Does anyone have any tips on how to teach dogs to differentiate between rugs and carpets in the house and their pee pee pad?
My goal is to train Mishka to use her pee pee pad inside, but also go to the bathroom outside when let out or when on walks. I know it can be done because my Mom's female Yorkie and her male toy Poodle are house-trained this way. She doesn't have rugs in her house (but she does have welcome mats) so she didn't really have this problem. But now her adult dogs do differentiate correctly somehow.
So far I have Mishka mostly trained to use her pee pee pad. When in a play pen, she will go to her pee pee pad to use the bathroom. Also, when I take her to visit my parents and put down a pee pee pad she will use it there. Mishka will go to the bathroom outside too. I think she's figured it out by now that when I say "go pee pee" I want her to use the bathroom.
We're trying to transition her to having more free roaming of the house. So far she has been in a play pen and under supervision when outside of her play pen. When we let her roam the house, it is a limited space (lots of doors closed) and we make sure she doesn't get into any trouble. We still have a few things we need to puppy-proof before we relax with the supervision a little.
When we do let her out like this, she tends to pee on the welcome mats and rugs. I make sure to remind her where her pee pee pad is, especially if it looks like she needs to pee. Today, I could tell she was looking for a place to squat. I called her over to me by the pad, said "go pee pee," and then she happily ran away and started looking for a place to pee again. Then I picked her up and put her on the pad and said "go pee pee." She reacted the same way, and squatted on my rug.
Do you think she's too excited to think clearly about where she's supposed to pee (since she doesn't run around the house regularly right now)? If I catch her peeing on the rug, what should I do? I don't want to do anything to give her wrong/conflicting messages.