Puppy Forum and Dog Forums banner

Entire backyard's a landmine field!

5K views 46 replies 28 participants last post by  kitley2001 
#1 ·
I have a 7mos. old GSD and she picked up on potty training beautifully. She never has any accidents in the house and is so good at letting us know when she needs to go out. The problem is that I have a small backyard and she pee's and poops ALL over it. Is there any way I can train her at this point to just go in a certain area? There is a small patch of grass near the back shed that would be a perfect out of the way spot. I just don't know how to go about this. Any ideas would be appreciated.
 
#5 · (Edited)
...You can't take a baggie out with you and pick up the poop as soon as your dog is done going to the bathroom? Wut?
It takes a whole 30 seconds. If you have to do the whole yard - maybe 15 minutes. I find it hard to believe you can't pick up your dogs waste - it's part of owning a dog.
 
#8 ·
I work 24 hour shifts, have 6 dogs on about one acre. They had their areas, but if I dont clean it often enough, they go to other spots. Mostly they go out onto the farm to do their business, but when I work, the walker is only there once a day. Some dogs have better habits than others.
 
#9 · (Edited)
I'm sorry. My 50 pound dog poops once a day. If it's not me who picks it up - then someone that lives in the house who took her out will pick it up. And, my gosh, if no one does, I take a walk around the yard when I get home and pick it up. If it's dark when I get home - I walk around the next morning and pick it up.

Using your "full time" job as an excuse to not pick up your dogs waste..yeah. You don't have to do it every time she poops but to expect your dog to poop on a pile of her own waste because you "work full time"..not gonna work.

I am in fact taking this as you don't clean up your yard at all.
 
#38 ·
Wow! I never said that I don't pick up after my dog. In fact both my husband and I pick up as soon as we get home from work , which is twice a day and I always make sure to have it picked up before either of us takes her outside to play ball or play with the hose(which is her favorite thing to do!) or do training sessions because I don't want her or us to step in it. In fact even if it gets dark I just grab a flashlight rather then wait til morning. And I think that a 4'x4' patch of grass would be enough of an area that she wouldn't be pooping on top of poop. Its not an issue of me just not wanting to do it or not having enough time to do it at all! Even after the poop is picked I still feel like my yard is "icky" and I don't want to walk on it barefoot or let my nieces and nephew play in a yard thats saturated with dog pee. Thats why I posted this to get some ideas on how to get her to potty a "large enough" patch of grass on the side of the shed. But hey thanks for assuming that I am a lame ass dog owner! I'm all for constructive critisim but you're just mean!
 
#11 ·
I know where you are coming from ibfreaky, time poor like me. But someone needs to take responsiblity to clean up the poop and do it regularly.

First thing I would ask is what food is the pup eating. If you are using a cheaper brand kibble then these are bulked out with stuff that does not get dissolved and passes straight through the dogs guts to leave plenty of land mines. If you switch to a premium brand high quality kibble, you will be rewarded with smaller and fewer land mines and your dog will get a better level of the correct vitamens and minerals.

Training him to go in one place can be done by cleaning up all poop and thoroughly cleaning those spots with water and an enzyme cleaner. Leave one piece of poop in the area where you want him to go. Every day, do the same - make sure the rest of the yard is cleared and cleaned. He will get the idea.
 
#12 ·
If he's going so much that you can't pick it up inside one minute, he needs a vet visit. Switch to a good food like wellness, TOTW or Blue and he'll go once or twice a day. But, really, I had a 90 lb GSD mix, and even when I was feeding him purina and he was going 3-4 times a day, I was able to clean it up after work.

Since you don't have time to pick up poop, are you walking him? Training him? Playing with him? I'm a bit concerned.
 
#13 ·
If the OP's question was how to get the dog to only use part of the yard..... What you can do is fence off the yard you don't want your dog to use, and then have it so she can only go to the potty area. But, she will kill the grass there, so it might be an idea to do a dog run with gravel or shavings so that it's easy enough to keep clean. Eventually you could remove the fencing but it will take a lot of work from you to get her consistant - so a dog run would be the easier step.

If you don't keep the dog run clean, she will find other spots too, so every day or so do a clean up. I use straw in our dog run and pick up a bit of it each time, then put out a fresh bale every month or so.
 
#14 ·
i have 2 great danes and work well over full time, and my SO works full time too.... there is NO poop in our yard right now. AND i have 2 labs with me that i have for 5days for one of my clients.. i have 4 dogs here... and no poop in the yard.... i guess i cant understand why youre too lazy to pick it up?
 
#15 ·
I work full time and have 3 dogs and 3 cats, I dont understand your problem ??? Even if I were to go out once a week to pick up waste it still only takes me about 10 minutesn and my dogs have free run of the yard, though I dont pick up what they do out in the underbrush in the woods. Get yourself an easy to use pooper scooper or better yet see if there is a pooper scooper business near you that can come clean up your yard, when my kids were young they decided pooper scooping yards would be a good way to make money and they made a killing off of it , charging 10 dollars or more per yard and it didnt take them long
 
#16 ·
yeah there is a guy around here who does it, he charges 8/yard/week and more if there are more dogs. you can have him come once a week or more. the one day he told my client he had done 8yards before hers, and he averages doing like 10 a day. on top of that he gets extra if you do a "spring cleaning" when the snow melts if you havent had it picked up in a while. like 20. im thinking the poop business isnt a bad idea! im beginning to think of doing this on the side truthfully.
 
#17 ·
Is there any way I can train her at this point to just go in a certain area?
Anything is possible. Heck, you could even train her to climb to the top of a six foot ladder and poop into a flaming bucket below, if you actually wanted to. But the real question in either case is, WHY would you want to :confused:

IMO simple management beats complicated training hands down, especially in this particular situation. I say let her poop wherever her li'l heart desires, and pick it up daily. Easy peasy.
 
#19 ·
Full time graduate student plus two and a half jobs... HOW DO I EVER CARE FOR MY TWO DOGS?!

Working is a really poor excuse, sorry. I have a HUGE yard and it takes all of 5 minutes to clean up after my dogs (if I go a few days without doing it). If your dog is going so often that you cannot keep up with it maybe you need to feed a better food? Dogs on low quality foods poop more often (and bigger) than dogs on high quality foods.
 
#25 ·
If your dog is going so often that you cannot keep up with it maybe you need to feed a better food? Dogs on low quality foods poop more often (and bigger) than dogs on high quality foods.
I was wondering what you feed, as well. The lower quality the food, the more waste that's produced, because the dog can't process it (therefore going out the other end). If you feed a high quality food, you can feed less of it because it's more nutrient dense, and there's less waste product. Grain free foods tend to produce less waste product (Acana grain free, Orijen, Blue Buffalo Wilderness, Taste of the Wild are examples - there are others).

Back to the original question, you'll HAVE to take the dog out on leash to the specified area EVERY TIME he goes out, or he'll never learn to go consistently in that spot - PERIOD. A friend of mine did this with her boxer when he was a puppy for about a month, and now he always goes to that spot by himself. She's glad she did this, because now she has 2 small children and doesn't want them exposed to the poo, of course. I don't have time to do this either, so I just do poo patrol every evening when I get home from work. If I had small children, I'd pick it up immediately-no questions asked. I have two dogs and it really doesn't take much time if it's done consistently-maybe 5 minutes. Leaving lots of poo out in the yard is unhealthy, as another posted stated - yuk!
 
#21 ·
I have a puppy and I live alone in my apartment. At first, it was terrible. Imagine having ladmines in the kitchen and the bedroom? I work 10 hours a day and like you, had a difficulty. But then cleaning your dog's poop is part of being a responsible dog-owner. I give a little effort in doing the cleaning and trained her to do her thing in the bathroom or balcony. After about two weeks, she learned to poop after playing right after a meal. She cries when she needs to go and the bathroom door is closed. You've got two choices like what GreatDaneMom said. You clean her landmines everywhere OR train her to poop in one spot (still you need to clean it).

You can do it. Trust us. :)
 
#23 ·
OP ................

This is my favorite tool in the whole world ... you do not even have to bend! I carry it along side of me when I take the dogs out to their potty spot ... the woods. :) I immediately pick it up right after them ... or sometimes I wait until night time to clean when I water the garden and such. It is not healthy for animal or human to have that in the yard at all times. I have three dogs ... I would have a sea of poop if I waited! Lol! :)
 

Attachments

#24 ·
To be honest I think this dog is simply left there in the yard all day, I doubt there was any "house" in house training but lets say I'm wrong. A properly house trained dog doesn't crap all over the yard, it usually does it along the fence because it doesn't want to step into its own faeces. If there are "land mines" in the yard the dog definitely walks over them on regular basis.

Besides, if one can't bother to clean up one's yard at least once a week then one doesn't deserve a clean yard. And, I mean... if you don't even have time to be there when your dog "does it" how do you expect the dog to learn where to do it?
 
#26 ·
If you don't want to pick-up your dog's poop, get a couple of chickens. They LOVE to pick through dog's poop, especially when the chicks hatch. When we are in between hatchlings, we have to pick up a little poop.

However, we taught Bob and Sacha to go in one area- and in general our dogs pee/poop in that area, over and over and over. But it's always clean.
 
#28 ·
I don't understand why everyone is bashing on the OP, but I will say to the OP that if you aren't picking up after the dog, it stands to reason that she's going all over the yard. Lots of dogs don't like to get near dog poop, especially their own.
 
#32 ·
If the "whole yard is like a landmine field", it stands to reason that someone isn't picking up :p.

Bottom line: if you want to train a dog to use one section of the yard, you need to take the time to train this behavior. There is no magic for this kind of thing. You will need to clean this area frequently or the dog will go elsewhere. If you don't have time to train this behavior, a good way to prevent your yard from being a landmine field is to take 5 minutes every day after work to pick up that day's poop. Or just live with a stinky landmine yard. Those are really the only options.
 
#35 ·
Does the dog sleep in the house at night? This assumes she does....First thing in the morning, leash the dog and take her to the area you want her to use for potty. Give her a chance to pee and poop in the right area, praise and treat as soon as she poops where you want her to. No poop, no treat. Pick up the poop before you go back inside. Easiest thing to do is to keep poop bags or a scooper and a small lined trash can with a lid in the area so you can just toss the waste there each time. Take her back inside for breakfast, then just before you leave, take her back outside on leash for another chance to pee and poop. Praise and treat any poop. Do this routine every day, no fail. This gives the dog two chances to poop in the right area while you're watching and to get a reward for it. Lessens the chance she'll go later elsewhere in the yard. When you get home, leash walk the dog to the potty area again, same routine as the morning. And do another leash walk to the area just before bed.

Morning and evening walks will stimulate her to go to the bathroom on the walk - you pick it up and dispose of it properly. Lessens the amount of poop in your yard.

Even if you're leaving the dog out in the yard all day, if you follow the morning and evening routine, and praise and treat for poops in the right place, it should eventually train her to go where you want her to go. Worked with our dog when we had a fenced yard - eventually, she just trotted over to her potty area without being leashed or told where to go. It became a routine for her.

I personally hate poop all over the yard, so I can sympathize. We don't have a fence now, so our dog is leash walked to potty every time, either in her designated potty area in our yard or on her daily walks. Now if I can just get my neighbor's dog and cats and the local deer to stop pooping in my yard..... :)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top