Symphytum grandiflorum grows well in heavy shade. Give it more light and step back. Once established i tink it might survive the dogs.

I only have two dogs and nothing thrived, I almost said survived but the vinca survives, every now and then I see a sprout, but before long the little things is destroyed by my dogs. The ammonia in dog urine is harmful to just about anything that grows.

If you have no chance at keeping the dogs off the area, nothing will take hold. You can definitely grow ivy or vinca but they will have to get 2 months, preferrably 3 or 4 without dog traffic.

I wouldn't go with grass in deep shade enven without dogs. It's too difficult.

Great idea, Brenda. Definitely will be trying that out!

I have struggled with this myself and just woodchipped the area. You can get them free from many tree trimmers in our area.

Jeanne

Brenda - that is a great idea. I have two dogs - one is a bassett with HUGE feet and he clomps over everything! I have managed to barracade certain parts of the yard with rocks and other such things - but they do still get in and leave piles of poo and LAY on my plants! Aaaargh! Drives me crazy! I've let them have their paths - but we're going to have war about my garden LOL! Love them - but not in my garden! I have a friend who owns 2 dogs - both large. At her former home, they clobbered the back lawn - it eventually became completely bare. Not going to let that happen!

Brenda, What a great idea with the wire. My dog has been jumping the fense in my shade/sun area. I caught him watering the Karl Forester grass the other day. I planted Hydrangia on one side and am waiting for it to get big so he can not jump the fense there. The fense material would be great for me to put down now so he will not even be able to try jumping. He can get in from the front by jumping but once the plants are high he will not try it. I think I will try my tomato cages in front for now.

Istanbuljoy

If you can keep them off long enough to get it established (just stake out one area at a time if necessary), moss is fantastic, and it thrives in deep shade. It's the only thing our dog hasn't been able to wear down...takes an amazing amount of foot traffic, and looks lush and exotic to boot.

Also, I think it just helps to create paths they'll gravitate toward, woodchips, gravel...whatever it takes to make those paths obvious and attractive. If your dogs are anything like ours, they take the same route around the garden every time anyway. Just let them have their established route and settle for building up beds around it.

I defined paths in my shaded garden and try to keep them mulched with chopped leaves or some other organic mulch. My dog appreciates this because he thinks I spread the mulch just for him and he does his thing in it. Then his souvenirs are easily spotted and picked up. Under the trees I've raised the beds slightly, just enough so that it still looks fairly natural (not much of a deterrent to large dogs, I realize, but mine is short), and I've filled the beds with hellebores, ferns, and epimedium. When I'm trying to establish one of these plants I protect it with a small-sized peony frame. This keeps my dog from running rough-shod right over the top of the plant, and holds him at a slight distance when he wants to pee on it. Eventually the plant fills in the frame and grows through and out of it and by this time Doggy has another route carved into his brain that takes him around the plant. This has worked pretty well for me -- everything I've planted has survived.