Not wanting to work in the back yard.

This has me frustrated somewhat, which I am sure is not helping.

Mia does not want to leave my porch when I try to train with her in the back yard lately. I am trying to think back but she has always been a little more ho hum in the back yard compared to elsewhere but now she just says put on the porch, doesn't want to go on the grass. I have no idea why.

She works outside at the park and at class just fine. I was thinking it could be weather related since it's much hotter and humid lately but... she's zippier at agility class. I also thought maybe it's that the grass was a little wet in the mornings (we have been going out early because of the heat).

I carried her onto the grass once and she started wanting to play but then stopped midway through our last run and just froze there. I had thought before that she was looking kind of done but decided to try one more time (bad idea). Now I'm afraid I've broken her.

I've tried coaxing with treats and balls and nothing helps. I can't recall a bad experience in the yard either. We get back inside and she's totally normal and wanting to play ball.

One other thing was she kept trying to sit in her swimming pool, which makes me wonder if it isn't the heat at least somewhat.

Argh confusing dog.

Kim is like that. In her case it's because this area is for pottying NOT for working...mixing the two is gross gross gross.

Doesn't matter how perfectly the spot is picked up. Diva, lol.

I have wondered if that was the case. She works FINE in my dad's old back yard. But I've only ever worked with her outside the main potty fence.

It would just be nice not to have to take up my weaves every day and haul them to the park. But it's seeming to stress her trying to work the weaves in the yard. She will go to the porch and refuse to leave and start stress yawning if I try to coax her on the grass. But she will go on the grass if we are not working!

Baffling little dog.

Could she have gotten stung or something? I had a dog that REFUSED to go outside the back way because of that for months...

Traveler does this, I actually have a thread about it just like this one. Turned out to be the poop offended him

Well I'm glad it's not just my little weird dog. It is going to mean we'll have to travel to work our weaves because I need to work them a lot outside of class (my dogs don't get weaves at all).

She gets me to the point where I am worried about her being hurt/sick then we get inside and she's like 'WHEEEEEEE! LET'S PLAY!'



She will go through her tricks with enthusiasm on the porch. I am wondering if I can gradually get her to forget that the grass is icky?

Mia IS the dog that screams and cries whenever poop 'attacks' her butt or paw. About a month ago she stepped on poop in the yard and you;d have thought she'd been bitten by something. I thought she had been seriously injured because she was wailing so bad. Nope. Poop stuck to her paw.

Same here xD, mine dot want to train in the "potty yard" either. Take them out to the field though & it's like the heat is forgotten ... Silly dogs.

Maybe the poop paw incident has made her decide that she is officially done working in the potty area?

Would you want to try making a potty corner so the yard remains clean? I know that seems like a lot when it might not even be the poop that's causing it... But your yard would stay cleaner too! LOL.

Izzie is a diva too and thinks a potty place is no place for playing or training. I need to get a wagon to take our jumps and stuff to the park lol.

Well I've been working with a clicker and that is helping. She seems to get excited enough that she forgets that it's the potty yard. I also started her out with Summer, who doesn't care about the poop, and so she fed off of Summer's excitement and was playing some basic tricks in the yard. As long as Summer is out there, she's good to go. Kind of odd but they are very attached to each other so that makes me wonder if she was worrying about Summer for some reason? At any rate I'm going to work with the clicker so I can just get her back to playing in the yard with me.

My yard is TINY so there's not much room to make a potty yard. I can barely fit my weave poles in the yard as it is. I suppose pooper scoopering more often would be a good idea.

The issue just dawned on me that he problem is I've been bathing Mia outside in the yard often lately. Derp. I bet you she is worrying she's going to get a bath.

I remembered this thread from a while ago .

I run into the problem of demotivation in the backyard. At an indoor class? I get beautiful heeling and engagement. Outdoors at a quiet park..still get a moderate level of engagement. Indoors or outdoors at an event with loads of people? Lots of engagement, provided no one is actively bothering us.

Outside at home? HAH. It's PLAY TIME. No serious business. I can get engagement with toys a bit but it's like she's rushing everything to get me to shut up and throw a toy.

I think this may actually be a confidence thing. When we around lots of people & dogs she looks to me as a safety net, thereby engaging actually better because she is tuning into to where I am and what I'm doing. She's overly comfortable and confident in the yard.