Potty-trained dog regressing in new apartment

Factual Questions
1

My dog was a perfectly-paper-trained dog in my old apartment. She’d seek out the pads and always pee and poop on them and have no problem.

Fast forward to a week or so ago when we moved into a new, carpeted apartment. We know the previous owner had a dog due to long black hairs found in the corners. Ever since then, my dog has been taking an almost nightly dump in one of the bedrooms we haven’t really used/been in yet.

What can we do to stop this? She does it at night so we can’t catch her in the middle of it and correct her. I also don’t want to have to close the bedroom door to prevent her from going in there because that seems like its avoiding the problem rather than addressing it. Any ideas?

2

Restricting her access is the only thing that’s going to work if she is loose at night. Close the bedroom door! And treat the area she is using with Nature’s Miracle a few times to get out any lingering odors. Later on try leaving the door open to see if it’s still a problem.

If she starts shitting other places when the door is close, you’ll know you have a bigger problem than overmarking…

3

Yup.

First get her used to thinking of a limited portion of the new home as her “den”. Then allow limited access to broader unit, including the problem area, under constant supervision only. SLOWLY liberalize access.