The Imprinting Window

A puppy starts deciding what a toilet feels like in its very first weeks of life. Early on, its brain quietly files away the texture under its paws as the right place to go.

Raised on newspaper? Paper can keep feeling familiar. Raised on a wire-floored kennel? Open grass can feel wrong and a soft rug can feel safe.

This is why the rug habit runs so deep. You are not correcting a bad choice — you are overwriting an early template learned so early it became second nature. That takes patience, not anger, and it is absolutely changeable with steady practice.