How do I get him to potty in one area of the yard?

[Terrie]

Hello! I am hoping for some advise. We are finally getting a fence put up in our back yard.....I am so happy I could dance Anyway Payton up until now has been able go anywhere in the yard as we've never really used it for entertaining etc. Now that we are getting a fence AND we have a 2 year old the back yard is used a lot. I clean up after him but I do miss spots.....realistically I would like for him to go in the back part of the yard that way I won't be hunting for turds all over, and I can pitch the poop into the woods we butt up against We are not allowed to put up a run otherwise that would have been done a while ago. I have heard that people train their dogs to go in one spot but how? Do I move poop over to the area? Do I take him on a short lead to the area we want him to go? Right now we walk him and then take him to the yard or at night he's on a lead anchored in the ground, I know it's not good and that's why we are getting the fence. I know that someone out there has to have trained their dog to do this He's going to be 7 years old in August but still easily trained I am just not sure where to start......thanks in advance for all of your help

Terrie

[Dimitri]

i was going to ask, how do you get your dog to use the potty in the bathroom and not use it as a fresh water bowl!

[dogsbydoug]

Is it possible to put up a small fence around the potty area to keep the 2 year old out of there?

You can take him on a leash to the designated area and praise him when he goes in that area. Once you think he's got the hang of it, you can put him on a long line and walk further behind him as he heads for the potty spot. Then, he graduates to full run of the fenced yard once he's reliably using that spot to eliminate.

A friend of mine has two dogs that she trained to use the woods behind the house as their potty area - leaves crunching under their feet and they go...

[BabyBrownz]

We just did this with Cleo and she's 4. She was already trained with the command 'do your business' so we put her on a short leash and walked her to the area we wanted her to use and gave her the command. It took just over 4 days and a couple reminders here and there to get her used to the one area. She does exceptionally well.

Rottweilers are very intelligent and aim to please their owners so lots of praise and treats when he does his business in the designated area.

Good luck!

[jessapostle]

We trained Sarge to go in one area too - a great idea to prevent a free-for-all in the yard. Plus much easier to pick up and launch into the woods behind our fence We built a little partition in the back corner of our fence where we wanted him to go (with 2x12 boards nailed in an L shape and then nailed to either side of the fence - makes a square). We then put him in that area, said his command for doing his business ("Bombs Away" is his!!) and he went. Not always right away - took a lot of repetition and sometimes we were out there for 15 minutes - but he learned pretty quickly and now will run to that area when he's playing in the yard to go poop. Sometimes forgets and starts to go in the yard (he's only 4 months old) but as soon as I say "ah ah" he darts for the box. Good luck!!

[Terrie]

Thanks so much for your help The fence is under construction...YIPEE! Once it's done I will get going on the training tips you suggested, keeping my fingers crossed

[JD102175]

We created an area for Brodie at our old house, mainly because his urine was killing our grass. We stripped the sod at the back corner of the yard, about a 6x6ft area, dug down a couple of inches and filled it with pea gravel. Everytime he needed to go out we took him out on leash and would walk him to the spot and tell him "go potty". It took us about a week to train him to do this and he was about 3-4 years old at the time. Even if we were outside playing and he was zooming around, if he needed to go he would stop and trot over to his "potty spot" to do his business.

Jaime

[Terrie]

Originally Posted by JD102175

We created an area for Brodie at our old house, mainly because his urine was killing our grass. We stripped the sod at the back corner of the yard, about a 6x6ft area, dug down a couple of inches and filled it with pea gravel. Everytime he needed to go out we took him out on leash and would walk him to the spot and tell him "go potty". It took us about a week to train him to do this and he was about 3-4 years old at the time. Even if we were outside playing and he was zooming around, if he needed to go he would stop and trot over to his "potty spot" to do his business.

Jaime

Thanks Jaime that's what I like to hear! I may try the pea gravel thing but I will have to make sure it can't be seen from the street....HOA by-laws are brutal in my neighborhood! My yard slops up and so if it's seen from the street it's a no no....UGH!!!! But I can figure something out on that end

[BabyBrownz]

We didn't use pea gravel for training Cleo but when the pup comes we'll be making them a large dog pen using pea gravel and incorporate the business location in it.

[rottie girl]

My dogs have a kennel at the back of the yard that surrounds the garage, so once they knew what "kennel" was, I'd put them out and point and say "to the kennel." I think the area needs to be taught first so you can communicate it.

Brandi now likes to pee on the rocks about 5 feet from the door but she always does #2 in the kennel. I don't give her trouble for that cause she's old and perhaps when she gets the urge she NEEDS to go.

[Roxie's Dad]

I have always thought that something like this would be a good idea. The dead grass thing has happened at my fiance's house and you always find yourself going on a poop hunt throughout the whole garden to find where Roxie has decided to go this time. I'm going to try to set something up the next time I have some spare cash, free time and nice weather. Then we can train Roxie to go in that area and by the sounds of things it shouldn't take that long . The pea gravel sounds like an ideal surface to use as I always find that you end up ripping out half the grass when cleaning up.

[Idealconcepts]

With Carly, our 14 month female, she was trained to go originally on the side of the house where we put 1-2 inch river rock, in the last house. We would just take her to the area every hour or so and thel her "go potty" and she eventually understoond. The new house we did the same thing except we used 1-1.5 inch river rock and with the new house it was basically take her out to the area once on a leash (entire back yard is not done yet) and she learned to go in the same area. I thought of using pea gravel but figured she would be able to easily move it with her weight in order to get to the weed block. At my parents this weekend she went 80% of time in the river rock area. I believe she is so use to going on rocks at home that if given the opportunity that is where she do her thing.