Caring for artificial turf with dogs

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I just love my artificial turf - best investment I ever made, and it still looks great almost fifteen years later. And yes, I have dogs. And I know what you're wondering, how is it with dogs?

It's great. First of all, it's not carpet, it has little holes in it to allow rainwater, and your dog's pee, to drain through it. Please excuse me if I use rather blunt terms here, but I know what you're thinking - how is it with their poop? It's fine, in fact it's much better than regular grass because you can see it, and there's never any danger of running over it with the lawn mower.

I just got a new pooper scooper (no, I'm not selling anything here), and if you have artificial turf I recommend that you get one that's similar. Look at the scooping part - it has a flat blade, as opposed to a rake, and I find that it does a better job.

I keep a squirt bottle of odor eliminator handy to spray the areas regularly, and I also gently spray the artificial turf with a garden hose once or twice a month (except when it's been raining).

Of course if your dogs are destructive they'll tear up the artificial turf, but then again they would tear up your garden, or yard. My dogs were trained to not be destructive.

As you can see, my yard is shady, and while artificial turf is just plastic, and can never be as cool as real grass, it's a whole lot cooler than pavers, or concrete. Besides, it just looks nicer.

I love my garden, and I love my dogs!

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