Not even the surprise attendance of a harmless-looking Yorkshire terrier could persuade a judge to exercise leniency on Tuesday in Canmore small claims court.

Provincial court Judge Les Grieve stood his ground when a former tenant pulled the male pooch, named Boo, from inside his coat and tried to claim innocence regarding his landlords’ badly soiled carpet. The proof, according to the evidence, had already trickled into the rug.

Grieve then awarded Cochrane landlords Bonnie White and Bryan Niles $19,182 in damages — more than half of it to replace the damaged carpet caused by the former tenants’ dogs repeatedly peeing on it. The carpet, he concluded, was so ruined that it had to be replaced.

Grieve ordered Sylvia Wilson, Lori Hersey and Michael Hersey to fork over $10,000 for the carpet, $1,800 for one month unpaid rent last April, $5,400 for another three months lost rent while the GlenEagles house was uninhabitable, and carpet cleaning costs and other repairs.