How do I deal with muddy dog paws ?

[MossLover]

Hi! Hoping to get some advice on dealing with the mud my three dogs keep tracking in the house… More specifically, the mud they track into our bedroom. (This might be a stupid question but I will honestly be relieved if the answer is simple!)

So, some info about the situation: We have a big, fenced in yard, and an automated, sliding dog door that opens when the dogs walk up to it. The door is located in what I call our “recreation room” in our lower level of the house, which lets out into the lower hallway. This room has hardwood flooring and is presently disgusting because I’ve been neglectful about cleaning it, but once done, it will probably need to be swept every other day at least in order to keep it clean (wouldn’t be so hard if there weren’t children’s toys strewn about constantly!) The lower hallway also has hardwood flooring.

Then there are the stairs, which I try to sweep while my DD is in the tub, because they unbelievably dirty and covered with dog hair (I’m talking like a full vacuum canister every time) and at the top directly to the right is the door to our bedroom, which is carpeted. they usually go directly from the dog yard, up the stairs, and into our bedroom.

Our dogs love to sleep on the bed and the couch in there, and I’ve been having to wash our bedsheets like every other day. I vacuum the floor and the couch regularly, but unless I run the carpet shampooer, the carpet always retains muddy footprints and general signs of foot traffic. Carpet shampoo is so expensive, and it takes forever!

I’ve tried to banish them from the bedroom, but they just sit outside the door all day and night whining, and it keeps us up. They also get vengeful and start peeing in the house and chewing things up.

Some things that I’ve thought of:

• Looking into special doormats that clean the dogs’ paws when they come back in (open to recommendations, hopefully ones that are easy to clean!)
• Ripping up the bedroom carpet and replacing with hardwood floors (DH will be upset but I plan to put down strategic decorative area rugs that will match the decor when I redo the room… though I’m not certain about being able to keep those clean either. Maybe they’d at least be washable?)
• Looking into pee-resistant plants to cover some of the muddy patches in the yard… and probably how to compensate for all the salts from the urine

Any advice? I’m dying here

Do you have an internal door to the "rec room"?
Ddog takes himself out as and when he pleases but is trained to wait at the internal door for us to wipe his paws before he comes in to any other room (assuming we're nearby. More than a 30sec wait and all bets are off and our sofa bears the brunt).

We line the walkway from the back to the internal door with towels and a bathmat to try to prevent mud coming in, which does help, and no signs of mud on the wood floors, but still evident on the sofa if he hasn't been wiped.

Dog hair - a good groom will help remove all the loose underlayer which is prime for shedding.

But ultimately, some dogs just come with high cleaning requirements! We purposely chose a short-haired breed because we wanted to avoid the constant hoovering but he didn't get the memo!

You can get absorbent mats for the door. Look on Amazon, I've got one but can't remember the name.

Shut the doors when they go outside so they can't walk mud all over the house and clean their paws.

Just ordered a 150 cm long, washable door mat for them. I think I will try out the groomers.

Thanks