Moving where puppy poos

barbiegirl

Hi guys,
I know I'm very lucky in that my puppy 12 weeks old pees and poos outside. She is an outside dog with access to downstairs house when we are there. She sleeps in her kennel outside in a fully walled garden and seems happy. She gets a 2km walk once a day at the moment which will move to twice a day when she's a bit bigger as the walk tires her out a lot.
Our only problem is that she poos in the grass, which can be quite hard to get up and can cause issues for nephews and nieces playing in it. Is there anyway I can change her to poo on the patio area, which is much easier to pick up and clean afterwards. Would moving her poo to the patio encourage this or does anyone have any other ideas?
Thanks

andreac

Ok firstly can i say that a 2km walk is far too much for a 3 month old pup, they should only be getting 5 mins per month of age per day, so that would be 15 mins in total. So no wonder little puppy is tired.

With the poo'ing, it might be hard enough to retrain where to go, as shes obv in a routine in going in a certain place at the mo, is there anyway you can section or block off the grass area so she has to go on the patio?
You just need to encourage her to go on the patio and reward her for doing so.
This might take a while but i would try with blocking off the grass area until she starts going where you want her to go.

peasant

Not the answer to your question, but

barbiegirl wrote: »

She gets a 2km walk once a day at the moment ... the walk tires her out a lot.

:eek:

2 km a day with a 12 week old pup !

Stop that nonsense immediately, you're doing actual damage here. The poor thing is only a baby, all its joints and bones are still soft and shouldn't be over-exerted. A bit of playing, training and running around in the back garden is more than enough excercise at that age.
That and and a lot of sleep.

messygirl

isnt 2 km like 1.2 miles? i could walk about 1.2 miles at an easy pace in about 15minutes, 20 minutes tops, which kinda fits in? it might be a bit much but its great for socialisation to help encounter different animals and people and noises, and playing is great but we used playtime for a lot of our dogs exercise needs (playing fetch and chasing) but he still loved his walks and we would carry him if he seemed tired.

barbiegirl

2km is around the block, it takes about 20 minutes. We stop when she wants to especially to sniff at things. When she comes in she still runs about but after 1/2 an hour calms down and behaves better.
She gets lots of playing about with, also remember that whilst she is a baby, she is going to be a big dog, a cross between a retriever or golden lab and a spaniel, so she needs plenty or exercise.
She meets loads of people and other dogs and I'm teaching her to sit rather than jump up on people when saying hello. We were told by the vet that for socialisation, she should meet up to 100 people before she hits 16 weeks. That more puppies and dogs are put down as a result of lack of socialisation than any of the diseases we've had her innoculated against.
She does also get carried when it's all just too much. :-) She runs along on her lead, tail wagging in the air, and half the time runs ahead of me trying to get me to go faster.
Believe me we want the best for this little lady.

messygirl

Sounds like ye are going to need a harness! our fella pulls and pulls and i know its our fault but the harness is a heaven send because there are a few of us who walk him so its great as a control, and stops us being dragged along! We have oe its not a thin string one but goes around their chest and straps him, by about 6 months he was stronger than us, 20 minutes sounds great, at least ye are walking him, she sounds like a lucky lady to be getting so much attention and to have people who care about her!

We were advised to tell the dog to sit if he started pulling and to just stop walking and then when he calms down to set off again, practisinig in the garden where she wont get distracted and then practising out on the road, but himself doesnt do anything unless something is in it for him, and he knows he is going to get walked anyway so why bother doing what we tell him?! One thing himself started doing that had me nearly crying was just lying flat and not moving because he wanted to go into the pub, one time he just lay down and i couldnt get him to move for TWENTY MINUTES!!!! then someone tried to pet him and he jumped up tail wagging! think he wants to try guinness! This started all of a sudden and made walking a pain, i dont know how to get him to stop it and treats dont really work well cos he falls back down after eating it! (if anyone wants to offer advice re this im all ears!!! )

andreac

Oh barbie thats fine. Its just that dogs need exercised restricted at a young age as it can do a lot of damage to joints and bones if they are exercised too much too young.

Yes she will need lots of exercise, but thats only when shes fully matured from about a year on if not more. Breeds like retrievers etc are only fully matured and finished growing when they are between 1 and 2 so you need to be very careful until then.

Socialisation is def very important from a young age, and the more she sees the better. Try bringing her to as many diff places as possible, this doesnt always have to involve walking, it could be a trip in the car too to the beach, park, shops, work, wherever you can.

tony231974

I have a patio and grass.The dog goes in the grass.Would rather that than making a mess on my good patio.

barbiegirl

tony231974 wrote: »

I have a patio and grass.The dog goes in the grass.Would rather that than making a mess on my good patio.

Each to their own, I just find it hard when the poo stick to the grass so it's not clean. On the patio it won't stick so much, at least that's my reasoning. :-) I wanted her so I'm on poo pick up duty :-)

On the walking, yes messy girl I was thinking only last night that a harness would be better.

And everyone else we'll keep an eye on the exercise, I'll check with her vet that the current walk is ok, and she does get brought to other places. Last weekend she had a whole weekend with 4 other dogs, between three houses, a multitude of kids and many adoring adults. She loved it but I think was secretly glad to get back to the lack of chaos in her own house.

This weekend we're planning on the puppy play park, I believe there is one around south dublin, plus his parents house with 3 kids on Sunday and back down to my mum's where the four dogs and six kids live on Monday.

andreac

Well thats brill, the more she gets to see and do while shes young is great and lots of contact with friendly doggies too so she enjoys doggie company and doesnt develop a fear or gets aggressive with other dogs.

Blueprint

If you put her on a really good quality dry food, she will have lovely firm poos and they won't stick to the grass! Believe me, it makes a huge difference!

barbiegirl

Blueprint wrote: »

If you put her on a really good quality dry food, she will have lovely firm poos and they won't stick to the grass! Believe me, it makes a huge difference!

Yep, we've her on a dry condensed food, but I think it's the rain. I come home and am greeted with many little poos, that have been rained upon. That food in general though is a god send. :-)

Blueprint

On the bright side, as she gets older she should only poo about twice a day...

barbiegirl

messygirl wrote: »

One thing himself started doing that had me nearly crying was just lying flat and not moving because he wanted to go into the pub, one time he just lay down and i couldnt get him to move for TWENTY MINUTES!!!! then someone tried to pet him and he jumped up tail wagging! think he wants to try guinness! This started all of a sudden and made walking a pain, i dont know how to get him to stop it and treats dont really work well cos he falls back down after eating it! (if anyone wants to offer advice re this im all ears!!! )

Can't offer advice just lots of laughs, and are you sure that someone else who walks him isn't sneaking in for a sneaky pint and packet of crisps when it's their turn ;-)

messygirl

haha you know i wouldnt be surprised!last time i took him for a walk he was lying down for about 15 minutes and som guy came over asking was he ok and he jumped up and wagging his tail and i was explaining to the guy that he always does that and nothing worked and he told me he worked with the rspca so is used to dogs! i nearly had a heart attack imagining going home minus the dog! another time a lady askd me if he was tired or needed water but again jumped up started nosing around.he does it to mortify me methinks

they have dog litter trays that would keep your pation and grass clean

http://www.doggysolutions.com/
its an added expense but it sounds pretty good! and it might get her used to going in the patio? nt sure though. pet stores are god sources of products that help with the training of dogs!

Sigma Force

I don't think it's fair to expect the pup to poop on the patio or in one area all the time, dogs generally don't like pooping in the one section esp. if there's still poop there.

How about a poop shovel, all I do with our pup is go around the garden once or twice a day scoop up his poop and fling it over the hedge into the side garden (which is a jungle) or you can just bung it down the loo or in a covered bucket and chuck the bucket contents out every evening or something like that.

Poops are pretty predictable with poops I find the wees can be easily missed but our little guy does a little poop dance before he needs to go (sometimes he gives us a fart warning lol) and usually he goes about 4 times a day (lost track through lack of sleep). Can imagine though your dogs poop is a good bit bigger but the shovel should work.

In this rain it's hard to scoop it up but if you can let the poop dry out it's easier.

Edited to add, that's a good tip from the vet about meeting 100 people before a certain age. Don't think I know that many lol. Btw how is your pup on the lead. Our guy turned 12 weeks on Tuesday and although he's improved I can only walk him around our field on the lead he doesn't follow me I just let him walk along and potter beside him.

He hasn't got the concept yet, he's going to puppy playschool tomorow so might learn what I'm doin wrong or perhaps he's just a bit slow on the uptake. Want to get him walking asap, his little pads are very soft so short walks at first.

barbiegirl

Guineapigrescue wrote: »

Edited to add, that's a good tip from the vet about meeting 100 people before a certain age. Don't think I know that many lol. Btw how is your pup on the lead. Our guy turned 12 weeks on Tuesday and although he's improved I can only walk him around our field on the lead he doesn't follow me I just let him walk along and potter beside him.

He hasn't got the concept yet, he's going to puppy playschool tomorow so might learn what I'm doin wrong or perhaps he's just a bit slow on the uptake. Want to get him walking asap, his little pads are very soft so short walks at first.

On the lead she's fine, though she does like to bite it and isn't mad about it. But she will walk grand. We don't pull her along, just when she sits call her by name and give little tugs so she gets the message to keep going. Then I keep the lead pretty slack and she just toddles along.

Sigma Force

Our little guy has improved a bit on the lead although taking him out in public is a pain not because of the people/traffic etc. he's fine with that but he is still at a stage where he's putting everything into his mouth. With the streets not that clean he's picking up all sorts constantly taking things out of his mouth to his annoyance lol.

Ah the joys of puppyship.