Cat litter is another contender for the best material for a doggy potty area for one simple reason: this is what it’s designed for. It’ll give you the best results for clumping and odor-eliminating products, so might be a good idea if your dog potty is near a door or window.
Although soil isn’t the best material for a dog potty area, it’s viable in a pinch. It’s absorbent and is easy to replace, although you can’t wash it clean in the same way as gravel.
If you’re concerned about the origin of the mulch or your dog’s desire to eat it, be safe and just avoid it completely.
Mulch can be a good option for a dog potty because it’s super absorbent, meaning it’s easy to dispose of the soiled material. However, a lot of the organic products used to make mulch can be toxic to dogs, so only buy mulch made from the following:
Sand is a good option for a dog potty if it’s built in a covered area. Plenty of dogs like digging in sand, so it can give them a bit more enjoyment than other materials. Also, it can trap liquids pretty well. On the flip side, though, rain will wash it away, hence why it should only be used in a covered area.
What should you put in a dog potty area?
You have a few options when it comes to ground covers for your potty area. We will go over the pros and cons of each.
Grass is the easiest and possibly the cheapest ground cover for a doggy potty area. But it does have a few drawbacks.
The most obvious one is the yellow pee marks that happen when the acid in your dog’s urine kills the grass in your dog’s favorite pee spot.
Now there are products that will neutralize the acid but that means regular maintenance.
In addition to the yellow spots you will need to re-seed the grass each season and mow regularly. Plus if the grass dies you might be left with a poopy mud puddle.
It will also be harder to train your pup to only go in the potty area and not on the rest of the lawn.
How to Make a Dog Potty Area
We started out by doing a lot of research online to find out what the best material would be to use, and pea gravel kept coming up as a great choice. Pea gravel consists of smooth, round pebbles that are comfortable for dogs to walk on. It also looks nice, is excellent for drainage (which is super important for a dog potty), and is reasonably priced.
To start, mark out your area for the dog potty. You can use different types of edging to define your space (and hold in your gravel). It could be as simple as using 2×6 boards, or you can use something more decorative. We chose to use some brown wood landscape edging that came in 3 ft. lengths. Depending on the type of edging you choose, you may have to dig a trench to partially bury your edging for stability.
Once you’ve defined your space, lay down some Weed Barrier Landscape Fabric
Next, put down a one-inch base layer of rock for improved drainage. In our yard, we already had rock landscaping in the area we wanted to put our dog potty. This saved us a lot of time because both the landscape fabric and first layer of rock were already there!
Now it’s time for the pea gravel! To calculate how much pea gravel you will need, first determine the area (length x width) of your space in square feet. Then multiply the area by 3 inches (the depth of the pea gravel) and divide by 12. This will give you the cubic feet that you need to buy in pea gravel. We purchased our pea gravel bags from Lowe’s. Since each bag holds 0.5 cu. ft. of pea gravel, we ended up needing 30 bags for our space!
Another option is to visit your local landscape rock supply company. They will likely have better prices on pea gravel, and offer delivery right to your home (for a price)! Overall, it may end up being a cheaper option than buying 20-30 bags from Lowe’s or Home Depot.
Once you dump your pea gravel bags in your defined dog potty area, use a stiff rake to spread out and smooth the pea gravel.
At this point, you may be done! Congratulations! Since we had a rock landscape, however, we wanted to add a little walking path from our patio to our dog potty area. We picked up some flagstone pieces for our local landscape rock supply company, and partially buried the stones to create a stable walkway.
So, there you have it! It’s easy to create an attractive and functional dog potty area in your yard. Now, let’s just hope our dog decides to use it. Let the puppy potty training begin!!
Once you have your dog potty area made, you’ll need a few supplies to keep things clean. Here are some of our favorites:
I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I LOVE this Pawler Pooper Scooper! It’s easy to use, holds lots of poop, and has a rake so you can filter out the pea gravel. This is the perfect pooper scooper for your dog potty area!
Once a week or so, you’ll want to hose down your dog potty area to keep it clean. Fair warning, when you get it wet, it will stink like crazy! But, once it dries again, it will be clean and won’t have any lingering smell.
When it comes to hoses, this Flexi Hose is my all-time favorite. It’s super lightweight, so it’s easy to move from place to place, if needed. And, the spray nozzle is just what you want for a nice wide stream to clean off your potty area pea gravel.
Top 5 Best Pooper Scoopers Review in 2022
Some exciting news! Tomorrow morning this little guy is coming home with us to be a part of our family! His name is Boomer. For our new house, and new landscaping, we decided to create a dedicated space in the yard for Boomer to relieve himself. A dog potty area! Want to know how to make a dog potty area? Let us show you!
Some of us (the kids) are very excited for Boomer to come home, while others (me and my hubby) are excited, but remember just how much work a puppy is.
Our first baby, Apollo the chocolate lab, lived to be almost 16. The one regret we had with him was that we didn’t train him to go potty in a dedicated space in the yard. Every time the kids wanted to go outside to play we would yell, “STOP! We need to pick up the dog poop first!”
Our hope is that by having a special place for Boomer to do his business, we can avoid lots of “business” on the grass. We will let you know if it works, but in the meantime, here is our finished dog potty area!