Help with garden!

[WorthyOtter]

Probably posted in the wrong group yesterday so here goes again. Our garden isn't huge, it's paved all around the outside of the garden and at the top and bottom of the garden. In the middle was grass (8x3m). We've bought this house a year and a half ago, and our dog has completely destroyed the grass and it looked a mess. We tried everything to fix the grass but nothing worked. We bought artificial grass and planned to put some down on half of the grass, the other half would be fenced off for the dog (haven't fully got a plan here). I put a post on yesterday and was full off comments about not being 'environmentally friendly' etc. I really wouldn't like any more comments regarding this, definitely seen enough. But I am open to any suggestions on gardens with a dog. I don't want to concrete it all. My garden doesn't get a great deal of sun. I just want it to look nice. Real Grass doesn't seem to be an option. We are doing it ourselves so something that we can do without hiring anyone. Thanks

Have you tried posting in the gardening forum?
How about paths with a varied surface like old bricks/ patterns of pebbles and flower beds with small tough shrubs? This person used that solution. https://gardeninganddogs.com/gardening/to-grass-or-not-to-grass/

Yes I got hammered with environmentally unfriendly comments lol! Thank you I'll have a look

As the post above, gravel, path, slabs and lots of Mediterranean plants can work very well in a small space.

The dog may have destroyed it because the grass area is quite small, so the destruction is concentrated iykwim. There are different types of lawn grass and some are tougher than others.
Our dog tends to ruin the lawn over winter then we reseed a bit in spring and it's nice for the summer, rinse repeat. If you want to fence of a bit of the garden for a dog loo/play area then you could just sand this area. It's easy to see the poo to pick up and dogs like to dig in sand.

We had both real grass and artificial grass.

The dog used both but It was a pain when he used the real lawn because it would kill it (he peed like a girl dog). We tried to follow him around with a watering can to dilute it but he would often has stealth pees when we weren’t looking so still had patches to constantly dig out and reseed. Bloody loved our artifical grass lawn as it was long like a soft carpet but we paid a fortune for it and to be professionally laid with good drainage.

It sounds as though your dog is too big for your garden. Sorry.

How? I literally haven't said the size of my garden, the measurements above are the grass area

We are laying it ourselves and following the steps to make it suitable for a dog so hopefully it works

https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/how-to/a-dogs-garden/9431012 I hope this helps.

Do you get Dog Rocks in the UK? https://www.dogrocks.com.au/

We trains our late SandyDog to poo in a certain area away from normal traffic (behind shrubs etc) and she got good at that. We cleaned it regularly.

We have exactly the same issue. Fairly small garden with a patio and paved path going along one fence with a fairly small
lawned area. Our biggest issue is the garden is north facing and some parts don’t get much sun - the drainage isn’t great and standing water over the winter has just made muddy patches appear. We now have a dog and this has definitely made it worse. I want to be able to enjoy the garden but at the moment it’s just an eyesore! Good luck with your garden makeover