Hello,
Gosh, I'm certainly not posting alone with this common problem. Hoping someone might be able to suggest some ideas for us with our dog Harley...
Admittedly, we did not properly train our dog from the start with potty training habits when we got him a couple years ago. The biggest problem is that we live on the 3rd floor of our condo and both my wife and I work so we cannot keep an eye on him during the day time. We tried pads at first, but he would only move them out of the way and then eliminate on the carpet.
After we got sick of constantly smelling urine when we walked in the door, we replaced the carpets (and padding) and hoped for a fresh start. Harley was constantly either in his kennel, or blocked off in the living room where we could see him. We kept up this schedule for a month or so, and things were going great. We decided to give him a little more freedom by letting him stay in the bedroom with my wife while she was falling asleep, but only after we took him outside to go potty. I would come in later and put him in his crate for the night.
This morning I was walking to the bathroom and realized that there were four pee spots on the room where he used to go prior to the carpets being replaced. The only possible time he could've done this was during that hour or so at night. How could he possibly be needing to go there after having just been outside? We have tried every chemical we can find to clean the area of odor, but to no avail.
Some things I'm considering trying:
- Nature's Miracle No-Mark I hear has a high success rate
- I know he won't eliminate near his food or bedding, so placing the kennel in the offended area during the day to discourage him from going there.
Can anyone suggest other options? We don't want to have to give up our little guy, but we're running out of ideas and can't afford to replace our carpets every year
. I know he's capable of holding it as long as we keep up the schedule we've had...he just seems to not understand that the condo is off-limits for pottying. Unless we've blocked him off from his favorite spots inside, he won't tell us he needs to go.