Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi,

i have a 4 year old female beagle named penelope. i love her dearly and she is as sweet as can be, but lately, she is driving me bonkers! i recently moved into an apartment with no yard or balcony and i work and go to school. she does spend about 8 hours alone during the day, but i also walk her 3 times a day and take her to the dog park. we spend time playing together and she sleeps in my bed at night. so i cannot for the life of me figure out why she is pooping and peeing in my room! its happened a few times in a week and i am getting pretty frustrated.

i know she knows where and when to potty. in fact if we are out on a walk and i tell her to go potty, she will sniff around, find a suitable spot and go! i really need some advice on this, what can i do to keep this from happening? i have the baby gate set up to keep her in the kitchen for a few days anyways, because i cannot keep coming home to a mess everyday. but how can i get this to stop without locking her up all the time? i know she doesn`t like to be confined behind the gate, so i don`t want to do that everyday to her. does anyone have any insight on how to repotty train an adult dog, or is there some other issue i need to be considering, like shes not getting enough attention or, she is still a little stressed over the move? i dunno, just please help!

meagan

Have you completely removed the odor from previous accidents with some type of cleaner like Nature's Miracle? If not, she may just be going back to the same spot because it smells like the right spot. Can you shut the door to your bedroom while you're gone? If so that might keep her from making messes in the rest of the apartment.
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Kadee Sedtal
home of old lady Lucy (boxer/lab/garbage disposal), pretty girl Fancy (beagle), the rats- Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Pachebel, Fillmore, Norbert, and baby Franz, the mice- Vivaldi, Brahms, Schubert, Bartok, Rasputin, Johann, Chaminade, Dorothy, Glenda, and Em, and the *adorable* winter white dwarf hamster- Feather
"I wish I had a dollar for every time I spent a dollar, because then, yahoo! I'd have all my money back." -Jack Handey

yes, i can definitely close the door, but that doesn`t seem like it will solve the issue. anytime the door is left open, there is the potential for me to come home to another mess. i have shampooed the carpets already, but i have not used an enzyme cleaner. do you think she is unhappy here without a yard? or am i not walking her enough? it seems like she does it mostly on school days, which is odd because i am not gone a solid 8 hours like when i go to work. i come home inbetween my classes and hang out with her, and walk her and then go back to school. is this causing too much stress for her? me coming and going like that? we`ve only been here a month, so is it possible that she is still adjusting?

meagan

I personally think it's just because she used the bathroom in that spot once, and because of that she now thinks it's an acceptable spot. Try the enzyme cleaner, really get it into the carpet and make sure you get every single spot, and I bet that'll fix the problem. If a place smells like a potty spot, she'll think it is one. And with a beagle nose she can smell EVERYTHING!! If she's getting at least three or four potty walks per day, I doubt it's a problem of her actually having to go inside. Probably she just thinks now that that spot is acceptable.
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Kadee Sedtal
home of old lady Lucy (boxer/lab/garbage disposal), pretty girl Fancy (beagle), the rats- Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Pachebel, Fillmore, Norbert, and baby Franz, the mice- Vivaldi, Brahms, Schubert, Bartok, Rasputin, Johann, Chaminade, Dorothy, Glenda, and Em, and the *adorable* winter white dwarf hamster- Feather
"I wish I had a dollar for every time I spent a dollar, because then, yahoo! I'd have all my money back." -Jack Handey

i got an enzyme cleaner called bio kleen from whole foods and tried it out on my carpet last night...smelled like limes at first and this morning, there is no smell at all, so i assume that means the enzymes went to work and were all used up, hence no more smell--of any kind. hopefully this does the trick...

meagan