DIY- Dog potty patch- Fake grass

Last year we made a potty patch to housebreak our puppy Dixie. It was very helpful to have and Dixie was completely house trained before she was 8 months old. This potty patch method worked great, so we wanted to continue using a porch potty and make one with a different design. The potty patch we made last year worked okay, however the real grass became muddy and messy after a rainy day. All the materials were recycled and the potty patch only cost a few dollars to make.  If you don't live in rainy Seattle it might work great for you! Check out the tutorial here.

 

This time we spent a little more money 

 to made a porch potty with fake grass.

We made a tutorial to follow if you are interested in 

recreating one for your own dog.

-The basic concept-  

The main idea is to make an area for your dog to pee that drains well and can be cleaned easily.  In order for the pee to drain the plywood needs to sit at an angle in the box.  The box is made from dog eared fence boards, usually cheaper than 1"x6"s.  On top of the plywood is a section of Vinyl matting(bought by the foot at the hardware store).  Although anything water proof will do, we used a tarp on our last patch.  On top of that is the crate material (we used old bread crates).   The crate material is important.  With out it, the pee/rain will get stuck in the grass and make it constantly soggy.  Last is the fake grass.  We used K9 Grass.  You probably don't actually need "dog grass" but we were able to get some remnants for free. 

Making the porch potty you will need-

• Fake grass-

• Plywood cut to size

• 2 fence boards( to make sides of box)

• Vinyl matting

•  Plastic bread crates or fluorescent light cover

  you will also need-

•  Paint brush
• Stain/Varnish
• Screws and Bit
• Drill
• Saw
• Staple gun
• Box cutter
• Measuring tape

Step 1-Figure out how big your patch will be and cut your plywood to size.

Step 2 -Because the plywood will be at an angle within the box, the fence pieces on the sides will be shorter than the length of the plywood.  So for now cut two pieces of the fence board to the length of the high and low side of the plywood.

 Step 3- I screwed on little wood scraps to the fence boards to help keep the plywood in place before screwing things together.  

 

Step 4 -  Once your top and bottom fence boards are in place and your plywood is balancing on the wood pieces that you screwed to them, and you are satisfied with the angle of the plywood. Measure the distance between the outside of the top fence board and the outside of the bottom fence board and cut two fence board pieces to this size.

 

 Step 5-  You could at this point start screwing things together, but if you're going to put a stain or a varnish on the wood, it's nice to do this first.

Step 6- Once the varnish is dry, screw the top and the two side pieces onto the plywood.

Step 7- You need to cut 2 or 3 inches off of your bottom piece of fence board so that the pee can escape.  So measure the distance between the ground and the top of the low end of the plywood.  Now cut 1/4 inch more than that measurement off of the fence board and screw it on.  This way the pee has somewhere to drain out of.  

Step 8- The vinyl matting comes next.  Be sure to leave a little matting hanging out the bottom.

 

Step 9- Using a box cutter slice the corners so that they lay flat against the side of the box.

 

Step 10-  Use staple gun to attach the matting to the box.

Step 11-  You need some sort of crate like material to keep the grass up off of the matting.  We used old bread crates.  Using a sawz-all we trimmed them to the correct size.  

Step 12-  Lay your grass on top of everything.  

Step 13-  Let your dog investigate. If your dog doesn't seem to understand the box, you can place some leaves or pieces of grass on the fake stuff. It also helps to grab some leaves or grass from the park where dogs have peed before and place those on the porch potty. Your dog will not want to smell another dog and will want to cover up the smell with their own pee.

Note: You need to make sure that your dog's pee doesn't drain onto the neighbors patio or anywhere else inappropriate. To save our neighbors from getting peed on, we had to make a tray for the pee to drain into which we have to dump every few days.  We just cut the bottom out of a plastic tote, and it slides underneath the patch.  Last year we lived at a place where the pee could just drain into a planter and no one ever walked under it.
Please let us know if you have any questions about constructing your own porch potty.
Kym, Dustin, and Dixie