puppy pee

[mallochai]

after reading onyx's post about her wet carpet... i got to thinking i could used some suggestions.

having a puppy has it's ups and downs. so far, the downs have resulted in my carpet smelling perpetually like piss. i've steam cleaned it several times with varying types of max strength pet smell remover... but to no avail.

short of spraying the carpet repeatedly with febreeze... any suggestions? tricks? products? deals with the devil?

[Lilith]

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_det...D=1109676094890

http://www.epinions.com/content_21571997316

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/natures.htm

i have used natures miracle befor and had it work really well for me, i had to drench the stain/smell 2 times but it finally made it go completly away,

this product can take up to two weeks to completly remove to odor, it does cause a weird smell while it is working, and you have to use alot of it and make sure you drench the entire stain but in the end you will not have any smells what so ever

this requires alot of work but.......

alot of the left over smell is not from the carpet, the urine most likley has soaked in to the wood sub floor...... Peel back the carpet and pad, clean the affected areas with bleach or something liek that get some paint or something that will seal the wood and paint at least the affected areas if not the whole floor this will help keep anything from saoking in to the bare wood under your carpet, and seal any scents that are already there.

[LuthienTheFallen]

if u sell me ur soul malli i can get rid of the smell muwhahahahahahahha ,,,,on a serious note we get a new puppy in 2 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Onyx]

I have used Nature's Miracle and it's great.

The mildewy smell is now all gone, and I mean completely! The newspaper seems to be what did the trick. I also put a little baking soda sprinkled and raked in, but I didn't notice a difference tli lI put the thick layers of newspaper down and changed them a couple of times. Newspaper seems amazingly good at absorbing water and odors.

[gothicmom]

I used a product that I bought at the grocery store. I don't remember the name, but I didn't have to go the pet store to get it. Also, the Arm and HAmmer pet hair release smells REALLY good and I think they make a pet smell remover too. If it took out cat smell I think it will take out puppy smell. I think cat smell is awful!

[Fierce Critter]

This routine helped with "boo-boos" from 1 housetraining German Shepherd & a few neurotic cats who had a litterbox aversion for a while. It works equally well for poo stains.

Sop up excess pee with paper towels. Spray on a dilute mixture of either Resolve Carpet Cleaner (comes in a pet formula, we used the regular and it worked just fine) or Zout laundry stain remover (MIRACULOUS) and water. I probably made my mixture 1/4 cleaner, 3/4 water. Anyway, spray it on the stained area, and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Use a spongemop and hot water and actually "mop" the carpet in the area of the stain, using a sort of scrubbing motion with the mop - putting some elbow into it.

We had a brand-new house with a brand-new, beige carpet. Using this method, there was no aftersmell and NO stains whatsoever. More often than not, we used the Resolve - stuff really does work great.

Good luck!

[mallochai]

sweet. thanks for all the tips, i'm going to hit up petzoo today and see what i can find first. i've been using various types of oxy stain/oder removers on the spots as they come, but i can't always catch them all, thus the remaining problem.

heh, at least he only sticks to one basic quarter of the room.

[gothicmom]

Resolve Carpet Cleaner (comes in a pet formula, we used the regular and it worked just fine

Thats what I used. I couldn't remember the name.

[bellbottoms]

when i go home tonite i have to check the name of the carpet cleaner stuff we just bought. i dont have a dog i have a cat. but this carpet cleaner is awesome!! i had a old cat pee stain on the carpet and i just used this oxy something carpet cleaner and it all came up!! i has a two tube chamber and it sprays it on hard. AWESOME stuff!

i have used resolve too - that is really awesome stuff.

[Ginevra]

One of the reasons that Nature's Miracle works is because it's enzyme based. This means that it not only eliminates the odour that we smell, it also keeps the animal from having the response to to back to that particular spot again.

Is it just that the puppy is having accidents? Are you often late home from work and can't let him out on a regular schedule, perhapse?

[mallochai]

Is it just that the puppy is having accidents? Are you often late home from work and can't let him out on a regular schedule, perhapse?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not quite. While I'm usually at work most of the day, Scott is usually home, so it's not that he just can't go out. He can't seem to make it more than two hours at a time, for the most part, during the day. At night, he can make it six or seven hours. Right now, he doesn't seem to know how to let us know that he has to go out. We've been trying several things to dissuade the peeing, including punishment, which doesn't work at all. Currently, we've been doing a routine of questioning him about going "outside", followed by making him scratch at the door, following by getting the leash and going out. He will scratch himself about once every few days, which isn't really helping. Right now, it's a game of "can we take the dog out before he has to pee inside."

Now, I haven't had a puppy since I was ten, so I don't know doodly about training dogs, but Scott thinks he has all the answers. Well... as may be apparent, his answers aren't working in this particular case. I think we need outside advice about how to potty train.

In addition, Ichabod has really bad seperation anxiety. Through daily training, it's getting much better. It used to be that we couldn't close a door without him whining, scratching, and immediately peeing and/or eating things. Now, he can go about an hour before he starts to get nervous, and loses control of his bladder. Still, it means that if we leave to go grocery shopping or to the gym or out to eat, which are realistically unavoidable, there will be several pee spots on the floor upon our return.

Regarding Natures Miracle, and I'm not 100% sure on the facts of this, but, they apparently split from their parent company, and had to re-create their formula. Not sure when this took place, but the original formula is now sold under the name Petastic, which was the only line available to me at the pet store I went to. One may be better than the other, but either way, this is what I've got now. The only new problem is that it didn't come in a spray bottle, cause I had to go and buy the large bottle. Now I need to come up with a method to spray it evenly over the carpet, and a night where I can let it sit without the dog, or anyone else, using the living room. I'm thinking maybe a dish soap squirt bottle. It'll come to me.

[mallochai]

Petastic is the new name for the original Nature's Miracle formula. When Nature's Miracle was sold in 2003, Petatstic continued to sell the original formula. Another company purchased the rights to the name and continues to sell a different formula under the Nature's Miracle name.

petastic

As I said, I don't know which formula is better, but they are both enzyme based and are touted to do exactly the same thing. Who knows.

*edited because i can't spell today.

[gothicmom]

make sure you reward him with a treat when he does scratch a GO outside.

[Mistercreeps]

One thing you mite try with him is putting him in a cage when gone and at night. You don't want to get a huge cage though. If it's to big he will use a corner of it. Dogs normally won't pee where they sleep. Always try and take him out at the same times each day. That worked for my Elkhound. He also had a bad habit of chewing things up that he wasn't suppose to. When he was caged I would make sure he had a chew toy with him. Now he only chews on stuff I put in the cage first. To stop him from whining at night put the cage in your room where he can see you sleeping.

Hope this helps.

[Fierce Critter]

That's called crate training, and there are people who are against that. Won't derail the thread, but there are pros and cons to the practice.

With the two shepherds we've had, we kept them on set schedules as to when they could expect to be taken outside. The schedule had to be more frequent for a younger dog. I think the guideline is they can be "left alone" 1 hour for each month of life - so if Ichabod is 6 months old, you can't expect him to "hold" it for more than 6 hours. That's just a very rough guideline, however.

We did the go to the door, say, "outside" and encourage the dog to bark thing. That was marginally sucessful. Probably would have been more successful if we hadn't been lazy owners and had actually kept up with it.

Anyway, to train both dogs, we took them outside very regularly, and while outside with them, took them to the same spot EVERY time and repeated some form of bathroom word. Well, for us, it was BATHROOM. Eventually, they both got it.

We confined Oakley to a gated, spare bathroom when out of the home when he was a puppy. Bought these diaper-like pee-pee pads from Big Lots (cheaper than the same ones available at Petsmart, etc) and taped them to the floor. That kept messess off the main room's carpets.

There are tons of variations on housetraining dogs. The key is to find a decent method and STICK with it.

Good luck!

[bav]

And here I thought this thread was about Ogre & cEvin.

Next time, Gadget.....next time.

[torn asunder]

i'd bought a medium-sized cowbell and hung it from the door where we took the dogs out... everytime we took them, before we'd let them out, we'd take theie paw and hit the bell with it. after about a month, they got it, and it worked great! i could be in another part of the house & hear that bell! biggest thing is consistency, tho, i think...good luck with whatever you try...

[Fierce Critter]

LOVE the cowbell idea.

If Oakley wasn't on such a good schedule, we'd definitely try that method.

[mallochai]

as i said, the crate training just won't work for him. he loves it when the door is open, it's his own little space, but with the door closed... that's a whole other story.

and we do reward him, not always with a treat, as we don't want him to EXPECT one every time, but usually by saying "good boy" or some such equivalent.

i suggested making up a work to use when he DOES go outside, so that he would make a connection between the two, but i got shot down, and it won't matter if we don't BOTH do it. consistency is the key afterall.

over the past week though, things have been improving. we've been doing a lot more deference training, and that seems to be helping with the pee problems. no accidents for the past three days. keeping my fingers crossed.

thanks for all the advice, everyone. i really like the cowbell idea too, maybe some kind of alternative to that would really get things going, provided he didn't decide to just play with it.

[paradox]

i clean carpets for a living. i see the pet spots all the time.

1st, take all the stuff you bought from the store and throw it out. seriously. its junk, most likely. some products you find in pet stores might be good, but its hit or miss. frebreeze only masks the problem, anything powdered only makes it worse and also abraids the fibers. anything that has you scrubbing will also have you buying new carpet soon. never scrub! BLOT! always blot.

scrub = bad.

blot = good.

now. the best thing for removing oder is vingar. as a general spotter you can use a 50-50 mix of cold water and white vingar. best idea is mix it up in an old windex bottle and keep it at the back of the fridge. this is a mix that will not set stains or harm the carpet due to pH, chemical reactions or heat/friction.

2nd, if this is a persistant problem and you arent getting to the spots right away then its possible that the padding has absorbed the urine, or, in worst case, the sub-floor. if thats the case, its probably best to replace the padding and probably the carpet. the sub floor can be scrubbed with bleach water if you remove the old carpet (should that be the case).

but before you run out and do that, try a few things. for one, get to each spot asap. you can saturate the area with cold water if need be, but dont let it dry or soak in undiliuted. use clean, white damp towels and blot up as much as possible. by blot i mean that you can put the towel on the spot and step on it or even jump. as long as you dont scrub. have plenty of towels on hand.

once you blotted as much as you can (this might take awhile) i suggest spraying the area down with the water/vingar mix and bloting a little more. you can then leave a damp white towel (white fibers are more absorbant of color than dyed towels) on the spot with a little weight on top (say like a phone book etc). you can even leave it overnight like that, as long as its not too wet.

carpet dries from the bottom up, which is called wicking, so as this spot dries, it will continue to wick up into the towel (you trick the carpet into thinking its taller than it is). you can wash the towels normally. after youve let it sit at least a few hours, remove the towel and let it dry. air movement is important, so a fan would be very helpful here.

if its a bad spot or a persistant oder in a specific area, call a LICENCED and CERTIFIED company. they can offer a few other options and should be trained to know what to do. i know that we have a few products that we can inject as well as pet-spotting kits we sell. they might too, or should be able to at least recommend a proper product. we, personally, use Un-Duz-It

these kits retail for around $20.

thats your best bet, in my professional opinion. :grin:

[Fierce Critter]

I can't think of a better source for a solution. :grin:

By the way, any Beauty Supply sells empty spray bottles for around $1.00. You can also find spray bottles at the dollar store, or by hair products in stores like CVS, Wal-Mart, etc.

If the hair section of such stores doesn't have them, check the hardware department.

[mallochai]

well, in a way... this is really funny. scott picked me up from work the other day after getting out of the gym, we went home, and lo and behold, the dog had decided to eat the corner of the carpet closest to the door.

so, while i'm living here, the carpet will not come up, but once we move out, i foresee our security deposit going in to replace the eaten carpet, smell, stain or no.

dammit.

i've put cayanne on the chewed spot, so he hasn't touched it since - having used this method before on a couch cushion, he seems to test it, then lick himself a lot, and not go back, no adverse effects to his health though. nothing worse than the stuff he tries to eat that's sharp or whatnot from outside.

and yes, i know all about blotting. trust me, i've gone through many rolls of bounty.

[Fierce Critter]

A little tip from a fellow renter.

Is there an area in the house/apartment with the same carpeting where you can cut out a patch to put in the living room - someplace it won't be noticed like inside a closet, etc?

We came home one day and found that the cats had knocked over a lamp which then fell onto the carpet, stayed lit and burned a lightbulb-sized melt into the carpet about the size of a fist. VERY glad they didn't burn the house down, but we're going to have to use the patch idea I just gave you to remedy the situation.

By the way, we only leave overhead lights on when we're out now. Burns more electricity, but the HOUSE won't burn.

[mallochai]

A little tip from a fellow renter.

Is there an area in the house/apartment with the same carpeting where you can cut out a patch to put in the living room - someplace it won't be noticed like inside a closet, etc?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

hmmm.... perhaps. the spot is about fourteen inches long, and four or five inches wide... maybe something from inside one of the three giant closets along a back stretch.... we shall see. thanks for the tip!

[Ginevra]

i clean carpets for a living.  i see the pet spots all the time.

1st, take all the stuff you bought from the store and throw it out. seriously. its junk, most likely.

Not trying to knock down your opinion in any way, shape or form, but it should be remebered that pets will continue to return to the same spot because of the enzymes that are left behind. It encourages the animal to keep using that same spot. While vinegar is a great disinefectant and a good odour remover, as far as I know, it does nothing to remove the "memory" smell from the carpet/floor for the animal in question.

Mallochai, cayenne is a great deterent for dogs from digging and chewing. Does he have enough toys to keep him occupied? I know you said he has separation anxiety but chewing the carpet in such a manner nearly sounds as if he were bored while you were gone and decided to find something to hold his attention.