Have your boxers ruined your yard?!

[KCboxer4]

Well, we DON"T use the treated wood chips, were afraid of the chemicals comming off on the babies little feet, so we just buy un-treated wood chips, ( which causes a bug prob, ants, spider,) but, I don't wanna take any chances, the crushed stone we have is just landscaped about three to four feet around the circumfrence of our deck, then cobble stone outline it, then the wood chips begin.

 

[AJsMom]

AJ hasn't ruined our yard - but when we take him to my dad's he digs it up like crazy!

 

[Dunkin]

There was a post on here recently about putting in a sand box for the dogs to play in. I thought it was a good idea and may try it this spring.

 

[TexasTini]

Since we got Sampson at the beginning of winter, time will tell. I sure hope he isn't a digger. Although, he won't be left outside unattended, so there shouldn't be an opportunity for him to destroy. (we don't have a fence)

As for #1 and #2(if you catch my drift)...that's a different story.... The "volume" is hard on our grass...especially the one first thing in the morning!

 

[GinsMomma]

We've always had a hard time getting grass to grow in our backyard mostly b/c of the sandy soil. We tried planting a bunch of different grass seed & threw some hay down & kept it watered but with a young son that loves to dig & drive his powerwheel all over the yard, the very little bit of grass that did start to grow, didn't last for very long. Then we got Ginger & now our backyard is nothing but black sandy dirt. In the spring we have decided to get sod for at least half the backyard. Hopefully that will cut back on the dirt getting tracked onto the carpet & the dog & kids from getting so diry. I wouldn't waste the time or money planting seed if I were you. I would go with decorative rock like you mentioned or Astro turf like someone else had mentioned on here or un-treated wood chips. I don't know how much that is but I'm sure it's not cheap!! Good luck to you!

 

[arifanddebbi]

What yard?

We have a huge pool which we had nicely landscaped around it. We worked real hard to make it beautiful...then along came our beautiful boxer girls and we've now given up!!!

There is absolutely no grass left behind the pool where they do the majority of their burns. They also apparently do not like the trees we've planted as they keep trying to pull them out of the ground. Planting anything more is not even an option and we honestly considered just putting rock or stepping stones down now. No need to mow though, they've made sure of that

 

[KonaRider]

My wife have decided to drop the coin on astro turf.

 

[K_J's Dad]

My yard is nothing but a huge mud pit, it to was nice when we moved in during the summer then came the "boys". Between the burns and digging, I'm thinking of adding more top soil along with some heavy duty seed. Though I'm not sure of the name it's a blend that is supposed to work well with heavy travelled areas. I'm just hoping for something better come the summer for picnics.

 

[GinsMomma]

My wife have decided to drop the coin on astro turf.

For the heck of it, I went online & looked up some 'fake' grass, like astro turf but a different name. Holy cow!! I would have to when the lottery to get that. It is beautiful but we roughly figured how much it would cost to do HALF my yard, which is not big at all, it would be around $13K!

 

[boxermom5]

I have a "drag strip" of bark and big stepping stones from the foot of the deck, down the side yard, and all the way down the back stretch of fence. It was all sod when I first moved in, but after two winters of destruction and replanting, I decided to put in the bark to cut down on the mud and constant paw washing before anyone could come in from potty time (my carpet is another story). Now they can run the fenceline to their hearts content! I put cedar shavings under the trees to keep the mud under control - it is easier than having bark under there because it is almost impossible to clean up the leaves without losing a lot of bark; with the shavings you can pretty much sweep the leaves off the top, and then freshen the shavings at the end of winter.

I do have a large lawn that the girls play on, and as long as it isn't super wet (as it is at the moment unfortunately), it holds up to the burns and boxing wars pretty well. It took some time to figure out there normal run pattern around one area that continued to get torn up, but I think I have finally fixed that problem - I have pathways of very large (18 and 24") stepping stones around the most bald areas, which took care of the mud problem, and I overseed between the stones every winter to keep it looking nice.