Carpet Confussion

[Puppy Madness]

We have had Darcy for almost 6 weeks and she is a dream come true! She rarely has accidents in the house. Usually the only time she does is when it's raining and I'm in no hurry to go out myself. She has freedom (pretty much) of the main part of our house which is a foyer and living room with hardwood flooring and our kitchen which has linoleum. She goes and stands by our front door when she needs to go out and I have just hung a bell that she uses off and on. My question is, why is she peeing on my carpet? We have an area rug in our living room that she never uses. She can go out, pee and will come straight in and pee on the carpet if we let her in one of the bedrooms. Her first visit to my Mom's she peed outside and went straight in and peed on her area rug. I just don't get it. It's like it feels like grass and makes her have to go or something. Anyone else dealt with this? She's used to our area rug at home but any new rug or carpet, she instantly goes on as soon as her feet touch it. We will be visiting the in-laws soon and I'm afraid she'll use their rugs and carpet as her personal puppy pad....Eeeek! Thoughts?

[Lynne A]

Leslie - We had this issue early on when we brought Nutmeg upstairs to our carpeted bedrooms for the first time. Seems to me it was sort of a "marking" type behavior because it was new territory. She hasn't done it since the first week or so though. It also could be a nervousness due to something new or "strange."

[Brianna and Rhubarb]

Leslie, 

I am SO glad you posted this, because our 12 week old puppy does the exact same thing! She doesn't even sniff the carpets ... she just squats on them right away. We have the same set up as you, where we are keeping her on hardwood and tile flooring for easy clean up until she is older. 

What makes a carpet so fun to pee on, anyway? :) 

It seems like they are only housetrained for the part of the house that they live in, and that the rest of the house (including the carpets) still feels like the 'great outside world beyond the baby gate'. It will take a while for them to extrapolate that 'don't pee inside' means 'don't pee anywhere that there are 4 walls and a roof'. 

We are working on this by bringing her to new parts of our house for LIMITED periods of time, on a leash, to introduce her. Right now, we are working on 5 minutes of on-leash playtime , then back downstairs, or even back outside. It's working, but there's no way she can be trusted near a carpet off leash. 

She doesn't pee on the front door mat, or the mat in our kitchen, interestingly enough. 

interested in hearing people's thoughts on this. 

[Nikki Oskow]

We have the same thing!  Xander is 12 weeks and he generally pees on his pee pad in the kitchen or when we take him outside, but for some reason, he likes to pee on our area rug in the living room.  I thought it may be because it is a shag rug but it sounds like your rugs are not.  He has done it a handful of times.  When I see him do it, I tell him no!, pick him up and put him in the kitchen.  He of course wines at that point but I'm hoping he understands he's being punished.  Drives me crazy because I love the rug.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I don't know what it is about area rugs and carpets in general, but both Lucy and Oscar did the same thing. Like you, we've kept the carpeted areas cordoned off with gates and doors (and even an empty iron wine rack to keep the stairs off limits), but do use lots (and lots!) of machine washable area rugs on the hardwood floors. Our beautiful (and expensive!) Persian-type rugs are rolled up and stored away. They'll come back in a few months when we can trust Oscar 100%. He hasn't had any indoor accidents in months, but I'm still on the fence about trusting him with those rugs! How old is Darcy now? Until she's totally house trained you might want to keep her off ALL carpets. If she potty's on a washable area rug, be sure to use an enzyme cleaner (like OxyClean) with your regular laundry detergent to eliminate all traces of the scent. Ask your in-laws how you can help to puppy-proof their home to keep Darcy off their carpets (and expensive area rugs).

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

If you're traveling to your in-laws by car, you may want to take some of Darcy's familiar area rugs with you to use in place of the existing ones that may be currently in use. Just a thought.