# Teaching my dog to go potty in our yard.



## GSDSunshine (Sep 7, 2009)

So, Dakota has issues with going potty in his own yard. He will only go on one of his two walks each day and he actually will go pee at night before we go to bed. This ends up being 3 times a day that he will go pee (not counting the multiple sprays during the walks). I still plan on continuing the walk, however if for some reason he can't be walked that morning I would like him to be able to urinate and defecate on command in his yard. I would like to train him to walk nicely on a leash (he does for the most part), but his walks now include sniffing everything, marking 10 different different mailboxes, 5 different bushes, one stop sign, a light post, and an attempt at the Christmas decorations on a neighbors yard. I try to keep him walking past at least half of those so he doesn't get in the habit of marking everything, but I worry he won't pee everything out. And while occasionally he will poop in our yard, usually he will only poop on one of three areas on our walk, one is the main spot and other are in case of emergency. Of course his main spot is a mile down the road. One time when he didn't go on his walk, and we had to leave with him to a friends house, we stopped at the lake "pit stop" and he went right away. We can't steal the grass from there. 

Anyways, if Koda could pee and poop in our yard, before our walk, then I could actually work on him heeling, and walking properly. We do NOT have a fenced in yard, which makes it a bit more difficult. 

I also tried on day when I had NOTHING to do, not talking him for a walk and just taking him out for 5 minutes every half hour until we got anything... we got pee, but no poop, We got all the way til 7 pm before the bf said I was torturing him and took him for a walk (of course he went as soon as he got to the lake side pit stop). 

So my challenge for you all is to give me a plan so that I can have a more enjoyable walk with the goober and have him doing his business in his own yard.

p.s. -> when he has the runs I feel so bad when I literally am unable to pick anything up after he goes. so we try to rub it in with the bag. If it was in our yard, we would have the hose at least.


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## marksteven (Aug 2, 2008)

I would leave him outside until he got the hint and then went. I then would reward him with a walk ONLY when he pottied.


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## dOg (Jan 23, 2006)

bring a turd home, put it where you want him to go...
let him out.

yeah, it's that easy!


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## BlackPuppy (Mar 29, 2007)

Sounds like he's saving it up for marking. Doerak even marked with his stools. 

Doerak peed in only one place in my yard, while Balto seems to need to 'mark' all of the agility equipment in the yard.


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## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

dOg's idea is a good one. Start with that. It's simple.

But next, we're going to teach your dog to potty on cue. 

Take Koda for his walks. DON'T let him mark all over the place. Walk in the middle of the street, if you must. When you get to the lake (or wherever you KNOW for certain that he will potty), let him go. Repeat whatever term you'd like to use for him to potty on cue ("Go Potty" is a common one. I've heard some people use "Hurry up" too). The entire time he's going, you repeat it over and over and over. When he's done, give him a tiny treat and walk back home. NO MARKING! Walk fast by any upright fixture or place he likes to mark. It will take him a couple days to realize he won't be able to mark. Don't worry, male dogs always hold a tiny bit back. He won't explode. 

Do this every time your dog eliminates -- peeing or pooping. No exceptions. Yes, you (and especially BF) will feel silly if other people pass by. Doesn't matter. Just do it. 

If Koda has the runs, repeat the phrase anyhow. Every time something is coming out his hind end, you're repeating your phrase then rewarding him (praise and a tiny treat) when he's done. 

After about a week of him pottying in spaces that you've selected (as opposed to marking), then you want to mix it up. Take him to other places where he's never gone before (but not necessarily in your yard yet). Stand in one spot and tell him to potty. Do NOT walk with him. That defeats the purpose of what we're trying to accomplish. Choose a place that you think he'd like (so if he likes to go on grass, choose grass, for example). He can sniff around in that area, but we're not walking. We're pottying. Wait there for him to go, even if it takes a while. He can circle around you, but that's it. You don't take even one step. 

If he doesn't go, walk back to the house. Don't let him mark. Try again 30-60 minutes later at the same area. When he potties on cue, reward him.

Do this for another week.

Finally, once your dog really does potty on cue (it may take less than 2 wks, may take more), you should be able to take him into your back yard and cue him to potty. At first, he may not go. Take him back in for 30-60 minutes, then take him back out.

The problem right now is that he has resistance to going in your back yard. Dogs like to keep the areas that they live in clean, and he probably sees your yard as part of the area that he "lives in." So we have to build in a way to override that resistance. Training a cue is a good override.

It IS possible to train a dog to potty on cue, and it works as well as running water and making a human need to pee. It's just as automatic. 

Plus, having a dog that potties on cue is REALLY handy.


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## GSDSunshine (Sep 7, 2009)

A few details. 
Should I be using two different commands? I use "go potty" when I have him him pee at night. Should I use something simple like "do the other one" or even "poopy time". I thought about getting creative, but I doubt the bf would follow my lead. I can't imagine him going anywhere talking to the dog and telling him to "build a cabin", or "release the demon". 

We might not be able to start with this idea right away, but very soon, this weekend even. I will keep you informed.


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## lovemybeast (Nov 23, 2009)

Personally we use Potty Outside or Potty now. Every time we took Tank out we said same thing and took him to same spot in yard. He was always on leash. Big praise when done. If he went on his own and we caught him we would say it while he was going and praise him. Every time we get ready for a walk we go outside and tell him to potty. Then we go on a walk. If he does not potty we don't go. Then we try again, go outside, say potty now. Now it is like clockwork.

We also feed him twice a day and always goes after each meal, sometimes he goes in the morning before the walk, after he eats breakfast and again after dinner. Maybe changing your feeding times might help.

I totally agree with 3K9Mom about the no allowing to mark while marking. Our first buddy loved to sniff when we walked. So we decided to give him time to sniff and time to walk. We would say Ok Sniff and let him go. Then we would say Heel and it was time to walk again. No marking or sniffing was allowed. Of course there were always those accidents where he would get a whiff of something and pee while walking. But he was kinda funny that way.

Good luck, you can do this.


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## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

One term should work for both. I've never known anyone that uses two phrases. If he pees and you're pretty certain he needs to poop (for example, if he ate a meal two hours ago), then just hang around a while longer. 

It may be that he'll pee then indicate to you that he really IS done, but as you start to walk back, he'll get really squirrelly. Stop stand in one spot (an area with grass, but nothing upright that he can mark on, if you can), and he may poop right there. But when I say "really squirrelly," I mean, he's tugging backward at his leash, whining and trying to STOP, not pulling over to a favorite marking spot. I'd allow that the first few times out, til he gets the hang of what we're trying to do. 

But Koda's an adult, right? (As opposed to a young puppy) He can hold his bowels long enough to go when you tell him to go (I mean, my 6 month old puppy can do that







, but we've been working on that for a long time. ). So after the first few times, I'd stop giving him latitude that way. What we want to do is make it so that he "goes" at places you designate. Ideally, we want him to "hold it" til he gets home. Of course, that depends how close to home you are. If you're far away, you need to let him relieve himself at a suitable location. But he's not pulling and dragging you. 

This way, you and your "goober"







can enjoy your walks more. No marking, no dragging, and you can start to work on heeling. 

I did think of one thing just now. Since Koda seems to be a dog that thinks of his front yard as part of his living space, I would be absolutely sure that I would pick up his poop immediately after he goes every single time (and yeah, BF has to too.) . The nice thing about FL is that you don't have to go out in snow, rain, and all of the terrible weather (well, not as much







) as the rest of us. It's easy to say, "I'll get that next time (or during half time, when my show is over, in the morning, etc)." But given how hard you're working to get Koda to eliminate in the yard, we don't want to give him any reason to stop going once he starts. 

My GSDs get weird if they're trotting through the yard and they see a pile that we somehow overlooked, for example, if their ball rolls too close to it. (I know some GSDs eat poop. Not boys!) I'd make it a point to keep your yard pristine.


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## cassadee7 (Nov 26, 2009)

This is interesting, because when I was a teen and clueless about ANY kind of dog training, I taught my GSD to potty on cue by accident. We'd go out in the yard, I'd get impatient at him sniffing around and I'd say "Hurry up!" and he'd pee. After awhile he would try to pee no matter where we were if I said "hurry up." It was pretty funny if I was actually talking to someone else and there is my dog whizzing away...

On marking... someone told me I should let my male dog mark on his walks to prevent him from marking in the house. He is not a GSD but he had a marking problem IN the house (now he is wearing Belly Bands). Do GSDs usually NOT mark in the house? Do they not have a need/drive to mark at all? Just wondering about repercussions on not letting them mark on their walk.


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## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

My males don't mark on walks (well, I stop once at the stop sign post that every single dog in the neighborhood marks, and I let them leave their calling card, but that's it) ... And NEVER in the house. 

I've dogs that definitely would have liked to mark more, but they didn't get an opportunity to do so. Walks are for walking. We kept moving. They had their opportunity at the stop sign and the grass at the park. That's it. If they needed to go again, we have a nice yard they can pee in. 

There is no correlation between marking outside and marking in the house. Well...I take that back. A dog that marks in the house is almost certainly a dog that marks outside as well. But male dogs do not automatically mark in the house. That's a management and training issue (with possibly leadership issues thrown in).


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