How To Get Rid Of Carpet Odors

I Love My Dog But Hate Her Mess

Before I tell my tale of dog odor, let's all take a quick look to the right and remember her cuteness... Alright, here we go.

When Sadie and I first moved in with Sean, things were good. His cat Duncan only took the occasional swipe at Sadie while Mr. Boogs (the other cat) couldn't have cared less. We settled into a routine and everything was just fine...

Until Sadie began urinating (on purpose!) on Sean's area rug. She would walk up to it, assume stance, and go. Shooing her off didn't work. Punishment didn't work. She did it on Sean's rug only, not my rug and not anywhere else.

At first, I thought it was because she's thirteen and a half and maybe was having some bladder control issues. I quickly realized, however, that it was a dominance thing. I moved her dog bed right near where she peed (so she would think twice about it) and made it easier for her to go outside. I also bought her a new bed to put near the door so she has a place to sleep in both corners of the living room. (Dog Whisperer, watch out!) Peeing stopped.

The smell, unfortunately, did not.

Enter the Rug Doctor which your typical renting places like Rentacenter don't even deal with... but your grocery store does. When I called about getting "The Doctah" (as Sean and I referred to him all weekend), the customer service lady informed me he was indeed available and that I needed two forms of identification to rent him. Ok.

We brought home The Doctor (after I signed my name three times and showed my two forms of identification- I had no idea there was so much to renting a rug cleaner). The $40 spent seemed excessive for a 4' by 6' area rug but as far as I was concerned, the big guns needed to be brought in. We passed the rug doctor over that little rug five times and it took us about half an hour. We figured we were golden.

After we brought The Doctor back and spent the day away, we walked into the house... and it reeked, way worse than before. We had to carry the rug out of the house and air the place out before attempting to eat dinner, that's how bad it was.

Sean then proceeded to hose the rug down and let it dry. Twice. Even after drying in the sun for a week, the smell remained.

Then I went to my petstore of choice and wandered around. The Nature's Miracle display caught my eye. The woman who worked there promised it worked or I could bring it back. I paid $10 for the spray bottle.

I emptied the whole thing onto the rug. The smell is much better then it was but still present. I'll get another bottle this weekend. Until then, the rug has been moved to the basement where it can't ruin our dinner.

In total, I will have invested $60 in the cleaning of this rug, which Sean paid $150 for. If a little more Miracle doesn't work, I may have to spring for a new rug.

If anyone has any good cleaning tips, do share, especially if they are cheap. This article from Stretcher.com has lots of solutions but I'd really like to isolate the one that will work best, having already invested lots of time and energy into this... Help!

Comments

[Debt Free Revolution]

The homemade version: Take warm water, a bit of dish detergant, and vinegar to the spots. I prefer apple cidar vinegar, but regular white vineagr works as well (since it's chem finals day for me, the urea is a base and the vinegar is acetic acid and they nuetralize each other). If one cleaning doesn't do the trick, depending on how many times Sadie has done her thing, hit it again until all the urea is nuetralized.

The commercial method: find a product called Odo-Ban. I have only seen it in Sam's Club, but it may be carried elsewhere. Took the smell of 7 rottie pups out of the basement of a house for me.

Both work on cat urine as well.

[Paula]

Nicole when we had our dog Mika she had done on the living room rug I used cider vinegar and after a couple of washes the smell was gone. Hope this works

[Kevin Gunn]

Febreeze has worked well for me with lots of odor-problems (like the wet carpet in my car). Your mileage may vary...

[Bouncing Betty]

The Natures Miracle works best on fresh stains, you can sometimes find OdoBan from Home Depot on line. It's a great germicide and also cuts down on the pet smell.

[Kim]

Ugh I share your pain, Simba is old and did the same thing to the rug in the sunroom, I tried a paste of lemon juice and baking soda with a little dishwashing liquid and soaked affected area, then I scrubbed the whole thing down once again to get rid of the sudsy stuff. It worked... (Test a small spot on the rug first to make sure the lemon juice won't bleed the color of the rug.