Getting a Puppy used to going on concrete

tulipi

Hi I'm moving to a new house soon and finally we'll have a small, safe courtyard area for my puppy to play outside and bathroom in. However there is a small issue.

Since I've had her we haven't had a garden and needed to put a leash on her and take her down to the river behind our place. She has taken a liking to only toileting on grassy areas or on leaves. In fact if she has to go on concrete she looks at you like it's the worst situation ever.

The new place we are probably going to take has a courtyard but it is concrete only. My boyfriend has suggested that we could get grass sods and put them down by one wall so that she's happy to go out there. However I'm not sure that's going to work. What do you think? Or will she just get used to going on concrete

kylith

Eventually she'll get used to going on concrete. However, some people like to have one spot where the dog toilets, so your partner's suggestion of having some sod in a box may be good. I wish I'd thought of it with my dogs, I wouldn't have to play hunt-the-poo all over the garden.

seamus

tulipi wrote: »

Since I've had her we haven't had a garden and needed to put a leash on her and take her down to the river behind our place. She has taken a liking to only toileting on grassy areas or on leaves. In fact if she has to go on concrete she looks at you like it's the worst situation ever.

Fairly standard. There are only flowerbeds immediately outside our house, and my dog has preferred gaps in the flowerbeds where she likes to go, rather than on the concrete (thankfully). Going on the concrete is not preferred. I'm guessing it's an evolutionary thing - peeing on solid ground allows the pee to run everywhere and leaves a more obvious footprint to be tracked by other animals.

In the snow you could see a lot of dogs being confused, there was pee and poo all over the footpaths, when there isn't usually.

A neighbour of mine leaves one of those thick straw "welcome" mats outside her house (away from her door! ) for her dog to pee on. It soaks up the pee and presumably gets "washed" by the rain.

Grass sods will work great, the only problem is that grass won't grow on them really, and it'll just be a section of muck at the side of the garden. A large cat's litterbox will work too.

tulipi

Thanks for the replies. I looked up and this seems pretty genius http://www.porchpotty.com/ but it's really expensive. I think I might try to create my own version and see how it goes.