Alright, alright, it's my fault, I know! Be gentle with me........ Ted pees and poos on our lawn - there, I've said it. Up to now with our permission, but we realise it's not such a good idea after all. I would prefer him to do his business on a concrete patch we have cleared for the purpose. My instinct was to start taking Ted out into the garden on the lead and encourage him to use the new spot, and keep leading him there if he pulls to go back onto the lawn. Well I tried this yesterday, early in the morning - a cold crisp one -clear dark sky, with the moon and the Orion constellation visible. Ted, in the new concrete area, just sat and looked expectantly up at me as I hissed "busy" - "busy" at him at suitable intervals. Then he whined a bit, not understanding what I wanted, or if he did, why he should change the habit of what is after all a lifetime. This lasted so long, the birds started singing, and the dawn broke. Ted and I were in a standoff. He lurched towards the lawn, and I'm ashamed to say I let round one go to him. My wife had a go today when I wasn't around, thinking it would be a good idea to wait for Ted start pooing then haul him over to the concrete area. Obviously he didnt go there. I came pack to find an achipelago of poo blobs along the lawn, that she hadn't seen. I know we should have identified a concrete area right from the start but we didn't, so our punishment is what we have now - a dying lawn. He will neither pee or poo in the park when we take him out. Apparently that's a confidence thing that will change over time. I can't imagine any of the other Lab owner's here would have made the same mistakes as we did, but are there any ideas how we can turn this one around?
Well, it won't be a long term problem with your lawn. You have a boy. In a few short months, he'll want to pee on things. And he'll also view peeing in your garden as a waste of good pee, and want to only pee on walks. There really is no point in peeing unless someone is going to smell it! So you could just not worry about it for now, and repair the lawn later. If you really want to retrain, then you've got to wait him out. The best thing to do is put a barrier around the concrete area, and get a camping chair. Make yourself comfy. Eventually, Ted will pee and poo in the right area, you can have a big party and give him loads of treats. And carry on like that for a good few months. Or, you can dig up the lawn and put down gravel chips. Which is what I did.
Same here - we have a patchy lawn and Tatze can hold wee and poo the clock round if I ask her to go elsewhere You are right, it needs to be trained from day 1. Our guide dog pups all happily spend on concrete and on command. Tatze? No chance! We've made the lawn a lot smaller and put car-park matting underneath, so at least it doesn't get churned up by hoolying dogs. I just re-seed the patches each spring and try not to look at them. ...
I just want to reassure you that you're not alone - our grand plan for Pongo was for him to always pee at the FRONT of the house, not in garden. That lasted just a couple of days when we realised (doh) that the front of the house is where the traffic goes past and we don't want him out there at all. So we had to change our pattern too. Everything looks different once they actually arrive!
Oh I wish! Coco, nearly 2 and a half now, has grasped the idea of cocking his leg about 50% of the time - but still likes to empty a bladder-full on the "lawn", a term I use very loosely.
Harley wouldn't wee or poo on walks for about 2 months. The first time she did we were jumping around, treating her and got her really excited (I think we looked like idiots, but I don't care). My garden doesn't look any worse for Harley using it daily. I pick up poo after she has been and you can hardly ever see any difference on the grass from the wee. As she got older she got in a habit of having a poo I'm the top right of the garden, and usually wees on the top left of the garden, but no one would be able to tell.
Really? I have had to train Charlie to wee in the garden. He will do a few drops in return for a seabiscuit and that's about it. No matter how late for work I am! Take him round the block though, and I swear he manufactures wee as we walk. He has a seemingly endless supply for trees, lamppost, BT boxes...
Although I pretty much hate posts that say 'oh, I don't have that problem, my puppy was a delight about X, Y, Z from day one' because how helpful is that? But I'm going to indulge myself. After being a slave to Charlie's 5 x a day dog walks because he won't pee and poo in the garden I was so determined NOT to have that problem with Betsy. Betsy gets a walk AFTER she has had a pee and a poo at home - on cue. Works like a dream. She'll go on any surface, doesn't matter. Pee and poo, you get a treat AND a walk. No pee and poo: no treat, no walk, you go back in your pen until you are ready to pee and poo. Sorted.
My boys pee like girls on my lawn! For years they wouldn't pee or poo in the garden and now they have suddenly started. They pee like boys when out. I had bitches before and thought now I have boys will have a pristine lawn, which I did until about two months ago!! I do have a dog loo, but like to have the gate open.
Hey, see - you aren't alone at all! All my dogs also used the garden to wee, though I did have a little space way in the back away from the house that we all agreed was "the spot". It was still grass, though. Cut to when Brogan and I moved to Europe. He could hold his business for hours and hours until we could find a patch of grass, even in big cities. Paris was the worst - all the grass patches have little metal fences around them! We ended up walking 30 minutes to one tiny bit of grass near the river, but at least we found one. Then we got to Venice. There is very little grass in Venice and most dogs just go on the streets. That's just the way it is. Brogan went on a pee/poo strike. A day and a half with NOTHING. I was panicked. This was before I discovered the little secret places Venetian dog-owners go. Finally, as I took Brogan out for another walk in the hopes that he would crack, he goes over to the edge of a canal and tries to hang his rear-end over the water to do a poo! Hey, nature's toilet (or at least I suppose that was his thinking?). I was mortified, plus scared he would fall in! I hauled him back from the brink, he finally let loose with an enormous poo and apparently had an "Ah ha!" moment (along with vast physical relief) and from that moment forward managed to have his pee/poo on the street like every other dog.
We have done this also, We were planning on getting the garden done soon, but the patches are putting us off as we dont want the new garden to look like that. We have a side drive which is concrete, I could taske him around there on the lead and try and train him. He poops on gravel at work. So I dont think he has a problem. The boy poops about 5 times a day. we are reducing his food intake! If anyone tries to retrain let me know how you progress
I was led to believe that a raw-fed dog doesn't burn the lawn. In our case that is not true! Burnt patches wherever Snowie wees. He does save up his morning wee for marking, but come the evening and he relieves the entire contents of his bladder (so it appears from how long it takes) in our garden. He doesn't always lift his leg -- and he's not neutered! Sometimes he just does a little spread of the legs, perhaps a back foot slightly up in a mini-arabesque, and makes a wee. Sometimes he wiggles his torso to make maximum spread of his wee on the lawn, no doubt marking it as "mine" cos we do sometimes have a visitor female dog who also likes to mark our lawn. The worst part for me is the smell. We have a teeny-tiny garden and the smell rises in the heat of summer. I do hose it down from time to time, but we have water restrictions so I can't hose down every time. As for pooing over the canal @Emily_BabbelHund, Snowie's poos have on occasion rolled into our swimming pool! He insists on pooing with his head into the greenery and his backside facing the pool. As I said, the area is tiny so he doesn't really have any option, although it would be nice if he lined himself sideways with the pool instead! Thankfully his poos don't smell due to his diet and they're really easy to pick up. He does save up his poos for his walks (only makes one poo in the garden immediately after breakfast), and interestingly he is very discrete and always finds a tree to poo behind, almost never on the path. In fact, he usually likes to face away from viewers! He's even been seen to put his head in a bush while his backside protrudes! (Unlike my sister's dog who very cleverly positioned his backside over a bush so that his droppings disappeared from sight!)
I saw some diet supplements in the pet shop the other day that alledgedly stop lawn burn. I have no idea if they work or whether they are ok for the dog, but maybe worth some research! I also failed in this! It snowed the week we got her and I was just grateful she had weed or pooed anywhere so I could get back inside!
Ah, Snowy, he's so my kind of guy. I love the image of him discretely hiding his head in a bush while his backside is hanging out.
This is Pongo, too. Hardly ever poos on the path when we are walking, always finds a spot off in the undergrowth. I also have a feeling that he doesn't like being watched, he will often go behind a shrub (or at least get his head behind one so he can't see us...). The strangest thing, though, is that he loves to poo while perched on a steep slope, facing downhill. (Our garden has lots of these, and they are all favoured poo-spots.). I can see him watching his turds tumble forward between his paws. Odd dog.
Maybe this is just easier for him? He doesn't have to crouch as low? Mind you, Snowie also finds steep inclines (although they are not necessarily favoured, just happen to be there) where he has to perch in all manner of crazy angles. So much easier to trot a few paces and find a flat area. But no. Thankfully he doesn't have an issue pooing anywhere if need be, on any surface, grass, pavement, gravel, dust, on leash, off leash, in front of dogs, no dogs about, dog sniffing his bum at the same time, etc. If it's his time to go, he goes (he's pretty regular). Small things to be grateful for!
We've ended up with a rather good situation in that Bob never goes in our garden anymore at all We had a massive downstairs extension done earlier this year so we were forced to take him round the block first and last thing for his business as we physically could not get outside. After the extension was done and the new patio and turf were laid we just carried on just taking him round the block. And it's become a habit now for him and us. Lawn looks great. No poo to clear up either. So all is good!
