Utilize your dog's natural intelligence and instincts to design the best possible backyard experience for both of you!
Designing the happiest, healthiest lifestyle & landscape if you have a dog or dogs is something I've spent a lot of time on. As dog mama to 1 huge, 100 lb collie, Leo the Chill, and 1 medium-chubby 50 lb beagle-?? mix, Ruby the Exuberant Porkchop, my pups very much affect my thought processes and practices around design. Maintaining a flourishing backyard food forest that meets both my needs & the needs of the pups for an outdoor space is a constant dance of observing, thinking, and tweaking my practices & physical space.
No matter what you've got going on in your backyard, these insights I've gained over the last seven (!) years of puppy parenting are strategies I rely on and want to share with you all.
So today, I want to share with you my top design tips for fulfilling, pro-pup backyard design!
1.) Listen to your furry microclimate detectors: Dogs will tell you about your landscape if you pay attention!
Where are they liking to flop down and chill when it's hot? What about when it's cold out? Chances are, these are particularly cool/breezy or warm microclimates. Poultry will show similar preferences based on the weather. Let them show you what they like and it can give you valuable information about where to put certain plants, where to place a chicken coop, where to put a pond, etc. The natural intelligence of dogs is something often underestimated in yard design, but the information they're giving you is viable and important. Tune in and let them help you place elements.
(For example, Leo the Chill designed my whole garden pathway system! I followed his footsteps in the snow one day, recorded them with stakes and a hand-drawn map, and went with it - his flow made a lot of sense and I'm glad I did! I use that trail infrastructure to this day.)
2.) Dog Doors ALWAYS!
Self-regulation is a gift you can easily give to yourself and your dogs by installing a dog door (assuming you have a securely fenced yard - if not, that's definitely the first step before the dog door!). Seriously, if you want a true partnership and less of a prison-type situation for your dogs, let them go in and out as they please. Yes, of course I close the dog door off at certain times, but overall, allowing pups to flow inside & outside at their own discretion frees you from micromanaging their bowel movements and allows them to meet their own needs. In this way, a dog door empowers you both, and it's really a design must for me - I would never live in a place where I couldn't install a dog door.
3.) Give them a job!
My dogs seem to really get a sense of purpose from keeping an eye on and protecting my small urban poultry flock. Many people feel that dogs need to either be pets or working dogs, and these can't overlap successfully, but I disagree. As long as the dog door is open and your poultry housing is within ear & eyeshot of your doggos, there's absolutely no reason not to let them perform this natural function. OF COURSE, this depends on the temperament of each dog, and some have prey drives that are just too strong - I understand this. But if you have any kind of herding breed (Leo the Chill collie!) or just generally very obedient or low prey-drive dog(s), this strategy will work out very well with the poultry & pups coexisting in your backyard. I can't tell you the amount of times my dogs have scared away predators out to get my chickens!
4.) Prepare to absorb nitrogen!
When dogs, um, pee - everywhere they have access to outdoors, and frequently, as they do- what's your plan for dealing with the Nitrogen that's going into your yard? Without proper planning, it can kill garden plants and grass, and the runoff can pollute local waterways.
My solution? CARBON. In the form of thick layers of woodchips on all pathways & pee spots, including the all-important perimeter pathway (#5!). Wood chips are the perfect buffer of carbon to absorb excess Nitrogen, and all that will happen is the carbon-nitrogen combo will break down into soil over time. The more highly used the area is, the more wood chips you need. I add a fresh layer to mine once a year. Planting nutrient-sponging plants like willow and bamboo in the most heavily-used spots can also help.
[Another potential solution is applying uncharged Biochar to heavily used areas, but I have mixed feelings on this as I'm not sure retaining the contents of dog pee in the soil for years and years is the responsible thing to do for any yard. I have tried it in certain spots, however, and it certainly helps with any smell.]
5.) Keep food production areas blocked off to dogs, but open to poultry.
How I achieve this is by having welded wire fencing around the garden area with chicken/duck-sized holes at ground level to allow their passage (and subsequent garden bug patrol!) but keep pups out of my food areas so I know they're sanitary and safe for me to eat from. I didn't put pictures of this because my setup looks pretty janky right now, but darn it, it works!
6.) The Perimeter Trail:
Dogs love, love, love to check their perimeter - to cruise around and see what's going on around them and alert you to any unusual events or strangers that may be outside. This also helps them protect your house & poultry. So, plan on your pups prowling the perimeter of your yard and mulch heavily in preparation for the traffic it'll get! Plan garden beds accordingly and fence off where you need to in order to keep food production sanitary. In my yard, I have a perimeter trail, but it's not right at the edge of the fence - rather, it's pushed in between 2 and 4 feet, with thick plantings on the outside of most of the fence. This is to discourage my pups from overreacting to certain high-activity areas where they can irritate neighbors and bark unnecessarily. So, use your judgement here for exactly where to put the trail!
I hope these 6 tips help you design a pup-positive backyard in partnership with your furry friends!
Tell me, what other strategies do you use? Would you try these tips?
xoxo