So this is a problem for pet owners all over the world. No matter how well trained your pets are, there are those times when the dog or cat pees on your carpet. (No matter how much you wish they’d gone on the tiles instead!)
Dogs will urinate randomly all over a room so it’s very important to find ALL of the spots. Any dog over five pounds will urinate enough to penetrate through the carpet, into the padding and often the sub-floor–so it is critical to remove as much of the urine from these surfaces as possible.
First thing…
Hopefully you find the pee spot before it’s dried out because the first thing you need to do is to soak up any of the pee. Use paper towels on the area and stand on it or put something heavy on it and keep repeating until you can’t soak up any more moisture. I’ve heard that newspaper works even better than the paper towels.
There are tons of products available commercially but first lets look at what you can do for free.
Home Remedies (free)
This remedy is from dogchatforum.com, this forum of dog owners and lovers certainly know all things dog related! One important note they make is to not use any ammonia based products. Dog urine has ammonia in it so if you use ammonia it might actually encourage your dog to come back and pee in the same spot. Here’s the recipe for Dog Urine Smell & Stain Remover:
Ingredients
Baking Soda
White Vinegar
Liquid Dishwashing Detergent
3% Hydrogen Peroxide
Directions for Dog Urine Removal
1. If the area is still wet you should first attempt to absorb the dog urine. Leaving it there to dry out will only encourage bacterial growth which causes the smell. The best method is to place several layers of paper towel over the wet area and tread on it so as to soak up as much of the dog urine as you possibly can. You may have to repeat this several times until no more dog urine can be soaked up.
Sometimes dog urine accidents have already dried because you did not notice them previously. You can find dried urine spots on your carpet with the aid of a black light. The dog urine stains will fluoresce under the ultra violet light in a darkened room. Hand held black lights are quite inexpensive usually costing between $15 – $25. Of course, you can always save the expense of a black light to find the odors by using your nose instead.
2. The next step is to mix a solution of fifty percent white vinegar and fifty percent water. You must use a liberal amount of this solution to reach the carpet fibers deep down. Work the solution in with a scrubbing brush to ensure it penetrates the carpet fibers below.
Next step: Blot the area again using the paper towel method above. The vinegar will neutralize the ammonia in the dog urine. If you own a wet/dry vacuum extractor use that to remove excess moisture.
3. When the area has dried or almost dried sprinkle a good handful of baking soda over the soiled area.
Mix half a cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide with a teaspoon of detergent. Plain liquid dishwashing detergent is quite suitable. Do not use caustic dishwasher detergent.
Put on a pair of rubber gloves and slowly pour the hydrogen peroxide and detergent mixture over the baking soda. Work the dissolving baking soda well into the carpet with your fingers or with a scrubbing brush.
Blot again and allow the area to dry completely. Then vacuum up the baking soda thoroughly. Use a hard bristled brush to loosen up the baking soda if necessary. That’s all there is to it. Your carpet will smell fresh and free from urine odor.
If you don’t have hydrogen peroxide on hand you could substitute it in an emergency for a spray laundry stain remover. Check the bottle. If it says ‘Oxy’ anywhere on the label then it probably contains hydrogen peroxide.
In areas that have been heavily soiled with dog urine you may have to repeat the process again.
Commercial Options (paid)
As you probably already know, there is every product imaginable available for getting pet urine smells out of your carpet.
Here’s we look at a few different ones:
Odor Medic – There is a product available that claims to ‘permanently remove dog urine odor’ using their special formulation. It’s called Odor Medic and works at eliminating the smells of dogs & cats, tobacco smoke, cooking and washing machines.
Genesis 950 – Is an all purpose cleaner that is getting really good reports from people on Yahoo Answers who swear by how good it is at getting rid of pet odors (hard to tell if these are genuine reviews but at least you would still have a general purpose cleaner even if it doesn’t help with the smell?!)
Natures Miracle – Seems to get a mixed bag of reviews. Some love it, while others found that it made no difference at all. It claims to remove smells and the stains.
OdoKill – This isn’t a cleaning product, it’s a deodorizer only.
One of the most important things to consider is that no matter what home remedy or store bought solution you use; you need to get these solutions down into the backing and pad of the carpet and you’ll need a good extractor/wet’ndry vacuum cleaner to suck it all up again. This is where a commercial carpet cleaner can be excellent with their powerful machines.
Call Superior Steam Cleaners at 443-277-7265 and ask for Shaun