Your apartment balcony can be a small yet perfect haven for you and your dog. You don’t need an enormous yard to create a dog-friendly outdoor space. Your balcony can be spruced up to make it a world of fun for your dog. It’s really easy to make a dog-friendly balcony and this post will show you how!
More often than not, we city dog owners are lucky if we even have a patio or a small balcony area. Don’t despair! Embrace the lack of garden maintenance and create a dog-friendly balcony that makes your dog’s tail wag!
Read on for our top tips for creating a dog-friendly balcony for your precious city dog.
First up, safety. The railings on your balcony need dog proofing to prevent any nasty accidents. If you have a curious or adventurous dog, you’ll want to pay special attention to your balcony set up to keep your dog safe.
Use pet balcony netting or perspex to keep your dog safely contained on your balcony. Be conscious, too, of the height of your railings. Could your dog jump them if he was so inclined?
You can also use bamboo to create privacy on your balcony. It’s a natural way to limit your dog’s visibility of the world below, which can help your dog to relax.
You don’t want your dog to use your comfy garden chair as a jump-off point to get over your railings! Keep furniture away from the edges of your balcony and ensure there are no objects your dog could use to his advantage when it comes to escape!
A sensory garden for dogs is an area for your dog to explore, sniff and indulge in some mental and sensory stimulation.
You can add dog-friendly plants, herbs, different textures and activities.
You can create a dog garden with just a few small pots of edible and sniffable plants and herbs. Then, your dog can enjoy a sniffari on your very own balcony!
Or you could grow some fruits that your dog can forage and eat, such as blueberries, raspberries or strawberries.
Although you may have a small balcony, you can still experiment with different textures for your dog to explore. For example, you can use bark chips, gravel, artificial grass, soft mats, water and sand.
Some dogs just love to dig; we’re looking at you terriers! Use a small kids sandpit and fill it with soil or sand for a designated digging area. You can bury a toy or two and watch your dog dig to his heart’s content!
In the warmer weather, your dog might enjoy the opportunity to have a little paddle on the balcony. You could empty your dog sandpit and fill it with water for a space-saving doggy paddling pool or opt for a collapsible dog pool.
In cooler weather, you can turn your dog’s paddling pool into a ball pool for an entirely different sensory experience. Scatter some treats inside your dog’s ball pool, and your dog can put their nose to work sniffing out their yummy rewards.
If you’d like some safety tips for dogs and water then check out our post with lots of dog safety tips around water.
You probably don’t want your dog going toilet all over your balcony, so create one area that’s a designated dog balcony toilet and teach your dog to go here. Check out our tips for teaching your dog to go potty in a specific area in our how to toilet train your dog in an apartment blog post.
If you prefer the idea of a dog potty, then check out the Piddle Place, a dog potty grass pad that you can use indoors and out.
Once your dog has had fun exploring all the sensory excitement on your balcony, they’re sure to want to find a comfy spot for an afternoon snooze.
Choose a waterproof dog bed for your balcony, and you’ll be able to wash it easily and wipe it down. Plus, if you leave it out in the rain, it’s no big deal!
Beware of slugs and snails, as if your dog eats them, they can be toxic. It’s a good idea to give your dog a lungworm preventative to be on the safe side and use some pet-friendly slug repellant.
If you’re growing plants and herbs, then make sure that any plant feeders and weed killers you use are dog-friendly too.
Please do your research and avoid garden plants that are toxic to dogs, such as daffodils, lilies, foxgloves, lupins, hydrangea and wisteria.
Finally, bacteria can quickly build up in outdoor water bowls, so make sure you give your dog’s water bowl a good clean and refresh the water each day.
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