Dog Playground Ideas & Equipment in 2024

Dog playground equipment is essential for creating a fun and safe environment for dogs to play and exercise. Ideas for dog businesses could include offering agility courses, dog-friendly obstacle courses, and interactive toys to keep dogs entertained and active.

Providing a variety of equipment and activities can attract dog owners looking for a place to socialize their pets and keep them physically and mentally stimulated. Offering unique and engaging experiences for dogs can help businesses stand out in the pet industry and attract a loyal customer base.

Benefits of a Dog Playground for Dog Daycare and Boarding Businesses

Adding a playground to your dog daycare or boarding business is an excellent way to attract the attention and interest of new customers, help your pet business stand out among the competition, and provide a great channel for exercise and enrichment for your canine clients.

Attract New Customers

Increasingly, pet parents understand the importance of providing not only basic exercise but also interesting and engaging enrichment for their furry friends.

Offering a doggy playground as part of your daycare or boarding service can help your business gain the attention of new customers who may be looking for facilities that offer novel and interesting enrichment for their pets.

Help Your Dog Daycare or Boarding Business Stand Out

Marketing to new and existing customers on your social media channels and website with exciting and playful videos and photos of pups enjoying the playground or obstacle course is a great way to help your pet business stand out. Operations software for dog boarding facilities, like PetExec, can also send out updates to existing customers about your new dog playground.

As pet parents become increasingly committed to providing their animal companions with a thoroughly enriching life, it’s important to respond with innovative and fresh services that tap into this commitment.

Exercise and Enrichment for Dogs

Providing safe and enjoyable outlets for exercise and enrichment for your canine clients is crucial to ensuring their health and well-being while in your care.

According to a study published in the journal, Animals, providing environmental enrichment to dogs can result in a significant increase in the frequency of relaxation behaviors and a significant decrease in stress-related behaviors.

Without daily access to exercise and enrichment, many dogs can suffer from anxiety, restlessness, and frustration, which can lead to poor behavioral and health outcomes. Installing obstacle courses and playgrounds is an excellent way to address this need for movement, play, and mental stimulation for dogs.

Of course, it’s still important to balance play and exercise with periods of restorative rest so the pups in your care don’t become overstimulated or hyperactive throughout the day.

Ideas and Equipment for Dog Playgrounds

When considering how to build a dog playground for your pet business, it's important to consider safety, design, and how to optimize use and access for all your canine clients.

Below, we’ll delve into some dog playground ideas and what equipment you may want to use to help your pet business stand out while ensuring your canine clients have a blast.

Elevated Dog House

An elevated dog house could provide both a comfy platform for dogs to observe and watch their buddies and a place to rest after they’ve raced around an obstacle course. You could commission a custom-built house or invest in an already manufactured elevated dog house complete with a porch and steps.

Pool

An especially useful dog daycare idea for the summer, pools can be a wonderful addition to your boarding or dog daycare playground. Many canine clients love cooling off and splashing around in the water, and adding this feature can greatly increase customer satisfaction for both pet parents and their pups.

According to the Virginia Beach SPCA, it's crucial to always supervise dogs when they are swimming or have access to a body of water. Make sure to facilitate shallow and easy ingress to and egress from the pool around the entire perimeter, install pet-friendly and slip-resistant decking, and use pet-safe chemicals for keeping the water clean. Staff supervising pool time should also be trained in canine CPR.

Pools are also best set up on artificial turf or in a separate gated section for safety and cleanliness.

Sandbox

Many dogs love to dig, and while digging is often portrayed as a naughty behavior, the reality is it is a perfectly appropriate and normal behavior for our canine friends.

Setting up a sandbox provides a safe and destruction-free outlet for dogs to dig to their heart's delight and can serve as a core component of your outdoor dog playground equipment. You can hide outdoor dog toys in the sand for added fun and mental enrichment.

Agility Course

When installing an agility course, to best protect the joints of the dogs as they play, it’s best to set up in a padded area indoors or in a soft, grassy yard. Try to avoid setting up obstacle courses that require sharp turns, instead opting for straight lines and gentle curves. Obstacles should be made of lightweight material that won’t harm the dogs if they bump into them and can be easily cleaned, like PVC piping or flexible plastic.

Ideally, choose a range of obstacles that can accommodate small to large-breed pups, beginner to advanced agility skills, and a range of confidence levels. If your daycare or boarding service offers positive reinforcement training, the agility course can be an exciting and fun addition to training sessions.

We’ll take a closer look below at some key pieces to consider when installing an agility course.

Tunnel

Many pups enjoy exploring and running through tunnels. This is especially true of terriers who were historically bred to pursue small wild animals into burrows.

Learning to explore and go through tunnels can also be confidence-building for pups who may be initially wary of new environments. Some dogs also love playing hide-and-seek and chase games in tunnels with their canine pals.

Hoops and Hurdles

Choose hoops and hurdles of varying heights and diameters to ensure that all your canine clients who want to participate can safely do so. Some hurdles and hoops should only be a few inches off the ground while others can be a foot or more. Make sure to space the hurdle so the dogs can take full strides between them.

Ramps

Consider installing ramps and platforms as part of your agility course to provide additional problem-solving components. Ramps in dog agility courses are typically either A-frames or ramped bridges. Make sure to line these obstacles with grippy material so the pups don’t slip. The ramp angles should be gentle enough that the dogs don’t need to exert much effort to safely run up and down.

Where to Buy Dog Business Playground Equipment

While you could potentially build DIY dog playground equipment or commission custom pieces, the easiest solution is to purchase manufactured equipment from reputable companies.

Below, we've provided a list of the top suppliers that provide indoor and outdoor dog playground equipment:

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some dog daycare activities ideas?

Dog daycare activities can include playing in water, digging in sandboxes, navigating agility courses, free play with other dogs, positive reinforcement learning sessions, scent-based games, playing with interactive toys, and games of fetch and tug-of-war with staff. You can use software like PetExec to schedule and manage playtime activities for your canine clients.

What is the best outdoor equipment for dogs?

The best outdoor equipment for dogs should be safe, durable, and easy to clean, and can include spacious kennels, runs, dog agility equipment, benches, dog-friendly fountains, dog houses, pools, platforms, and more.

How do you build a dog run for your dog daycare?

To build a dog run for your dog daycare, you'll need to construct a safe, enclosed outdoor area where several dogs with compatible temperaments can run around and play together. The run should include a shaded area, constant access to water, a safe and durable gate, benches for staff, toys, and comfortable ground like grass or turf.

Citations

Hunt, Rebecca L., Helen Whiteside, and Susanne Prankel. 2022. "Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Dog Behaviour: Pilot Study" Animals 12, no. 2: 141. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12020141
VB SPCA. “Dog Water Safety: Protect Your Pet at the Beach, Lake, and Pool.” Virginia Beach SPCA, July 15, 2021. https://vbspca.com/dog-water-safety/.