An hour of walking, nothing. Back through the front door, straight out to the same corner of the lawn, and there it is.
This is common and it is rarely a problem in itself. It becomes one the first time you are out for a whole day, or in a car for 6 hours.
Why the garden and nowhere else
Toileting is a habit built on surface and smell. A dog housetrained onto one patch of grass learned that patch, not the general idea of outdoors.
It is also a fairly relaxed behaviour. A dog who is excited, watchful, or hurrying along a pavement is not in the state to squat and stay still for 30 seconds.
Arousal is the other half of it. Working below the level at which your dog cannot cope is the condition for anything new happening near a distraction, and this counts as new.
Most walks are too busy to allow it. A dog towed past 3 other dogs and a bin lorry has other things on their mind.
When it actually matters
A long day out, a flight, a ferry, or a drive where home is not available at hour 5.
Boarding, or a stay with family, where the surface and the routine both change at once.
A move to a flat with no garden, where every toilet trip is now a walk.
Any week your routine slips, so the gap between garden trips gets much longer than usual.
If none of those are coming, this is a preference rather than a problem. You are allowed to leave it alone.
Give the walk a toilet slot
Walk the first 10 minutes on a loose long line, on grass, with no talking and no other dogs nearby. Boring is the point.
Go out at the time your dog usually goes at home. For many dogs that is 15 to 30 minutes after a meal.
Stand still and let them circle. Sniffing in one place for 2 minutes is the behaviour you are waiting for, so do not shorten it.
Carry a used bag from the garden out with you once, and leave it open on the grass where you stop. Their own smell does a lot of the work.
When they go, pay 3 treats on the spot, then carry on the walk. Reward-based methods are what the veterinary behaviour guidance recommends, and this is the moment to use them.
The bit most owners get wrong
Going home is the thing your dog has been working toward all walk. If the walk ends the moment they go, you have paid the opposite of what you wanted.
So keep walking afterwards, every time, for at least 10 more minutes. The walk continuing is what makes going outdoors worth doing again tomorrow.
Do not hurry, scold, or stand over your dog while they try. Punishment-based approaches are associated with fear and avoidance, and a worried dog holds on longer rather than shorter.
Safety note
This is usually habit. It is not habit when your dog is straining without producing anything, going many times in small amounts, or passing blood or mucus. Call your veterinary practice the same day. The same applies to a dog who used to go on walks and has stopped, or who has passed nothing at all for 48 hours. Sudden behaviour change warrants a veterinary examination, and pain frequently presents as a change in behaviour rather than as obvious lameness. A dog who is restless, off their food, retching, or whose belly looks swollen or tight is a phone call now rather than tomorrow.
Behaviour change is built from management plus reinforcement together. The management is quiet grass at the right hour, and the reinforcement is 3 treats and a walk that carries on.
What to expect
Owners usually describe a week or two of nothing, then one success, then it becomes ordinary. The first one is the slow part, and it often happens somewhere inconvenient.
If the walk itself is the harder problem, the Assessment will sort which part to work on first. It is free, takes about 3 minutes, and asks for no email address.
Today's version, in one line: 10 quiet minutes on grass after breakfast, stand still, and keep walking once they have been.