Garden Dog

Good Morning!  I am frequently asked how I keep my garden looking good when I have a dog that is  very active in the garden.   Earl, pictured at left, is a garden dog.  He goes into the garden to get to the fence to visit with neighbors. He will give chase to the bunnies that come to feed and go crashing through the beds and yet my garden never looks like he's been in it.   How do I do it? 
The answer is plant selection and placement.  When my husband and I bought are house ten years ago there was no garden.  Out back yard was a big green square.  We had two dogs at the time. Banjo has since passed, but when she was alive she was very much a garden dog herself.  So as we started developing our garden I consciously choose plants that I knew could take some abuse.  I have Lamb's Ear( Stachys byzantia 'Helen Von Stein'), Golden Creeping Money Wort( Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea'), Bloody Cranesbill(Geranium sanguinuem 'Max Frei') and Lady's Mantle( Alchemilla mollis), just to name a few, at the garden border.  They all handle the dog traffic.  I have Siberian Iris( Iris siberica 'Caesar'sBrother), Maiden Hair Grass( Miscanthus sinensis 'Gracillimus'), Spiderwort( Tradescantia x. 'Concorde Grape') deeper in the beds.  The other thing I did was to watch where my dogs liked to enter and exit the garden.  They both had their own little paths they liked to take into the garden, through the garden and back out.  They both made little doggie wallows in the garden in the shady areas where they could lie in the cool black dirt when it was hot.  So I left spaces for them  along their paths and where they each liked to lie.  Because their paths and preferred resting spots were open, they kept to them so we all won.  The dogs got to go into the garden and make their rounds and I managed to create a perennial border that always looks full and lush despite my garden dogs running through it. 
Good Luck & Happy Gardening!