"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
. 240.10...
"Rachael Nex" wrote in
:

So - I have a damp area outside my house which has two drains in it
and is subject to constant dog pee and washing down. This means that
apart from the dog wee on concrete smell (which I keep to a minimum by
washing down of course) there is a pervading odour of dampness. Not
good.


Is it just a 'damp' smell, or is it more 'drainy' ?


Just damp.

If the smell is noticeably unpleasant, could it be it's something living /
decaying in the wetness, like a sort of stale composty / stagnant kind of
smell?

I think I wash the drains down too often to suffer from much hanging around
in there really.


Jeyes Fluid is quite good on stale things - worth a try, (though you
might
just end up substituting the 'jeyes' smell for the dank one.)


That would be fine by me !

Do the dogs only wee in the garden, or would it be possible to encourage
them to wee more while out on walks by varying their routine to make sure
they get a walk about the times they particularly need to go?

They do get walks at all times (soon as I get up being one of the times) and
the elder one prefers to pee whilst out - but the younger one absolutely
will not wee (or poo) on walks. He is most odd. He's now eighteen months and
just won't do it. We have stayed out for *hours* to test him - he just gets
into the house and rushes to the backdoor to be let out for a wee. He's very
particular about going toilet in the areas he was taught to go as pup - and
he had got so used to going in the garden outside the back door by the time
he was ten weeks old that he sees walking areas as a no-go area for wees !
Ditto the grassed part of the garden. Most obedient he is - and now probably
pretty confused as mummy can't seem to make up her mind when she wants him
to pee as far as he's concerned.


Appreciate this possibility depends very much on your local area and
circumstances...

I take it that the garden isn't large, so there's no possibility of
rerouting the dogs to a more distant location - perhaps a shrubbery or
something? Shrubs can take dog wee much better than grass does.


We got a flower and veggie plot at the end of the garden that is fenced off
to stop the dogs eating the fruit and then a grassed area that I have only
just managed to get grass growing on again this year (then the concrete bit
next to the house). Up until this year it was a dust bowl as I had two adult
dogs (one now rehomed) who used to pee all over it. I stopped the adults
going on the grass when I got the pup and had to reseed the lawn. The
dustyness was making life in the garden pretty unpleasant and when it
rained - the mud, jeez, you can imagine three dogs covered in mud waiting by
the kitchen door...
There's not a large area of grass in proportion to the size of dogs though
;-)

I do encourage them to go up there now as the grass is much healthier as I
did it with hardy seed, but the younger one still thinks he's not allowed to
"go" up there (I guess it's because he wasn't around when they were allowed
to originally pee on the grass) ! This is ok when it is daylight as I can
march them straight up the steps (all eight of them - steps this is not dogs
!) to the grass but at night - well, my eyes are crap during the day and
even with a security light out there I am wary of traversing the stairs at
night.

Poor dogs are confused ! I'm wondering what it would take to turf the
concrete over or am I just on a loser there ?


Rachael