poo from artifical grass!! No way to bark though, I have some in the kids play area and he thinks its sole purpose if for him to dig.

I think in the end it will have to be paving, worried about the cst though, but it will be easy to hose down if needs be.

[Owllady]

Clearly bark wins by a majority vote of popularity :o

[TheReturnoftheSmartArse]

Is it easy to "clean" artificial grass" I'm sorely tempted, as our garden (currently a building site) is overlooked by huge trees so I'm not sure it would be sunny enough for the real thing. I worry about ArseDog weeing on it, though. Poo I can pick up, wee not so much! Though presumably you can hose it down with a pressure washer every so often??

[Toooldtobearsed]

Very easy Smartarse

Once in a blue moon we karcher ours, other than that, no maintenance necessary. We sweep up leaves from surrounding trees with a broom, and that is it.
We have never had any smell at all from ours, but I am sure I read somewhere that people 'watered' the grass with lemon scented water