A damn good idea or smoking grass?

I read in my ThinkingPets manual that it can take up to 8 months to house train your dog. (Groan!)

But I have heard a story about a breeder who trains his pups from day one on roll-out lawn.

It's cheap and disposable. So the breeder hands over a fully house trained pup to a very grateful owner. We don't have to spend months re-training our pup so it does not do its business on tiles, carpets, concrete, newspaper or even in its kennel. Apparently pups learn by recognising the feel of grass.

Jemma's breeder tried it on a small scale, creating grass litter trays for her puppies. But she said it was a hit and miss affair.
I have estimated that one metre of roll-out grass costs as much as one newspaper and is far more durable.
Jemma used the litter tray I made a couple of times.

I am using roll-out grass in the section of my garden that I have allocated to the dogs as their toilet area. It is a temporary solution as I will need to plant shade grass there in summer. This is not going to happen until the pups stop eating/digging/ destroying my garden. But in the meantime they have direct access to grass from the house. The roll-out lawn has lasted a surprisingly long time, at least a month. I am only now considering replacing a few sections.

I would be very interested to know if any breeder has used this idea to begin house training puppies. Roll out that grass idea!