Accidents Happen When Potty Training Puppies

By Kelsey Garnett

When you're potty training puppies, its inevitable that there will be an accident at some point. After all your puppy is still learning and won't be perfect yet. When an accident does happen, here's what you need to know to clean up the mess.

Two of your most important tools when potty training puppies will be plenty of paper towels and a good enzymatic cleaner. An enzymatic cleaner is the only way to completely break up the smell of urine and poop, which is very important when potty training puppies. Your puppy's nose is a lot stronger than yours and he'll want to do his business wherever he can still pick up a scent from a previous visit. There are several enzymatic cleaners on the market and they all work well. Do not use ammonia! Ammonia has a very similar smell to urine and will only encourage your puppy to do his business where he can smell it. Ammonia will completely set you back when potty training puppies.

The most likely accident to happen when potty training puppies is urinating in the house. If your puppy urinates on carpet, take a loose bunch of paper towels and soak up as much as you can. Pat lightly and don't press or rub the urine into the carpet. This will only make the situation worse. You'll need to use several bunches of paper towels and repeat this process until you don't see any urine on the paper towels. Once that's done soak the carpet completely with the enzymatic cleaner. The easiest way to do this is with a spray bottle.

Again, take a wad of towels and soak up the enzymatic cleaner you just sprayed. This will pull out the cleaner and any urine you missed the first time. As soon as the towels aren't absorbing any more, spray the area one last time and let the enzymatic cleaner sit.

Potty training puppies doesn't just mean urine accidents in the house. If your puppy poops in the house, have newspapers and a flat "scoop" available. Use the scoop to slide under the poop and put it on the newspaper. Once again you need to spray the area with enzymatic cleaner and pat it dry with the paper towels. Repeat the process until the paper towels don't show any color. The final step as more enzymatic cleaner and letting it sit.

Once you've been successful potty training puppies, its a good idea to have your carpets professionally cleaned. Wait until your puppy is reliable about going outside before you do this since this will be a bit of an investment.

By following these tips for cleaning up messes when accidents happen, you'll be sure your puppy won't be able to find the spots where he made a mistake. This will mean you'll be much more successful with your potty training puppies efforts. Just make sure you have a lot of paper towels.

Kelsey Garnett is a life long dog lover who enjoys sharing what's she learned over the years. For more information on housetraining, please visit this site about potty training puppies.