Mulch? Would want smaller pieces to not hurt dog's feet.

St. Augustine grass? It is used on football fields....so must be pretty tough stuff.

I wonder how your dog would like a few obstacles to jump over to break up the 'run'? Or maybe she gets needed large muscle exercise through this running back and forth.
I'm thinking of some of the ladder-like obstacles that are used on the Animal Planet dog show ... dogs look like they enjoy going over and under. I've thought about doing something like that for our older and overweight boxer.

Anyway... hope you find a solution...

Thats a great idea about the exercise for the pet but I wouldn't recommend that if on a leash and left out unsupervised.
He/she would easily get tangled up, could hang itself or not have access to its water.
I was thinking of sand until I remembered burning the bottom of my feet once at the beach.

I think pointers just do that. The ones I have known were all obsessive: a rancher's German Shorthair almost killed himself running back and forth between us when we were surveying the property. We had to put the dog in one of our cars to stop him.

St. Augustine will not take the traffic. My labrador has destroyed a six foot wide swath of it that leads to the backyard just by running up a down a few times a day.

You can build him a run so that he doesn't destroy the rest of the yard. Pointers like to really be worked, so you might want to put a ten pound doggie backpack on him as well as training him to use an obstacle course. Or you could take up duck hunting.

Renee

Sometimes you just have to live with it. Our Sheltie ran a circle on St. Augustine grass in our back yard, herding my kids.

Hmmm.... depending on how wide an area you are speaking of, I wonder if putting obstacles in the usual path [where lawn is being worn down] would give lawn a chance to recover and then shift obstacles again to prevent repeat overuse of one area. I suspect that the dog wants to run in a straight line, so just a few chairs or ?? would break up the straight line and dog would run in a different line. BTW... I like that you describe your pointer as beautiful .... like our beloved boxer who is wonderful, except when she is not ... :)

I think the best thing you can do is to build him his own run. the dog definitely needs it if you teach it she will stay to the run.

My German Shepherd/Boxer mix did that a lot when he was younger. I just put a small section of green mesh fence with stakes that blocked the path but wasn't very noticeable. Eventually he made a new path so I just moved it to there. Now he's older and spoiled so he spends most of his time indoors.

We have had the same issue -- and not just around the fence. Our dog has created paths wherever he runs (generally b/c he's playing with us or dogfriends, not because he's neurotic) throughout the yard. Our solution has been to work it into our landscaping, e.g., one of his paths is now hardscaped with gravel. In another area ("the dog zone"), we are planting shrubs and perennials around the path so that its somewhat hidden, but not so that it's blocked. Our dog seems to enjoy running under and around shrubs, and on good days he clearly relishes jumping over them. So why can't the garden be for everyone? In short, having worked through several of the solutions that others have suggested here, we've found the path of least resistance (excuse the pun) to be working our dog's activity into our vision of our yard rather than to try to convince him not to run around.

You're singing my song - I have a German Short Haired Pointer and have had this very same problem. She (as well as a couple of others who follow her path) run down a particular side of the grass in an effort to chase the squirrels out of the yard. In order to mitigate the path problem I actually covered the area with redwood soil conditioner, which is similar to dirt but a bit heavier. Then I reseeded it (the ground was already totally wet from the rain) and then I placed more redwood soil conditioner over top of it. This gave the grass seed a fighting chance to at least germinate. It's working beautifully. Although coming in slowly it's much better than what it was.

Now, I also had to do something with the energetic pooch. So I resorted to running her each day around an Olympic sized track a minimum of 4 times by herself. Then I bring her back with one of my pups and allow them to run together a couple of time around. By the time we're done, they're both totally pooped out. While they still have fun in the yard later in the day, it's nothing like when their main activity was waiting to hunt down a bird or a squirrel. This is probably the equivalent to walking your dog for a good 30-45 minutes a day which may be a bit much but for German Short Haired Pointers, I've found exercise to be absolutely essential. And since I have a neighbor with a 10 year old (same breed) who says the dog is still as active and requires activity I'm figuring it's just one of those wonderful characteristics that's part of the breed so I'd better learn to get used to it since I have to live with it.

Even though walking is not the most intriguing activity, I am at least able to catch up on world news while listening to my podcasts.

Hope that helps.

living on a corner lott with 2 dogs has me laying 12x12 pavers on inside of fence line to allow them access to follow people and their pets as they walk past. we have lots of people with dogs they walk.my dogs mind well but its not fair of me to ask them to not be dogs would it? since we are redoing and starting with clean slate it allows me to give my boys the room they need behind the room i need for flowerbeds.couldent even imaging the damage and frustration if they didnt have their paths.