6 Ways to Neutralize Dog Urine Odors (with Pictures)
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Whether it’s a carpet, furniture, or even your dog’s bed, the last thing you want is for it to smell of dog urine. While it can be a difficult smell to eliminate, especially once the urine has soaked in and been left to stain, it is usually possible to at least minimize the smell, but it might take a few attempts.
Below, we have listed six methods you can try, in the hope of saving your carpet and your sense of smell.
The 6 Ways to Neutralize Dog Urine Odors
1. Vacuum It
Your best chance of neutralizing a urine smell is to act as soon as the incident occurs. If your dog pees on a hard floor, mop it up. If they pee on a carpet or piece of furniture, get the vacuum and hoover up the liquid. You will have to pass the area several times and ensure that you’re really sucking up the liquid.
2. Deep Clean
Once you have dry vacuumed the area, use a floor shampooer or a wet vacuum with the appropriate cleaning solution and go over the area a few times. The liquid will help dampen any of the urine that has dried, and the cleaner will lift the solution into the vacuum.
Once you’ve finished, you will likely want to clean out the dirty water container in the cleaner because if you leave this, it can start to smell of urine, too, and you’ll need to find a way of getting rid of that smell.
3. Use A Vinegar and Water Solution
Vinegar is a strong acid solution, and it can break down the uric acid that is found in urine and that is partially responsible for the urine smell. However, you don’t want to apply it neat.
Warm the vinegar in a pan on the stovetop and then mix it with roughly the same amount of water. Put the solution in a spray bottle and spray the affected area before rubbing it with a damp, clean cloth. If you scrub too hard, you might find that it damages the carpet so no matter how desperately you want to get rid of the smell, avoid the temptation to rub too vigorously.
The area will smell of vinegar while you’re cleaning and for a short while afterwards, but it will soon dissipate; certainly, a lot sooner than the smell of urine would have disappeared.
4. Use Baking Soda
Another excellent cleaning product that many of us have in the kitchen cupboard is baking soda. Unlike vinegar, baking soda is an alkaline and it is quite unique in that it absorbs odors, rather than masking them or, in the case of vinegar, breaking them down.
Sprinkle baking soda on the affected area and, if the urine was wet, wait until it dries. If the area was dry, leave the baking soda for a few hours, but be aware that it may not work as well on dry urine. Once the baking soda has dried or rested, vacuum it up.
This technique does work best when the urine has literally just hit the carpet, but it can also work if you apply it after another method, for example the vinegar or cleaning solution method. It is especially effective when used in conjunction with a hydrogen peroxide solution.
5. Try Hydrogen Peroxide and Dishwasher Liquid
Hydrogen peroxide is a weak acid, but it works as an odor remover because the peroxide evaporates and, as it does so, it pulls the urine up and out of the carpet fibers.
You can blot the area to try and remove the urine or you can sprinkle baking soda which will neutralize the liquid smell as it is pulled out of the carpet. Let the area dry completely and then run the vacuum over it to get rid of any remnants and to help remove the last of the smell.
6. Try Specialist Commercial Products
As well as standard household items, there are commercial products that are designed for the very purpose of neutralizing urine odors and cleaning up stains. If your pet is particularly prone to accidents, it might be worthwhile having a bottle of urine cleaner to hand.
Different products work in different ways, however, and you will find many that are really only a mixture of the items listed above, but they do come in a convenient spray bottle and can be kept in the cupboard until required.
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Conclusion
The smell of dog urine is strong and overpowering, and it is especially noticeable to those that visit your home but don’t necessarily live there. When it comes to the question of what neutralizes dog urine, the answer can often be found in the kitchen cupboard. If you have baking soda, vinegar, or hydrogen peroxide, as well as a dry and wet vacuum, to hand, there is no reason that you can’t get rid of the urine and the odor that accompanies it.
Alternatively, you can buy commercial products that do a similar job and can be combined with home methods for a multi-pronged offensive that has the greatest chance of success.
See Also:
- 5 Best Grasses for Dog Urine
- How to Save Plants from Dog Urine: 5 Practical Options
- How To Get Dog Odors Out of a Couch: 12 Practical Options
- How to Clean Dog Urine from Memory Foam: 9 Practical Steps
Featured Image Credit: New Africa, Shutterstock
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