my dog keeps pissing in this one particular area of our new home. help!!!
so those lighter spots you see on the carpet on the pathway leading up to our stairs are all spots where she’s peed. I work with dogs for a living, I am not at all under the impression that once a dog is potty trained, they are always potty trained. I am well aware dogs are more often than not potty trained to the specific house/space. so when we moved, I was expecting some accidents to happen. However we’ve been in the new home almost a month and she is still pissing ONLY in this particular space leading up to the stairs. I am almost positive she is marking there because a prior dog/animal peed there before we lived here, and she is marking her territory. The pee spots she leaves aren’t large usually, not like she actually had to piss and couldn’t hold it. The spots are small enough to lead me to believe she is simply marking, and this is a behavioral/territorial thing. The prior residents shampooed the carpet before they left, so I am unsure if renting a professional industrial shampooer/cleaner for the day and using it on the area would really make a difference or if it’s worth the money, especially if the smell from prior residents animals are years old and REALLY set in the carpet. Obviously we do not want to, nor do we have the money, to replace the carpet. I have thought about putting a rug in that area so she can’t smell the prior pee stains, and therefore isn’t inclined to pee there anymore, but a rug there would look so awkward and misplaced, it’s totally not the center of our living room. I have hung up bells for her to ring on the backyard door to let us know when she needs to go potty, which is what I’ve done in prior places so it should be familiar to her. I have set out potty pads by the back door and sprayed them with a “go potty here” spray, I have given her plenty of praise when she does ring the bells to go outside, and I have given her an appropriate spank and stern “NO” when she has peed. but it just keeps on happening. My fiancé is not nearly as patient as I am and it is leading to arguments between us. I am desperate for any GOOD advice or if anyone has gone through something similar and found a solution…PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!!!