Our Top 5 Tips for Landscaping a Dog Park
Our Top 5 Tips for Landscaping a Dog Park
When it comes to making cities more friendly for those with children and pets, parks are an essential step. For those with dogs, having a safe, enclosed area to take your pets is essential when moving to a busy city.
What can you do to make the best dog park possible for your community? Here are some of our top tips for making the ideal area for the local pets.
1. Give the Dogs as Much Space as Possible
Ideally, your community dog park would be incredibly spacious. Giving the dogs plenty of space to run and play is both good for them and a safer choice.
Smaller dog parks may cause the animals to be more aggressive when they enter or try to play, as they could be easily backed into a corner or against a fence. It doesn’t give the dogs that need more room space they need to explore without bumping into other dogs and potentially causing fights.
If there’s enough space, it’s even a good idea to have separate fenced off areas for dogs of different sizes. For example, you could have an area for dogs over 70 pounds, medium-sized dogs, and small dogs. Doing this could also prevent potential hostile situations between dogs that shouldn’t be playing together.
2. Consider the Pet Owners as Well
When considering what goes into a dog park, you will want to consider the dog owners as well. What do they need? Here are a few items that a really good dog park should have for them:
- Trashcans
- Doggy waste pick up station (waste bags, disposal area, etc)
- Benches
- A place for bags, leashes, etc.
- Water fountain
3. Make Drinking Water Available
Especially when it comes to hot summer days, drinking water is essential for both the humans and dogs at the park. While some people may know to bring their own, it’s important to have a drinking fountain for the visitors and animals coming to play.
There are options like this, which work for both humans and dogs, or you can install them separately.
4. Consider the Materials Being Used
Consider the materials you are using before getting started. Typically, landscape architects will use green designs for dog parks.
Regular grass is an easy to maintain option, but you do have other choices as well. Artificial grass is resistant to dog urine and does not need to be maintained, but if the summers in your area are extremely hot, the ground may be too warm for dog paws.
Another option is decomposed granite, which also does not require a lot of maintenance, but it does get fairly dusty and cannot be used when it’s wet outside.
Depending on your local climate, any of these options could possibly be fitting. However, there’s nothing wrong with going with the traditional, regular grass. Just know that it will need to be mowed and maintained regularly.
5. Watch Out for Dangerous Plants
Last but certainly not least, you will need to be aware of which plants should be allowed in the dog park. There are a plethora of plants that are poisonous to dogs, and those should, of course, be avoided at all costs.
However, you can still beautify the area with flowers, shrubs, trees, and other greenery, just make sure they are safe options first.
Adding a Dog Park to Your Community
If you are looking to add a dog park to your local community and have the power to do so, make sure you choose the best of the best when it comes to a local landscaping company.
For those of you in the San Mateo and San Francisco Bay Area, consider contacting Homescape Now for your dog park needs!
