outdoor – Pawjourr | Blog contributors

This article was written by Sarah Hollenbeck from Siege Media.

Once you get a pet, you may notice that certain things in your life start to change. You might find yourself searching for fun things to do with your pet, getting outside more, or just in a happier mood.

Many pet owners may also start making changes to their homes to better suit their pet’s needs. Some people may even pet-proof their homes for pet-friendly living.

This effort doesn’t always stop inside the home as pet owners also want to treat their pets to a fun and safe outdoor environment. You can achieve this by petscaping your yard.

The art of petscaping

Petscaping is the practice of creating a safe outdoor environment for your pet to play and relax in. These changes to your outdoor space can be as minimal or creative as you want them to be.

Whether you are removing any toxic plants or adding fun toys for your pet to enjoy, petscaping is a great way to add enjoyment to your pet’s everyday life.

4 fun tips for petscaping your yard

Continue reading to discover fun ways to turn your yard into the perfect pet play area!

1. Create a pet-friendly layout

Before you make any changes to your outdoor space, it is important to consider the layout that you want to achieve. This can be specific to your pet and its unique traits.

If you have an energetic pup, you will want to leave a large space for them to play and run around in. If you have a cat that loves sleeping in the sun, be sure to leave them a sunny spot for lounging.

2. Use durable materials

As you know, having a pet can lead to some occasional wear and tear on things around the house. The same goes for your outdoor space. Highly trafficked walkways can become torn up over time, especially if you have a larger pet.

To prevent this, you can use these pet-friendly materials:

Concrete
Masonry
Paver stones
Pebbles

If there are certain areas that you would like to keep off-limits for your pet, consider using wooden, metal, or wire fencing.

3. Add safe plants and flowers

Whether you have the space for a garden or would like to add some potted plants, be sure to only use plants that are safe for your pet.

Plants that are dangerous to your pet include:

Foxglove
Elephant ears
Ivy
Snake plant

If you have any of these plants in your yard, be sure to remove them immediately.

Instead, plant these safe alternatives:

Sunflowers
Gerbera daisies
Roses
Bermuda grass

By ensuring that there are no toxic plants in your yard, you can sit back and relax while your pets explore and have fun.

4. Add entertaining features

Most pets long for the opportunity to go outside. By including these fun additions, you are sure to have a yard that will keep your pet occupied for hours of playtime.

Fun backyard additions include:

An agility/obstacle course
A small swimming pool or splash pad
A multi-level cat tree
A pet house
An enclosed catio
A sandbox

Don’t have the space for any of these? No problem! Instead, add some of your pet’s favorite toys to keep them entertained.

Protecting your new outdoor space

Now that you and your pet can enjoy the perfect outdoor space, your home insurance policy is probably the last thing you are thinking about. By informing your home insurance provider of any changes you have made to your property, you can ensure your hard work is protected.

That way, if a bad storm destroys your new pet house or splash pad, you can get the help you need. Now that everything is protected, you and your furry friend can enjoy the outdoors together for many years to come.

Looking for more ideas?

Take a look at this fun infographic for more ideas on how you can petscape your yard!

Our personal experience

We often receive queries from fellow pawrents who ask us where we take our outdoor photos, what camera we use, and how we managed to get clear and bright photos of Taro! While we are by no means professional photographers (PS. in fact, we snap most of our pictures with our iPhone!), we would love to share some tips on how to get some memorable and clear photos for you to keep (or post on IG!)

1. Is your doggo in a calm mood?

This is an important point often overlooked by most pawrents! There is no way you can snap a nice clear photo if your dog is in an overly-playful mood and is constantly breaking his/her sit-stay position. Tips – we usually start our photoshoot sessions by taking Taro for a long walk or letting him interact with other dogs. After the walk, Taro will be calmer and tend to stay better – more time for hoomans to snap photos!

Photo taken after a long walk with Taro.

2. Avoid crowded photo spots

This goes without saying – it is difficult for most dogs to stay focused when there are tons of people and dogs walking past. Furthermore, most people would prefer photos where there are as little photobombs as possible. We like to bring Taro to spots in a park where there are fewer people walking by – other than your doggo being less distracted, you also get to snap more photos in peace without feeling too conscious of yourself squatting in front of your dog with your phone for too long a period of time >.< Places, where there is plenty of room for walking and photoshoots, include Bishan Park (huge park, you can definitely find less crowded spots!), East Coast Park, and Lower Seletar Reservoir.

3. Take advantage of the (good) weather

We love taking photos around 5 to 6.30pm. This gives you a good chance of taking sunset photos, and we try to avoid gloomy days because the surroundings can differ so much with some sunshine. Below are some sunset photos that we really love – disclaimer: they are definitely a stone’s throw from professionally-taken photos, but good enough for our own keepsake 🙂 Bonus – they are ALL taken with iPhone only. We love snapping photos on the go without carrying heavy cameras.

4. Make use of some blooms

This is up to your personal preference, but we love having blooms in our photos! If you use aperture on your camera or portrait mode on your iPhone, you can actually achieve some nice effects with a random flower bush.

5. Can’t get your furkid to stay still? Try putting them on a bench 🙂

Not all dogs are pawfect at sit-stay, and on certain days they are extra distracted! Sometimes, we love to make use of that random park bench to snap some photos 😉

6. Basic Editing – simply use your phone photo-editing app or Lightroom

We usually do some basic editing of our photos – no complicated or paid app or Photoshop, we do it only using our iPhone photo app editing functions and Lightroom. There are many ways of editing a photo and different people have different preferences, so there is no right or wrong to this! For our own photos, we like them bright and vibrant. We would usually adjust the brightness and color of the photos slightly. Lightroom does this pretty well without making your photos look over-exposed or unnatural.

Places we love to go

Our frequently visited places for walks and photos are – Punggol Waterway Park and Sengkang Riverside Park (these parks can be pretty crowded though, but they are near to us), East Coast Park, Bishan Park, and a new favorite Lower Seletar Reservoir. We also love Botanic Gardens and Gardens by the Bay but they are a little further for us. Share with us your favorite places for photoshoots/walks below! And thank you for reading! We hope this article helps pawrents without professional cameras to take nice and memorable photos of their furkids for keepsake 🙂