foster dog afraid of going outside

[rcr]

Our new foster was tied to a rope outside for the last 8 years (his entire life). He is a sweet guy, and doing amazingly well considering what he went though. His big issue is that he hates going outside. We let the dogs out to pee and sometimes hang out in the evenings, and in order to get outside, they have to go on the deck and down the deck stairs. He doesn't really mind (too much) going on the deck, but won't go down the stairs unless I nudge him down there. We have a gate at the top of the stairs, and so I close the gate because otherwise he will come back up and pee and poop on the deck. But he often sits on the top step just on the other side of the gate.

I imagine his fear is that he does not want to be left out there. I have tried making the outside fun (playing out there with our dog and DS, taking him on walks on the leash out back, etc...), but he does not seem to be improving. He also won't poop on the leash. He will mark (he was not neutered until I got him a few months ago), but won't really pee either.

A few times I have let him outside and put him on the other side of the gate, just for him to come inside and poop on the kitchen floor because he didn't go down on to the grass and didn't want to poop.

Any advice about how I can deal with this? He is a collie, so he is smart. He knows that he is not supposed to pee and poop in the house.

[Ramzubo]

As far as making him enjoy the outdoors, I can't think of anything besides treats and playing that you are already doing.

For bathroom breaks, is it the grass that's spooking him? If so maybe you could try mulch or something similar. We had a dog that would only poop in the mulch. Don't know why, but she would always leave the grass and go to the bushes to poop on the mulch. Maybe if it's the grass that is worrying him you could try putting down some other material, straw, mulch, even a rock bed is better than going in the house. Some type of material that tells him you need to go here, but that hopefully doesn't remind him of being tied up outside. Then maybe you could transition him to the grass later.