DIY Dog Potty

We have, what I think is, a huge yard. Its about an 1/8 of an acre and its ALL dirt. We had the option to finish it when we bought the house but we thought we could take it on and make it amazing ourselves. We didn't really account for the a few things though, like the fact that other projects were more appealing, landscape is expensive and the dirt would turn to mud in the rain/snow and the dogs would have nowhere to potty without tracking a huge mess through the house. We needed a solution to the dog issue quickly with all the rain we got this spring. Wiping their feet 20x a day got annoying quick. So, we bought this cheap fake grass carpet stuff from Lowes and used stakes to hold it in place as a makeshift grassy area.

We thought we were so smart. Turns out that this stuff is not good for urine. Who would've thought? Insert defeated face here. Really, I am so embarrassed that we ever did it, it looked terrible and smelled worse! We left it that way for a while because we really had no other solution until the rain let up and the ground dried. Then, summer came and the weeds got taller than me and we had to deal with that first #HOAproblems, then we went on vacation and then.... well, life. I'm out of excuses now though. It's November and my pups need a place to do their business that's functional AND pretty. After doing some research we found a tutorial online to create this cute little space.

source

[We followed the instructions almost exactly, the only thing we changed was that we only added 20 bags of  pea gravel instead of 24. We felt that the coverage was great with 20 and there was no need to add 4 more.]

First, Zack took one of the 2x6 and cut it in half [5ft] and nailed it all together in a box shape.

On the other 5ft side we notched out 2 holes for drainage. 

Then we laid down strips of this mesh [found in the screen section at Lowes] and wrapped it up around the sides and stapled it in

Next, we added 12 bags of river rock.

Another layer of screen went over the river rock. We didn't staple this one in, I laid it down and held it in place...

...while Zack poured a bag of the pea gravel on the corners to hold it in place.

Once the second layer of mesh was completely covering the river rock we poured the remaining pea gravel on top and used a rake to even it all out.

Easy peasy! Now the dogs have a place to do their business [that's not all over my yard!] that also doesn't require me to wash their paws off every time they come in.

It didn't take long for them to catch on at all. We just pointed to it and said our command "go potty" and when they went we praised them. Occasionally, they will try to leave the potty area and we just say firmly "no". We snap and point to the potty area and say the command again, "go potty." Works well for our pups.

In terms of placement, we chose to put it next to the porch so Salem and Soko don't have to run through any dirt during bad weather to get to it AND there's a spigot right on the house next to it which makes for easy rinse downs. Win win!

Eventually, the side of the house will be turned into a permanent dog run, but until we get around to grading it [its got a bit of a hill] this will do! It was a cheap [only $200 total] project that serves a functional purpose until we can do it the way we really want.