Design for Your Pet; Take a Corner for Yourself

by Carol Frischmann

You share your backyard with your dog. You may resist, rail about how unfair this is, and resolve to train your dog to previously unknown levels of obedience. The fact is your dog has nothing to do except break your resistance. And you will break. As my Doberman said when I delivered her peanut butter-stuffed Kong, “You all crumble, eventually.”

Power excavator or power napper?

Therefore, plan your backyard around your dog’s favorite sports. Like yours, dogs’ back yard preferences come from genetics, personality, age, fitness level, and early life experiences. Most dogs achieve greatness in basic performance events: the nap, the popular poop-and-roll, and the “watch the world go by.” Any of the basic events may sometimes be interrupted by cats who linger outside of the fence, earning a good long bark. Some dogs have skills in specialty events that include guarding (against the dangerous crows and jays), hunting the irresistibly flapping, scurrying, and slithering (flies, mice, and garter snakes), excavating (a tunnel to the cute female dog down the street), collecting (sticks and stones), and gardening (destroying prized foliage by shredding or trampling).

Don’t fight natural athleticism

Whatever your dog’s natural choices, don’t fight if you want to cling to your sanity. If your dog is a digger, give him a place to dig. If he is a collector, give him acceptable things to collect. If he’s a shredder, give him something he’s encouraged to shred as an alternative to specimen roses or the drapes around your gazebo.

If your mother in law expects to see the Victorian garden globe on her next visit, build an enclosure, and secure the globe inside. Unsupervised dogs violate their training as surely as we cheat on our diets. Dogs are better than people, but not that much better.

I dig

“For dogs that dig, design a dig pit,” suggests Cheryl S. Smith, author of Dog Friendly Gardens, Garden Friendly Dogs. Sand as the material gives your dog a visual cue about where you allow digging and where you don’t. Try a half-barrel planter as dig spot for a small dog. For larger dogs try logs, cinder blocks, or stock fencing lined with tarpaulin as your “pit architecture.” Smith’s excellent book shows a variety of other designs to consider.

As to location, get a jump on your dog’s thinking. Locate dig pits in the shade, since your dog will try to dig a cool place to lie in summer.

The lay of the land

Dogs favor different elevations in the backyard. Smith’s own dogs love to lay atop a picnic table or bench to watch the neighborhood from a different vantage point. “A pile of landscaping rocks or a berm gives your dog a place a stand on top and to do his Rin Tin Tin thing,” says Smith.

Some back yard athletes prefer swimming or at least splashing as cross-training. A kiddy pool provided hours of summer entertainment for Smith’s Newfoundland mix.

The jump and pull events

Having deep knowledge of this athletic group, Smith suggests performance jumpers may enjoy leaping at a treat holder suspended from a tree limb or arbor at the upper limit of their reach. “The treat holder, “she says, “can be as sophisticated as a toy or as ordinary as a converted milk jug.” Jumping and batting the holder to get treats provides great exercise, especially for prey driven dogs like terriers or other high-energy dogs like herders and guards.

She describes a toy she developed for one of her dogs who loved pulling. “We devised a spring powered hard rubber ring suspended from one corner of an arbor. We ran a stretch of PVC over the [spring and] suspension rope so it wasn’t prone to recoiling and wrapping around the arbor.”

You are the best performance toy

“Since dogs tend to want to be with us,” Smith, “we
are the best toy in the yard. Most dogs don’t exercise
themselves.” Twenty minutes of play with your dog,
perhaps trick training or playing keep away, provides
more exercise than most dogs get in the yard alone.
“This builds your bond with your dog,” Smith says,
“When you have a dog, it’s all a compromise. When
you have a dog, you need to give the dog time, not
always in the form that you want.”

As my dog said, “You all cave, eventually.” Or we
build them a play cave where the garden used to be.