[lldiaz1]

I have a place in my room that is padded and he always goes there and gets a treat for it. But if my husband leaves the door to his room or bathroom open, he will go there, even though he has access to his regular place. He gets no treat for that and I admonish him, but he does it every chance he gets. He likes my husband... is he leaving him a special present or something?

[joypulv]

Dogs prefer to go in places they don't spend time in. I have a room and bath I have to close off too. And my dog is an outdoor dog! I've seen this with many dogs.

[LadySam]

Do you mind if I ask the reason for training him to use pads instead of having him "go" outdoors? I do understand that in some situations it may be a necessary evil, but generally not a good practice.
Quite simply, like Joy said, dogs prefer to keep their living space or den clean, perhaps you could move his normal area to a laundry room or extra bath that he doesn't spend time in.

[Lucky098]

Gross... you have your dog going to the bathroom in your room?

Using potty pads doesn't house train a dog. In fact, it makes the dog very confused because it can go potty on that piece of carpet, and not the other piece of carpet. Yes potty pads are scented... but no matter how absorbent the package claims, the scent leaks through into your carpet. So now your dog is associated carpet as potty grounds.

What I would suggest, and others have too, is to move the potty area somewhere else. If you can afford it and have room, purchase the potty pod. It's a grass simulated potty pad. You can get them in good sizes and they would great for apartment dwellers. They also make doggie litter boxes with litter... it may work better for your situation than potty pads.

The ideal situation would be to properly house train your dog and have him go outside. There are people who live in apartments who have house trained dogs... It takes effort on the owners to make sure they are taking the dog out regularly. And yes, that may mean having to run down flights of stairs for a couple of months. Lazy pet owners do the potty pad thing ;)

As for your dog pooping in your husbands area... dogs are dogs. They do strange things. Some may say the dog is asserting his dominance over your husband, others will say the dog is trying to say he is unhappy. Me? I think your dog is just being naughty and is going back to places that he's already went potty due to the smell being there.

I hope when you are correcting him you are not doing the old school tricks of rubbing his nose in the area or swatting him with a news paper. Studies have shown that those methods are not effective and will actually push your dog further away from you and you'll be finding more and more potty spots.

Go to petsmart/petco.. wherever... purchase Nature's Miracle (Or an enzyme based cleaner) and SOAK the area. Let it dry over the next couple of days and than soak that area again with water. That should soak into the carpet padding and help get rid of the smell of urine/feces. After that, then try to reintroduce your dog to your method of house training.