I have a Florida room that I keep my 4 (don't ask) little dogs in at night. The floor is tile and I have to mop the floor every day. What is the best way to mop this floor that will neutralize the smell?
The best way to teach them where you want them to go is to put some of the waste material in the area you want and then patiently train them until they understand what you want. I also have small dogs. It can take quite awhile, once they have learned bad habits.
The scent is what they are responding to. Dogs will tend to go where the scent indicates they have gone before. If you pick up or mop up some of the mess with paper towels and then place them outside where they should be going, it will be a good start. Show it to them right away, and remind them buy taking them out to that spot whenever you catch them going indoors. Be patient. It may seem it will never work, but in my experience they are very cooperative once they "get it." Also, find the strongest odor remover you can find and use it every day indoors. If that doesn't seem to be doing it, try a very strong odor that the dogs will not appreciate, such as vinegar or ammonia.
The second part of the training is to make sure you praise and reward them when they do what you want, and make absolutely certain that you do not do anything they might think of as a reward when they do what you do not want them to do. My dogs get a treat every night when I put them to bed. I make absolutely certain that they do not get this treat anytime within 15 minutes of the time I have to clean up any mess on the floor. I also give it to them immediately after I get the soiled puppy pad up and put a new one down. They are getting the idea.
It is a very bad idea to withhold food and (especially) water for training purposes.
Denise
I agree with the cage at night. It's not mean. I had a Great Dane who preferred her kennel. She would voluntarily go in to take naps. It was her special place that she could have all to herself. I agree that they are going because they smell that they've gone there before. You will have to try to get that smell out and probably seal the grout or something. And as long as they're in a room temperature area, I don't think they would have a problem with not having their food and water out at night.
The grout on your tile floors is where the residual smell remains. If you were able to totally clean it, you could, in theory, seal your grout and then the smell would be gone.
I know nothing about training dogs, but I'm assume you'll have to do both.
It sounds like this has been occuring for quite awhile, and I doubt there is a way to entirely remove the smell from the grout. The best solution is to remove the grout and re-grout the room.
I have five pitbulls a pug and two chihuahuas in my house I have no children so they are my babies. I had some trouble at my old house but there is stuff that you can buy on the t.v. called urine be gone. IT WORKS GREAT since I have moved I have made it a rule to take them out about 6 times a day and leave them out for about 20 minutes each time. Now they tell me when they need to go outside. It took me about two months to perfect it but it is so worth it.
Agree with the poster who mentioned crating your furbabies at night; they will probably protest at first, but it sure beats mopping up urine all over the place every morning.
See you're from the South, too-- Publix has a really inexpensive product in the pet food aisle called Pet Select PEE-PEE; it comes in a fairly large bottle and is for odor and stain removal.
We picked this up--not for my dog, thank heaven-- when a friend's dog came over and puddled all over the place. Worked great!
Dependent upon how big that room is, I'd pick up a couple of bottles ( under $20), block the dogs' access to the floor, spread it full-strength on it so it seeps into the grout and let it sit for about a half-hour.
Mop that up and then follow the bottle directions and mop again and rinse.
This stuff really is excellent and I've also used it as a stain pre-treat for normal laundry!
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