how to get dog to wee/poo on her walks

[rhetorician]

We have a 14 week old puppy; she is pretty good on the house training front, but she will only wee or poo in the garden. So I take her on a good long walk (she's tiny, so a mile is quite long way for her) with plenty of grass for her to go on, but she always waits until she gets home. Any ideas? Would really rather that she didn't do all her crap in my garden...

I sympathise, my pup was like this but I have gradually found that he is doing it more on walks and less in the garden. I wonder if it is an extension of his viewing the garden as his domain, like the house, and not being so keen to mess in it.

Can I just suggest that a mile might be a bit too much for a tiny 14 week old? The general rule of thumb is five minutes of activity per month of age each day. That includes walks, play and training. My lab pup, a large breed, is now six months and we do half an hour of walking and training combined each day.

Hi Rhetorician, I feel your pain as had this same problem with my pup. Basically u need a code word or phrase (that you're happy to say repeatedly in public!) that the dog associates with doing their business so I said "go to the loo" when I thought he needed to poop & got him used to it by saving it every single time he pooped so he knew that was the instruction. Then I basically stood still for minutes at a time out on a walk so he got bored with all the distractions & started to sniff the ground & then said the phrase. It takes ages and some dogs just find the great outdoors too stimulating for pooping in but stick with it because they get it in the end

thanks for advice about exercise - didn't know that! she is quite energetic, but guess her bones and muscles are still growing

Are you training her with a toilet command?
If so, you can just use the command when you are on walks.
Agree that a mile is too far for a pup of that age though...

I used to pop my dog around the block when I thought he might need the toilet. I find the more he doesn't go in the garden, the less he wants to.

He's also pretty particular about where he goes! I think he likes his privacy as he will turn and drag either myself or OH into the trees/bushes so he can poo in private weird dog

yes, she has a toilet command. I am really surprised that her walks are too long for her - she comes home full of beans and then falls asleep and really likes her walks. But I could do two shorter ones, perhaps?

This article explains it a bit more but it's more to do with damaging the growing bones and ligaments than just overtiring. Puppies always think they're full of beans.

thank you - that's very helpful. Don't want to do her a damage!

I had good success with my untrainable rescue dog using clicker training. Have a look on YouTube, there's loads of videos of how to do it. The clicker is the 'marker' you use to 'capture' the behaviour you want to replicate, then you add a voice cue. Mine is "hurry up!"