New dog = lawn is suffering... Badly! Any advice? (In UK)

Hi all

Within two and a half weeks of getting our second dog, the lawn has gone from green and healthy(ish) looking to this:







With the rest of autumn and a long, wet winter ahead, is there anything I can do to slow down the wear on the lawn?

We are putting garden furniture over the worse bits, and will continue to rotate it around to give patches of lawn a "break" from being trampled on.

Last week I forked the lawn to aerate it.

I didn't know if I can put sand down or anything to help toughen things up and prevent the garden turning into a total mud bath.

Any help or any advice of any sort hugely appreciated.

Also, I am not opposed to "alternative lawns". I seem to remember sometime ago seeing on Countryfile (or some such programme) a feature about people who have different types of grass, and even alternatives to grass, as their "lawns". Any ideas along those lines would certainly be of interest, especially if it was something we could do over Autumn/Winter (although I'm doubting that's a possibility).

Cheers

Max

 

welcome beautiful dogs i cant help but i am sure someone else will pop by and give some advise

 

apart from slippers, its wear and tear and the grass is not growing plus 1's & 2's wont help either.
So I would suggest more walks out , I have a mate in work she moved house and her dog destroyed the back garden it looked like a quagmire and walked most of it in she ended up fencing close to the house and putting bark down this was last Autumn and winter as you know it rained non stop.

Sorry

Spruce

 

Welcome to GC, Max
Gorgeous dogs!!!
I'm guessing they are running around, "playing" together and also using the lawn for their toilet?
Does the picture represent the whole of your lawn area? If it does, then I'm afraid you are on a hiding to nothing when it comes to a lush green lawn with two boisterous (yet totally adorable!) dogs.
Concrete it; pave it; astro turf it (although I wouldn't fancy getting anything less than the most solid of #2's out of astro turf )

If your garden is larger than the picture suggests, could you section off an area and train the dogs to use that as their toileting area? Then, for fun and frolics take them to the nearest park?

I have a large dog and recently downsized to a much smaller garden and the difference is noticeable! I plan to hard landscape the current lawn area because it is never going to be a decent lawn in a month of Sundays!.

 

I gave up on grass completely. I put some paths down from the house outwards and planted up the rest. My dogs actually really enjoy going in and out of the shrubs etc. Fortunately they enjoy going in and out of the polytunnel too. One of them is a great ratter/mouser in there.