Our puppy was trained in a gravel yard in Key West, then brought to grass in Michigan. Our other dog (rescued at age 8) was trained on grass but does fine on stones, possibly because he saw the puppy (now 14) peeing in the stones.

Train your puppy on the stones. It will be so much more convenient for you. He will switch to grass easily. My results, anyway...

We also had ALL rock....
 

we replaced it with zoysia grass and love it...no issues w our dog anymore and its friendly for guests too.

My wife is a dog sitter and would never think to let a dog pee on rocks. My own opinion is that when it gets to be summer in 2 weeks or so it's going to be very hot on the rocks and hurt their paws but other people may tell you different. I would much rather prefer grass to rocks and I have to get a cut once in a while. Dogs also naturally like to walk explore the neighborhood and it's good for you and your health. I'm sure you've also heard they like to Mark the territory with pee. However if all else fails, they've invented puppy pads to put down on anything that have certain smells in them. Please remember to bring disposal bags when you walk the dogs to pick up the poop and I'm sorry neighbors but half the people own pets and the first five feet of most lawns is fair territory. I don't like the fact that some people don't want dogs on my lawns but let's face it the birds poop the squirrels poop the cats poop etc etc and I don't think that half an ounce of urine really does hurt in Lawns nor does anyone going to really look at a 1 in yellow spot as a defect in your character. I have some real nasty people where I live and I just try to avoid their lawn. Santa's not going to come to their home next year

Get a cat and don't worry about it.

Thanks to everyone who offered their suggestions for my concerns. Also, I am glad I was able to provide a few laughs!🤣

Thanks to everyone who offered their suggestions for my concerns. Also, I am glad I was able to provide a few laughs!🤣

There is quite a large informal group here in TV called 'The friends of the dog walkers.'
They allow dog walkers to use their front yards for dogs to empty on when out walking.
You can recognize the members, by the white crosses displayed in their yard.:icon_wink:

Our dogs are pretty smart retrievers and head for the shaded rocks. They're 14 and 8--no problems yet. I would never walk them during the day out on the street because of the heat on the flat road surface. And we don't walk on other people's grass, so the stones work fine for them between dawn and dusk.

My yard does not have grass and my 4 year old pup has no problem using it. It makes clean up easy as well and there are no brown spots from urine.

Go on Amazon and check out dog turf. Designed with layers for liquid to go through. Some even have trays to go with them.
Artificial turf a bit to thin.

Wonder what the neighbors thought about the early training examples?

On a serious note, I would imagine that a stone yard would be easier to clean after the D's BM. You could just hose it downward into the ground. When deposited on grass, most people would scoop it up in a plastic bag and put it into a garbage can - so that it does not burn the grass. That seems like more time and work and messy.

Santa is like the birds when he has to go. A special trap door toilet was installed custom-made for his sleigh.

1st place for comments today. Very spiritual humor!

In Florida we have grass so we just let the dog out back. Up north we have rock and grass and the dog will go on either at anytime.