Posted February 26, 2019

Owning a Dog without the Dog Smell: Budget-Friendly Tips for Dog Parents

Guest Blogger: Tyler Evans from Dogzasters

We love our fur babies, but do we want our home to smell like wet dog? I think not. Peaches the Pyrenees does not smell like peaches! Some dogs smell more than others. This depends on their diet, oil glands and in some cases, age. Allergies inflame the skin which can create a smell. Ear infections, and impacted anal glands (which are quite painful for your dog) also cause foul smells. The first line of defense – keep your dog clean with regular baths or visits to the groomer.

Let’s say the deed is done and your furry friend has left behind a powerful mess and scent. You could hire a professional cleaner to come deep clean the carpeting (a good idea once or twice a year), but there are plenty of other steps you can take that will save money and keep your home looking and smelling fresh.

Carpet Strategy

Nothing retains doggie debris and odors quite like carpeting. It’s an ideal hiding place for dog hair, pet dander, and any little critters Rover might be carrying around in his fur. What’s more, his personal scent tends to settle in deeply and can be stubbornly resistant to even the most determined deodorizing efforts. Nevertheless, you can keep the carpet smelling fresh and clear of urine, fecal, and saliva stains with simple, low-cost tactics.

In many cases, it can be as simple as sprinkling baking soda over a stain on the floor or furniture or spritzing down the remains of a doggie mess with a water-vinegar spray. This an effective recipe for getting up stains and preventing those nose-wrinkling smells from building up, the ones that visitors will notice immediately even if you’ve gone nose-blind to them.

When it comes to really cleaning your carpets, you can save more money by whipping up a super-easy mixture of clear dish soap (one tablespoon), a tablespoon of vinegar (apple cider or white), and two cups of hot water. All you have to do is drizzle it over the offending stain, let it sit a bit, and hit it with the vacuum cleaner.

Odor-Eating

You may not notice your dog’s smell, but your pet gives off residue that can aggravate a breathing condition and undermine indoor air quality. Heavy-duty enzymatic pet odor removers are some of the most effective products on the market for getting rid of oppressive dog smells.

Healthy breathing air equals a healthy home environment, so consider spraying the furniture, drapes, carpeting, and linens with a water-lemon juice concoction that also has powerful smell-reducing properties. These are solutions you can implement literally for pennies on the dollar, and they are environmentally friendly.

Steer away from plug-in room fresheners. They are convenient, yes, but they also include chemicals such as benzene, formaldehyde, and naphthalene, a toxic chemical known to cause cancer in laboratory rodents. Consider switching to an essential oil diffuser, an eco-friendly alternative that smells great. If your puppy has a particularly pungent essence of Eau de Dawg, try leaving out a couple bowls of coffee grounds somewhere in the home out of reach. Coffee grounds have potent odor-absorbing qualities but are poisonous for dogs. They need to be high and out of reach.

A Lint Roller and Brush

Your vacuum cleaner is an effective way to keep all that dog hair off the couch, floor, and air ducts. But a large lint roller can also be an invaluable tool for removing hair from those dark pants and your best skirt. You could attack the problem at its source by grooming Fido every week with a large dog brush. Brushes vary widely in price, but you can find a good one for under $20 at most retailers. Add in a lint roller with up to 100 sheets for under $5 and you’ve got yourself a very effective dog hair-cleaning toolkit.

You don’t have to sacrifice cleanliness or a fresh-smelling home if you own a dog. And you don’t have to spend a pile of money on cleaning. There are plenty of homegrown solutions that are as close as your kitchen cabinet.