[Caroline162]

Help

Porter is about five months old... he is housebroken UNLESS there is a rug or carpet around! When we close off the one room that's carpeted and keep our area rugs put away, he's perfectly housebroken. But if he gets into the carpeted room, or we put down a rug, he pees on them. I'm SO frustrated - we thought he was finally housebroken, because he hadn't had an accident in several weeks, so we paid over $100 to have our good living room professionally cleaned... well, he peed on it tonight. Before that, the only accidents he had were either on the rug in our bedroom or the carpeted room.

Suggestions?

 

[BoxMeIn21]

If he's still going in the house, then he's not housebroken. And at 5 months old I wouldn't expect him to be either...he can be well on his way and accident free, but most dogs don't even begin to put together the whole housebreaking idea until about 6 months old. What I would do in this situation is just back up in the potty training dept and make outside the BEST place to go...this means taking him on frequent potty trips (where you accompany him), employ some tasty treats to reward him for when he's successful outside and of course limit his opportunity to go potty indoors. Tethering him to you is a good way to limit his access. Most important, be consistent. Even when you think he's "got-it", keep up the routine and taper back the potty breaks just a little bit at a time.
Hope that makes sense...I'm a little tired.

 

[TooneyDogs]

Go back to the basics....no more unsupervised freedom especially around rugs/carpets. One thing you can do if you have an old carpet scrap or rug.....set him up so you can catch him using it. Interrupt him (sharp hand clap, stomping your foot on the floor, etc)while he's going and hustle him to the potty area. Huge praise for finishing in the right place.