It’s pretty simple, at Carex Design Group, we love dogs. I’ve not only made special design decisions to take our clients’ furry friends into account, but being that I’m often in backyards, I always look forward to a little play time or quick snuggle before heading back to the office.

When I’m designing a backyard for a dog owner, I always make sure to take that into account. If you have dogs, you’ll want to avoid plants that may be harmful to your pets — those with thorns or plants that are poisonous. Depending on your dog, we may also reconsider a vegetable garden if it’s likely they’ll not respect the boundaries of your food-producing plant area. Dogs of any medium-to-large size are also notorious for trampling vegetation so you’ll want to steer clear of using tender, herbaceous plants like peonies, hydrangeas and Lenten rose.

For more tips on dog-friendly design, check out this blog post. (You’ll see one of our Jack Russel dog friends in that photo!)

You may consider creating a special area designed exclusively for you and your pets. Check out this dog park area we designed for our friends (and their four-legged coworkers) at Altar’d State headquarters in Maryville, Tenn.

At Carex Design Group, we’re dog friendly in our designs AND our office. My wife Julie and I have two dogs ourselves — Molly and Ginger. Ginger (pictured below on the left) is our not-so-great office assistant (she sleeps more than she helps!), and Molly (pictured below on the right) is chief of security, barking at anyone who passes by the window of our downtown office. I bring our pups to work several days a week, and when the weather allows they ride along for some of my site visits.