Okay, here is my take. We have a dog that just loves to pee over places where the previous owner's dog peed. We are in the process of changing all of our floors to wood laminate. They are regular old laminate. I would have liked to change it all to hardwood, but half the house was already done when we moved in. :( Oh well. Our pergo (the original kind) that was glued together works just great. If anything sits on it, we never get any bubbling spots. The newer pergo that snaps together lets the water underneath to sit (our humidifier dripped out one day). So, fyi there. I've found, however, that our dog won't pee on any of the wood. Just carpet. I don't know why that is. So, if you're going to do the whole laminate route. I don't know if your dog will do the same thing. But, you might find that your dog won't pee on your tile floor either. Might be a safe bet. Carpet is somewhat close in nature to grass. :) Our dog will go out of her way to find a rug to pee on rather than pee on the wood floor. You definitely need to kilz the whole area. Our floors (where the carpet is now gone) has been completely kilzed to cut lingering smells. I'd go with the laminate and have that glued together if possible. My mom redid her whole home (with laminate) and her dogs still pee all over. I swear to you. Every time I go over there, one of those dogs have peed somewhere before I got there and while I'm there. Every time. She has bubbling spots in a few areas. I've since found out that you can replace those spots and drop a new flooring part into it. But, who want's to do all that. At our home and at my mom's, we have baby gates. That seems to cut down on the peeing issue here, but not so much at my mom's. By nature, dogs are going to pee on softer surfaces as it mimics grass. They will always go back to the same places to pee, especially if there had been a previous dog there. Though we don't crate our dog, we do keep her in her dog bed with a gate in front of it. That dog bed is cushier than my bed. So, I don't feel too bad. Honestly, your dog is almost eight now. Unless you're on top of it and you're willing to crate her and watch her like a hawk, I don't think you're going to fix this. Your best bet is to replace that carpet with glued laminate or tile. Kilzing is a must, though. Do your best to watch her and just expect that you're going to be cleaning up pee probably forever. :( Sad to say, but it's most likely true. I'd expect though, that your dog will find something like a rug to pee on rather than your new floor. She is getting up in age too. She is already geriatric. I'd consider the tile to be a little too rough for her especially as her joints deteriorate. If it were me, I'd go with the glued laminate or even a wood look plank linoleum until you don't have to worry about it anymore... That's coming from someone who deals with smart and moronic dogs (which we have now). I worked for a vet's office for years and years during college and after. Backed out at the last minute on vet school and the whole bit. We saw this same problem with tons of dogs. Some dogs are just too stubborn/moronic to change and we are too soft heart-ed to really fix it. :)

I have a different cautionary note than other commenters. CAUTION IF YOU BUY A RUG WITH A DIRECTIONAL DESIGN I bought the Meridian Blue rug in 3x5 size. It fit my space as desired and went together as advertised. So far no issues with curling but I've not washed it yet, will do that this week for the first time. My problem is that the direction of the pattern on MY rug is opposite of the picture on their website. The longer I live with it the more I hate that it didn’t come the way I was expecting. I wrote to tell them what happened and the customer service response was “we appreciate your feedback”. That was it. No, ‘Let us correct our mistake’ or ‘please order another rug for your pad with our compliments”. This experience has really soured my opinion of this company. So if you’re planning on buying from this company be careful if your chosen design is directional in any way. - Otherwise, I like the rug so far .

I have a 3x5 Ruggable inside my backdoor, with a 10-month-old Collie/Pyrenees puppy who loves to chew on it and a 13-year-old Kuvasz who often "leaks" on it on his way out the door. During the year that I've had it, I've probably had to wash it at least two dozen times. I wash it in a front loader and then hang to dry. It looks great - colors are still vibrant and edges have not curled. The only thing I don't like about it is that it is a bit of a hassle to perfectly align the top with the underlayment, but that fact that they're separate layers is also why it's so easy to wash. Like the OP, my older dog has a hard time on my kitchen floor and I'm thinking of getting a 10' runner as well.

Thank you everyone (not sure how to TAG people here) for the suggestions. Red Ryder I adore the other options you’ve provided and glad to know others feel a fun rug is appropriate. I’ll likely start with the Ruggable zebra because I’ve been so curious over the years, that’ll get it out of my system, allowing me to consider these other beautiful options for other areas. Jan, the thought of ripping off the heavy chair rail never crossed my mind, but it is heavy! I feel it’s appropriate though maybe not necessary given ALL the wide mouldings in this house. We moved in about 4 years ago and still trying to make it my own. I don’t love the color of this hall (it is used in the body of the entire house) and have been thinking of fresh paint there. Three years ago we painted kitchen, living and dining room, - “SW Silver Strand” - although I used a SW color expert I think we didn’t quite hit the nail on the head. As you know, one thing leads to another and so careful selection of paint color in that area is important. Thanks again everyone, love all the help with ideas and your opinions! It gets me out of my box