madamekelly

Don't make the mistake of getting a puppy, that is not older than 10 weeks, for it's mother to have taught it where to go, and you should have no problems. I have wall to wall, two dogs, and two cats (and DH). If they want to live inside, they will NOT use my rugs. I have lived here 5 years with them, and no accidents.

Rose_P

Linoleum is nice for clean ups, but would be too slick for a dog to walk on easily. Ours run down a tiled hallway and skid into a rug several times a week.

If you do buy carpet, make sure it can tolerate a thorough dousing with hydrogen peroxide. If there is a pet mess (and some other kinds of messes), there's nothing more effective or cheaper for getting the stain and odor out. After you blot out as much urine as possible with a thick towel (forget paper towels unless the dog is tiny!), you need to pour on quite a bit of hydrogen peroxide in order to make sure it gets down into the pad. It breaks down organic matter, and will bleach out organic dyes, so no matter what the sales person says, test it where it won't show. Best thing is, it's non-toxic. I bless the day another dog owner told me about this.

Puppies are not going to be perfectly house trained for awhile, probably, and if all goes well he'll be old before you know it, and then you may be dealing with occasional or frequent mishaps again, as we are now with our 16-year-old basenji.

For quick training praise works much better than scolding, so make sure you can frequently stay with him outside and can tell him when he's being "good". Best wishes for your new fur baby. Post a picture when you get him, please.

suzette1954

You won't believe the hair my beagle leaves on everything. Some of my house is hardwood and the rest is carpet. the best thing I ever did was get one of the cyclone vacuums. I never knew how much hair could go into a vacuum!!

Grandma Peg

We just took our living room carpet out and so happy about that. Put in a laminate wood floor and love it. Have it in the kitchen already and it is just so much easier to get the hair up, plus the dog prints from the mud this time of year. Good luck with your dog, they are so much fun.

JudyBsquared

I'm looking at old emails but wanted to comment about the carpet vs hard floor subject. We're just now switching from carpet. I prefer carpet but we have an old dog who has accidents. So we really had no choice. I don't see caring for hard floor as easier, except for cleaning up urine accidents. Lots of work with carpet and you never get it all out. We'll see how bad the carpet is when it comes out on Tues. Also, we painted paneling some years ago and it looked 100% better. A great way to brighten a dark room. Your room is very nice. Enjoy!

rushdoggie

I prefer a room sized quality area rug over a finished floor myself, but a good room sized rug usually costs more than carpet, so its not really the most economic route!

Poo and vomit usually clean up eaily, pick it up (I like to cut a paper plate in half and use the two halves to "scoop" it up to avoid grinding it into the carpet), then use an enzyme cleaner or diluted vinegar to clean and they won't stain. Urine is tougher; the problem with dog urine accidents on carpet is they sink through to the pad and sometimes the floors, and if you have wall-to-wall its hard to get to all the mess and get it cleaned. If the dog smells it deep in the fibers (and they can smell way better than us) they might go there again. You need to use an enzyme cleaner that can actually change the chemical composition of urine to clean up urine and use enough that it soaks through to wherever the urine went. If you have a nice finished floor under the carpeting and it gets wet with urine it can get damaged, but a sealed subfloor would be just fine.

Pick a color of carpet that coordinates with your dog so his hair doesn't show real badly (I have dogs that shed white and had a carpet with a black and red design...bad idea - it looked hairy an hour after we vacuumed!), and not too light to avoid stains showing easily.

It helps if you get the right kind of carpet: polypropylene resists moisture and wears better than nylon. You can get a water resistant pad for underneath as well, ask where you buy the carpet. Wool is very sturdy and moisture resistant, but if it gets wet it will sometimes shrink or otherwise get misshapen, so if you do have to clean up a mess then you can't use a regular steam cleaner or soak it with enzyme cleaner - it will need professionally cleaned.

Keep your dog clean and brushed, and keep his feet tidy so he doesn't track in mud, and vacuum regularly and your carpet should be fine.

As far as picking a dog, small dogs *can* be harder to housetrain...probably because they move quicker and have smaller bladders so I think they need to pee more often than bigger dogs. Also, a small Chihuahua or Yorkie sized accident can get hidden and you not see it until later, so the behavior becomes learned...it is much harder to un-learn something than to learn it right in the first place. I have small dogs and big dogs and both were housetrained quickly, but I also was very vigilant and made sure they didn't have access to areas of the house where I couldn't see them. Its natural for a dog to seek a private and absorbent area to pee on...most dogs will go straight for the carpet vs. the hard floor because nature says "pee where it gets soaked up."

Good luck and post pictures of your new baby when you get him or her!