Puppies bring so much joy to their owners and their families, but they also often require plenty of socialisation and training in order to develop and grow into disciplined, well-behaved adult dogs.
One persistent problem that many homeowners face is the prospect of dog urine in their back gardens, and aside from leaving behind a nasty odour their urine can also damage flowers and plants in your garden as well as being a chore to remove.
The bad news is that without adequate potty training, many puppy breeds will naturally urinate outdoors since, from their point of view, there’s nothing wrong with it. The good news is that owners can correct this behaviour and prevent them from urinating in the garden with a few simple methods.
Outdoor vs Indoor Puppy Urine
Perhaps you may think that having your puppy not urinating or defecating indoors is a good thing, especially on the floor, on carpets, or on your furniture. Likewise, urine and poop outdoors can be problematic; so where should your puppy be eliminating? That’s up to you, but what matters is that your puppy knows where the designated “bathroom” is inside or outside your home.
Choose Positive Reinforcement and Conditioning
Most puppies under nine weeks old simply don’t know where or when to eliminate, but older puppies ought to know better. No matter the case, it’s important that owners always prioritise positive reinforcement when socialising and training their puppy to eliminate properly.
The most common method is to reward them with a treat for good behaviour. This type of conditioning works well over time and the puppy will quickly learn that he is doing what he is supposed to.
Tough Love through Discipline
For just about all breeds, it’s important to establish yourself, the owner, as the dominant leader. Puppies become obedient to their owners and expect their owners to raise them with discipline. Discipline should never mean harsh punishment or violence!
If your puppy eliminated in an unwanted area, take him to the area and have him sniff it. A look of displeasure and a harsh tone can make it more clear that he is not eliminating where he ought to, and that he’s done something wrong, that he’s disobeyed his owner.
It’s also important to note that many puppies develop bad habits (including urinating in unwanted areas) when they undergo separation anxiety. Only a handful of breeds can tolerate long periods of isolation, such as many pastoral breeds, but most others will engage in naughty behaviour if left alone. Terriers and other small breeds are particularly needy of affection and love to dig up flower beds or chew furniture if they’re left alone even for a few hours.
Choose High-Quality Synthetic Turf
There are many advantages to synthetic turf over natural grass, particularly in drought-prone regions of Australia. One great advantage is that it’s ideal for pet owners due to the relative ease of maintaining and cleaning the turf on a routine basis.
Unfortunately, many synthetic turf products don’t really do an adequate job of wicking away the nasty odours of pet urine, however. That’s why K9 Grass® uses a specialised ZeoFill® infill instead of sand and P-Terminator Enzyme products to reduce the unpleasant odour of dog urine as well as provide superior performance for active and happy pups.
K9 Grass®
Choose K9 Grass® for high-quality synthetic turf designed and manufactured with pet owners in mind.