Garden to suit children and dogs

[hercules1]

How is your garden done? Is it mainly paving, do you have a roof of some sort for the dogs to dry? How to stop the mud?

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We have a large outdoor pen, on the patio so that our dog can be shut in when required. He has direct access from pen to Gagage where he has a bed, heater, water etc. If he has been running around the lawn (ours is mainly lawn with patio across back of house) we make him lie down on old towels/blankets when he comes in until he has dried off. He will let you dry his paws but they can be horrendous so best to let him dry off for a bit.

Thanks We might be starting work on Friday to get some of garden further patioed and a roof thing made and fencing. Blimey we really do spend far more on our dogs than our kids!

Hi

We've got quite a few dogs so this is a problem I know all about!!!

We've got a deck at the back of the house. 2/3 of the rest of the garden is lawn and 1/3 is slabbed. The slabbed area is fenced off from the lawn which we keep as the kids play area. It has a long path going down one side of the garden (which is about 60ft) which opens up to a large patio area further down. There is a gravel area which they use as their toilet, and some trees to give some shade when sunny. They have the utility room to go into when wet etc and the rest of the time they are in the house with us. There is a roof over part of the decked area, but this is not really what I would call a shelter of any kind, just a dry area if it starts raining.

Because of the way the garden is divided up, it means that the dogs are not on the grass at all. Hence it's not a mud bath (which it definately would be by now otherwise!), and the dogs can go in and out of the house and stay clean. What they look like at the end of a walk across the fields at the moment is another matter altogether though!!!

It cost a bit to do, but it is SO worth every penny.

Thanks