Wooden sand pit as dog toilet? Good idea or bad idea?

Sunnyday

What about a pebbled area?

We have one and our last dog used it but i`ve been a bit lax and haven`t taught the new ones yet. You could put big pebbles around the edges so that they keep the smaller ones in place and they can easily be hosed down every now and again as the water will just drain through into the earth. Make sure the pebbles are round so that they are not sharp under the dogs paws and all should be well.

I used to hose ours down every couple of weeks and occasionally add a small amount of dettol to a watering can of water and sprinkle it over and leave it overnight and hose down in the morning.

Our lawn is a mess atm and when i`ve reseeded the bare areas i shall start to teach our girlie dog to use the pebbles.

HTH

SD

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

That is another great idea, if i could i would but my only prob is space - it's kind of give them the whole grass or create a different area.

The grass area is only 2.5m by 4.5m which is tiny - they'd need at least 1.5m by 1m to comfortably toilet which is a massive chunk out of what we have. Which is why i am am desperately trying to give them a new area, all the other areas are decked which means some sort of box would need to be built to protect the decking.

It's all a bit of a pain but i'm desperate to do something - leaving them to pee and poo in the grass is no good due to the lawn burn as we'll have to fix it before we leave the property anyway (which'll prob be in about a year).

It's tough stuff - i could walk them twice daily instead of once which'd sort the pooing, but it wouldn't fix the damage by the peeing as they go wee more than twice a day. It's the wees that actually do the most damage and that bothers me far more than the picking up poo

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

Or what about lining with pond liner and filling the box with bark chippings instead of sand? The type you fill flower beds with to prevent weeds? Would this need drain holes? I was thinking not as i'm not actually growing anything in there?

Sunnyday

The bark chippings will smell really bad when they get warm in the summer.

Whatever you end up doing it will need to allow for the liquid to drain away (and preferably be rinsed) and not collect. Imagine cleaning out a giant cat litter every few days :eek: if the pee collects it will be unhygienic and smell. Sorry i can`t think of anything else that will help.

SD

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

Hmmm true - its smelly enough when it's laid first too as we had it to border our grass area.

That's why i was thinking sand, becuase if it's deep enough, and i get there just after they do their business (as i do anyway) it'll be absorbed nicely into the small area of sand and i can remove it with a little shovel...hmmm i think there are prob pros and cons with every option. Arghhhh it's hard work! The one i will not accept though is ruining the grass so i have to come up with something...

Fire_Fox

There are products other than dog rocks:
http://www.vetuk.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5_71&zenid=c3e721fl0rga867e10ru7f8kd2

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

Thanks Fire Fox i'll deffinately give those a try - never knew there were tablet versions!!!! She takes calcium tablets ok so should be ok taking these too - she just didn't seem to like the idea of something in her water, lol!

EDIT: and even better is i have found them cheaper on ebay, which is a plus because i can pay with paypal funds yay!