Things have changed a lot since the last time I posted. We have moved to a new house and a new dog has entered our lives.
Belle has a history of marking the indoors of new houses, so that was a bit of a concern when we moved in to the new house. We had spent almost a year and a half remodeling it, so the idea of a dog mess wasn’t appealing (not that it ever is).
So I went online and did some research on how to prevent a dog from marking territory in a new home. The best advice I found involved walking the dog on a leash to check out all of the rooms in the new house and then immediately take her outside to pee.
The first time we brought her home, she was walked through the house and allowed to sniff things a bit, but never left to stand still for too long. I went through every corner of the house. Then we immediately went outside and sniffed the yard until she peed.
Then we put her out in the yard to get used to her new outdoor space. We brought her in later that day, took her through the rooms to sniff the corners, and then it was back outside to pee and then back in her outdoor pen.
We did this several times whenever we brought her in and we kept a close eye on her – and it worked! No messes, no accidents, and no bad dog smell in the house. I would definitely recommend this to anyone taking a dog into a new indoor environment.