With careful planning, your garden can be beautiful and dog-friendly

Tag : Common Bathtub
By MARTY HAIR Detroit Free Press
DETROIT -- The dog owner barks out the order:
"Get the squirrel! Go get it!"
Two determined border collies and one spunky shih tzu race throughopenings in the shrub border of boxwoods, hollies and cedars.
Just inside the fence, they run on their own dog path mulched withpine bark, which Christine Dickinson has made for them around theperimeter of her Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., backyard.
With the dogs running on the path, heavy paw traffic doesn'tdegrade the rest of the landscaping, which Dickinson starteddeveloping about 10 years ago, about the same time that sheacquired border collies Peyton and Marcy. Iggy, the shih tzu, is 1year old.
Her goal: having dogs and an attractive garden.
"I really wanted a nice yard," says Dickinson, whose property wasfeatured on a local garden walk in June.
LEARNING AND COMPROMISE
Creating a garden that is aesthetically appealing to humans andsafe for pets is a challenge, involving compromise and learning.
Because dogs have different levels of activity and appetites,responsible owners research lawn fertilizers and plants. They avoidanything that, if consumed, would be toxic or too appealing.
And dog-lovers must occasionally look the other way when impatiensget squashed and petunias trampled.
"We stick to things we know will be hardy and still safe for them,"Dickinson says. This is good, because, as she speaks, Iggy is overby a clump of dwarf fountain grass, reaching up for a mouthful.Dickinson, a physician who is director of nuclear medicine at Mt.Clemens Regional Medical Center, worked with landscaper HaroldMichaux on design and plant selection. Leaving spaces betweenshrubs so the dogs could run between them has reduced damage,Michaux says.
Besides the pet-friendly back yard, Dickinson's dogs have a fencedrun at the side of the house. A pet door leads to their own tiledmudroom, where there is a dog bathtub.
A fence should be the first thing installed in a yard that will behome to a dog, says Alice Marczewski, a veterinarian at JeffersonVeterinary Center in Detroit who is also a gardener and pet owner.
She also recommends looking closely around the yard to see whatpotentially toxic plants are already there. For example,nightshade, a common poisonous weed, should be removed in yardswith children or pets.
Even parts of plants that are edible for people may harm pets.Marczewski treated a dog that got sick after gorging on tomatoes.Pay attention to what pets find interesting and edible, includingmulch.
"People should not landscape with rocks or with mulch that smellsgood," Marczewski says.
Deborah Silver, owner of Detroit Garden Works and a gardendesigner, shares her backyard in Pontiac, Mich., with CardiganWelsh corgis named Milo and Howard. A formal space with evergreensand a rose garden, the garden will be featured on a walk July 19.
"It is organized so that they can run around the yard and not getinto something and mess it up," Silver says. She suggests petowners use edging as a visual deterrent to discourage dog traffic,or build a separate pet run.
DOG-FRIENDLY LAWNS
Nearly 40 percent of U.S. households include at least one dog andthere are about 74.8 million owned dogs in the country, accordingto figures cited by the Humane Society of the United States.
That means a lot of people are trying to figure out how to do thedog-garden dance. The Oregon Garden in Silverton, Ore., has ademonstration plot called the Pet Friendly Garden, where peoplelearn how to fashion pet playgrounds with edible plants, paths,water and shade. In Colorado, the Denver Botanic Garden runsclasses on pet-friendly gardens.
Lawn care is a common concern. Dickinson hires a lawn company thatuses organic products. In Royal Oak, Mich., Dr. John Simon ofWoodside Animal Clinic said he gets more calls about pets withgastrointestinal problems in the spring when people use lawnfertilizers with herbicides.
To reduce pollution and protect people, especially children, fromexposure to toxic chemicals, Ontario, Canada, recently banned theuse of pesticides, including herbicides, fungicides andinsecticides, for cosmetic purposes. The ban is expected to takeeffect in 2009, a spokesman for the Ontario minister's office saidthis week.
As a fan of earth-friendly lawn care and the owner of twomixed-breed dogs named Heisman and Kavik, Kim Poznanski of St.Clair Shores, Mich., opts for corn gluten meal, which containsnitrogen and works as a pre-emergent herbicide.
It's one of many adaptations dog-owners can make. The trick togarden-dog coexistence has been "consistence, training andcompromise on my part," says Poznanski, who has trained dogs andvolunteered with the Michigan Humane Society. She is also a mastergardener.
Fences help her dogs stay in bounds, and Poznanski favors nativeplants because "if they can stand up to buffalo, they can stand upto my dogs."
The bottom line is to adopt a live-and-let-live attitude, she says:"Some things, you just gotta let go."
HOW DOGS AND GARDENS CAN CO EXIST
If you are considering getting a purebred dog, research the breed'scharacteristics. Some breeds do more running and digging thanothers.
Fence the backyard or a space within it so dogs can run freely andsafely. Inside her fenced yard, Christine Dickinson's dogs have afenced run area, half covered with gravel and half with pine barkmulch.
Leave an open, mulched space between shrubs and the fence sincemany dogs like to run there, says Cheryl Smith in "Dog FriendlyGardens, Garden Friendly Dogs" (Dogwise Publishing, $19.95).
Limit the planting of toxic or especially appealing plants to areasthe dogs can't reach, such as the front yard. To learn which plantsto avoid, do an Internet search for "poisonous plant dog."
Many dog owners use shredded bark mulch. Avoid mulch made fromcocoa bean hulls, which many dogs will eat because of its strongchocolate fragrance. Cocoa mulch may contain caffeine andtheobromine, stimulants that can cause dogs to become sick or worseif eaten in quantity, the American Society for the Prevention ofCruelty to Animals says.
To minimize lawn burning from dog urine, encourage dogs to drinkplenty of fresh water, and train them with praise and treats toeliminate in one specific part of the yard, suggests Kim Poznanskiof St. Clair Shores, Mich.