Dogs And Growing Grass With Success

[koalathebear]

Part of our back yard when we bought the house had grass, part of it was just dirt. With the dogs running around on it, the grass is thinning out. I would really like to have more grass in the yard. OH thinks there's no point because the dogs running on it will just wear it out again.

Has anyone had success growing grass in the backyard with dogs? Would that mean that for a period of x weeks we wouldn't be able to let the dogs in the backyard? Any tips or should we resign ourselves to a life of mud and dirt? Thanks in advance!

[Pretty Miss Emma]

Thankyou for asking the question because I would also like to hear the answer!!!

[BC Crazy]

Me too! Looking forward to the feedback. We look like re-turfing again this spring for the 2nd time in as many years. We are through to dirt 'again'.

I love a nice green lawn for my furry kids but it is really hard to maintain with 2 bc's running around on it all the time 'doin zoomies' together.

[Burkes]

I put in synthetic turf. Love it!! Its been in a year now and no signs of wear nor have the dogs chewed it or tried to dig it up.

[brintey]

After returfing twice (and aerating and top dressing twice a year) I gave up and put in fake grass. My lawn area is under a lot of big shade trees anyway so having a nice green lawn was always going to be an uphill struggle.

Bonus is now that I have less housework to do as the dogs are not bringing mud and dust inside on their coats.

[Scarlet]

I don't think there is a turf made to withstand a lot of traffic and dogs are tough on grass!

I've had dogs in a big yard and really didn't notice too much damage but the smaller the area gets the more the grass is damaged.

Largish areas of gravel or mulch might work but the synthetic grass sounds like the answer!

[Whippetsmum]

You could phone a few turf places and ask for advice. I am sure I've seen a plastic mesh underlay in some high traffic council areas tat seems to protect the roots from a bit of wear, a turf person would know what can be done.

Don't forget that this time of year is the worst for grass in most places around Aus, so the grass will look better most of the year than it does now.

[GoldenGirl85]

My parents have nice green grass, and it even survived a JRT lol, but I don't know what they use, they grew it themselves and was a mixed seed...I know one seed was kikuyu

[BC Crazy]

We have had Sir Walter Buffalo grass in one house we lived in & it handled 1 dog very well & didn't wear at all.

So we are looking at getting that in Spring time. The mess our yard is in is unreal atm & it is making a lot of work

trying to keep our deck outside clean & also our floors inside which I mop daily Boring!!! Would love to get artificial

grass but it is very expensive over the area of yard we have, about $4000. still very tempting.

Edited August 6, 2011 by BC Crazy

[sas]

I put in synthetic turf. Love it!! Its been in a year now and no signs of wear nor have the dogs chewed it or tried to dig it up.

What type did you get?

I looked into it and It would cost around $2,000 installed for the dog pen which is 6m x 4.5.

I heard they can heat up in summer and some of them have problems with being smelly with dog toileting?

[sas]

You could phone a few turf places and ask for advice. I am sure I've seen a plastic mesh underlay in some high traffic council areas tat seems to protect the roots from a bit of wear, a turf person would know what can be done.

Don't forget that this time of year is the worst for grass in most places around Aus, so the grass will look better most of the year than it does now.

When I spoke to some turf places they said in Winter you have to keep the dogs off it for 4 weeks, or 2 weeks in Summer ARG!

[Maddy]

One thing I noticed with our lawn (we don't have much of it and there's always at least three dogs here) is that raw feeding made a big difference to the health of the lawn.

The poo from feeding packaged dry food was always very loose and would kill the grass underneath it really quickly- compared to the poo from feeding raw which is small, dry and solid (and doesn't seem to hurt the grass).

Now that we feed raw, the grass looks really good (no big, dead patches) and it doesn't get as damaged when I'm cleaning up after the dogs.

The other thing that certainly helped was dividing up the yard a bit- when the crazy hounds can't build up as much speed, they don't rip up as much grass. I actually bought myself some of those compost panals from Bunnings today to do a dividing fence right up the middle. The soil in our back yard seems softer and more easily pulled up than the soil in our front yard so zoomies will now be restricted to front yard only :p

[Whippetsmum]

I just found this mesh stuff- googled "under turf mesh". There are a couple of brands, turfprotector and grassprotector are mentioned

You would need to keep off the grass for a while so it can establish. I wonder how much it is?

Bodpave® grass paving grids are an interlocking recycled plastic grid system for reinforcing and stabilising grass that can get damaged by regular pedestrian and vehicle use. Bodpave® grass pavers should be installed on a firm well drained base to provide a high level of reinforcement. Bodpave® grass paving grids can be filled with a mixture of soil / sand and seed or can be turfed for a natural grassed finished, or can be filled with gravel too give a decorative finish which is ideal for gravel driveways and access roads.

[koalathebear]

Ours mostly toilet in a designated corner of the yard so it's not the toileting that's killing the grass. It's the fact that they run around like this:

Their 'turning circles' on the sides are particularly bald :p

[Maddy]

Ours mostly toilet in a designated corner of the yard so it's not the toileting that's killing the grass. It's the fact that they run around like this:

Their 'turning circles' on the sides are particularly bald :p

Definitely might be worth putting something in to make them stop running when they get to the ends of the wall, especially when they're going up the hill.

Maybe a row of low hedging with one entrance at each end- that way, even if they do accidentally crash into it, they aren't going to get hurt. Although you'll still probably have bald patches at the entrances where there's more traffic, probably unavoidable unless you can find some type of really tough grass (or maybe just pave those bits).

[Adnil444]

I put in synthetic turf. Love it!! Its been in a year now and no signs of wear nor have the dogs chewed it or tried to dig it up.

Hi I also had artificial turf and loved it - then after 6 months, my dogs pulled it up and it is now completely destroyed. What a waste of $2000 (only a small area of the yard also).

[Purdie]

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Edited September 17, 2011 by Purdie

[Tilly]

My yard is fenced down the middle ... one side is grass and nice garden ... the other is holes and seriously pruned plants

Each day the boys get grass time and that is our special play time ...

[Purdie]

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Edited September 17, 2011 by Purdie

[Burkes]

You could phone a few turf places and ask for advice. I am sure I've seen a plastic mesh underlay in some high traffic council areas tat seems to protect the roots from a bit of wear, a turf person would know what can be done.

Don't forget that this time of year is the worst for grass in most places around Aus, so the grass will look better most of the year than it does now.

When I spoke to some turf places they said in Winter you have to keep the dogs off it for 4 weeks, or 2 weeks in Summer ARG!

Hmmm, not sure what type it was but it was the second most expensive type they had. Yep, wasn't cheap. $2200 for an area about 10m x 5m.

As far as keeping them off it in Winter I haven't heard that. We've got down to -8 here in Canberra and I haven't had any problems. In the summer it does get a bit hot but only in the real heat of the day when most dogs are sleeping in the shade anyway (well mine are).

Smell wise - there is a smell if you stick your nose on it. If I didn't foster I would probably train the dogs to toilet somewhere else but I just can't be bothered. It is easy to pick up the poo and give it a quick hose if you get a sloppy one:)

The price put me off for a long time but I think it is worth it. No watering, no mowing, no sowing seed, no mud all through the house and it looks fantastic.

Here is my girl Sharon testing it out when it was first laid.