Am I being cruel to the dogs or will they figure it out?

joejoem

Hey, I have two retrievers. I have just laid a new lawn, seeded. I have blocked off the lawn and have the dogs up on the concrete part, about 15sqm of it. The dogs have been thought not to piddle or poop up there but now they cant access the grass I can see them pacing the entrance to the lawn to go!

I let them into the front garden earlier but I want to leave them at it now so they know they can go up on the concrete until the lawn has grown somewhat. Should I just let them go over the lawn and accept the damage? I wont be here during the day to let them out the front!

joejoem

Am I being overly sensitive here? Noone have an opinion on it?

Beth

You can either retrain them to use the concrete if they go in a specific place. Use the same steps as toilet training - they piddle/poop on the conrete, reward them.

Or just accept that your lawn will not be a lawn.

RALL!

when we got one of our dogs(a rescue) she would only go on the concrete in our garden and we wanted her to go on the grass or stones. Everytime she went on the grass or stones we'd praise her verbally and sometimes give her a treat aswell(mostly just at first).
Within about 3/4 weeks she stopped going on the concrete:D

joejoem

thanks! Trying to get them to pee now!

MsFifers

Maybe you could cut some sod and lay it on the concrete and try to get them to go there?

Polonious

Smart dogs that you were able to train them not to "do" anything on the concrete in the first place, fair play. I've got two labradors myself and found that it was easier to have them go on the stones/concrete instead of the grass, because it's near impossible to clean it up off the grass properly!

What I did was squared off a pretty sizeable rectangle area with wood and filled it with bark (you can get bags of it at Woodies etc), and they learned to go there. Makes it real easy to clean up to as the bark dries it out. Might be worth considering even when your lawn has finished growing. It would be an easy solution for you to put in place now too with a couple of lengths of timber on your concrete area.

lostinnappies

when they gota go ... they gota go. They will aventually figure it out. But perhaps you could bring them to the front lawn or a nearby grassy bit once a day. Just so they dont get over worried about it.

Glowing

That's a great idea ... like a giant kitty-litter tray!

Polonious

Exactly!

joejoem

Polonious wrote: »

Smart dogs that you were able to train them not to "do" anything on the concrete in the first place, fair play. I've got two labradors myself and found that it was easier to have them go on the stones/concrete instead of the grass, because it's near impossible to clean it up off the grass properly!

What I did was squared off a pretty sizeable rectangle area with wood and filled it with bark (you can get bags of it at Woodies etc), and they learned to go there. Makes it real easy to clean up to as the bark dries it out. Might be worth considering even when your lawn has finished growing. It would be an easy solution for you to put in place now too with a couple of lengths of timber on your concrete area.

Thats a great idea, thanks! Yeah I am going to do that down the end of the garden, after all the work i'd hate to see it turn into a mine field! The older of my dogs finally caved and went on a mat I had left out. The younger one found a way over the partition I had built and did two on the grass! :rolleyes:

When I went out this morning the older dog stayed in the kennell with her head down in the "I did a bad thing" way! Treated her like royalty though, she will get over it! Felt so bad though....