This post is sponsored by TriNova.
Let’s face it: pet smells happen.
Wet dogs. Frito feet. The chews that smell like a dead cow. The dog who–unbeknownst to you–happily rolled in something (fox musk?) that is just plain indescribable.
And then there are the urine stains. From puppies who aren’t quite sure where the bathroom is to seniors whose bladders aren’t all they used to be, pet urine is just a fact of life in pet households.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common types of pet smells in your home and on your travels–and how you can clean and deodorize in one step.
Pet Smells In Your Home
Dog Bed Deodorizer
Pet beds and dog mats are often washable–but sometimes only the cover of the bed can be washed. What about the interior of the bed?
The foam interior of the pet bed (often covered by its own cloth covering) absorbs pet smells just like the exterior cover of the bed. TriNova Natural Pet Stain Remover — safe for pet households — can be used not only to remove pet stains but also to deodorize dog beds. Spray it directly on the foam–or use it to spray on the cover between washes for a quick refresh.
Clean Up Pet Urine Stains
If your dog has a peed on the carpet or on upholstery, the first step is to clean and blot as much of the urine as possible. Don’t rub it into the carpet or upholstery–that’s just going to make your job harder–but, instead, blot.
After blotting as much as you can with a rag or paper towel, step two is to try to remove even more of the stain. Club soda, poured on the stain itself, can help bubble up more urine hiding in the rug pad.
Blot up the solution (again, taking care not to rub it into the carpet but to gently blot). Next, place a clean, white towel (so you don’t transfer any dyes from the towel to the carpet or upholstery) on the stain and weight it down with a brick. Allow it to wick up as much of the stain as it can overnight.
While the stain may be gone to our noses, it no doubt remains to our pet’s super strong olfactory senses—so that’s where the next step comes in.
Enzyme cleaners are specially designed to destroy rather than mask organic stains. These eat up and neutralize the cause of the odor; most have little or no scent. TriNova Natural Pet Stain Remover –made from plants so it’s safe to use in your pet household — doesn’t mask pet odors but removes the SOURCE of the odor, even to your dog’s sensitive nose.
But what about the urine stains you can’t find? Dried urine is more difficult to find than fresh but a black light will make the task easy. An inexpensive black light flashlight will cause urine stains to glow in the dark.
Once you’ve found the stain, again, give the area a spray with TriNova Natural Pet Stain Remover. This time, however, you’ll want to make multiple applications of the stain remover. Spray the area then return in an hour to re-spray the spot.
Upon contact with the problem area, enzymatic bacteria immediately break down stains and odors for a clean surface and a neutral smell.
TriNova
Pet Smells On the Road
We love to travel with our dogs. They’ve helped us research many of our guidebooks, and both dogs are ready to hop into the car as soon as they hear the rattle of the car keys. Each trip leaves us with great memories, fun photos, and – if we’re not careful an unmistakable doggy scent.
Regardless of how recently the dogs have been groomed, dog trips can mean dog odors, especially after a beach or lake trip (and especially in hot weather!) In our thousands of miles on the road with Barli and Tiki, though, we’ve come across surefire ways to reduce and remove dog odors from the car:
Cover your seats and cargo area.
We travel with the back seat folded down; the large cargo area is then covered with a removable cover and dog beds.
When the trip is done, we wash the cover and air out the dog beds in the sun.
Clean car windows and deodorize the car at the same time.
Does your car always have nose prints on the back windows? Ours does!
TriNova’s Natural Multi-Surface Cleaner (sold as a set of two 32-ounce bottles) is great to use for cleaning the car windows (and it even ships with a microfiber cloth). Not only does it clean the windows but it deodorizes the entire car with the scent of white tea and thyme, providing a fresh, clean smell that’s not perfumey.
Check for dog vomit–even if you’ve covered the cargo area.
Does your dog get carsick? Barli really, really had a tough time with car rides when we first adopted him. Each trip began with drooling…which soon progressed to vomiting.
No matter how much we covered the cargo area, vomit often found its way down the door and to the footwell area.
Just like cleaning up pet urine, TriNova Natural Pet Stain Remover uses enzyme cleaning action to remove vomit stains as well. Clean up the solids with a paper towel then spray on TriNova and let those enzymes do their thing!
Deodorize hotel rooms to prevent re-soiling.
We all know that dog travelers are often assigned “dog rooms”…which means a lot of dogs have called that room home.
If your dog finds a previous stain left by an earlier guest, give the stain (even though YOU can’t smell it) a spray to prevent your dog from marking the room with his own urine.
Just like locating old urine stains in your home, this old stain will need at least two sprays with TriNova Natural Pet Stain Remover to reactivate the stain then to let the enzymes destroy the source of the stain.
We can say firsthand that this really does work on old pet stains in hotel rooms. When our dogs (especially Mr. Barli) focused on what they identified as an old stain during a recent hotel stay, I sprayed the stain and Barli never showed any more interest in the spot throughout our stay!
Pet stains happen…it’s all just part of living with and loving dogs. We know it’s a small price to pay for all you get in return!
- Sighthound Day - September 27, 2024
- Cottage Cheese Ice Cream for Dogs Recipe - July 29, 2024
- New Dog Treat Cookbooks! - June 17, 2024