Thank you for the explaination but you will get better response if you put in pictures of the yard. Im not really sure what the picture is that is attached.

@Red Berm - Attached a few photos to make it clear :)

Thank you for the advice. Our puppy is still learning. We take him out for regular walks and he even goes to doggy daycare to get enough exercise and interaction with other dogs. But we would still like to give him a comfortable play zone that does not mess with the rest of our yard where we have other plants. We live at a place that rains at least 8 months a year. It is not fun cleaning up muddy paws every time he goes out to relieve himself.

@chrysalids- your comments are total BS! My dogs spend 90% of their day with me, not alone, and they still manage to destroy my yard. They run and play and tear up the grass.

suedonim75 - Thank you! I am sure you feel my pain :)

Definitely! I've tried everything. I replanted grass, fenced it off, and let it get established. A year later its all tore up again. My dogs are buttholes, lol.

Dogs, some are just natural born yard wreckers. Our (200 lb & 125 lb) dogs have two excavation "pits" in the lawn that can be seen from space. They aren't fenced in (we have acreage), get two walks per day, and we are home all day.

chiflipper- I did actually get mine to stop excavating the yard by making them a "digging box". They still tear up the grass by running, but I no longer fear falling into a foxhole.

I have a small yard & dog - although she outgrew the digging phase long ago. Do you need all that grass? Personally, I'd add something: bushes, a small tree, more mulch, maybe those yard pebbles for some character. My dog is more interested in peeing on mulch/rocks than grass. After she's house-broken, walk her before you let you her out if you don't want her peeing on your grass... she's gotta go someplace.

If you just want to separate the grass/mulched area, maybe add some potted plants or big flower boxes?

Good luck & enjoy your new puppy :-)

.

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been there done that with our yellow lab as we went through 2 new lawns in the backyard plus sprinklers all the time having to be replaced. Also he killed all my fish, frogs and turtles in the pond. He died 3 years ago and we have slowly re-landscaped our backyard to our liking. He went through a large lawn in just a couple of months as he was digging constantly looking for gophers. No more dogs in my back yard and if I ever had another dog it would be a small lap type dog for inside the house.

suedonim75...A foxhole would be acceptable, you could put a VW Bug in these pits.

In the meantime, you can try teaching Doggie the command "leave it." Useful for all sorts of applications, even when he is simply focussing too much attention on something he's not allowed. As soon as he starts to dig a firm "leave it" can remove him from the activity. It could be all you need to do in order to put a stop to the behaviour. Or not. But it's still a useful command.

Try it with his food, favourite toy, etc in the middle of use, then say "ok here you go" and give it back. (food is the hardest for our Rottweiler in true rottie fashion) He'll learn that if he leaves whatever you ask him to, he can trust you to give it back when it's appropriate. And the hope is he will eventually come to realize that you *never* give back the grass!

Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions! Our puppy 3 months now. We are still training him to relieve himself in one spot and obey the leave command. In the meantime, we are starting to see yellow patches across the backyard. We want to give him a separate safe play area where he doesn't need to be under constant supervision. My puppy loves peeing on grass. We tried to train him to go on mulch, but he always runs back to his favorite grass spot.

We plan to enclose one section of the backyard for him. How we plan to enclose it is still up in the air. Some of the suggestions are a short wooden fence, chicken wire fence, trellis fence etc. Something with a gate. Something that doesn't completely obstruct the view from the "human" area of the backyard :) Our human side of the backyard is where we plan to have our flowering plants, bushes, veggies etc.

In the area, we either prefer all synthesis grass or a combination of synthetic grass and paved stones. This completely depends on the cost of the artificial turf.

Try watering the grass area where the dog has peed, immediately after to dilute the urine using a jug of water or a few squirts with the hose.

i might look at fencing materials used at the doggy daycare or talk to your vet to see if there are particular materials that work best with dogs for that type of a low fence. A picket fence would look nice, but might make the puppy feel more locked away visually.

I am going to take one last stab at this then I won't comment any more. If your goal is to stop your puppy from destroying your backyard and peeing indiscriminately, then this can be done, but you are going to have to work with him and it will take time, consistent training for maybe a couple months or even more.

Start by taking him for a walk so he can relieve himself, then you can take him in the backyard, but keep him on a leash. Play with him or let him play, but watch him like a hawk, whenever he goes to grab the lawn, say a firm "no" and pull him back firmly on the leash. You can also use food as lindsey (8a) suggested to reward him. After an hour or so (most puppies cannot hold it for much longer), take him for another walk so he can relieve himself, you can repeat the training/play session in the backyard or just take him back inside.

Until you have successfully corrected his behavior, never leave him unattended and off leash in the backyard even if it is in designated play area.

to tell the truth, i have owned at least 20 dogs in my adulthood, more if you go to childhood. except for a path along the fence, even in my smallest yard, i have never had other problems, my largest dog was 55 lbs. since it is a problem i would do the training above. food as a treat is never a requirement, dogs do what you want because they adore you, i learned to train prior to all this food stuff. i too believe they might be bored they play all day, maybe they are trying to entertain you so they get more attention. mine have all had less play time then that and not had those problems. to the one getting a small dog? I will say all but two of my pups were adult when i got them. One was the most amazing dog i have ever met, never chewed anything, never pottied in the house, passed the monkey test - just amazing. my latest pup, would lay under the computer chair when hubbie was on the computer, it is like a kitchen chair with a cross beam underneath. He nearly chewed through that cross support during teething. older dogs are normally a great solution for most of your problems.

Thank you all for the dog advice too. Our dog is still young. Just 3 months old. We just started taking him out for walks as he just recently finished all rounds of vaccination. He would usually go every hour in our yard itself as we did not think it was safe to take him out for walks. We have already started seeing yellow patches at certain places. We live in Oregon where it rains almost every day. So our grass is wet and muddy. Our dog is still getting used to the walking. But no dog enjoys walking in the cold rain. We have many problems along with the chewing.

1) Taking off clumps of grass

2) Grass dying because of pee

3) Muddy paws throughout the house.

He is still a puppy. Training is not overnight. He is still in the process of getting potty trained. But in the meantime, I don't think there is anything wrong with my intention of having a separate safe play area for him.

A friend of mine who had a houseful of dogs and fostered as well had a large area outside the back door that was covered with sand. Made it easier to clean up poops, drained well, and didn’t get muddy, though there might be a problem with sandy paws.

Please read everything you can on canine development. Yes, 3 months is still a puppy and you can expect juvenile behaviour for a few years. But training should begin with his Mom at birth and continue from the very moment he joins your family.

15 minutes of intense training work per day (can grow to twice per day as he gets bigger) will do wonders.

To be clear, I wasn't referring to food as reward. I was referring to his meals. When it's time to eat, ask him to sit. When he does, say "leave it" and set his bowl down. If he moves toward his bowl, say "leave it" and pick the bowl up, ask him to sit. Repeat until he sits nicely until you invite him to eat with whatever command you choose. "go get it", "ok boy", "it's yours", etc. Gesture to his bowl as you give that command so he understands. Halfway through his meal, give the "leave it" command again. He should immediately look away from the food. At that point you praise his obedience calmly, then tell him to sit, or tell him he can have is food. Whatever you want because you are the boss. If he doesn't look away, take the bowl as you say "leave it", get him to sit, repeat the whole process. I get my kids to do this too because I want the dogs to know that the Littles are dog bosses too.

If he snaps or growls when you take his food, you have a big problem. Get professional training for you and Dog together. You should consider that in any case.

we had a section of backyard at our last house that could NOT grow grass...so my husband installed an artificial turf putting green. Guess where our dogs new favorite potty spot was?! turns out it was the same turf at her doggy daycare..

If you plan on doing a run for your pup on one side, I highly suggest using the turf. It actually looked really nice, hoses down easy( and since you have lots of rain, may not even have to do that) and was pretty indestructible to our dog---who runs bare spots in grass, grabs and pulls up plants while playing/running. then whatever type of fencing you see fit to separate it. A mulch bed or row of plantings along the outside of the fence (on the human side of yard) would really help disguise the transition from real grass to turf. The turf also got rid of the muddy paw issue coming into the house, because it came right up to the steps on our deck.

Also, check with some landscaping pro's. My brother found some sort of chemical that helped with the yellow grass issue. He has a dane/boxer mix, so big pee's and huge yellowed circles in his new sod.

have patience during this time with your pup. he/she is still learning what's acceptable. lots of positive reinforcement training. I would not put a ton of money into the human side of yard until the dog run is installed and being used or the pup is better trained. best of luck on the training and potty training---its tough!

Give him his own area with one of these.

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