Hi all, we have what is I think a pretty large garden (about 100 foot by 20 or so) and since we've gotten the pup in August his crazy games with our 3 yr old dog have turned what was a pretty garden into a mudbath. Letting the dogs out to toilet involves a good half hours cleaning when they come back in.

Anyway, we have now fenced off the grass (the mud!!) to give it a chance to regrow. The dogs have a good 20 feet or more of cement and anyway the garden is of little use to them as we go to the beach daily to run.

Just wondering if there are any products or things I can do short of being able to harness the sun to make grass grow, make mud go away - generally improve things? I think it's the wrong time of year for grass seed to work. :(

I think a few people here have had astro turf laid very successfully.  

Should have mentioned we rent so won't be putting down anything like that or paving etc until we have bought in years to come :)

Youre right it is the wrong time of year.when the weather improves I would recommend you use miracle grow patch magic. Our grass was lovely in some patches and bare and sorry for itself in others.we managed to speak to a rep at a garden centre one day and this is what he recommended.it was fab!perked up the sorry looking areas and planted new grass in the complete bare areas.it isnt the cheapest on the market but we tried a few and this was the best.easy to use too as everything you need is in the bag so no need to be prepping the grass or sprinkling compost over the area first. HTH.

We were also forced to fence of our grass area in September this year due to it being like a mud bath:( We reseeded it then and haven't touched it since - we haven't even walked on it and it still looks awful. I will be waiting for a dry (yeah right) spell and a bit of warmth and reseeding the lot - probably around March. The best grass seed I have found so far is the stuff they sometimes sell in Lidl.

Our dogs have got used to doing their stuff on the gravel when they aren't out and about.

I agree with the others, with dogs it is best to fence of a  bit of the garden for the dogs that is not grass, and only have the dogs in the rest of the garden in dry weather/by invitation.

It's bad enough here with the small patch of grass/earth are in they dogs bit now a swamp which Inka is still insisting on using it for her usual ablutions and sinking into it to her pasterns!!!

We then have the mad 'I don't want my feet being cleaned' dance, looks ridiculous as she is like a butterball turkey at over 8 weeks in whelp.

We had to fence ours off too. It looks like grass but when you walk on it it's just soaked which puppy thought was her own personel grass/mud and perfect for digging so she went out a GR and came back in a choc lab so fencing was the only option really and she's got decking, patio and driveway now until later next year.

Can sympathise because I have been living in a swamp since the rains began in April ( when the Government declared a hosepipe ban !!) We have 12 dogs and all are used to coming and going from garden ( swamp) to house ad lib. I am permanently attached to a mop, white walls are now brown and carpets are trashed. House training has broken down amongst younger dogs 'cos they can no longer differentiate between swamp outside and mudbath indoors. Regarding lawn, it will recover. We need a pronged spell of  dry weather and a bit of the yellow stuff to get the grass growing. When my sons were young they had goals and slides on the lawn and the grass would become mud just as easily as with dog activity.

Before you seed it you could use a fork to aerate the soil and incorporate horticultural sand to ensure better drainage--you will get better results when you do resow.

Artificial grass here, best money I spent on the garden since we had the dogs LOL