Do you have a nice garden? PLEASE TELL ME HOW! My dog is trashing my garden

[Midlifeargh]

We got our dog in September. Couldn’t love him more.

But my pretty garden is now a toilet. It’s dug over and disgusting. I “poo pick” every other day, the normal poo isn’t the issue, but it’s the sloppy (sorry!) rain ones that get stuck in the grass. And that he’s dug up all my bulbs. And just generally dug big holes in the grass and trampled on flowers. And his wee has killed patches of grass.

I love him but... surely there’s a way for him to have a fun garden and me to have a pretty garden?!?!?

Ha sorry my dog has trashed our garden too! She also dug up the bulbs and has destroyed the lawn!

Arg no! Maybe it was inevitable!

We ended up getting fake grass 😁

We're planning a new garden with fake grass. Our garden is destroyed

Yep fake grass in every house we’ve owned.

I have mitigated the damage by:-

1. Supervising when younger to stop him digging so it didn't turn into a habit. He no longer does that anymore.

1. He gets called away when I see him in any flower beds.

1. In the summer I water his pee patches using a watering can straight after which stops his pee killing the grass. Any I miss are reseeded with grass/clover mix. In the winter I just hope the rain dilutes it enough.

1. Poo is picked up straight away and any soft ones I use a watering can to wash and residue away.

1. I have converted one of the grass lawns to artificial grass which is the one we use to throw balls to chase. This means the other lawn is not torn up by his claws from running about.

It's just damage mitigation

We have wire fencing around all the borders to prevent dogs trampling on them.

We pick poo up everyday, inclduing hosing down any sloppy ones.

We feed and seed the lawn twice a year with a high qaulity feed and football pitch strength seed.

We dilute pee durin drier months to try and prevent lawn burn.

When the dogs were younger we supervised them to prevent digging.

We lowered our standards dramatically

My garden is fine. The first weekend we had our dog ( Battersea pup ) he dug up , chewed a daffodil bulb and nearly died so obviously allowing him full garden access was a non starter . We have a largish patio area so we fenced it off with ornamental metal fencing so dog is only allowed on the patio unless he is supervised . If he pees or poos it is picked up immediately and we keep a watering can of disinfectant to keep it all clean .

My garden is fine -wet but fine.

Pick up poo immediately rarely have an issue with runny poo but if so would water it clean. I actively encourage my dogs to poo in the garden as it is easier to get rid of then having to carry full poo bags on walks

Do not leave young dogs unsupervised

Older dogs are happy to mooch and lie around

Exercise my dogs a lot off premises so garden is not a mad rush around area.

Don't get artificial grass - it's terrible for wildlife and the environment.

My dog likes to dig as a puppy. As pp said I just took him inside when he did. The lawn is struggling anyway because of the constant rain but otherwise we only play ball in there in summer when the ground is hard.

Pee patches get watered in summer. Seems to work mostly. If not then there's a yellow patch for a couple of weeks and then it's fine. No big deal.

Rewildjng is the thing to do now anyway so don't worry about your garden too much. Let your dog and the wildlife enjoy it. Easier for you too.

I would start poo picking every day for a start. It is a horrible job and you are right in that dog poo that has been rained on is truly foul Would it be practical for you (or an unwilling volunteer!) to go out with him and pick it up straight away? That is what my grandparents used to do and they had a lovely garden.

I have this problem too, without the digging. We have a large breed dog and she's constantly crushing my poor plants. She's getting better at staying off the garden, but finds it hard to resist the lure of running along barking at people who walk their dogs past our house.

What do you all do with the dog poop? I've got a lovely pile of it to be dug underneath the new flowerbeds we're making soon but would rather find a better way to deal with it. We had been putting it down the loo but apparently that's bad.

I have a dog that due to abuse/neglect from her first owner is afraid to go into the garden. Will happily go for a walk, but will not go into the garden.
So, my garden is untouched by dog damage - so, my tip would be to walk your dog more and spend less time in the garden.
Probably not helpful

Don't get artificial grass - it's terrible for wildlife and the environment

How about people who have a paved garden? Is that allowed?

Restrict them to one area unless under supervision. And they still manage to piss on the lawn in the millisecond I am distracted.

We just have a blanket of mud. I am getting chippy stones.

Our current dogs a gardener so we have the lawn and beds fenced off.
Its not the dogs fault its the breed.
We walk her for poo's but occasional patio poo's are easily hosed away on the rare occasion she is loose

We always start off with taking them to the garden on a lead when we first get them, and adding a toilet command (‘wee wee’ or ‘be quick’ are ours). That way they learn that if it’s toilet time, they do their business on command and come straight in (eventually without the lead). We also pick up poo and rinse away wee as soon as they’ve toileted - we have a small fenced off ‘toilet area’ next to the hose pipe and tap, so it only takes seconds to pick up and rinse down. It’s worth it in the long run.

Also, our dogs aren’t allowed off lead in the garden until they have a fairly decent recall. This has always been really early on as we're not looking for the perfect recall we’d expect outside of the home. We use a longline in the meantime so they can have a run and a play but we can prevent them from digging etc. So as soon as they start digging or approach the flower beds, they get recalled and a small treat. When we had our first dog he had pretty much unsupervised access to the garden and it was destroyed, we learned pretty quickly that supervision and organisation are key for keeping a nice garden.

Mine doesn't dig but he gets out, dive bombs towards the shed and now the lawn has something resembling a muddy landing strip diagonally across it! I've given up

I remember the days of Capability Ted the landscape gardener. He's been the worst of mine. I planted a mixture of taller shrubs and cranesbill geraniums, which were the most resilient to constant trampling by garden zoomies. He scythed them down and they just grew back like it was a personal challenge. The lawn is a lost cause; he used to race outside and do a handbrake turn on it the better to harass the others multiple times a day, until there was a rain-filled permanent crater. We're on clay soil and in the shade so the water just stands and nothing grows except slime. I gave up and just keep what's left of the grass short. That dog was an arsehole but I loved him.

The current one is more dignified and just likes to pee copiously in the fern corner. The new ones I was quite excited about died immediately but the established ones are surviving it.

Capability Ted

My dog doesn't do any to the garden except wee and poo in it - only poos once a day - but the weather has completely destroyed it.

It's never been a 'nice' garden, it's small with mainly grass, one beautiful thriving rose bush, now in its third year, a cherry tree and some other bits and pieces.

We also have clay, well at the moment it's just mud and standing water. It so bad even the dog finds it unpleasant and slippy to walk on.

I want to get some grass seeds to sow, when and if it ever stops raining but I'm a bit worried about anything I use being animal friendly.

Can anyone recommend grass seeds that are truely animal friendly and won't harm my dog?

For us, it was just an age thing.

For the first year, he dug constantly and often came back from a "toilet break" absolutely covered in mud, haha.

But now he seems to have calmed down - I don't think we've done anything differently either!

Yes, I'd forgotten that, about the age thing.

My dog dug everywhere when she was a puppy, and would pick up and chew on small stones.

She never digs now. Can't remember how old she was when she grew out of it though.

My dog is nearly 10 and he still digs at every oppurtunity , the beach , if I stand to chat on a grass verge , literally anywhere he can and that’s despite having access to a digging pit on the patio . He specialises in trenches rather than holes .

Please do not get that hideous plastic grass. It is horrendous in so many ways.

Poo pick every day.