How to Get Dog Urine Smell Out of Carpet

By Matt Oden | Comments | Pet Stains → Urine

A dog may be man's best friend, but your best friend can be the worst enemy of your carpet. Getting dog urine stains out of your carpet isn't important just for the obvious olfactory reasons -- if your carpet smells like urine, your dog is more likely to keep doing his business there. Getting the urine smell out completely, then, is a must if you want to gently retrain your dog to keep more accidents from happening.

Removing Urine Smells From New Urine Stains

What You'll Need Before You Start:

Clean cloths
Newspapers (optional)
Water
Baking soda
Stiff brush
Cardboard
Wet/dry vacuum cleaner (optional)
Vacuum cleaner

The key to keeping urine smells from settling into your carpet is quick action. The best time to prevent a urine stain from becoming a long-lasting urine smell is to catch it when it's fresh.

To remove fresh urine from your carpet and prevent smells:

Blot the urine from the carpet, using clean cloths. Place several cloths on the spot, then step on the cloths, or set a bottle of laundry detergent or some other sturdy object on the cloths. Newspaper placed on top of the cloths will blot the spot up even quicker. Replace as cloths and newspaper, if applicable, become soaked.
Alternately, you can use a wet dry vacuum to suck up the urine. This is the better option, as it prevents any liquid from being pushed farther down into the carpet and the carpet padding. First, add water to the urine stain to dilute the urine, then vacuum up as much of the liquid as possible.
When the carpet is barely damp, add water, diluting any urine that remains in the carpet. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until any urine stain is gone. This may take several applications; in the meantime, keep dogs and other pets away from the stain to prevent re-soiling.
Allow carpet to dry completely. When carpet is dry, sprinkle the area liberally with baking soda. Work the baking soda into the carpet fibers using a stiff brush. Cover with a piece of cardboard to prevent the baking soda from being disturbed, and allow to set overnight.
Vacuum up baking soda.

Removing Stubborn or Old Urine Smells

What You'll Need Before You Start:

Black light
Chalk or masking tape
Enzymatic cleaner (Found in pet section in supermarkets, or in pet stores)

Sometimes, you can smell dog urine in your carpet, but can't quite figure out where the source of the scent. This is often the case for dog accidents you didn't find in time, or stubborn urine stains that simply did not respond to initial treatment.

Removing old urine stains, or completely deodorizing a stubborn urine stain in carpet often requires a bit of detective work, and specialized products intended for pet urine odors. Called enzymatic cleaners, these products are often sold in pet stores or in the pet section of supermarkets or other stores. Enzymatic cleaners work by neutralizing the compounds in pet urine that make them so smelly. What's more, they even fool pets' sensitive noses, which can be much more adept at finding -- and resoiling -- old urine stains than human noses.

Even if you think you cleaned up every dog accident, it's a good idea to go on a hunt for old stains you may have missed. A black light can help you find old urine stains that are invisible to the naked eye.

To remove old or stubborn urine smells:

Turn off all the lights in the room.
Using the black light, find the dog urine stains, which will glow under the black light.
Mark the stains using chalk or masking tape.
Treat the stains according to the directions on your enzymatic cleaner's label.

No matter how much you love your dogs, no one loves carpet that smells of dog urine. Removing dog urine stains takes quick action and detective work, depending on the age and aggressiveness of the stain. Deodorizing pet stains is essential to the prevention of new stains; as long as your dog(s) can smell urine in your carpet, he or she will continue to use your carpet as a bathroom. Removing any traces of dog urine from your carpet is the secret for a home that smells better now, and will continue to smell better later.