Is it murder if she deserves it??

[Vickkers]

We live in a new development and our backyard is all dirt/mud/clay with no grass. My DH and I have been trying to grow grass since last fall and every time we lay down seed my BC, Clover, will run hard core around the backyard, digging, making 'mud pies' and generally making it impossible for the seed to actually take.

 

We thought we were so smart and this spring we got that grass blanket cover (basically straw in between sheets of netting to keep it in place) and it was working!!! Until this morning. We watered the lawn/ blanket this morning and Clover was going nutso with the sprinkler (chasing it etc). Aw how cute right? Except... once we were done watering and the ground was all soft below the blanket she decided that she was going to go up to a corner of the house and pull the blanket back (it's staked down but apparently that isn't a problem for her) and dig a niiiiice biiiiig mud pit next to the house.

 

She got scolded when I saw it... (my other dog is pristine and she's covered in mud). I cleaned the mudpit up, recovered it and went back inside to finish getting ready as I didn't have time to wash her off and let her in.... go back 15 minutes later. ANOTHER MUD PIT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR!

 

I nearly lost it and had to count to 10 multiple times to calm down before I got in my car (now running really late for work of course).

 

Other than keeping her crated every day inside the house until we actually have grass, I don't know what to do. Any suggestions???

[nancy]

I may be a tad paranoid, but I certainly wouldn't leave a dog out in the yard while I was gone. Sure, I did that with our other dog - back in the late 60s and 70s. Heck, I left her loose - no fence and no lead. We did live way in the boonies.

 

But I wouldn't do it now. We've had neighbors' kids taunt dogs. We've had dogs attacked by rabid raccoons. I've even heard of neighbors' letting a dog out, then claiming the dog attacked them. And the kid who climbed a 6-foot fence and went for a chained dog - and got killed.

 

And, then again, grass is vastly over-rated. We once had neighbors who put out outdoor carpet where lawn would be. Always green, never needed mowing - just the occasional hosing. I go for English ivy, vinca, and pine needles.

[Vickkers]

Gosh Nancy, that is scary... I couldn't imagine that in our neighborhood. I live in a culdesac surrounded by woods/farmland and floodplains. Since we've all moved in about the same time, we're all really close neighbors and about 80% of us have dogs. My girls have a 6' privacy fence with a locked gate and access to a locked (dog doored) portioned-off section of the garage to get away from the heat/sun/ anything outside.

 

A good portion of our community has stay at home parents and retired folks that look out for the rest of us during the day and all the kids LOVE our dogs and will come over and play with them (with permission) when we're home.

 

I would be sad not to allow Clover to have the run of the yard when we're gone. Pepper would be just as happy inside the house but Clover loves nothing more than to run nonstop around the yard and play 'throw' with herself... throwing her ragbone/ball toy as far as she can over the side of the hill and then tearing off after it and throwing it again... she's a very active dog who I'm sure would get into mischief and be very very unhappy if she didn't have access to the outside. Even at night when we're home she'll beg us to come outside with her and play (after our evening walks, lessons and ball fetching sessions).

[clara]

On the grass question, I'm trying to have grass too, and give access to the yard. The only success I've found is to seed in sections (it's a slow process), and use metal stakes and plastic yard fencing keep the dogs off it until the new section is established. If she is running around on the dirt where the seed is planted, then on the new shoots, it'll never take, even if you could keep her from digging holes in it. Mine are great about honoring practically any kind of fence-like barrier, so that part's been easy for me. I used lightweight short metal fence posts and 2 ft tall green plastic yard fencing from Home Depot and it's working like a charm to keep them off sections of sprouting grass.

 

As far as leaving her outside, even though you live in a great neighborhood, I'd be cautious. I don't mean to alarm you, but I lived in a small town in a great neighborhood growing up with lots of stay at home moms and we all looked out for each other (it was the 70s after all!) We had outside dogs, and on Halloween in 5th grade I came home from school to find my 1 year old lab dead from someone poisoning him. Because of this, I may be overly cautious, but I NEVER leave my dogs outside unattended for more than a few minutes even though I live in a great neighborhood and trust all my neighbors.

 

Hope the grass thing works out! You could always lay sod... I think that takes faster than seed, but more expensive. ???

 

Clara

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Here's the rescuer-living-on-rental property failsafe foolproof method of re-establishing grass.

 

First, you absolutely must have a safe area to potty the dogs - a small area of nice deep gravel is great. Plant some shrubs around it and put an attractive little park bench there and no one will be the wiser. Gravel is easy to keep clean and picked up, too. You may have to walk the dogs on leash at first, but after a while they appreciate the clean, non-muddy place to to their business and will go to it readily.

 

Second, divide up the yard into smaller areas which will be planted. It's really helpful to have the graavel area right in front of the door, then have each grassy area lead off the gravel.

 

Plan one area for landscaping that is hardy and dog proof like vinca, liriope, decorative bunchgrasses, ivy, pachysandra. Plant this now and protect it with low decorative fencing while it's getting established this summer. Once it's established, it will take some doing to kill this.

 

Next, tackle the prospective grassy areas. The secret is to plant and establish only a small area at a time. Plant your seed, put down the cover, and then use hotwire to protect it. Yup, hotwire. That's all that will really make them respect that area. It will only take a few times but soon they'll simply avoid any area that is staked out with wire. Obviously you want to mark the wire carefully with flags.

 

Once the grass has reached the stage of first mowing, start another plot if your weather permits it at that time. You can move the wire off the first area about the time of the second planting, but make sure you are playing and pottying somewhere else for a while. You probably won't be able to re-establish the whole lawn at once until fall, but within a year you'll have the whole thing green again.

 

And nancy's right - it's best if you have a large "sacrificial" area where you can let the dogs play. What I did once we had our own places to live, was landscape a couple small areas really nicely and then I had a "dog yard". Sometimes it's easier to fence the dogs OUT of garden areas, then to attempt to fence them IN designated dog areas.

 

Here's a little garden I had at the old farm, with Ben demonstrating how the decorative fencing reminds them to stay out.

 

[Maralynn]

She is being a puppy and having fun. It is going to happen if you want her to be able to run around in the back yard by herself.

 

Personally, I would opt for a crated pup and more structured play time. She is not going to sit in the crate all day thinking about how she could be outside playing. Give her something to chew on in the crate, and plenty of exercise and training when you're home, and she'll be a happy dog.

 

If you feel that she needs to have her freedom during the day, I think you're going to have to settle for a yard without grass.

 

ETA- or just follow Rebecca's advice

[Vickkers]

These are some really excellent ideas, thanks! I like the sectioning off one at a time idea the best! I am planning on planting some foundation plants as well and fencing those areas off ...don't know why I didn't think to do the stages thing with the grass...

 

I may be lucky enough to be able to do it in large batches (maybe). The way our yard is set up I could easily rope/fence half of it off at a time ...

 

Thanks again!

[SincereArtisan]

I would never leave my dog unattended in the back yard, ever again. Last year, I paid the price. Intentionally or not, they were slipped rat poison. I wasn't home in time to see the initial effects. Almost two weeks later, all three wonderful dogs were put down due to severe internal bleeding. the days I left them outside they may have been slipped more, which made it so severe in the end. At least thats the hypothesis. It wasn't a ''bad'' neighborhood, either. Needless to say, however, I moved.

 

There is nothing wrong with crating a dog while you're gone. What if she got stung/bitten by something and had an allergic reaction? You wouldn't be home to see it, or stop it. Just the other day a friend of mine's dog went outside to potty...and came back with a 7 inch gash on the inner part of her leg. This dog goes out into that back yard a zillion times a day. We searched it high and low and could find NOTHING that would do it to her. Its still a mystery, but thank goodness we were home for it. And yes, I've heard of rabid raccoons getting into yards and attacking, strays finding their way in, perhaps digging under the fence, snake bites, there are SO many things that could go wrong. Not to mention, no one is out there to CORRECT her for digging up mudholes and destroying your efforts at building lawn.

 

I really like Rebecca's suggestion, especially with the hot wire. Dogs WILL respect it, and after a couple tries you'll be able to put it anywhere, hot or not, and the dogs will get the point. But, at the same time, I wouldn't leave my dog out there unattended with it, not unless I was home. What if she were to toss her toy into the wired off portion, be so intent on retrieving it that she ran headlong into the wire and got tangled? I know my dogs don't look where they're goin all the time when cavorting after a frisbee. I may have a wild imagination, but thats what I get growing up with an80lb lab that got stuck on the ROOF of a 2 story house, a horse that gets his head caught between trees, a horse rolling into the side of a barn and getting trapped, cats who birth their kittens in trees, and lord knows what else....how else am I to think of all the crazy stuff that COULD happen if I'm not there to prevent it?

[silhouettestable]

I also recommend fencing off the area that you're trying to reseed. That's what I had to do last year. I got so tired of the mud and the big holes near the front of my backyard (up near the house). I would have been happy for anything to grow there, even weeds, just to keep the mud and dust down. I finally decided to put in a patio stone walkway that extends from the yard gate that's on my driveway side, over to the deck steps, and then reseed from the stones to the back of the house. I have an old roll of lightweight chainlink fence that I hooked onto the side fence and stretched it over to the deck railing and secured it there. I did have to get a bit creative and also find a way to block the dogs from climbing or jumping over the deck railing (found one of them INSIDE my fenced and seeded area more than once, with a new hole dug), but once they had no way in the grass came in beautifully and it's nice and thick. I seeded pretty heavily so that when it did grow there would be a good thick root system, not just a bit of sparse grass that would get torn up easily again. I'm hoping that when all the snow and ice melts off of it the dogs will give it a chance to come back this year, but if they start to tear it up I"ll fence it off for a while again until things dry up some more.

[Laurae]

Sincere Artisan, that's absolutely one of the most awful things I've ever heard.

 

My Sophie got into rat poison once when I brought her in with me to work (back in my days as a kayak shop manager). I was right there to discover it and rush her to the vet, and it was still an arduous, 10-week process to restore her to health. I'm so sorry to hear you lost three dogs--it's just unthinkable that it was possibly intentional.

 

I don't leave my dogs out while I'm gone either.