Decomposed granite. I grew up in Phoenix and all new housing has this and it's what the older grass loving houses have converted to for xeriscaping.

When we were in Austin Texas we couldn't grow grass under a particular patch of live oak so we did DG from the side gate all the way to the back gate, basically splitting the yard apart and it was beautiful.

The only challenge we had, with the dogs, is that they can track in DG to the house. But if you have tile (which so many houses in the southwest do because it's cool) it's not going to scratch anything just just going to be a little bits of DG around that you just vacuum up or sweep out. but if you have flooring that could easily scratch this might be a concern. There are products to clean paws before they go in the house; little cups with rubber cleaners that you stick the dog's paws in. Chewy has them.

DG can be raked for those big monsoons and flash floods that might move the DG around.

We have dachshunds and they were fine on the DG so any other sized dog will be fine. They laid on it because it was cool. A digger dog will find it to be enticing, but then those dogs nothing can stop them.

Good luck on the upcoming summer. I'm sure you're are already hanging out in the 80s.

Thank you Jen! Im going to check that out! We have luxury vinyl wood flooring - virtually indestructible - so scratching shouldnt be an issue. This sounds like it could work!