Does your pup like to “hide” when they go to the bathroom? If so, set your potty area in the most secluded part of your yard. If your dog has a portion of the concrete patio/yard where they normally use the bathroom, build your potty area on top of it. Keep the slope and drainage capacity of the area in mind. If a patch of concrete is slanted towards your home, you may end up with urine streams leading towards your back door.
You don’t have to build a square-shaped potty area. In fact, if you’ve got a deep, but not particularly wide yard, this may be ideal. You can build a 4 by 8 ft (1. 2 by 2. 4 m) potty area, for example.
You can use a straight edge, like a spirit level or plank of wood, to mark straight lines if you’re drawing freehand. If you’re working by yourself, use small objects (like a can, or pot) to mark the four corners of your potty area and keep track of your dimensions.
For a simpler solution with a more industrial look, you can always stack cinderblocks instead of cutting wood boards. If you don’t want to use lumber, you can use rubber landscape edging. Get the firmer version of landscape edging since you can’t bury the softer stuff in grass with a concrete backyard. Any kind of wood should work for this so long as it’s weather or pressure treated. Just stay away from plywood—it tends to absorb moisture and erode very quickly.
Repeat this process for the remaining sides of your frame to create your box-shaped frame. Don’t worry about your frame being the world’s strongest, most reinforced frame of all-time. It’s not going to be holding so much weight that it’ll fall apart, and it’d be super easy to repair if it did.
It might look a little “meh” right now, but once you fill it in, it’ll look a lot better. You can also line the exterior of the frame with decorative rocks when you’re done to dress it up!
This popular landscape fabric from Colorful Hope should be more than enough. If you don’t have cracks in the concrete—or you’re simply not worried about weeds—go ahead and skip this step.
To determine how much pea gravel you need, multiply the length of the frame by the width to find the area. For pea gravel, 0. 5 cubic feet (0. 014 m3) will cover 6 square feet (0. 56 m2). For most potty areas, you should need two bags. You can find a wide range of pea gravel online, or pick some up from a gardening or building supply store.
You can totally skip this part if you’d like. It might mean the top soil you set down shifts around more often. It’s probably a good idea if you’ve got a bigger dog or a digging enthusiast, though. If you can’t find a peg board that fills out the frame, you can cut multiple pieces to fit your frame using a circular saw or jigsaw. Alternatively, you can buy smaller panels and lay them out next to one another.
Don’t worry about it looking pretty—it’s going to get covered up. You can line the edges with small, heavy stones if you’re worried about your dog digging down through the top soil and tearing up the fabric.
You can cut sod and artificial turf with a utility knife if you have any left over. There is special artificial grass designed specifically for this! MTBRO’s artificial dog grass is an especially popular brand if you want high-quality material. If your dog tends to prefer gravel or sand, lay that down instead of soil or turf. You can even do a “half and half” where 1/2 of the bed is soil and the other 1/2 is gravel or stone. If you go for fresh sod, water it as soon as you’re done laying it down to help it settle.
