Dog won’t poop in our backyard

Hi there!

Our almost 2 year old Aussie/catahoula mix will not poop in our yard. We have about 8 acres, a lot woods with some trails. He had gotten into a habit of pooping near the weeds on the trails. for some reason he will really only poop next to something, an open yard just doesn’t do it for him. With snow on the ground it was fine, but now with ticks out we are trying our best to avoid weeds as much as possible. It was a battle to get him to poop when we first got him as he was a rescue, in the yard or on a trail. We worked on a lot of praise and redirection. He will go to the bathroom at parks normally with no issue also.

We tried to break this when we first got him and tried to get into the habit of getting him to go in our main yard but he would go almost 2 days not pooping. I feel bad as we had a good thing going for him but we have already found ticks on him.

Just looking for thoughts and suggestions to make this easier for him. We do plan on putting up a fence this year to give him a designated spot now that the weather is getting warmer, but in the meantime we need a temporarily solution.

Thanks!

Edit: it’s totally fine if we have to take him on walks on days we are home, but for convenience in the morning before we both go to work or to keep him on a schedule it is nice that he has a spot at home to poop. We don’t want ticks on us either and he will get them on him, regardless of tick medicine. We love talking him on walks down the road, but he won’t poop there either!