Advice for getting our dog to toilet in outside space

[mr405]

About 2 months ago we took in a 9y/o cavapoo from an elderly family member who couldn’t look after him anymore.

We currently have an outside garden space which is shady and paved, but no grass. We live in an area with lots of open green spaces nearby, so he gets plenty of exercise and time off his lead (just for context!) I would love to move somewhere with a proper garden, but that’s not possible in the near future.

However, he won’t go to the toilet in our outside space, instead waiting for us to go on a walk. It would really be handy if we could just let him out there for a wee during the day, especially during the hot weather! To be honest he doesn’t show much interest in the space at all, although he happily wees on the pavement outside our house. He came from a home with a garden, which he used to go to the loo. He’s not had any accidents in the house either, but I try and take him out every few hours during the day.

Does anyone have any advice or tips to encourage him to go the loo out there? Would it be worth buying a patch of turf to see if that works?

We had the same issue with our rescue dog. When we brought his used poo bags home after a walk we put a little bit in our back garden, paved area, once we’d done this a couple of times he did start to use this area to go. It’s worth a try.

Thanks - I’m actually glad it’s not just us who this has happened to!

Sorry if this is me being stupid, but did you just put a bit of poo (out the bag) on the paved area?

You can get dog toilet patches with fake grass - i have one called a porch potty that my dog uses, really helps when my garden is all paved

Yes, I just put a bit in the area that I wanted him to use