Living with Dogs Shouldn’t Feel Like Survival
It feels crazy to be writing about the onset of autumn given that we’ve hardly had a summer worth raving about! But, here we are… with only a few glorious weeks to go before the days start getting shorter and the weather starts to pack in properly.
This year, I’ve been trying to make the conscious decision to live more in the moment, but there are aspects of dog-life that just demand preparation. The changing of the seasons is definitely one of them.
Moving into autumn means all sorts of things in doggy households.
For our dogs, its the time that their coats begin to change, and as a direct result, the vacuum cleaner picks up some extra shifts. Walks will soon take place under the cover of darkness, and the falling leaves create a whole new sensory experience.
For us humans, it means hunting seasons are imminent, exercising and training the dogs gets a whole lot more complicated and a bit more miserable, and things both at home and in the vehicles is about to get messy!
I was going to do an ‘autumn prepping top tips’ style post, but I’ve decided against that. I’ll still share some of those ideas as they happen on our social media accounts (so please follow us on Instagram @fieldnotesandfollies), but I wanted this weeks post to share something a little more significant.
After a rather miserable and frustrating winter here last year, I vowed that this winter coming was going to be different. Putting up with it, just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. I set aside some time to come up with a plan that fit within my time and financial constraints and what we’ve achieved with it has been life changing.
Here’s the story of how we set about changing one aspect of our home to improve our quality of life with dogs… and it’s already proving to have been a project that was well worth the effort!
Setting the Scene
Before I get into what we’ve done, I think it’s important to paint a picture of what our living situation is. I don’t want to give anyone the impression that we live a life of grandeur that makes what I’m about to share with you unattainable for the average person. Josh and I are pretty average… well, our lifestyle is anyway.
We live in a modest 3 bedroom home that was built in the 1970s. It has a floor area of 110 square meters on a section that is roughly 650 square meters. We have four dogs, two of which are working line long haired Weimaraners, one is a Border Collie crossed with a Staffy, and the other is a Schipperke. Yes, some would argue that’s too much dog for where we live, but weirdly enough, it seems to work. The big dogs do have kennels in the garage that they hang out in during the day because we definitely couldn’t trust them unattended. But, when we’re at home they’re house dogs.. and everyone sleeps inside.
With that description, I’m hoping that paints a pretty clear mental picture. Think little house, too many dogs, lots of dog hair. We vacuum a few times a week and we like to have the back door to the garden open as often as we can as a way of managing doggy smells. We try to maintain a standard of sensible behaviour inside while outside is for zoomies and acting like village idiots… I say we try, not always successfully.
The Issue This Presents…
As you can imagine, having so many dogs living in a relatively small house, with a comparatively small garden presents many issues. We are constantly picking up dog turds, like constantly! Some of the dogs, and I won’t name names, are less that self-aware and have no problems walking over said turds with gay abandon… So, to prevent my germophobic self from having a complete aneurism, I make sure that dog poo is picked up as soon as it occurs. A tiring but necessary task.
I wish this was the most frustrating issue, but unfortunately it isn’t. The same individual that likes to tap dance on turds also has a habit of pacing from the back doorstep to the garden gate. Initially, this wasn’t an issue, but over time, it has developed into a significant problem that irritates both Josh and I to the point of despair.
The pacing, amplified by so many dogs coming and going through the back door, created a dirt race track in the lawn. Now, during the summer, this wasn’t such a problem. But, with the onset of wetter weather, the extent of the problem became apparent… a mud pit formed… can you see where I’m going with this?
With the onset of rain, and in a matter of minutes, the back doorstep, the laundry, and our carpet became saturated with mud. It didn’t matter what tactics we employed, we simply couldn’t keep on top of it. We tried putting rubber mats at the back door, both inside and out, but the dogs ran in so quickly that they’d get two feet on the mat before leaping to the safety of the normal carpet. Mud everywhere!
We then tried rolling out the towel carpet, on top of the rubber mats, to extend the cleaning surface area… that didn’t work either as they’d delicately walk across the towel until they got to the carpet. They’d then boost into the living room, exposing all the muddy crevices between their paw pads. Again, mud everywhere!
We then thought “bugger it”, we’ll just have to individually wipe their feet every time they come in from outside. That lasted less than a week, as it turns out four dogs go in and out a lot during the day, and Josh and I didn’t have the funds in our budget to hire a full-time foot wiper for six months of the year.
We endured one autumn and winter like this before we both agreed that we needed to find a permanent solution.
The Solution
Sometimes you have to take a step back from the coalface of a problem before you can see the solution. This was one of those times. I was so blinded by my mud-related rage that it took me a full year to see a way forward. But, having taken the time to assess the options, I’m over the moon with the end result.
We had to accept that we aren’t going to stop the dogs from running to the gate. We had to accept that we couldn’t stop them going outside in the rain. But, I wasn’t prepared to accept that the solution had to be ugly, or feel like a commercial dog kennel either.
Josh and I decided that we wanted to create a space that would stand up to the abuse that the dogs would throw at it but would still fit with the overall look of the garden space we’re trying to create. After identifying the most problematic areas underfoot, we were able to see that a change of surface was going to be the only realistic and long-term option.
We took some time to investigate the pros and cons of different surfacing options, and we quickly ruled out concrete due to cost and general aesthetics. Pebbles were soon struck off the list too, having seen their tendency to slide over themselves and move when walked on. That’s when I discovered Teddington chip, and from then, I’ve never looked back!
What’s not to love about Teddington chip?! Well, nothing from what I can tell!
I’m all about functionality and Teddington chip really ticks all the boxes for me. We opted for a large chip so that the individual pieces would have an interlocking effect when walked on. This means they’re less prone to movement with constant dog-traffic. It also means they’re less likely to get flicked out of place and end up on the lawn or other surfaces, too. The large pieces also allow effective drainage of water when it rains.
Aesthetically, Teddington is beautiful to look at. It’s texture and the interesting range of colours from yellows and browns to blues and greys, are even more beautiful when wet.
Getting the Job Done
This project sounded simple, but once we got into it it was much bigger job than either Josh or I anticipated… said every person in the history of DIY.
I will admit, I half-arse started it months ago but I didn’t get very far with it. As we had some time off together over the Christmas break, we decided to tackle it together. What we hoped would be a lovely bonding experience turned into an exercise in grit and determination.
Like all DIY projects, it’s the prep-work that’s the real killer. That’s the bit where everything looks worse than when you started and perhaps it was fine as it was. This project was no exception.
Digging sucks. Digging dirt from a compacted section of lawn sucks even more. We spent four days breaking our backs in the muggy heat. Everywhere was dirty. The dog’s were tracking in more mud that ever as we seemed to have some sort of rain shower every day of the project. To top it off, we also ended up making the rest of the garden look worse as all the dirt that was being removed from the lawn was being used to back-fill the existing garden beds.
I’ll admit, there was one point where I sat down and had a little pity party, which is code for ‘cried like a baby’. Thankfully, Josh was there to remind me that there was still dirt to be moved and if I wanted my lovely garden path, I’d have to dust myself off and crack on! So I did.
It’s funny how the moment you stop ‘prepping’ and move onto the ‘fixing’ your whole attitude to a project can change in a heartbeat. Once the dirt had been dug, and we collected our first load of crusher dust for the base, I was a changed woman. I shovelled with a whole new vigour and it became a bit of a competition to see how quickly we could get it down and head off for the next load.
After four days of prep, I was amazed that it only took us two days to get the crusher dust base down along with the top layer of Teddington chip! Even the folks at the garden supply centre were impressed by our quick turnarounds… That may have had something to do with the reduced open hours over the holiday period. Nothing like a tight deadline to keep you on task.
The End Result
We’ve been living with our new garden for almost two months now, and what a difference it’s made.
We don’t have stacks of towels at the back door anymore. We don’t have to painfully wipe paws. We don’t get grumpy about the dogs wanting to go outside when it’s raining.
Life feels altogether more relaxed thanks to this one change we’ve made.
What’s wild is that when I look back over the last 18 years, I’ve lived in six different homes with multiple dogs. What I’ve noticed is that most homes are not designed with dog ownership in mind. In each of the properties that I’ve lived in, the muddy back doorstep is an issue that’s been common to all of them!
It’s funny how, as dog people, we’re often guilty of just making do with things. Nowhere is this more apparent than at home. I get it. Sometimes time or finances are tight, it can feel like making changes are a luxury that you simply can’t afford. I’ve been guilty of being trapped by that mindset, too.
Up until we did this project, I’d felt a level of conflict with having the dogs inside. I wanted to share my space with them, but I couldn’t handle living in a space that felt grubby and I was conscious of the damage their presence was doing to my most significant financial asset.
What I will say, after having done this project, is that you shouldn’t have to compromise on functionality or comfort just because you have dogs. Your home should be a space that you can share, in a way that feels effortless and enjoyable.
This takes a little more thinking about when you’re trying to include dogs, especially if you’re working with an existing property like we are. There are things we can’t change about the house or land, and dogs, no matter how many you have, present their own challenges. But, there will be a solution that works, you just need to think creatively.
Field Notes & Follies 
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