I have a 12 week old female black lab named Sophie. She does awesome most of the time. Problem Ive had the last few days is, Ill take her outside to potty, sometimes also adding in a walk, which we already do 3x day. She will pee outside, come back in with me, sit and waych me do dishes or something for 10mins or less, then go to the same spot on our carpet and pee. I know shes still little and learning, but I do have small kids and its gross to have pee spots onymy carpet. She is in a wire crate when I cant watch her, but keeps going back to that same area. She doesnt poop inside. Is there something I can do to stop her from the pee issue? I take her outside every 20-30mins to potty and she goes 8 hours without messing in her crate at night.
It sounds as though the area hasn’t been cleaned with an enzymatic cleaner. If you clean it with bleach that makes the area smell like ammonia- which smells like pee to your dog. Their sense of smell is supremely heightened so if not cleaned properly they’ll keep going back to the same spot. An enzymatic cleaner is designed to break down the urine smell. I use Simple Solution- you clean up the pee. spray it on the area, leave it for 24/48 hours and then hoover it up. Should take the smell away.
Dogs are creatures of habit and, if you get the right habits happening, that will work in your favour. If you get the wrong habits snowballing, that will work against you. If the puppy pees in a particular wrong spot once, no problem. It happens twice, and you should start to get worried and be implementing things to prevent it. It happens three times, and you have a habit... I agree with @Emily Stevenson - you need firstly to thoroughly clean the carpet in that location. Just because it smells and looks clean to you, doesn't mean that it does, to a dog - with a dog's nose. It will smell like a toilet to the dog and that is only going to encourage the dog to toilet again in that spot. You can buy stuff from the pet store as Emily says. You can also sprinkle baking soda on the spot and rub it in a bit and then hoover it up after. It is really hard to house train a puppy with carpets or rugs down, for this reason - it is hard to clean up accidents to the point that they don't lead to future accidents. Consider whether you are allowing the puppy access to too much of the house, at too early an age, and whether you should restrict her to the kitchen with stair gates. Next, you really need to barricade off that location on the carpet somehow. Ideally move a piece of furniture over the spot, even if it looks weird. It might be a chair or a coffee table or even a dog bed - just put something over the accident location for a few weeks to break the habit.
