Hi you lot!

Just a quick question. Are there any other people out there that keep their dog(s) outside and if so have you trained them to go to the toilet in a selected area? I know many dogs that are kept outside do have their own special place, useally away from their kennel but for some reason my two seem to 'plop' everywhere and anywhere!

So to try and combat the problem i have built them their own little (well a good sized) sandpit of which they will hopefully try and start useing, but the past two days has been a non starter!!

So i am wondering if anyone has been in a similar position and have used any training methods to get them to go in a specific area. I feel it is different from house training as becasue they are already outside i have no way of keeping track of them i.e praising them if they have done it in the right place or if they are about to go, to point them in the right direction! - Any ideas??

A quick question that has turned into a few paragraphs as usual!!

Many Thanks

Mark

We have two areas they are allowed to go in and if we shut one of the areas off they tend to go in more or less the same areas apart from Min who goes wherever she goes as she has colitis and often gets caught short. If however we let them into the other area as well they tend to spread it out !!

We do poo patrol at least twice a day as it is amazing how much poo they can produce !! It is quite good though as they very rarely poo when out on walks!

I am not sure about training them to go in certain areas as we have never had the need to do it !

Lucy

The only reliable method (unless you supervise each and every trip outside) is to partition off the part of the Garden they are to use.

I wouldn't expect a sandpit to work as they are not like cats that choose to bury their waste. Given a choice most dogs want to use grass, or if always kept on concrete a concrete or paved area.

My friends have recently increased the size of the area the dogs hafve access to, and all that has happened is they have more area to patrol on pick up duty.

I have the first 20 foot of the garden partioned off for the dogs, in which is a grass area that they most often use. so they probably use about half the available are to poo in, and each has a favourite spot to wee, but pooing seems to be more random.

Our labs always go in one area of the garden, when they were puppies they were always taken there to do their business and told go quick, now they go on their own with no problems, its furthest from the house so in the morning there is a mad rush to reach the top of the garden first.