Picky or Smart?

When planning out the backyard we designed in a potty area for Sophie so that she didn’t kill all the new sod in the back. We had the landscapers fill in the large rectangular area on the right side of our garage with woodchips. Before:

And after:

We even purchased and installed this fancy dog door in the garage for her for direct access to the area.

In the two weeks that we tried training her to go in the woodchips I only succeeded once. It’s a good thing she is so cute.

So now we’ve resolved to walking her every time she needs to go outside, which she loves. So either she is really picky or just really smart and I’m that delusional dog owner that’s convinced she’s just that smart.