Hi,
Our litter are 7 weeks on Tuesday and are absolutely gorgeous (all accounted for, not advertising just boasting at how pretty they are) but I just wish they smelt as good as they looked.  The whole house now smells of puppy bi-products, we've got scented candles everywhere, windows open and are constantly using pet-safe disinfectant but it still smells of puppy poo and wee.  We obviously clean up when they go to the toilet and they are in a pen using paper (we did have pads but they felt that they were toys and not for toileting on).

Does anyone have any top tips for getting rid of the smell?

Also I've been washing the actual pups with a spounge and warm water, our mentor said that we could use baby shampoo but I'm still a little worried I know its good enough for human babies but would you use this?

Use dog shampoo, as opposed to baby shampoo.  You can get one specifically for puppies at most pet shops or PAH.  I always shampoo pups before they leave home anyway.  

Use biological washing powder for destroying the other smells in the home.  It's what most of us use for mopping up puppy wee etc.

Babies' skin is a different pH to puppy skin, so shampoo designed for babies isn't suitable for puppies; just as cow's milk is designed for calves and so isn't suitable for puppies.

The only way to get rid of the smell is to be constantly washing and cleaning, I've never used a puppy pen, at 7 weeks they will be peeing and pooping considerably is the puppies bedding in the pen being washed and replaced 3-4 times a day? It needs to be if they are peeing in there. Are they in there all the time?

I know that the weather isn't great, I once had a Winter/Spring litter but the weather was winter snow and all, but from 4-5 weeks onwards my pups spend their waking time playing and exploring outdoors, their choice, my patio doors are open from the minute they wake and I call them all outside to toilet, they can then choose to play indoors or out, they always go out, even though they have a good 35ft of their own area indoors they run around like lunatics and do 90% of their toileting outdoors, the only real toileting I have is from their night sleep, which is newspaper put down in one area of the room, after cleaning up the house is fresh and clean once more.

They should have plenty of room so that they are not needing to walk and roll in their own urine whilst playing.

thanks, most of the puppy shampoo's are from 8 weeks so I'd been bathing them with just water so far. 

I did an  introduction to dog grooming course and I didn't think using baby shampoo sounded like a good idea but after my mentor and someone else suggested it I just wanted to check.  The wealth of knowledge on here isn't something you could find even at most dog shows - with so many different specialities and breeds its just completely invaluable.

I'll try the bio washing powder in the mop bucket and see if that does anything. 

Thanks :)

> Does anyone have any top tips for getting rid of the smell?
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The only thing that works for me is to have them spending plenty of time outdoors, giving the indoors a chance to air before they come back in, and of course they are then getting rid of a large proportion of their smelly by products outside.

I have never managed to keep a litter of my breed happy contained in an indoor pen full time past 4 1/2 - 5 weeks of age.

Once they are going outside the solid waste is rarely done indoors., if they are not kept in too long.

As for sponging pups, I use baby bath liquid, which doesn't need rinsing.

Also I find using shredded paper in their indoor quarters seems to be better for absorbing wet,  and smells less than sheets of paper.  It does travel about the house a bit, but it is so easy to use a cat litter scoop to scoop out the soiled portions as needed.

same as everyone above, and like barbara I begin housetraining around 5 weeks, usually completely overnight dry and clean by 7 weeks... all washing done with bio powder... floors and doors/woodwork etc wiped down with solution of bio wash liquid, but what I did find fantastic last year when I had 2 litters at same time (20 pups in house) was incense stick.. not the normal, relaxing/sensous etc.. but strong scented Patchouli oil... I still use it now to keep the 'wet dog' odour in check...

My daughter, when she visits,  used to let me know in no uncertain terms that the house smelled decidedly doggy.. now she doesn't... I can't really smell it.. so rely on her honesty to keep things smelling sweet :-)

Hi, we had a similar problem with the smell when our last litter was this age. They spent quite a good deal of time outside, but the smell inside never really went away - until I got some Zoflora! You can buy it at the supermarket, and I mopped the floors once a day with Zoflora the smell was totally gone. We made sure the floor was completely dry before letting the pups run on it. Obviously the mop came out at other times to clean up.

By the time ours were 5 weeks they were mostly using growbag trays filled with horse bedding (chipped cardboard). It didn't take them very long to cotton onto using the trays & I would only clean one out at a time as we had 7 large puppies playing in the clean stuff every time I put it down. An experienced breeder came to see our pups and thought it was such a good idea she was going to do the same with her next litter. Not only did using "litter trays" cut down on the mess on the tiled floor (pups were in my dining room) the cardboard didn't smell much until it was soaked through, so only had to be cleaned out once a day.

BTW the day the last puppy went to her new home, the trays were dispensed with, and our own pup was housetrained quickly, so it didn't hold her back at all.

Some great tips here guys. 

We have a small house and it won't be possible to escape from small puppies or their smell here, so I love the grow tray and horse bedding idea...

growbag trays filled with horse bedding

what a great idea!

I love the grow bag idea...is it filled with MEGAZORB..thats the only horse bedding I can think of..I can get a big sack of it for £8 from the local equestrian store.

and remember never to invite anyone around too early in the morning!!

this is another reason why I sleep with mine for the whole 7 -8 wks as its the night time or very early morning poos that stink the house to high heaven so I clean as they go.
Only once did I go to bed when they were around either 5 or 6 wks and the smell downstairs is what woke me up..
We open all windows and doors first thing in the morning and similar to carrington constant cleaning and doors open wide in all weathers to air the home.

I kept diluted Bio washing liquid in a spray bottle - that way it was easy to apply before mopping up and rinsing - also with a spray bottle.   It's much quicker that way ;)

The base of my puppy pen was covered in a thick plastic tarp secured with nylon ties, then covered in newspaper.  The tarp goes up the sides about 6 inches to prevent poos and urine leaking out if they go near the corner or edges ;)   Poos and wees are always picked up as soon as they happen so pups never learn to walk in it and learn to avoid it pretty quick :)   It's hilarious when you see a litter of pups all crowded in a corner looking at the poo as if it's about to explode LOL

After the pups are able to get out of the Whelping box they don't poo in it and rarely wee in it, but I still change the vet bed a few times a day to keep it fresh.   The pups spend a lot of time out in the garden as soon as they are able to walk properly as they can then start housetraining, poos and wees cleaned up as they happen - usually straight after eating and then wees as and when.  They do seem to prefer to be outside given the choice.

I find having a routine with pups helps a lot with keeping things clean and sweet - I tend to feed them just when they are ready to sleep, that way the poos are done and they can snuggle down on a full tum and sleep well, then when they wake they poo straight away and it's picked up :)  can't stop em weeing whenever tho :-D

Never managed to get the kids into a routine, but pups - no problem LOL

Thanks so much for all the suggestions.  They are in a large pen in the lounge but are out of it most of the day and just really sleep and eat in the pen.  Obviously sleeping and eating is usually followed by going to the toilet and half the pen is bedding and half is newspaper.  They are VERY good at not going to the toilet on their bedding and even when out of the pen usually go back to the newspaper in the pen to go to the toilet with the odd accident. 

Letting them outside just isn't practical for us at the moment which is a real shame.  We have fox runs through the garden and have a particularly mangey looking fox hanging around at the moment and whilst we've never had an issue with the other dogs we just don't want to risk the little ones catching anything.

We've been taking them over to play out (5 mins away in the car) where we can use a completely patio-ed garden that foxes can't get into at all.  the puppies are always cold when out there but they are med-large breed so will have to get over it!  They only play out for about 20-30mins and then the fresh air knocks them clean out.  We're going to have to pen off and secure an area of our graden and possible the green house where we can parvo it all and then let them out to play a bit more. 

We were hoping for a summer litter but Poppy had other ideas about her season!

Hi, the horse bedding we used was cardboard chips. The chips were about 1" diameter & although whenever the trays were cleaned the pups had a riot playing in it, and sometimes you would have one laying in it while another was trying to go to toilet! However, visitors were amazed when the pups would, one after another, stop playing and go to the trays, have a wee/poo and then go back to play.

You just have to initially place them in the tray as soon as you think they need to go. They soon get the hang of it, and must say, it cut down on the smells 100%.

The cardboard was about £6 a bale, so not expensive.

Would just add that their room had direct access to the outside, so they also got used to going straight outside whenever they woke up, so were all partially housetrained anyway by the time they were 8 weeks old.

I agree with the comments about using diluted Bio washing powder (or liquid) to clean the pups areas, and also Zoflora for general mopping around (I like the Bouguet and Springtime ones best). However I disagree about using Puppy Shampoo, it is much too harsh for baby pups skins.  There is a common misconception about the PH level of dog washing products and human ones.  We were considering having a range of dog shampoos formulated a few years back (idea on a back burner for now), so got a specialist lab to do some testing on products we like, products we didn't like, andd things we wanted our shampoos to achieve.  We pointed out to the lab that one of the main marketing points of the dog shampoos based at the pet market was the Ph difference between human and canine skins.  There results came back 100% that the reason for the difference between the 2 types was simply down to amount of detergent used for the dogs products - they were much more akin to washing you dog in enat detergent with a few nice smells added.  The thinking behind them being that dogs are washed a lot less often than people, and need a much higher detergent component to cut through the dirt, grease etc. and a strong fragarance to last for a while after the bath.  So I always advise all my puppy buyers to steer clear of these dog shampoos, and stick with johnsons baby.  Have since discussed this with a couple of vets who have disagreed wiht the advice in my puppy manual, and both have admitted, after examining some puppy shampoos that I was right.

We did discover that a lot of the "professional" ranges of dog products were formulated at a much closer standard to human products but everything we had tested which was available at Pets at Home etc was made using the "Detergent is best"  criteria.

We did discover that a lot of the "professional" ranges of dog products were formulated at a much closer standard to human products
I completely agree Gwen.  I never bother to argue when people say about the different PH - it appears to be a common idea.

In the parlour I used a base concentrate (no colour, no perfume) purchased in bulk from a human shampoo manufacturer.  They told me that they supplied one of the large canine grooming manufacturers with whatever additives they wanted included to provide a wide range and then stuck their label on!  That would justify it costing much more than the human equivalent. :(
By using the base concentrate I never had a dog react to it, including Westies with dreadfully sensitive skin.  I also used to wash my 8 week old puppies in it, or Johnson's Baby, before they went to their new homes without any problems for almost 30 years.

PaH puppy shampoo isn't tearless so be careful.  it also has a lot of ingredients.  BM's is tearless but not seen the ingridients.  I threw the puppy grooming spray away as had alcohol in it and dried the coat.  i've used baby shampoo with good results as its so gentle, but i usually water anything down that i use anyway.

Animal house do a good puppy shampoo and boigroom if you have time order or find a show. 

I'll look into the bale idea, sounds good.  plenty hear to look at using before I get there so thanks for tips.

Just as an aside I would never let a litter free range outside in the garden.  Not until they are about 12 weeks at any rate, as what is safe and dog proof for the adults can be far from that for the pups.  Also I want the other adults to not have to be with pups if they don't want to.

If you have no actual shelter for them outside what worked for my friend was to attach a puppy pen to the exit of the house.  Means keeping the door open for a lot of the time, but that also helps with the airing.