Daft question from non dog owner

[m0therofdragons]

I’ve always had cats but they’re very old now and thinking to the future we have older dc -12 and 8 - and dh works mix from home and office (office being close by) so for the first time every a dog is an option. Dh had a rescue dog as a young child who was poorly trained so doesn’t know much. I’ve started reading.

My question is, can you “litter train” a dog to only wee and poo in one area of the garden?

Dogs are like cats, they will go to the same place but you need to teach them what that place is. For cats, that place is the one where they could hide their poo, for dogs is the place where they can smell poo has been before.

I have trained several dogs (a puppy and two rescue dogs) with this book, it does what it says in the tin. If they don’t have health issues and you follow the schedules properly, they learn in no time.

Having said that, if the dog has been punished badly for soiling an area, it may feel the need to hide to go (or at least that was what one of my Rescue dogs tried) but it was quickly sorted with a lot of praise.

You can do it but we never had a reason to. Ours goes twice a day - once on his morning walk and once in the evening. Every morning I go out and scoop his evening poo and then that's the garden done.

Unless you never pick the poo up your garden will be perfectly clean.

Mine go on command... if you have a dog from puppy, it's not as difficult as you might think. And even older dogs can lear with the right reward at the end. It's like everything else in dog training... link the action with command and reward.

Don’t forget that many rescue dogs come already trained. Some of them have been very well cared for by their previous owners.

My dog always goes in the same place in the garden. I never trained him I thought it was something dogs just do as he always has. Goes off to pat dog 🙂

Yes you can. I take my dog out on his lead if I know he needs the toilet and take him to side of house. But he forgot after a holiday!

You basically choose your place (should be fairly close to an exit door) and fence it off. When the puppy is tiny and you're popping it out every half hour into that place, reward each time it produces something. Guide dogs use the phrase "busy busy" so you'd say that when it's doing it (or whatever phrase you choose) after a while you start to say the phrase before the puppy does anything to prompt it. Big fuss when successful!

This has been a really useful thread, thank you! I'm hoping Dpup will only go in one place too.

My dog also always only poos in the same place - his own preference. I think a lot would be breed dependant too - mines a German shepherd doesn’t very sensitive and clean orientated - he would never roll in fox poo for example and when he is poorly, can’t stand to have to have an accident around us or his bedding.

@herecomesgeralt
Our dog is exactly the same - will only have a wee in the garden - saves everything else for a walk. We did not train this but it is good for us!

Another one here who’s dog won’t poo in our garden at all.

During toilet training as a puppy, though, he did - and we took him to the same area of the garden each time to encourage him to use that spot.

As he grew, he must have decided “stuff this, I like a poo away from home.”

Mine favours a nice pile of leaves when it comes to doing his business, OP, so maybe you can create something like that in your Garden as your dog’s favourite toilet.

@PuppyMonkey “I like a poo away from home.”

This really made me

Mine poops twice a day and prefers to do it on his walks. As long as I walk him on schedule he poops when we are out (and I bag and bin). I therefore check my home garden once a week and rarely have to pick it up. I didn’t train him, it’s just the way he is.

I realised my mistake with this and have been working on training him to wee in one spot. It's hard as I'm back to joining him every time he goes out like
When he was a puppy but not so bad in the long run. Poos I just pop out and pick up once or twice a day.

We have a stubborn terrier. She poos no problem on her morning and evening walks, if its too short as its raining she will poo straight after her morning feed, so it is do able but easier in some dogs than others. Garden poos aren't bad if you shift them straightaway, some dogs will eat them if you dont! Diet will also make firmer easy to shift poos

Horrible to expect them to wee on concrete. Bitches like grass, males like uprights. Splashy and nasty to go on concrete.

Mine mostly poos in the the top corner of the garden farthest from the house. It not something I taught her but I assume that like most animals they don’t want to foul where they sleep and eat. She’s a tiny and raw fed so her poos are pretty benign as far as dog poo goes.

My dog has three walks a day and so the majority of poos are in this time. He has free reign of the garden and tends to go to the bottom of the garden in the same area. It gets cleared up at the end of the day.