Click here for Cleaning 101: pet stain cleanup.
We messies love our pets. But pets can make our houses messier and dirtier. There are few things worse than walking into a house that a dog or cat has “marked.” Here are some tips for keeping your house smelling fresh when you have pets.
The first, most important thing is good housebreaking. It’s much easier to deal with pet odors when pets never learn to use the house as their toilet. (Of course, there will be accidents. We’ll deal with that in a minute.) With puppies and dogs, your best friend will be a pet taxi or home kennel. Put the puppy in the kennel and close the door at night. As soon as you get up in the morning, carry the puppy to the designated potty place and wait for the puppy to go. Praise the puppy like crazy when he does go. Take the puppy out after every meal, after every nap, and whenever the puppy starts to sniff the carpet suspiciously. While you’re away from the house, the puppy should be closed into his kennel. If the puppy has an accident in the kennel, wash the bedding immediately in the washer, and wash out the inside of the kennel so the puppy doesn’t get the idea that the kennel is his bathroom.
With an older dog, follow the same procedure. If the dog has accidents, never let it have the run of the house. Always supervise the dog. Close off any room the dog uses for his accidents. Use a baby gate if you need to. Rarely will a dog “have an accident” with you watching, so if you can stay with him, he’ll do better.
If you have a dog or cat who has always been reliable but is suddenly having accidents, see your vet. He could have an infection or an illness.
Cats are easier to deal with… every cat I’ve had has littertrained himself. The most important thing to remember with a cat is to keep his litter clean. Many cats will tell you they’re upset with the condition of their litter boxes by leaving surprises around the house.
For litter boxes, I like the enclosed ones (I have dogs who consider the contents of a litter box to be a rare treat, so I have to limit their access.) The enclosed boxes have a filter on top to keep the air fresh. Get the litter liners that are like a bag. You put the bottom of the tray into the bag, then set it flat and pour the litter in as if the bag weren’t there. This keeps stuff from clinging to the box and it makes it easier to get rid of old litter.
I use clumping litter. The litter clumps capture all the stuff and you can scoop it out daily and reuse the rest. Do scoop it out daily, or your cat will become unhappy with you and you know what happens then. Replace the scoopable litter as often as recommended on the side of the container. If you use the old-fashioned kind, completely replace it once a week.
If you have more than one cat who share a litter box that you keep clean… but there are still “surprises,” get each cat his own litterbox and see if that changes things.
So you’ve done everything you can, and your pet has had an accident. It must be cleaned up as soon as possible. I like to pour water on the stain and then blot it up with white towels or diapers (you might go through all of your white towels and diapers doing this… hint, save retired bathtowels for this… don’t use towels you currently use in the bath.) Blot really well, then use a pet odor cleaner from a pet store according to the directions in the bottle. (Be sure to smell the cleaner first… some of those enzymatic cleaners smell worse than the pet odor!)
Be sure to wash your blotting towels with detergent, warm or hot water, and a chlorine or non-chlorine bleach.
Cleaning up old stains is a lot more difficult. We’ve had luck using Rug Doctors or a Hoover Steam Vac with cooler water and pet odor remover. We go over the area several times. After it dries, spray Febreze liberally over the site.
If the odor has penetrated to the padding, you’ll probably have to take up the carpet. I recommend replacing it with linoleum or sealed tile. Much easier to clean, and all around better for people with allergies, as well. I would also recommend wood if you seal it very, very well.
Even if your pets don’t have accidents, they can make your house smell less than fresh. There are several things you can do to make your house fresher. Brush your pet regularly and bathe him about once a month. Vacuum as often as possible. With dogs and cats in the home, you should aim to vacuum at least once every other day. Use carpet freshener powders at least once a week. Use a steam cleaner every month or so, at least in the areas your pets hang out (vacuum thoroughly first). Use plug-in air fresheners in most of the rooms in your house. Open your windows regularly to let fresh air circulate through the house.
More Pet Stain Links
Denver Dumb Friends League tips for removing pet stains.
Manda
June 18th, 2003 at 9:02 pmTwo products are good for cleaning up pet stains - Simple Green, which is a general cleaner, gets the color stain out best from cat/dog vomit. Simple Solution gets the odor out best from the pets sense - they don’t remark there. Simple Solution is almost sickeningly sweet, but I’ve tried all the others after a 21 year old cat in renal failure and they don’t work nearly as well. Daniel, the cat, with any of the others would always go back to the spot about 2 weeks after and pee again. The smell, to him, came back. He was also the main puker - renal failure gives cats very upset stomachs, tho’ I don’t know exactly why.
If you have a regular puking animal - be careful with any sealed surface - Daniel would puke up almost straight stomach acid sometimes. I had a VERY tolerant and cat loving landlord at the time.
My landlord told me to NEVER use vinegar - it makes the odor STRONGER to the animal.
Stephanie
June 20th, 2003 at 6:41 pmI had a dog that liked the kitty box delicacies too… we called it Kitty almond roca…it was really sick. The liners never worked for my cat because my cat is pretty vigorous and stirs his crystals like a symphony conductor and when ever we put one down it would up on top and made a worse mess… so liners arent for every cat. We have the huge scoop so we can get through it fast, and with my cat the faster the better and we make sure that the bag is ready to go out to eliminate odors.
Carrie
July 30th, 2003 at 1:22 amWe have 4 cats and the litterbox cleaning was neverending. I finally gave in and got one of those “automatic” litterbox cleaners. It works! We went from having to have 3 boxes to just the one, and it cleans itself. Once a day my husband empties the little container, and wipes up anything that hit the edges of the machine (I’m pregnant, and can’t help-so sad!). The only downside is that you can’t use crystals, but we had pretty much given up on them because of the cost for 3 boxes anyway. I always thought it sounded like a gimmick, but it isn’t. It took about a week for all the cats to get used to it (one still runs in to watch it when it starts to clean), but now they seem much happier, because their box is ALWAYS clean!
candy
March 6th, 2004 at 10:42 amI have a 2 year old male poodle. He always goes on his wee wee pad. Never has an accident , but he goes on the very edge and it flows across the floor ant suggestions?
candy
March 6th, 2004 at 11:00 amI have a 2 yr. old male poodle . He always goes on his wee wee pad but goes so close to the edge that it runs onto the floor. Any suggestions?