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Puppy only pees in yard

2K views 16 replies 12 participants last post by  germanshepowner 
#1 ·
At least he's not peeing (and pooping) in the house... but he will not go anywhere else. Not on walks, not at training - he holds it until he gets home. Anything I can do to convince him its OK to go elsewhere?
 
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#2 ·
Probably not. We have inadvertently taught that to a few of my dogs. Shadow was a bit displeased when we needed to move and she actually held it for a long time until necessity reared it's head.
He may just grow out of it. You could try teaching a go pee command.
 
#3 ·
You could try bringing a bit of dirt or grass that he has freshly peed on from home and place it where you want her to pee. Got that idea from another thread, it’s called seeding. My guy will pee anywhere but sometimes has a hard time finding a spot if the area is devoid of any pee or other animal scent. It doesn’t happen often but usually happens when I’m in a rush and had to stop for the pee break.
 
#12 ·
Rumo sprained his paw and "held it in" for 16+ hours! So, that be could quite a long walk if he was being stubborn about it...:)

But agreed, the command to go to the bathroom, seems to work well from what I've seen with friends' dogs! It will help your dog to realize that you are totally OK with her pottying someplace else - she probably thinks she is being a good girl by doing it only in that spot.
 
#5 ·
I have this same problem with my new puppy. He goes in our yard perfectly fine, front or back, but won’t go anywhere else. He’s not gone on any walks yet, as I think he doesn’t need them at his age, and we have tons of coyotes in my neighborhood, some of which have tested positive for parvo. At 11 weeks, he is not fully vaccinated.

That said, I do take him for some sort of trip outside the home everyday. We’ve been to Home Depot, Cabela’s, a skate park, our local grocery store, lots of places. He will not go anywhere other than my yard. Last time I took him out, we were gone from the house for two hours, and he held it the whole time. Another time we were gone for about an hour, and he peed in the car on the trip home. He’ll pee in the car, but not in the grass outside a store! What a goof.
 
#6 ·
My male wouldn’t either. I finally got tired of it and took him to the park without letting him pee first. We were there a long time and suddenly he lifted his leg, first time for that, too, and peed for what seemed like five minutes. He got lots of praise and attention. Now he will go anywhere. He marks, too, which of course he never did before either. When they mark, they pee more, because there are so many things out there to pee on.
 
#7 ·
I like this idea! We usually get him to pee before we go anywhere. Wolfgang used to pee everywhere. If Sasha peed, he'd have to go there too.

Marco has lifted his leg - but mostly doesn't. But he really needs to or one of these days he's going to pee all over his front paws.
 
#8 ·
Haha...sounds like my dog too (both my dogs). Sorry, looking back at it, I can laugh now. But back then I was so stressed about it. I trained him to go in one spot as a puppy as books tell you to do and for the longest time he didn't know how to go anywhere else. It just took time and him maturing. Once he gets into his adolescent stage and the hormones start kicking in and he feels the need to lift his leg and mark every single tree, you'll be fine. In fact, you'll probably get annoyed that he has to stop at every tree, pole, fire hydrant, stick, leaf, blade of grass....haha. Don't worry about it too much. He'll get over it. And in few months or so, you'll laugh at someone else like I am now. Cheers!
 
#9 ·
Both of my last 2 have had this. The first overcame it by necessity when we took off in the rv for the weekend. He waited a LOOONG time and then finally caved.

The other one was when he learned from his big brother to mark. Voila problem solved, peeing on everything is super fun and better still if it is new things you don't normally get to pee on!
 
#11 ·
Something different, but I actually teach my dogs to poop only in the yard. In the housetraining stage, they are commanded to "go poop" as they're about to squat, then are rewarded with walkies. They pick up the meaning very quickly. This way I can empty them out before a walk and don't have to walk around the neighborhood with a leash in one hand and a bag of #2 in the other.

Of course, this does little good with my mongrel boy who leaves his messages with poop after running out of pee. His record is 4 piles on one walk. :rolleyes2:
 
#15 ·
OMG!!!!!

Well we had success over the weekend! We were invited to a dinner party with Marco (totally different topic but overall he was very well behaved!!!) and he peed in their backyard and pooped out front! We were at the beach yesterday and he didn't pee until we got home but I do feel better knowing that when he's gotta go, he's gonna go!!!!!
 
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