I bought rubber non-slip flooring to put over the very slippy laminate in my sister's house to protect little puppy joints while I was staying there. It also meant I didn't have to worry about any damage to the floor - an added bonus. Every inside wee or poo was wiped up and treated diligently with Simple Solution. Luna has been a bit of a pain to toilet train so far. Not minding about toileting in or near her bed, sitting or even laying down in it after doing it, despite having plenty of room. It's not something that has overly bothered me, knowing that she'll get there in the end, but it's still rather tiresome. Anyway, when she went to stay with Auntie Julie for a few nights, she noticed that, when Luna pooed on the rubber flooring (same make as mine, but in a lighter colour), it stained immediately and nothing would clean the mark, which got us thinking that the flooring might be porous. Last night, after it took a bit of a beating from needle teeth, I took the rubber flooring up and today, we haven't had a single wee inside. I need to get something to go over the laminate in the pen, because it's very slippy, but I'll probably just use some pieces of vet bed. Of course, I'll find that it's just been a fluke and she'll start again in earnest tomorrow, but for now, I'm not feeling quite so bored by the whole thing! My sister yesterday, on the phone (I've moved out of her house now), was saying she should be toilet trained by now. Hmmm. Thanks for that.
Interesting! My poor newly-refinished softwood floors have taken a beating from the puppy plus my older dog, especially in front of the door. But any rug I put down got peed on repeatedly, so they're just, unfortunately, damaged. (They're ridiculously soft wood, spruce - dropping a thermos on them dents them, for example.) So, Bessie's my third lab mix. The first two trained quite quickly, within a month I want to say. Bessie? No. She really only got fully reliable a month or so ago - six months old! I know what I'm doing; I followed all the rules. She seems to need to pee very often and didn't seem to have a lot of ability to hold it - for example, a couple months ago she'd ring the doggie doorbells to go out, but by the time I'd get my boots on, she'd have gone on the floor. She has also peed in her crate. Anyway, I thought she'd never be housebroken, but it finally clicked. I guess it just varies a lot and I got a late learner! (She also pooped in the house far more often than either of the other two, who I think had maybe one poop accident each. She had a bunch. More than ten.) Hopefully the flooring was it, but if not, she'll get there eventually! Oh! I did have a bit of a flooring issue myself. I was using Nature's Miracle to clean the spots and it wasn't working. Switched to Simple Solution and it seemed to help; she wouldn't mark the same spot again, at least. I have gaps between the floorboards so I wonder if pee was staying in there, and not getting neutralized by the Nature's Miracle. Soaked them all in Simple Solution and that seemed to do the trick. I've read on reviews that Nature's Miracle isn't the same as it used to be - different, less effective formula.
I think Stanley was about 5 months until we could fully say he was toilet trained. I don't think he's had an accident since then (apart from the marking of the rug). I got some accident cleaner from pets at home - maybe it was that or maybe it just took him a while. Who knows? We had some snotty comments about how he should be trained within a week etc. Usually from people who didn't have dogs funnily enough. I read your blog on Luna as well, Fiona. Hope her little eyes are feeling better. I can't believe how people have these ridiculous ideas about choccys before. I'd never heard of it until I told someone at work I was getting a Labrador and they said "oh don't get a chocolate, they're untrainable because they're so stupid". I didn't really want to point out it was more likely someone else was a bit daft..
All the sympathy to you for your house-training struggles. My first boy also thought absolutely nothing of pooing/peeing and then rolling around in it like a little wacka-doodle. Funny thing, he was never a roller in other stuff - dead things or other yummy scents outdoors, for example. Just his own poo. Ugh. And it went on a long, long time...he was well over a year old before he caught a clue. Brogan, however, came to me at six weeks old, had one tiny wee in the house and then never had another accident again. And this was with my devil poodle regularly (and sneakily) marking the house. I have no idea how Brogan figured it out so quickly, but he did. And I have to say, I was a LOT more conscientious about training my first dog than Brogan. Fingers crossed that Luna keeps up her no wee streak and you've turned the corner with the non-slip flooring gone.
