Do you have a sprinkler system in because I am in South Florida and even with dogs I keep the grass water and it does not look like that. Can you add in more pavers and make it continous. I would then gravel to the right and left of the pavers.

Have you considered artificial grass? There are special varieties designed for dog use. In most situations, I would not use fake grass, but sometimes it's a good solution.

You might take the photos to a local nursery and ask if they can recommend a different grass for sod. Worth a trip.

I do have a sprinkler on a timer so it's not that it wasn't being watered enough. I think because it's such a small space, the dogs tearing it up and "going" on it kills it quicker. I need something a bit hardier than regular grass. I like the idea of filling in the pavers with gravel!

How long it took them to do this much damage. LOL

[houzz=]

[houzz=]

[houzz=]

Artificial turf is definitely something I'd consider, but I'd have a pretty hard time convincing my partner. Plus I heard it can get scorching hot in the summer?

I think it was about two weeks before the grass started looking brown lol. I was thinking maybe liriope or mondo grass but that would be a lot to fill in.

I would check with the nurseries in your area. sounds to make like something else. It grass is being watered should not brown and die like that.

Check out stepables.com for ground coverings--maybe they can help.

Check out www.steppables.com or try pine needles or pea gravel.

We often have people replace part of their yards with 1/8-3/8 Clean River Rock (Pea Gravel), it's small enough to be walked on, but allows for staying power. Another option is play ground mulch on part of the yard. It's the mulch you see at schools that is DHS approved, so it would be fine for dogs and people alike and not as hot in the summer.

Artificial turf is a great solution for you - especially considering you have two large dogs. Cesar Millan, renowned dog whisperer recently installed EasyTurf at his Dog Psychology Center in Santa Clarita, because he wanted the most durable, best draining, safest play/training surface for his dogs. We have authorized dealers and retailers in Florida, I can point you their direction if you'd like. I'm also happy to answer questions you have about synthetic grass.
Cheers!
George
http://www.houzz.com/projects/286676/Back-Yards-Just-Got-Better---Landscapes-for-Pets

@EasyTurf-how does the turf hold up to dog poop and pee.

I have Forever Lawn turf in my backyard. Best $ I ever spent! There is an antimicrobial layer underneath the turf and about 2 feet of compacted sand and a French drain for drainage. These features were all part of the installation.

The turf gets warm, but not too hot, even in 100 degrees. The dog poop dries quick and is easy to pick up. Anything messy is easily cleaned with a hose.

My turf looks like real grass. It even has brown thatch- like fibers mixed in. It really made our yard a great place to have for kids and dogs. No watering, no mud, no grass stains, no mowing. Do it!

Did you prepare soil before installing sod? Just sharing some info I have learned from a lot of trial and error. If soil is clay and not worked up and amended first it is like cement and grass roots won't penetrate it. when you first install sod, it should be watered a LOT, so the roots will start to grow into ground. Having the sprinklers come on just once a day probably isn't enough.
Cold weather won't kill grass, it is very hardy. I live where it can be 40 below and grass will come back green in spring.

Marlene is dead on. In order to grow grass it has to grow into something. Check the local nurseries to have 4-Way Top Soil mix laid down. This mixture is crushed and screened so that it is free of most clay lumps and roots. That needs to go on 4" thick then you can seed. (40% Peat Moss, 40% Top Soil, 10% Manure & 10% Sand.)

I have 2 LARGE dogs. I live in the city and have a tiny back yard. I put the 4 -Way dirt down when we moved in and tossed grass seed on it watered in 2 times a day till the grass was 3" tall before cutting it. In all that time the dogs were out there playing and doing their business. The yard is currently covered in 3 feet of snow or I would show you. It's thick and rich and gorgeous. I toss seed on it spring and fall. Nothing else.

Whereas, my front yard has sparse sickly grass. The dogs don't go on that lawn. I've fertilized it, seeded it and watered, and watered it and nothing but fugly grass and weeds. I'm ordering the same dirt for it as soon as this snow melts. (Canada) Which may be May at this rate. It's colder then Mars here right now.

Thanks lucidos, we have had very good luck with grass seed also.

I don't know how much damage the dogs do and it might be that it's because of the dogs. My first thought was that you don't have good soil. Before planting anything, grass included, you need to have top soil and some compost added to it. We live in zone 7 (East Coast, so we do get humidity in the summer and snow, especially this year, in the winter). Before having the front yard covered with sod, we brought top soil and compost. A year later we brought more compost and added it on top of the grass.

I've been reading the replies and i would go with what caesar milan says. You can always cool it off with water if it gets too hot. I have a tiny back yard and i dug a 36" pond. Also you can ask your localCooperative eeeeext extention

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! I think artificial turf would be great, but I don't think it would be in our budget since we just spent a ton on redoing our kitchen and bathrooms. As far as real grass, I think it's just too high maintenance and I don't have adequate time to prep and care for it. Plus the water bill is sky high during the summer which I could do without!

I have been strongly considering pea gravel, but I also don't want to lose all the green space. Wondering if there is a ground cover i could mix in with the pea gravel that would be lower maintenance than grass, require less water and stand up to wear and tear from dogs.

@armygirl - EasyTurf is the most durable, best-draining grass on the market - it holds up great! To give you an idea, Cesar Millan installed it for his dog training facility, and I have a list of animal shelters and humane society shelters who have installed EasyTurf in their facilities. 21 of 32 NFL teams play and/or practice on our turf (that was FieldTurf the Super Bowl was played on last night - the sports division of EasyTurf).
Bottom line - you'll have a fresh green lawn no matter how big your dogs are -

Cheers!
George

@jrenken - we do have financing plans available. Check this page out and let me know if you have any questions -
http://www.easyturf.com/artificial-grass-turf-customer-service/synthetic-grass-financing-options/
Best,
George

It looks like you have a bit of shade. Was the grass shade grass? I also agree with previous posters that fertilization is key. When we have clients that have yards with dogs we put them on an intensive fertilization regimen. It is important to fertilize to compensate for the salts and other chemicals from the dogs.

If you are going to rock the area please rethink peagravel. The stuff gets all over the place and you will spend all your time picking it out of the dogs paws and the flower beds and sweeping it off the walk. Riverbed rock is far more friendly. The problem with rock and dog waste is another issue especially in the hot sun. Most often rock is laid with a weed barrier. If there is a loose stool from the dog guess where that "stuff" is going to seep to.

Honestly with our 2 monsters and a small child the grass is the friendliest.

Suggestion....
-forget the grass, won't grow if dogs on it...too much work. Yard is for peace and relaxation.
-create interest by breaking up your yard in 2...put up a partial divider (just after chair on R/S) maintain front square of 1 type of product and back end with something different. Put bridge like structure to join both sides...small koi pond under bridge (shade)...they are fun to watch & feed. Visually encourage a desire to walk around. Do not plant just on edges.

with EasyTurf - you don't have to worry about dog waste, fertilization, weed killers, mowing, shade, wear and tear ....

Many types grass turn brown in the winter. Wait until spring and see if you have any greening. I'd contact the sod people....it shouldn't die that quickly. Most have some sort of policy on that.

There are lots of ground covers that would be a possibility. Google groundcovers.

Thanks everyone for all the replies!!

Yes, we do have mostly shade with a little bit of sun in the morning. We laid the sod ourselves, which was probably the first problem. Going forward, anything done to the yard will be done by us as we just don't have it in the budget to hire a professional. We definitely want to do it right this time, but don't really want to do grass again since it requires so much maintenance and water.

About the gravel- that's a good point. I would be constantly sweeping it up, but I'd probably have the same problem with mulch, no? Basically I want something that will prevent the yard from turning into a mud or dust hole (the grass is pretty much completely gone at this point- not even brown), and I want something I won't have to constantly maintain in order for it to look halfway decent.

Last year before laying the sod, we tried to do blue star creeper as a ground cover, but it wasn't hardy enough and died pretty quickly. Got them from steppables. Not sure what else to do since that was the number one recommended ground cover for dogs by them. I even sectioned off the area we planted in for the first month so the dogs couldn't "go" on them.

In my old house I had luck with mondo grass and gravel, but it was a much, much smaller space to fill. It might be prohibitively expensive to do that here.

Artificial turf would be nice, but again, it's really too expensive and my partner is pretty against putting in anything fake. If we were planning on staying in this house indefinitely, I'd be more inclined to push for it but it probably wouldn't pay off in the amount of time we plan on staying.

What about vinca vine or pachysandra? Has anyone had any experience with those? Perhaps I could mix those in with lyriope and mondo grass and infill with mulch or gravel.

Have you dug under any of those dead spots to see if there are larvae of some sort eating roots? Could be insect or fungal issues and not just pee. I agree with all of the comments about healthy soil. Also, is the type of grass you are growing suited to shade? I am guessing from the photos that there isn't much light getting through. I bet a local turf expert could help you out--but go organic for the sake of you and your puppies.

What climate zone are you in? It's possible that preparing the ground all over again for grass, much more thoroughly than you did for the sod, would help whatever you plant. Many people rent tillers to do a major dig-up job. Power tools are wonderful for big jobs.

Take another look at large pieces of bark, too. Buy a bag, spread it somewhere, give it a try. The red color fades to gray in a few weeks in my area. YMMV.

how about adding a synthat umbrella for your chairs. It will be more leisure. Importing from China, 7.9' $616, directly from Chinese factory. Good quality,providing sample for checking(mail:eileen@gracethatch.com; skype: eieen.chen1234)

Pavers.

I have lots of big trees in my backyard and we have re-sodded the grass 3 times in the last 10 years. So, I have spent a lot of time looking at ideas myself to find a replacement for the grass. We have a very large deck that takes up a lot of the backyard, but the trees have gotten so big that they now block light and the roots compete with the grass. I have been re-doing my yard and we have trimmed the trees to thin out the canopy for more light. But, I LOVE my green trees outside my big windows, so they are staying.

I have decided to enlarge the corner bed around one of the big trees and edge with tumbled flagstone all around. This bed has hosta, hydrangea, sweet woodruff and lamium groundcover. They all do well in the shade. In the areas along the fence and where it will not grow I have planted vinca with the purple flowers. I also have two mature clematis vines in locations with some sun that are doing great. I have decided to limit the grass to a smaller area that gets some sun and prep it well and put down sun and shade sod.

From looking at your yard, I would suggest a combination of solutions as well. How about enlarging your sitting area with pavers to create more entertaining space and remove a that portion of dead grass. Then pick an area to have a much smaller rectangle or circle of grass that has some sunlight coming through. Really prep the soil with the 4 way type top soil mix before you put new sod down - and buy the sun and shade sod that only needs 2 hours of sunlight. You have to water 3 times a day to help the sod set roots. Plant it in the summer so it has time to set roots before winter. Keep the dogs off it for first two weeks until it starts to grow. That way you have less grass to take care of and water, but in a space the dogs can use.

The areas that are just walkway, just mulch around the existing pavers. Regular inexpensive mulch that you can replenish cheaply every year or two with a $4 or $5 bag. I am not a big fan of loose rock because of the all the leaves we have. Too difficult to rake over. Pavers are much more useful than pea gravel.

A suggestion for Easy Turf. Wish it came in a square, rectangle or circle of fake turf a homeowner could put in themselves for a small yard. With instructions on how to dig the drainage area and prep it properly. I have considered it and researched it, but the cost of professional installation is just too expensive for something that is fake.

From reading the info below, it sounds like grass is the best bet.

http://www.petsadviser.com/pet-products/best-ground-cover-dogs/

dianencolorado, you can DIY it if you have the proper equipment. Installation instructions and videos can be found here, http://www.globalsynturf.com/installation/. However, unless you're a confident DIYer, we recommend hiring a professional because proper installation, optimized for your particular lawn, is what will prevent hazards in the future.

Regarding the expense, when you tally the costs of maintenance, cleaning, mowing and fertilizing incident to the ownership of a natural grass lawn, and then compare that with the initial cost of installing a synthetic grass replacement, the synthetic grass pays for itself in savings many times over in the long run. So, yes, the initial investment is not cheap, but it is cheaper than owning a natural grass lawn.

Please, this dilemma was posted over a year ago. I realize you want to promote your company, but........................

The only problem I see with using artificial turf is that it is made with harsh chemicals I wouldn't want my dog or family on it.

jrenken, curious to see what you ended up doing with the back yard. Did you go with the pea gravel?

My sister installed fake grass. It is very very hot during the day. Its in its third summer and It still smells in heat. If one has small kids, this is a bad choice.

clangton6 - did you notice this was a 2015 post???????????????