no more muddy paws

Does anyone know if we were to landscape our backyard in a way that encouraged the dogs to stay on flag stone or otherwise indicated paths, would that be bad on their joints to be racing around on surfaces other than grass and dirt?

 

I have river rock paths in my yard. None of my dogs ever liked walking on it. Flag stone is a larger and flatter surface - but like the river rock - it gets hot in the summer and is very uneven for them to walk on. My friend has beautiful - professionally landscaped bark paths and plank paths in her yard - and the dogs still prefer the grass.

I also have a uniblock path to and around the pool - they still prefer the cool grass in the summer. They will walk on the blocks when the weather is cool.

As far as muddy paws - If there is mud, I have a bucket of water and towel ready to dip their paws into as soon as they get to the house. My poor guys are used to me dipping their feet and drying them. They are house dogs and I am a bit particular about how my house is kept.

 

my dogs play on our cement and have no problems, half of my backyard is cement patio and some grass

 

Oh yea - Cement patio's are great. We have one instead of a deck - The dogs love playing on it. They don't like laying on it too much in the summer because it gets hot -- but on cool days they love it! I like them playing on it because it helps file down their toenails!

Cement is great!

I saw in a home imporvement magazine that they now have colored cement -- if I was to do it again -- instead of the uniblock and river rock -- I would have colored and patterned cement paths. That would be nice for everyone!

 

You mean muddy paws like this? :lol:


I am thinking about covering the park of my back yard where grass will not grow due to a Magnolia tree with a product we have here called decomposed granite. It compacts nicely and is a nice natural surface. Would stay cooler than and pavement.

 

my girls don't particularly like cement. There's not much other than the sidewalk behind the house going to the driveway here in Victoria. Other than that, it's all grass and dirt. They LOVE playing in the grass, only when they get done w/ a spot there's no more grass left! LOL.

I have such a big yard here, and 7acres at home that it really doesn't matter where they play. They KNOW to stay out of the garden though. Thats a NO NO ZONE.
But muddy paws are a norm around here....
I keep a bucket of water and towel by the back door at all times. Either our feet are muddy, or the dogs. Granvel takes his work boots off there also. It never fails that they come home filthy.....

 

http://landscaping.about.com/od/lawns/a ... caping.htm

 

Dukesdad I have heard of good things about decomposed granite, becuase it makes it like hard clay even in rain.

Sue what a great site.

Funny, My husband and I were recently watching one of those yard redo shows I think it was landscapers challege. This couple wanted a nice backyard that was also dog friendly, they had 2 pitbulls and a shadey grass area that was getting destroyed. They ended up with flagstone and rocks like pea gravel in between. We looked at each other and laughed and said "how long is that going to last"!! we had done that on a side patio and the dogs got the gravel everywhere, what a mess. we thought boy, they are going to be sweeping a lot


So my recommendations if you do flagstone, put something like clover and a creeping thyme between the pavers. These are extremely hardy and take foottraffic much better than grass.

 

We got a cement patio about 8 years ago. It's made of stuff called cool-crete, and it stays cool even during the summer. The dogs LOVE it, because they can lay on teh cool cement in the shade during the summer, and it doesn't get any colder than regular cement in the winter, at least not in texas.

 

I do the bucket of water thing, but it gets tiring after the 6th or 100th time in one day.

I want to take out ALL the grass, so grass won't be an option to walk on! I am just trying to figure out what to put down that won't hurt them.

I like the link - I am looking into clover now. We don't get those yellow spots, though - apparently their urine isn't too acidic.

 

we also have river rock paths, jake wont walk on them and he wont walk on the grass :roll: :roll: . we have a cement mow strip around our grass and that is how gets around. Wylie does use the rock paths but she is oblivious to anything.

I wish we had looked into that cool cement when we put our pool in because when its 110+ outside and we are in it, Wylie is standing there throwing her frisbee in the pool for us to fetch. I have had to lock her in the house so she wont burn her feet.

 

I too wish I had known about the cool cement! What a great idea.
Our regular cement sometimes gets so hot in the summer that it is too hot for bare human feet!!! I have to keep a hose nearby to hose down the patio and our feet if we are using it on a hot summer afternoon. Here in Indiana, it is not unusual to have summer days that are 90 degrees or more.
In reality though - on days like that - my black berners don't even want to be outside! They are smart enough to prefer being inside laying on an air vent!!

 

Yup, in Texas it gets REALLY hot! And we use the backyard a lot, not to mention the patio is the path to the grass for the dog, so we looked around for something, and found it. It has been awesome!

 

We have a wooden deck, so concrete is not an issue for us.