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As far as growing grass in doggy areas goes, some situations are harder than others. At our old house, when the (large) dogs we had then were young, they loved to chase each other around a big tree in the middle of the yard. Not only did they kill a large swath of grass around it, they killed all the weeds including the dandelions. I don't think any kind of grass seed and lawn care could keep grass growing where dandelions are killed off.
Fortunately, in that situation, we had a fairly simple solution. The whole backyard was fenced. We had a detached garage to the rear of the house, with a gate across the driveway. We just had to run a few feet of fencing between the garage and the fence along the side of it. Then we ran fencing from the other side of the garage to the house, with a gate of course. If I let the dogs out they had a big area of driveway to use, and sometimes I'd take them back into the yard to play in the grass, which was never a perfect lawn, but I was able to fill in the bare area and keep it growing. Not a solution for Dark of the Moon, but maybe someone pulling this thread up could use the idea.
ETA: The doggie day cares I'm familiar with use an astro turf type of product, and sports teams that play on grass replace turf on a regular basis.
Last edited by subject2change; 07-31-2012 at 08:58 AM..
Y'know, the towel thing works fine for me. Actually, it works well.
But there have been times, especially when my hardwood floors look carpeted (from Artie's fur), that I think how amazing it would be to be able to flip a switch and a "whole-house vacuum system" (should be trademarked, no?) kicks in and just super-sucks all the "stuff" into some giant canister in the attic.
This, however, isn't feasible, I know, because the canister would then contain: Artie's toys, books left on the coffee table, random knick-knacks, shoes, perhaps some clothes, everything on the kitchen counters, etc...
I need to work out on the kinks, I guess.
LOL! I have also dreamed of such a system.
I have also dreamed of a mini-car wash the dogs could walk through on their way into the house, dryer and all.
Anyone remember Captain and Tennille?
Well......... many, many, many years ago I saw them interviewed on some program. They did a tour of their home {in Colorado?}.....anyway, they had a doggy cleaning station on the back of the house.
It resembled the bottom of a shower stall, was made out of cement with a drain in the middle, was about four/five feet long by three feet wide, and had a short hose with a shower nozzle on the end at doggy height on the back wall of the house.
I was transfixed! I wanted one. I can still see it in my mind's eye.....I will never forget it.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Annie53
LOL! I have also dreamed of such a system.
I have also dreamed of a mini-car wash the dogs could walk through on their way into the house, dryer and all.
Anyone remember Captain and Tennille?
Well......... many, many, many years ago I saw them interviewed on some program. They did a tour of their home {in Colorado?}.....anyway, they had a doggy cleaning station on the back of the house.
It resembled the bottom of a shower stall, was made out of cement with a drain in the middle, was about four/five feet long by three feet wide, and had a short hose with a shower nozzle on the end at doggy height on the back wall of the house.
I was transfixed! I wanted one. I can still see it in my mind's eye.....I will never forget it.
Sing it with me! Suds, suds will keep us together. Think of those suds whenever... some stinky dog comes walking along, stinking like mud...
Sing it with me! Suds, suds will keep us together. Think of those suds whenever... some stinky dog comes walking along, stinking like mud...
Dawn I think you should do a video of you singing your song and post it here!
I too like your whole house Vaccum system so when you work out the kinks let me know as I wil buy one.
As for Vaccums is the ops dog afraid of them? Chaos loves me to vaccum her..really! If she sees me using the smaller vaccum ( not the upright) she rushes over and gets in the way wanting me to vaccum her. I go over her whole body and can even suck her whole tail down the hose and she is in heaven... just don't know about this Texas girl! Anyway you could vaccum the dogs when they come in before letting them in the rest of the house... rather time consuming though.
After reading everyone's replies, I realize that Darcy is a real diva. She does not go out in the rain unless forced to. She refuses to play in the mud and get dirty, and unfortunately, she is very afraid of water. We have caught her using the deck as a bathroom in bad weather.
My real problem is when it rains and non-grassy areas turn to mud. and it makes me tired to clean it.
Maybe you could train your dog not to go near mud? You know, certain areas of the yard where behavior is not allowed? Or put turfgrass in the non-grassy areas.
I think turfgrass is a great idea. And as soon as I can hire a whole contingent of people to take care of my yard like they do the public parks then, by golly, that's what I'm gonna do! Until then it's just me....and the dogs....and no rain. No rain, no grass, especially when you're under water restrictions.
Back to the original question - Dark, have you tried a Furminator? It sure does get that heavy undercoat out and I have seen quite a bit of grit come out with the undercoat.
I have catch rugs inside and outside the back door to try and get the grit off their paws, but the dirt from lack of rain is doing a number on everything, with no end in sight. My floors...ugh...and the dust! I just tell everyone we have velvet furniture.
I know when I remodel the kitchen (which should be about the time I hire the team of full-time lawn care experts) the very last thing I will look at is flooring with ANY shade of white.
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I wanted one. 
I can still see it in my mind's eye.....I will never forget it. 
