4 Ways Dog Urine Black Lights Can Help You Stop a Dog From Peeing in the House
By Cat Pesale
Without the right tools, it can be hard to plan how to stop a dog from peeing in the house—unless you catch your pup in the act like we did. After we introduced our second chihuahua, Eddy, into our home, we quickly noticed that he was easily excitable. He would start dribbling urine the moment a stranger, or even a family member, would come over to pet him. Our older chihuahua, Godzilla, quickly caught wind of—or, more accurately, the scent of—Eddy’s urine dribbles, and started lifting his leg on those areas. This escalated into a back-and-forth leg-lifting war that moved from our floors to our furniture, rugs, and drapes. Although Godzilla was formally potty-trained, he still marked because Eddy gave him a reason to do so. It's a problem we've seen many dog owners face over the years--especially owners with multiple dogs. After all, dog marking has been shown to be a common way for dogs to communicate with each other.
One tool that can help you figure out how to stop a dog from peeing in the house is a dog urine black light.Yes, the same UV lights make your clothes glow in the dark at parties can also be used to quickly reveal places where your dog is peeing in the house. Fortunately, you don’t need to be an expert sleuth to use it properly to figure out whether your dog is peeing indoors. All you need is a working handheld UV black light with batteries installed, and the evidence will present itself very quickly.
How Dog Urine Black Lights Work to Help You Figure Out How to Stop a Dog From Peeing in the House
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Dog urine black lights can be great tools for uncovering spots where your dog is peeing in the house because of how they work. Although many UV black lights appear to emit a purple glow, the frequency at which they emit light waves reveals the presence of phosphors in substances. Phosphors are present in liquids, fabrics, and other materials, and give off a luminescent color after being energized by light. Once they collect this energy, the phosphors slowly process it and release it, emitting a faint glow in the process.
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These materials will glow at various levels of brightness under a dog urine blacklight depending on when the substance was left. Naturally, more recent stains will glow more brightly than others that are several months old. Still, UV black lights' unique ability to reveal phosphor-containing substances in dark areas help underscore why they are invaluable for dog owners who are trying to figure out how to stop a dog from peeing in the house.
These two pictures were taken of the same drape. The picture on the left is how it appears during the day to the naked eye. After using a dog urine black light (r.), however, we found multiple dog urine stains.
How and Why Dog Urine Black Lights Can Expose Pee Spots Inside Your Home
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Fortunately for dog owners, dog urine contains phosphorous. This phosphor-rich acid is critical to ensuring your pet's digestive system, nervous system, and body as a whole operates smoothly. While elevated levels of phosphorous can indicate kidney failure, liver disease, or even a Vitamin D deficiency, they are capable of pointing out the presence of urine regardless of concentration. It helps explain why dog urine spots will glow underneath a UV black light regardless of how long ago your dog may have peed.
The process for using dog urine black lights to find where your dog may be peeing indoors is relatively straightforward. It’s best to wait until nighttime to try unearthing old or recent urine spots around your house, though you can do this at any hour if the room you’re investigating doesn't have windows or is not exposed to natural light. In either scenario, follow these steps to see if your dog is peeing in the house:
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Turn off all lights in the room you're inspecting, shut the door, and take all other steps to ensure the room you’re investigating is pitch black or as close pitch black as possible
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After you turn on your black light, wave it closely around your rugs, chairs, drapes, and other common areas where your dog might be peeing in the house
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If your dog has peed or marked on certain areas, you’ll be able to see these spots very quickly on your furniture, rugs, drapes, molding, and walls
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If the room you’re looking at lights up under your UV black light, however, you know you have a real issue with dog peeing or marking that you’ll need to address right away.
4 Ways You Can Use Dog Urine Black Lights to Expose and Stop Dog Peeing
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Thanks to UV black light technology, it’s easier than ever to detect whether your dog is actually peeing in the house, and whether it’s an issue that you’ll need to address through dog training and supplementary products. Here’s a few immediate steps that you can take to use dog urine black lights to stop your dog from peeing in the house:
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1. Find and Remove Your Dog’s Urine Marking Triggers—There are a number of reasons your dog could be peeing in the house, but they often fall into one of several common triggers. Oftentimes it’ll be anxiety, changes to their routine, or even the presence of new guests. One critical trigger that you can easily address right away is to see if your dog has been leg-lifting on any new furniture, rugs, or other items you may have recently introduced into your house. With black lights, you’ll be able to easily see the furnishings and other items your dog is peeing or marking on the most, which gives you the opportunity to locate and remove these from the room or rooms you're investigating
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2. Use Commercial Repellants to Deodorize Pee Spots—If the damage isn’t significant, use a commercial pet deodorizer and stain remover spray to neutralize any scents and clean any urine spots you may have discovered. If you have multiple dogs, failing to quickly deodorize urine-stained areas of your home can lead them to start marking their territory on top of these spots in retaliation. As one major study from the University of Wisconsin showed, it's very common for multiple dogs in a household to resort to urine marking and leg-lifting to show off their social dominance--regardless of whether they were spayed or neutered. Deodorizing sprays can provide temporary relief, though it may not completely stop this natural behavior from happening in your home.
3. See Whether You Need to Break Your Dog's Pee Pad Habits—While pee pads can be a helpful tool when housebreaking your pet, using them too frequently could confuse your dog into thinking it's acceptable to pee indoors. If you notice your dog is peeing around areas where he or she used to go potty on for pee pads, you may need to consult with your trainer to address this issue and develop a plan of attack for truly housebreaking your dog.
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4. Use the P-Suit® Dog Diaper to See Which of Your Dogs is Peeing Indoors—If you own more than one dog, it’s highly likely your dogs are marking indoors as a way of showing dominance and higher social ranking. Even with a black light, you won’t be able to know for sure which of your dogs is truly the culprit behind all of the pee stains you've found. Because our P-Suit® dog diapers are designed to stop dogs from peeing in the house while wearing them, they can help you easily single out the dogs that are actively peeing and marking in your house. To do this, use your black light to take note of preexisting pee stains, and cover all of your dogs in Barkitwear® P-Suit® diapers except for one. After several days, search around your house again to see if any new pee stains have appeared. If this is the case, you’ve identified your little marker! If not, then repeat this process with your other dogs until you’ve noticed an uptick in pee spots with your dog urine black light.
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With our P-Suit® dog diaper, you can immediately stop your dog from marking and peeing in your house while you’re out and about without needing crates or gates. Our P-Suit® diapers can help you save the hundreds of dollars you may need to fork out to deep-clean or replace your rugs, furnitures, and drapes. With our patented multi-piece, easy on easy off design, you can manage your dog’s peeing and incontinence without using crates and gates--and without monitoring your pet around the clock.
