What’s worse than a dog having an accident in the house? Having an accident on your carpet, that’s what. Even though the dog probably meant no harm by urinating on a rug, the stench the pee can live is nearly unforgivable. But you don’t have to live with the stench.
Why Dog Pee Should Be Taken Seriously
We obviously know that dog urine in the house can be rather unpleasant. Its smell can be overwhelming, and its presence as it lingers in the air could be embarrassing if guests drop by for a visit. But dog pee can be more than nasty - it can pose a health risk.
If you have a chronic breathing issue, such as asthma or COPD, the presence of dog urine that isn’t properly cleaned up could cause a hindrance in getting in fresh air to your lungs. This is because dog pee is high in ammonia, which acts as a lung irritant on its own. People with weakened immune systems and those susceptible to migraines could also find their conditions heightened due to the presence of ammonia in dog urine.
The Strategy Behind Getting Dog Pee Out of Carpet
Ridding your carpet of your dog's piddle is a lot more complex than just finding the spot where he went and dousing it with some air freshener. There is a great deal of due diligence needed on your part to do it the proper way. There also may be some extra training that you may have to incorporate to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The first thing you need to do is pinpoint the precise areas that your dog peed on. It is important that you get as close to “ground zero” as possible in order to neutralize the area as effectively as you can. Your dog will smell odors that you can’t, so making sure that you hit the pee spot at its heart will make sure even untraceable traces of urine will fly under your dog’s radar.
This may be easier said than done, since some pee stains may dry up and be rendered invisible to the naked eye. Your best bet is to sniff out the soiled area, as unappealing as that sounds. If there’s just no way you can hack that, you could pick up a black light at the local hardware store, turn off all the lights in the room, and search the carpet for the offending mark.
Pee-Cleaning Solutions: Don’t be Afraid to Go Deep
How you go about cleaning your carpet will depend on the “freshness” of the stain. If the pee is still wet, you’ll want to soak up the urine with a paper towel and then rinse the area with clean, cool water, blotting the water out of the carpet at the end of the process. You may want to put the urine-soaked paper towel in a place that is appropriate for your dog to do his business, just as a reminder.
If the pee has already settled, the cleaning process will be considerably more intensive. You can use a high-quality pet odor neutralizer on the spot. You can also accompany this substance with a carpet stain remover if the pee seems to have grabbed hold of the carpet’s surface.
If the pee stain is particularly heavy and deep, you may consider renting either a wet vac or an extractor. These unique machines work so well because they are essentially designed to use clean water to blast a surface, sucking up dirty water in its wake. On the other hand, you should never use a steam cleaner or a cleaning chemical, as both of these approaches will do things to the area that could potentially make it more alluring for dogs to do their business there.
Work on Preventing This From Happening Again
The most effective thing you can do to avoid this from happening in the future is to make sure he’s properly trained. If you have an older dog, this process may take a bit longer than if you have a younger dog. If you feel confident that he’s been well trained, however, you may want to take him to a veterinarian to make sure his tendency to pee indoors isn’t a symptom of something worse.
Above all else, make sure you show your dog love throughout the process. Accidents will happen even to the best of pooches, and it’s wise to bear in mind that his accident was not a deliberate attempt to sabotage your carpet. So treat him kindly - you’ll both be glad you did.