# Smelly floors and potty training



## SPLAbby (Oct 11, 2014)

I had talked about problems potty training our Benjy some months ago. He was almost trained when we had him neutered, but then went untrained again after the surgery. 

He always goes when I take him out, which is often because my wife and I are retired and home a lot. And we take him almost everywhere so he is seldom left unattended.

The only place in the house he goes potty is the living room, which we seldom use. We had to rip up the carpet in just that one room because of the smell (it was old anyway). We decided to put down sheet vinyl that is wood look. It looks just like the vinyl laminate planks and even has texture. "Cross your fingers" he has not gone on the new floor yet. (We haven't found pee/poo in an alternate room yet.)

I realized he would keep going there as long as it smelled. The carpet cleaner recommended rolling the carpet back and cleaning the padding too. But that would be so expensive, we just decided to start over with the floor.

We were talking to a relative and discovered they had a similar experience. Their puppy (maybe 8 months old) was still untrained. But they ripped up their carpet and put down planks and the puppy quit going potty in the house. 

I have had several breeds of dogs over the years and Benjy has been the hardest one to break. But he is also the cutest!


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

different texture thats probably why . Don't put a mat or rug on it LOL


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## Cassandra (Dec 29, 2015)

One tip I learned over the years is that dogs will sometimes potty in rarely used rooms because they haven't learned those areas are "part of their house too" so it is useful in some cases to make sure that he actually does spend some time in that particular room with you when you are ready to expand his permitted areas. 

We enlarged Cassie's permitted areas room by room, and when we got to a rarely used formal dining room, I started reading the morning paper in there with her to make sure she had a chance to get used to that part of our/her house.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Cassandra said:


> One tip I learned over the years is that dogs will sometimes potty in rarely used rooms because they haven't learned those areas are "part of their house too" so it is useful in some cases to make sure that he actually does spend some time in that particular room with you when you are ready to expand his permitted areas.
> 
> We enlarged Cassie's permitted areas room by room, and when we got to a rarely used formal dining room, I started reading the morning paper in there with her to make sure she had a chance to get used to that part of our/her house.


I agree. As I've expanded the territory for each of mine, I've made sure to spend time playing with them in those rooms. I also toss handfuls of kibble around and "help" them search for them, so it is a joint activity.


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## CaroleG (Aug 13, 2016)

How old is he?


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

*texture/ area rugs*



davetgabby said:


> different texture thats probably why . Don't put a mat or rug on it LOL


That is totally our problem - and I don't know how to fix it! Perry is basically 100% potty trained in the house - as long as I don't put the area rugs back down on the floor. Then, no matter what, he'll pee on them. It can't be that they smell - he's the first dog that's been on them, and when he has peed on them they get thrown in the washing machine (I don't have the enzyme cleaner here but will bring some back with me in June).

Any ideas how I can fix this? It's not necessarily about keeping him tethered to me - he'll do it even if he's right beside me (last time on the bathmat in the bathroom while I was on the toilet so couldn't jump up immediately 0


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## SPLAbby (Oct 11, 2014)

CaroleG said:


> How old is he?


He is two.

Some people use pee pads to train puppies. Along that line, we can't use pee pads because it is quite a delight to him to get to shred them. Our current workaround is to buy carpet remnants (not throw rugs, but stiff carpet pieces that have been bound). Then we put a pee pad UNDER the carpet piece to protect the floor. We get the carpet pieces at a surplus or dollar store for generally $2 a piece. We dab up pee and pick up poo from it. When it starts to smell, we simply throw it away and put out a new one (along with a new pee pad).


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Probably not a good idea to teach a dog that it is OK to pee on carpet if you ever want them to be trustworthy in other people's houses...

Why not try a UgoDog or other pee pad tray to keep him from shredding the pads?


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

*carpet remnents*



krandall said:


> Probably not a good idea to teach a dog that it is OK to pee on carpet if you ever want them to be trustworthy in other people's houses...
> 
> Why not try a UgoDog or other pee pad tray to keep him from shredding the pads?


That was my thought too - wouldn't work for us because Perry needs to be able to travel to other places (including hotels) that have carpets. I just have no idea how to convince him that carpet does NOT equal good place to pee inside.

Karen - do you think that if we put a ugodog down he'd see that as the 'right' place instead of the carpet? I'd like to put the area rugs back down


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## SPLAbby (Oct 11, 2014)

Melissa Brill said:


> That was my thought too - wouldn't work for us because Perry needs to be able to travel to other places (including hotels) that have carpets. I just have no idea how to convince him that carpet does NOT equal good place to pee inside.
> 
> Karen - do you think that if we put a ugodog down he'd see that as the 'right' place instead of the carpet? I'd like to put the area rugs back down


I just looked at the ugodog site. I will show it to Sue. Thanks


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## SPLAbby (Oct 11, 2014)

Melissa Brill said:


> That was my thought too - wouldn't work for us because Perry needs to be able to travel to other places (including hotels) that have carpets. I just have no idea how to convince him that carpet does NOT equal good place to pee inside.
> 
> Karen - do you think that if we put a ugodog down he'd see that as the 'right' place instead of the carpet? I'd like to put the area rugs back down


I was also wondering if you have a tray at your house and he uses the tray, when he goes to another house WITHOUT a tray, what will he do?


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Melissa Brill said:


> That was my thought too - wouldn't work for us because Perry needs to be able to travel to other places (including hotels) that have carpets. I just have no idea how to convince him that carpet does NOT equal good place to pee inside.
> 
> Karen - do you think that if we put a ugodog down he'd see that as the 'right' place instead of the carpet? I'd like to put the area rugs back down


Not without training... There is no way for a dog to know that a UgoDog is a "right" place without training and practice.

But Perry is still very young, and with something that has become a habit, it can take a LONG time of not allowing the behavior to occur before they develop the new habit of NOT peeing on carpet. We had a problem with Pixel (who is 2 now) last summer when my son was staying with us with his Tree Walker Coonhound. The hound is completely inoffensive, but large (70 lbs). Pixel is afraid of him. So Pixel decided it wasn't safe to poop in the back yard because he "might" be out there. (though we were very careful not to really let that happen) As a result, she started pooping in our upstairs hall. I gated off the upstairs, so she just can't get up there unless we are with her to supervise. My son and his dog left in early Dec., and haven't been back. (well, Robbie has been, but not Chipper!) I still won't take a chance on Pixel being upstairs alone. Eventually, but I'm not ready to trust her yet. I'd rather keep her gated out than to take a chance of her making another mistake. For a long, LONG time.


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

*pee pad training*



SPLAbby said:


> I was also wondering if you have a tray at your house and he uses the tray, when he goes to another house WITHOUT a tray, what will he do?


In searching the internet to figure out what others have done with the pee on carpet but otherwise housetrained issued, I ran across a lot of posts that claimed (speculated?) that this can be a problem with a dog trained on a pee pad. So, am wondering if Perry was trained on a pad when he was at rescue (or with the breeder?) and now that a pad isn't around, the carpet is what he assumes is the pad.

Of course, I haven't found any evidence based articles on this - just anecdotal from people who have experienced something similar But, makes me wonder if this could be the downside of pee pad training?

I've never felt the need to do pee pad training - Perry has a phenomenal ability to hold it for extended periods of time - which is also what makes him peeing on carpet kind of annoying because I know he can hold it 8+ hours, so peeing on the carpet an hour or two after he was just out is not because of lack of control.

Anyway, carpets are up, and we'll keep looking at ways to deal with this. Maybe introduce one at a time for short periods to see if we can prevent it. Biggest worry is the hotel in late May - wish more hotels had less carpet


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## Marni (Apr 1, 2017)

Bengy is a beautiful one! Good luck!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

SPLAbby said:


> I was also wondering if you have a tray at your house and he uses the tray, when he goes to another house WITHOUT a tray, what will he do?


Well, its easy enough to bring a tray along if you are going to be staying at another house for an extended time. But if it's just a visit, I just make SURE everyone has potted before they go into the house. Then they re good for a few hours. If we are visiting another house, I do make sure to get them outside more often than I would at home, because I know that they don't know where to ask to go out. Also, in the midst of visiting, it's easy to overlook the dog's signals that it needs to go. When they were younger, I never let them go inside someone else's house either. I brought a crate along, and they were either in the crate or on a leash with me.

Honestly, I STILL do that unless I know the other person's house REALLY well. While I would no longer worry about them potting inappropriately, non-dog people (and some people WITH dogs!) just have too much stuff around that a dog can get in trouble with... chocolates on low tables, papers stacked on the floor, teach bins that aren't covered... you name it. I'd just rather they be where I can see them! 

Att my parent's house, however, they do have free reign. They are funny. They get there and run around, checking everywhere, then come back to sit with us as we visit.


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