We rescued a dog a couple months ago and he only goes to the bathroom on walks. Never in our backyard which has artificial turf. He watches our older dog use the bathroom in the backyard and will even go up to her and smell it afterwards and he’s still not gotten the hint. He’d rather wait (hours even) to go potty outside on the grass instead.
He has peed once in the backyard when we first started fostering but then he later changed his mind and now refuses. When he was our foster dog, it was a quirk we assumed would be short lived until we could find him a forever home; but now that we’ve formally adopted him, I’d like to nip it in the bud. It makes me feel like we live in an apartment even though we have a house with a yard, having to take him out for a walk every time he needs to potty.
Any tips?
Things I’ve tried: – saying “go potty” when he urinates on our walks as a way to tie the command to the action I’d like him to do in the yard – taking him to the yard when I know he really needs to go potty, hoping he’ll do it there. I’ve Sat and waited with him for an hour and no luck – spent long afternoons in the backyard with him and our other dog, making it clear that this was where he should potty if he needed to go – trying to use treats to lure him onto the turf. He’s not super food motivated
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