This year leaving the droppings on the ground is a mistake - the flies have been dreadful. Pick them up as soon as possible and bury them in the compost.
My back yard landscaping isn't much - grass, horseherb, trees and shrubs, because I have three dogs running around back there. I hate the idea of your dogs confined to that smaller space. Perhaps, with dogs, it's better to do the fancy landscaping out front and let them play in the space in back. I have Invisible Fence installed, a wire around the outer edge of the property and the dogs wear collars. I have a fenced yard but this keeps them from approaching closer than 2 feet from the fence - you can have it set up to keep the dogs in a certain area but not have to fence it (this is within the space you've wired - they twist the wires just so and create boundaries within boundaries.)
_________________ Northwesterner
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