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Here's a riddle for you.
A few days ago in my house, I was crouched down on the carpet, sniffing it in various places.
Today, I was again crouched down on the same carpet, but this time I had my ear angled towards it, listening carefully.
What was I listening to?
The first day, I had discovered an area of the carpet which was smelling quite foul. One of the dogs* had peed there a while back, but it had dried without me noticing it until that day. I wasn't sure of the exact location, so I sniffed around to pinpoint the affected area.
*Most likely the small one, as the big one barks when she needs to go outside. The small one has to be watched more closely.
I proceeded to clean the area using the instructions on this page. Luckily, I do have a small carpet cleaner which squirts out water/cleaning solution and vacuums up the liquid. This isn't the first time I've had to clean a spot like this, but usually the spots were still fresh, not dried.
First I applied vinegar to the affected area, and then vacuumed it up.
Later I dumped out baking soda onto the carpet and worked it well into the fibers, using gloved fingers. I used about 2 boxes of baking soda, in an area of about 3 square feet. That may have been way too much (actually, it was way way too much), but I wanted to be sure to get the smell out.
Then I mixed peroxide with dish detergent. I used a peroxide bottle with a cap that lets you squirt out the liquid - this helped me to apply the liquid evenly over the area. I then worked that well into the carpet, and left it to dry.
Doing this really did get rid of the bad smell!
A day later, as it dried, the carpet started to whiten in the area I had worked on, due to baking soda crystallizing as it dried. After it was mostly dry, I tried to vacuum the baking soda up. I had to scrub it with a brush to get it loose enough to be vacuumed up. But there was still a lot of baking soda left in the carpet.
So I started mixing up vinegar with water, and squirting that on the carpet, to neutralize/get rid of the baking soda.
While doing that, I put my ear down to the carpet to hear which areas were fizzling the most, to determine which areas still needed more vinegar!
When that is done, I'll use the carpet cleaner again to rinse it with water to get rid of the vinegar smell.
Update: After doing all that and letting the rug dry again, the baking soda still isn't all gone. That part of the carpet may never look the same again, as I'm tired of working on it.
It would be useful to have a little robot which would follow my dog around the house in order to sound an alarm if she pees while inside. Something to both train her not to do it, and to alert me right away when the carpet needs cleaning. I wonder if it is possible to have some kind of sensor like that which would clip to her collar?
Aha! "The Housebreaker". But that would have to be attached around her torso, not her collar. And I suspect that would simply discourage her from even trying to pee while wearing it, so it wouldn't really train her not to pee inside while not wearing it...
A few days ago in my house, I was crouched down on the carpet, sniffing it in various places.
Today, I was again crouched down on the same carpet, but this time I had my ear angled towards it, listening carefully.
What was I listening to?
The first day, I had discovered an area of the carpet which was smelling quite foul. One of the dogs* had peed there a while back, but it had dried without me noticing it until that day. I wasn't sure of the exact location, so I sniffed around to pinpoint the affected area.
*Most likely the small one, as the big one barks when she needs to go outside. The small one has to be watched more closely.
I proceeded to clean the area using the instructions on this page. Luckily, I do have a small carpet cleaner which squirts out water/cleaning solution and vacuums up the liquid. This isn't the first time I've had to clean a spot like this, but usually the spots were still fresh, not dried.
First I applied vinegar to the affected area, and then vacuumed it up.
Later I dumped out baking soda onto the carpet and worked it well into the fibers, using gloved fingers. I used about 2 boxes of baking soda, in an area of about 3 square feet. That may have been way too much (actually, it was way way too much), but I wanted to be sure to get the smell out.
Then I mixed peroxide with dish detergent. I used a peroxide bottle with a cap that lets you squirt out the liquid - this helped me to apply the liquid evenly over the area. I then worked that well into the carpet, and left it to dry.
Doing this really did get rid of the bad smell!
A day later, as it dried, the carpet started to whiten in the area I had worked on, due to baking soda crystallizing as it dried. After it was mostly dry, I tried to vacuum the baking soda up. I had to scrub it with a brush to get it loose enough to be vacuumed up. But there was still a lot of baking soda left in the carpet.
So I started mixing up vinegar with water, and squirting that on the carpet, to neutralize/get rid of the baking soda.
While doing that, I put my ear down to the carpet to hear which areas were fizzling the most, to determine which areas still needed more vinegar!
When that is done, I'll use the carpet cleaner again to rinse it with water to get rid of the vinegar smell.
Update: After doing all that and letting the rug dry again, the baking soda still isn't all gone. That part of the carpet may never look the same again, as I'm tired of working on it.
It would be useful to have a little robot which would follow my dog around the house in order to sound an alarm if she pees while inside. Something to both train her not to do it, and to alert me right away when the carpet needs cleaning. I wonder if it is possible to have some kind of sensor like that which would clip to her collar?
Aha! "The Housebreaker". But that would have to be attached around her torso, not her collar. And I suspect that would simply discourage her from even trying to pee while wearing it, so it wouldn't really train her not to pee inside while not wearing it...