6 Useful Tips for Effectively Potty Training Your Puppy #blacklight

Use Puppy Pads

I have never been a fan of puppy pads but they can be useful when potty training your puppy. If you notice that your puppy is consistently using the bathroom in the same spot, try putting a puppy pad down and teach them to go on it. As they figure out how to go on the puppy pad, slowly move it towards the back door. At this point, place the puppy pad outside the door so that they can tell you that they need to go outside.

Crate Train Your Puppy

Most people think that crate training is cruel but when I was working as a kennel tech the vet that I worked with told me that dogs actually enjoy having a den. Their den is their own space and it should be in a quite spot so that they are comfortable while they are in their crate. Not only is it their space, they also like to keep it clean especially if they have to sleep in their crate for a few hours. If you do put bedding in there, you should frequently change it so that they aren’t constantly laying in soiled bedding. Laying in soiled bedding for long periods of time defeats the purpose of crate training. When using the crate to potty train your puppy, make sure that you let them outside every 2 to 3 hours so that they can use the bathroom outside. You might have to carry them outside so they don’t have a chance to have an accident in the house the first few weeks. Don’t forget to let you puppy out of their crate so they can eat, get a drink of water, and some exercise. I usually let our puppy out of his crate when we can keep our eyes on him and catch him when he has an accident.

Clean Up All of Your Puppy’s Accidents

If your puppy has an accident in the house,  it is very important that you clean up their mess and make sure that you have removed any traces of urine. A puppy will typically continue to go in the same spot because they can smell their scent. Thankfully, we own a steam cleaner which makes clean up a breeze but if you don’t have one you will have to clean up your puppies urine mess using a mixture of 50% vinegar and 50% water. This will help remove the ammonia from your dogs urine and prevent bacteria growth which causes the awful smell. Make sure that you work the solution into the carpet fibers to penetrate the smell. If you have an old toothbrush, you can use this to help clean the carpet and work the mixture into the carpet fibers. Then grab a few paper towels and absorb as much of the liquid as you can. Once the spot is dried, sprinkle a small amount of baking soda on top of the spot. The baking soda will hep absorb any residual odor. Some other places suggest that you use peroxide and dish soap but using the vinegar/water and sprinkling baking soda on top is enough to get rid of the stain.

Can’t Find Where Your Puppy is Urinating In Your House – Get a Urine Detector Torch

If you have a sneaky puppy like mine, I highly suggest that you invest in a black light that is made to show urine stains on the carpet. I had a suspicion that my puppy was peeing all over my house and I couldn’t find where he was going at because the spots were no longer wet. I received an [amazon_link id=”B00E3OXGQY” target=”_blank”  rel=”nofollow”]Ultra Violet Blacklight and Urine Detector Torch[/amazon_link], so that I could confirm my suspicions. Sure enough my puppy was urinating all over my house and we were able to clean up all of his messes. The blacklight is designed to make the urine stain glow so that you can easily find it. The blacklight comes with batteries so that you can use it immediately, which is very convenient. We were able to find his urine stains fairly easily in dark places and had to wait to check the living room when it was a bit darker inside of the house. As you find the spots, you can either clean them up immediately or put a piece of paper over the spot to make it for later clean up.

I forgot to mention that if you haven’t fixed your puppy, now is a good time to do it. They tend to mark their territory and will continue to do so until you have them fixed.

Also, if your dog has regressed their might be a medical issue and you need to take your puppy to the vet to rule out any potential medical issues.

Disclosure: I received the mentioned product from Tomoson.com in order to facilitate the review of the mentioned product. All opinions are 100% my own and I would never recommend products that aren’t useful for my readers.