How to have dog friendly gardens

With attention to a few things, one can have perfectly dog friendly gardens. Here are a few ideas to try with your dog and garden.

There are nice alternatives to a lawn, but if you prefer to have one, you can minimize the yellow patches that will likely appear, by pouring water over the spot where the dog has peed straight away, which will dilute the urine and the damage to the lawn. For patches that got yellow, cut it out and replace with new grass, whether using seeds or turf.

Most dogs love water so any water garden feature you probably catch his attention. For big features make sure he will be able to get out if it if he decides to take a bath. Smaller ones mine have water that is not drinkable. With training your dog will learn to leave the pond and others features alone.

Do make it party time when you are watering the garden though, dogs love to play catch with water and it will be fun for both of you.

Don't use any chemicals in any water that might come in contact with him or he might drink. Going organic helps to have a dog friendly garden.

If your dog likes to dig, leave a place in the garden free for him, like a small border or a sand box and with some training he will change his attention from your flower beds to this place. You can help it by hiding a bone on that place, while he is watching at first and soon it will be his favorite place in the garden. Always give positive reinforcement when is digging there so he will learn it faster.

Be aware of toxic plants and try to keep it away from your garden or out of reach of the dog. Some common plants that are toxic are buttercup, daffodil, wisteria, hydrangea, tomato, yew, delphinium and foxglove.

Sometimes you just need to be careful with some parts of the plant, like flowers or berries, but in other cases like with tomatoes, all parts of the plant are toxic.

Ground tree bark is great because it will tolerate all. But don't use cocoa mulch though, because cocoa is poisonous for dogs. Be aware of tree stumps and rotten wood, it might grown fungus which might be poisonous.

Usually the more your dog is bored, the worse it will be for your garden. A dog friendly garden has to be an interesting garden, with flowers to smell, wildlife to watch (birds, butterflies, beetles...), all of it will be of interest to a dog.

Dogs like to run, so in a small garden if there isn't a path big enough for that, he will run over the plants. See what are his usual routines and take that in account when placing plants in the garden. More fragile plants should be as much out of his way as possible.

With just a few changes you will get a dog friendly garden that will make everyone happy.