[cross-posted from Dr. Jon's  Dog Crazy Newsletter]

Black lights help you find urine spots in your home is this true or false?

TRUE!  Believe it or not, black lights actually CAN help you find dog urine spots in your home! 

Your dog may have an "accident" and urinate somewhere inside the house without you even realizing it. It happens all the time. The next thing you know, there's a strong, lingering urine odor that you just CAN'T seem to locate, because at that point the "accident" is virtually invisible.  Black lights make these areas visible so you can treat them! 

Here's what happens:  Black lights are fluorescent lights with a special coating called phosphor.  The black glass in a black light blocks all visible light so that only the light hitting the phosphor coating can be seen.  Many things in nature contain phosphor, including dog urine.  So when a black light hits an area where a dog has urinated the phosphor content in the urine glows in the dark. With a black light, a urine spot that is invisible to the naked eye suddenly becomes visible.

My staff and I feel strongly that black lights are one of the best ways to find invisible urine spots in your home.  But once you find them, you must clean and treat the area to get rid of the smell.

Urine spots require a special kind of treatment to get rid of the nasty odor. And most products on the market today just don't work - trust me, I've tried them all. Here's why. Urine is made up of several components, one of which is urine salts. These urine salts are invisible, but no matter how much you clean the spot they will never go away. These urine salts cause the odor, and since they can't be removed they must be "deactivated".