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Not all breeders have access to, or choose to use, outdoor spaces. If you do not have any plans to use outdoor spaces with your puppies, you may disregard this section.

There are primarily two different outdoor spaces breeders may use.

A puppy safe and secure area, usually adjacent to the house.
A fenced yard that puppies may be taken to with supervision for outings.

Both of these can be helpful towards our toilet and later, house training, goals for our puppies.

First, we’ll discuss a puppy patio (a secure outdoor space, safe for puppies to have access to unattended).

If you have or wish to build a puppy safe area outside, it’s beneficial if this area can be adjacent to your weaning pen via an outside door. This will allow you, weather permitting, to give your puppies free access to go to and from their puppy patio. When this is the case, we can also divide our puppy patio into 3 zones as well.

A Toilet Zone: I place mine towards the back, to further allow the puppies to practice their habit of going away from their resting and play area, and in this case the house also, to void. I use synthetic grass or a strip of sod for the outdoor toilet area. I especially recommend a strip of sod, to help the puppies learn that voiding on grass is normal.
A Play Zone: I make my play zone in the middle.
A Resting Zone: I make a resting zone right by the back door to the house.

🧐The size and structure of your puppy patio will depend greatly on your individual house situation, yard, puppy size and hardiness, and etc. But here are some general guidelines.

Size: Make your puppy patio as large as finances and yard allow.
Permanence: If you are an infrequent breeder use temporary fencing, and other infrastructure you can easily remove when the puppies are gone. I used a variety of old x pen panels and gates, with T Posts to construct my first puppy yard.
Sanitation: A solid surface puppy yard is easier to sanitize, which may be a priority if you are concerned about pathogens being spread among puppies or remaining behind in the ground after your puppies have left.
Safety: While puppy patios have some inherent safety by being placed very close to our house, it’s always best to consider the safety of our puppies. Fence spacing should be small enough that a puppy cannot get it’s head through, either to be grabbed by something outside the fence, or to get stuck. Puppy fencing should be tall enough to keep other dogs out. Birds of prey are another risk; you can install a pergola or a pop up shade cover to discourage predatory birds, and placing poultry netting over the top, and securing it to your fence is extremely effective at deterring even the most aggressive predatory bird, as well as keeping out cats, raccoon, and even dogs from jumping into your puppy area.

Exercise Yard:

You may not have the inclination or set up to create a puppy patio, but if you have a securely fence back yard you can still use this area for exercising your puppies and creating some desirable house training habits (assuming this is safe).

In a relatively unsecured area always supervise puppies closely.

Be aware of pathogen transmission from the ground to your puppies and puppies feces to the ground.

Mark off an area where you will take the puppies for potty breaks after meals. Taking them to the same spot each time helps the puppies know to potty there.

Bring your treats with you, so you can positively reinforce each puppy with a treat right as it finishes voiding outside.

Procedure for using positive reinforcement to build good outdoor potty habits.

When outside with your puppies carry suitable high value treats.
When you observe a puppy relieving itself, walk over and feed that puppy a treat and then praise that puppy.
Continue observing and reinforcing every puppy you see relieving itself outside, do this each time you take your puppies outside for exercise.
Create a habit of taking puppies outside after as many meals as possible.

Caution: Be cautious taking puppies outdoors from dusk till after dawn. Birds of prey are most active from dusk through sunrise, avoid taking medium or small puppies outside during that time unless you have a secure puppy yard that is predator proof.

Caution: Be aware of local disease risk!

We will also not address in this course the various pros/cons of taking puppies outside. Use your own best judgment.

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