Talk to me about the state of your lawn......

[rogersmellyonthetelly]

I have a beautiful garden. At least it would be if the lawn wasn't peppered with yellow burn marks and lush patches. Peppa does get walked twice a day, she pees every 30 seconds when we are out, and also pees every time she goes out in the garden in between times.
I would like to train her to pee and poo in one place in my garden, im thinking of getting a wooden sandpit and putting bark chippings in it, maybe round the side of the house. Is it possible to train a dog like this? We have tried every remedy known to man to prevent the lawn burn, but nothing seems to work with her, and she doesn't restrict herself to one patch on the lawn, she just pees and craps randomly. I have 2 kids and another due jn feb so I'd rather my lawn was a lawn rather than a dog toilet! I do pick up the poos daily, but it does leave poo on the grass, ESP in this weather when it's wet and the grass is long!

What lawn? More like a mud pit.

We're going for fake grass

My lawn has yellow patches. Jas is a neutered male and doesn't seem to care that according to conventional wisdom, only bitches murder lawns. We've had some success with Dog Rocks in his water bowl.

We had ours relaid earlier in the year. Beautiful, all turfed, really nice.

Previous dog mostly respected it although did cause patches with wee.

We now have an 8 month old puppy. He has no respect for the lawn and digs it up with alarming regularity. It's now basically a mud bath with a few stray blades of grass.

We are also now looking into fake grass.

I trained my (Male) lurcher to pee on command with a clicker....

Foolish dog (Spaniel) pees thousands of times on a walk...then never again..despite having enforced garden breaks, 18 hours is the longest she has gone (unless she was modestly hiding behind the one and only bush!) so I haven't managed to train her.

I believe you can buy peeing posts that encourage dogs to pee in one place. No experience of whether they work though.

We had one of those posts with our last dog.

He chewed it, then ignored it completely and went wherever he fancied.

We have fake grass - small north facing garden, 2 kids, 3 (small) dogs, best thing we ever did and worth every penny!

Looks great all year round, doesn't need mowing, easy to see small poos that previously got lost in the tufts or mud patches and the dogs aren't constantly walking mud into my kitchen so less cleaning required!!!

Lawn? What's one of those? Can't say I notice any wee marks in the garden but I can see where he runs up and down playing football.

MothershipG have your dogs ever tried digging up your fake grass? What happens if they do? I'm very attracted to it, we've had a sample sent and it's brilliant, but I'm concerned if our dog digs it up and wrecks it we'll have wasted £000s putting it in and won't be able to easily revert back.

Puppy pretty much pees in the same place but craps anywhere. He quite often has two or three squats per poo so it seems to get everywhere!

I trained him to wee on command which is why he is going in the same place. No doubt it wont last!

I am slightly dreading the summer and have developed a love of a good hard frost!

ours is mud, mud, mud, poo, mud, mud, poo, mud, poo

you get the picture?

I'm on poo patrol strike as DH has not done his turn for two weeks now

fake grass sounds cool

Oh lordy I remember the non existant lawn fiascos . I have always owned bitches [all gone now sadly] and would follow them out in all weathers with a watering can to dilute the wee and disperse the poo leftovers after scooping . I was like a woman possessed.
Hope Rainbow bridge has fake grass /outside hose.

We have a dog. He only pees around the perimeter and poos under the apple tree (very particular). I was told tomatoes make the wee less acidic? Lawn is quite good as he only digs for Australia round the back of the swing.

We have yellow patches too, someone told OH that a bitche's wee damages the grass, so he blames the girls while the boys, of course, are not a problem bloody idiot knows bugger all about dogs

flowerytale They don't try and dig it up and my Mini Schnauzer had made many holes in the excuse for a lawn (often as a team effort with the DC! ) We do still have some beds where she conducts the occasional excavation but she doesn't bother the fake grass.

This is a massive bone of contention in our house. SpicyDog (bitch) wrecked the lawn with massive burn patches and it really didn't bother me, but DH hated it so we set up a bark toilet area and trained her to go there. In September he dug and seeded all the patches and just as it was looking quite nice, we got SpicyPup. DH said we needed to train him to use the bark from day one, but it's right at the end of the garden so was never going to happen! The patches are less bad but his favourite spots are now getting quite yellow. And he's a digger!

We're going to train him to use the bark in the Spring and the longer term plan is fake grass Garden needs landscaping anyway so it will be done when we can afford it (so in about 10 years based on the quotes we've had so far...)

We have fake grass too. I gave up on any kind of real lawn. It actually looks pretty good IMO, you can get quite realistic looking 'grass' these days.

My bitch used to have an acid fanny and destroyed our lawn in our last house. FIL recently got a bitch too and disclosed to us the revelation of putting apple cider vinegar in their water. Eh voila! No ruined grass and healthy joints to boot :)

My mother had a small female dog, who was let out into garden, and grass was destroyed . No problem with her previous male dog as he peed up/at the bushes, apple tree, and only pooed on the grass.

My last garden was ruined by the dog, so no more peeing/pooing on my new grass, if I let her out, she is naughty anyway and wanders next door.

I detest doing a garden poo clean up,much easier to walk and scoop, ask me in 6 months and my answer may be 'full of shit and yellow grass' but so far so good! 2 pees in the garden 3 months

Our lawn looks like a war zone! Yellow patches and craters where pupski to dig. Doesn't bother me but DH gets in such a rage about it.

Thanks MothershipG that's interesting. Think we will go for the fake stuff maybe in the New Year.

The sample we've been given is incredibly realistic. It's expensive but because our garden is very small, it's not too hideously priced.

I think fake grass may be the way to go then ladies! It won't need mowing,
No mud from kids/dog and I can just pick poo and hose down :0) sounds great!

One of my friends has a whopping great big Alsatian and a stretch of astro turf that reeks. She's really good at picking up poo and hosing it down but it's really not a pleasant place to sit on a hot summer day...

A teaspoon of vinegar in their water - solves all acidic wee issues

We put an ornamental fence around our patio( quite large) to keep our dog off the grass. Best thing we ever did in our garden , the grass stays nice , there's no holes ( he's a digger) , no wee stains ,we can have plants and the rabbit can go out safely ! He has a sandpit on the patio so that he can still practice digging and bury stuff.