Dog Days
Being landscape designers exposes us to many interesting requests. One ask that is becoming more and more prevalent is incorporating dog-friendly elements into outdoor spaces. These four-legged friends of ours hold big spaces in our hearts! Why not incorporate their needs into outdoor living spaces too?
We’re all familiar with the quote, “Good fences make good neighbors” from Robert Frost’s poem, Mending Wall. Not only does planning a proper fence for your dog make you a good neighbor, it also keeps your dog safe and gives you peace of mind. It means your dog can roam in a designated area with some freedom to adventure. When we moved several years ago we wanted to provide this experience for Bennett, our beagle family member. He needed a fence or his nose would get him in trouble. We closed in a section of our backyard with a fence connecting the back door with the detached garage so we could easily let him out the back door to do his business. This kept him safe and gave us the ability to give him outside time apart from daily walks.
Keeping them in your space is one thing. Making what’s inside the fence dog-friendly starts another conversation. This spring one of our clients shared with us that they recently welcomed a new puppy into their family. This topic surfaced as we discussed filling their flower pots with showy annuals for the summer season. They were concerned about their nibble-tending puppy chomping on the annuals and wanted us to make sure none of the plants were poisonous. This sent us into a series of Google searches as we made our selections. We were surprised to learn how many annuals used for seasonal color are poisonous to animals! If you have pets be sure to cover this topic with your landscape designer when planning your spaces. For a quick reference, here’s a link to some common plants that can be a danger as well as safe ones to incorporate.
On another occasion several years ago, some clients met us with failed stories of providing lawn for their three dogs. They were dog parents to three Great Pyrenees. We met them at their vacation home in Lakeside, MI, at this charming getaway, nestled in the woods under mature oak, tulip, and maple trees. Needless to say, their canopies did not provide enough light to support a traditional lawn to grow. They had tried twice to replace the lawn entirely with new sod and inevitably each time the lawn died out. We discussed options other than traditional lawn and arrived on astroturf as a likable solution, which ended up working so well that they added more the following year. Astro-turf can be installed with special infill for specific pet needs. It isn’t for every site, but requires considerably less maintenance than traditional lawn. It is barefoot and paw-friendly. When considering this for your space, make sure to discuss all the pros and cons with a designer to determine if it is the right fit for your dog’s needs.
Not all dogs love the water (Bennett did NOT), but for our clients who have water-loving dogs, we often design pool features specifically for them. I would even venture to say for some the pool is for the dogs. One client asked for two sun ledges on either end of the pool because they had a dog who didn’t swim but liked to just sit in the water and watch their other dogs partake in the activity. Fountains are another fun element to add for dogs either in the pool or on the patio shooting into the pool. Dogs love to bite at the water and chase it.
For all the ways our dogs add joy to our lives, these are just a few ways to return their devotion to your outdoor spaces. Whether it be a fence to keep them safe, a non-toxic plant palette, or a sun ledge in the pool, our pets should get their fair share of “spoiled.” Helping design spaces for the human-pet bond is just one of the ways that we find delight in molding your indoor environments.