My Puppy, Abigail, is 10 weeks old. We have been housetraining since about the 5th day of her arrival at 7 weeks of age. I get up everymorning at the same time, we go outside and she understands to use it and does so right away. Then she eats, up until recently she would takes hrs to go after eating so I planned for that. She does well when outside and will go, but when inside and she has to go she will go on any carpeted area. I not upset about that, its' just that I think to her the rug is just as good as the grass. So, I not sure she understands she is SUPPOSE to go outside. I praise her right after she's done, for going outside and when she goes in the house if I catch her I give her a low and stern "NO" and sit her outside to finish. How do I get her to like outside over my rugs?

And trust me I like the rugs over my hardwood floors as they can be replaced.

Also, she stays in her crate without incident and sleeps through the night.

What I had to do was take my puppy out every half hour to hour and when you leave home put dog in kennel they will not pee or poop where they sleep and soon as you get home take puppy out again same thing over night soon as you get up take out

What we did with our dogs was put down newspaper (5 or 6 Sheets) by the door so if she needs to go she will go there then one day at a time take away 1 sheet of the paper until there is nothing left you will notice then that she will probably whine to get out the door after the papers are gone make sure you reward her every time she goes on the paper and the 1st few times she goes outside hope this helps :)

Sounds like because you have hardwood floors with carpet mats the dog is running on the hard floor then when she steps onto the mat it feels like grass under her feet, she wouldn't understand that its not grass, only that it feels similar.

Alanas suggestion was good and is definitely worth a shot as this will also train her to tell you when she needs to go outside aswel.

I can think of a few suggestions but having never faced this particular problem before they would only be ideas...


Leave a square of lawn in your yard longer than the rest and train your puppy to use that patch... short lawn would feel similar to carpet so this may help. (also makes it easier to not step on poop in your yard!)


Another suggestion would be to have a sandbox in your yard (similar to what a cat would use) and train her to that.