Dogscaping
Click on the cover above to go to this book at Amazon.co.uk
Tom Barthel's 'Dogscaping' discusses garden landscaping with dogs in mind, so that both owners and dogs can enjoy the results. This isn't a fully comprehensive guide, but has a lot of useful tips, for example on safety features for dogs. These include avoiding noxious chemicals in the garden, as well as what structures to build that are safe for dogs. Because pesticides and herbicides can be harmful to wildlife, the part of the book on organic gardening is also useful for people who want a garden that is wildlife-friendly.
The two can be easily combined. Though it is not easy to train dogs to respect foxes and rabbits, most gardeners do not welcome rabbits, which can do a lot of damage in gardens, while foxes tend to raid the rubbish. It is much easier to train dogs to respect frogs and hedgehogs, which help gardeners by eating pests. Birds are relatively safe from dogs because they can take refuge in the trees. So it makes sense to set up a garden that is both dog and wildlife-friendly. Anyone designing a dog garden will need a little more information, especially on choosing tough, nontoxic plants which grow in your local soil and climate. However, this book is a very useful starting point.
