Quick surface aversion re-training needed (long).

[dogmelissa]

I'm at my wit's end. And I shouldn't be, but I don't know what to do, because I can't figure out how to make my dog pee where I want him to.

Story:
I've had my dog for about 1.5 yrs now and up until about 5 months ago, he wasn't fully housetrained. He was abused (kicked in the head) as a young dog, and as a result has brain damage. He is a slow-learner on some things, and some things he gets quickly. My vet has confirmed that he has brain damage--because of the extent of his injuries (please don't tell me that my training methods are to blame and that's why my dog doesn't get this). Moved into my current house Dec 2, 2005. I had been training him to ring a jingle-bell on a string beside the door when he needed to go out and up until we moved he was about 70% on that (ie he would often ring the bell, but sometimes he just went to the door and peed on the floor before I could cue him). When we moved here, my bf rigged up the jingle bell to a doorbell so that when he rings the bell, the doorbell also rings (so we can hear it anywhere in the house). Within a few weeks he was much better on that, and we haven't had any accidents in the house in about 3 months now.

Apologies for the lack of pictures, I took them, but I don't know how to get them off my bf's camera, so it will have to wait until he gets home.

Up until a week ago, the area that the dog was allowed out in to go potty was covered with 2-3" of the large red shale landscaping rocks (similar but bigger to the stuff in baseball diamonds) and there were also 3 concrete stepping stones (big & round) imbedded in the area. It's a fairly small area, but he is a small dog (Maltese X) so it was never an issue. He was almost always good about going down the steps (from the deck) onto this area, promptly doing what he needed to do and then coming back up. Most of the time he would pee on the shale and about 50% of the time he'd poo on the shale, the rest of the time (especially when it was wet or snowy) he'd poo on the stepping stones.
A week ago, we had paving stones installed in this area. They are 8"x8" stones, concrete paving stones. Now, he refuses to use this area as a potty! I've tried putting down puppy pads (I use them in the house when he's left alone during the day--he can't wait all day to pee--and he *always* pees on them if he has to), I've tried spraying the area with the "pee-place marker" spray that I have. I've tried sitting outside with him telling him "go pee" for a long time (20 minutes at 4am when normally I don't even go past the door). I've tried forcing him to be confined to the area indefinetly, knowing he has to go. Nothing. It's only been a week, yes, but he's already destroying my lawn. He poos on the grass and pees on my rose bush (which is struggling to survive without his "help"). He knows the commands "go pee" and "go poo" because I've used these everyday and once he figured out what I was saying, he always did *something* on those commands (he was combination treat & clicker trained with this). Now he sits when I tell him either of those commands. I'm frustrated and feeling guilty. He's been confined to the paving-stone area for 2 full hours now (since I got home) and I know he has to pee. Not sure about poo, but I know he has to pee cause he *always* goes pee when I come home, and cause I felt his bladder and it's very large. He's not the kind of dog to think that he needs to keep this area clean--he messes in his kennel if I don't wake up when he whines at night, and then lays in it (a symptom of his first year of life + abuse). If he poos during the day when he's home alone, he doesn't seem to notice or care if he walks through it, lays in it or even flings it into his food!

He is walked every morning for half an hour, and he does not have any medical conditions that would have caused this. The only thing I can come up with is surface aversion, but that doesn't make any sense, as he always hated walking/peeing/pooing on the shale and would always step on the stones unless he had no choice. This dog prefers to walk on the path/sidewalk next to me rather than on the grass beside the path, even if I'm walking on the grass! So why won't he potty on the stones?!?!?! And what can I do to "fix" this problem in a big huge hurry? I'm going mental right now, I'm frustrated, I'm angry (at him for having this sudden change of mental state and me for not being able to help him), feeling guilty cause he's so attached to me and I've left him in that area for over 2 hours, and I can't afford for him to wreck my lawn, rose bush, or anything else. So what do I do?

Please help. In a hurry.

Melissa