The Best Way to Get Dog Urine Smell Out of Carpet

Accidents are an inevitable part of dog ownership.

When you have a puppy or dog, it's inevitable that accidents will happen. Young, elderly or ill dogs sometimes are unable to make it outdoors before urinating. When your dog does have an accident on your carpet, the most important part is to clean thoroughly and remove the urine odor. Urine odor left in your carpet will signal to your dog that he may urinate there again. A dog's sense of smell is hundreds of times more sensitive then a human's, according to Dr. Marty Smith, DVM, of PetEducation.com. Covering odors with perfumed cleaners will only help in the short run whereas complete removal of the urine and treatment of the site will rid your carpet of urine smell.

Things You'll Need

• Newspaper
• Paper towels
• Trash bag
• Pet odor neutralizer with enzymes
• Plastic wrap
• Vacuum

Instructions

1. Remove as much of the dog urine as possible by placing a layer of paper towels on top of the urine stain. Follow this with a thick layer of newspaper, then place another layer of paper towels on top of that. Apply pressure to the layers until you've wicked up as much urine as you can. Discard the paper towels and newspaper as they soak up the urine and replace them with fresh layers. Continue to wick up the urine until there's no further transfer of urine to the paper towels and newspapers.

2. Saturate the urine stained area with pet odor neutralizer with enzymes. If using a liquid make sure to soak the carpet down to the carpet padding. Sprinkle powdered neutralizer liberally to completely cover the stain. If the powdered neutralizer wicks up urine moisture right away, add more neutralizer until the top portion remains dry.

3. Cover the neutralizer-soaked carpet with plastic wrap. Press the plastic wrap down with your feet or hands to ensure close contact of the wrap, neutralizer and urine stain in the carpet. Covering the urine stain and neutralizer gives the enzymes in the neutralizer time to break down the odor-causing bacteria, which in turn helps to rid your carpet of dog urine odor. Leave the plastic wrap on your carpet overnight.

4. 

   Vacuuming is the final step to removing urine odor.

   Remove the plastic wrap from your carpet. Vacuum up the neutralizer and remaining dog urine stain and odor.

Tips & Warnings

• Open windows and place bowls of baking soda around the room to help rid the air of dog urine smell.

• Tackle dog urine stains and odors as quickly as possible so the urine doesn't have time to soak the carpet pad.

References

• Pet Education: How to Remove Dog Urine Stains From Carpet
• Pet Place: Best Way to Clean Up After Dog Accidents