How to Clean Dog Pee from Carpet: 5 Amazing Methods

Does your house smell like dog pee?

If you have pets, you may not even know that your house has a pet’s odor and one of the pet’s odor you can deal with is when they have accident and urinate in the house. If you’ve been out for a few hours, chances are that dog’s urine stain may have been sitting for a while. As soon as you discover it, it’s important to clean dog pee from carpet or anywhere right away. If you wait too long, bacteria can start to grow in the affected area, which leads to unpleasant odors.

There are several methods of cleaning dog pee stain from the carpet. Let’s look at some of the methods.

1. Baking Soda and Vinegar Method to Clean Dog Pee From Carpet

When it comes to old dog stains and old dog odors, it seems like they even get stronger the older they get. So what you’re going to do if haven’t caught it when it’s still wet, if it’s still wet, pull up the damp spot, but if it’s dry, it’s not too late.

How to:

Take the spot that is dirty, and you have a spray bottle, which is filled with vinegar, white vinegar. Get the spot wet by spraying vinegar on it, which will reactivate the dog pee. Vinegar can also help to mask odor for your own nose, so a few drops of this over the affected area may help to deter future use by the pet. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes, take an old rag and push on that spot and get all that excess white vinegar out. After you have gotten the white vinegar out, sprinkle baking soda and push it into the carpet where the white vinegar was. Push it deep so that it gets into the carpet fiber. Vacuum it up and it’s done, you don’t have the dog pee smell again.

You can also spray the spot with vinegar, then sprinkle on enough baking soda to thinly coat the area of the stain. Cover the stain with an old rag for 24 hours, then wash the spot thoroughly with cold water. This mixture should absorb the stain and cleanse the spot thoroughly. Mix baking soda and apple cider vinegar together to create a paste. Leave the paste on the urine stain overnight, and run a carpet cleaner over the stain the following day.

Alternatively,

Another way to use vinegar and baking soda, a staple in the green cleaning arsenal, is to mix them together in a spray bottle. Mix one cup of distilled white vinegar with one cup of water and two heaping tablespoons of baking soda. Shake it up, spray it on the carpet, let it sit for five or six minutes, then gently blot it up with a fresh cloth.  If you notice a wet spot that may have happened earlier in the day, sprinkle it with baking soda and let it sit overnight, after the patch dries overnight, spray it with distilled white vinegar and don’t be concerned if the carpet bubbles a bit while the compounds interact to clean.

2. Vinegar, Water and Baking Soda Method to Clean Dog Pee From Carpet

Soak up the urine stain using paper towels or a rag. Press firmly into the stain. This will help absorb as much urine as possible from the carpet. Using  white vinegar and water, mix a solution in a bowl. Mix enough of the solution so that it can reach deep down into the carpet’s fibers.

Pour the solution onto the urine stain. Using a scrubbing brush, work all of it deeply into the carpet. The vinegar should help to neutralize the ammonia in the urine. Blot the urine stain using a paper towel, pressing firmly into it. When that section of the carpet is dry, take a handfuls of baking soda, depending on the size of the urine stain and sprinkle it onto the stain.

Mix one-half cup of three percent hydrogen peroxide with a teaspoon of dishwashing detergent and apply to the stain. You can use the scrubbing brush again to thoroughly clean the carpet.

Once dry, vacuum the area. If you act quickly, the vinegar followed by baking soda should be sufficient.

3. Wet Towel Method to Clean Dog Pee From Carpet

Stage 1

Absorb the mess. Use wet towels or paper towels, layered and topped by some kind of weight, to quickly absorb fresh puddles. Run the towels under cool water, then wring them out so they’re damp but not dripping. Place them over the stain completely and put something heavy on top, like cans of food, a pair of shoes, or a book. The moisture helps soak up the urine, while the weight presses the towels down into the carpet. Leave it on for at least 10 minutes.

You can also fold a bath towel two times and cover the urine spot. Stand on towel and dab the urine into the towel by walking In place. When urine is seen on the towel under your shoes, pick up the towel and cover the urine with an unsoiled section of the folded towel. Repeat as necessary to get the liquid up. As urine comes up from the carpet use unfolded towels or only fold once.

If the spot has been wet longer than 10 minutes, it’s probably soaked into the carpet pad. Make the towel 50% wider than the area of visible stain and use more damp towels and a heavier weight.

Stage 2

Re-wet the spot with water. After you’ve lifted the towel, pour a small amount of cold water over the spot again. Start pouring just outside the perimeter of the stain, slowly moving toward the center. This will prevent the water from spreading the urine out into an even wider circle. Allow the water to work through the stain for about a minute.

4. Enzyme Cleaner Method to Clean Dog Pee From Carpet

You can buy enzymatic cleaner at most pet stores, or you can make your own with clean water, brown sugar, and orange peels.

Spray enzyme cleaner over the area. Non-toxic and effective, enzymatic cleaners work by breaking down stains into their basic elements, eliminating the compounds that create smells and stains. Using an enzymatic cleaner is the best way to help break down the proteins left over from the urine, removing the smell as well as the impulse for the pet to urinate in the same spot again.

Next, apply another towel and absorb the cleaner. After soaking the spot with cleaning, follow the same procedure as with the first absorbing, and put a fresh towel over the enzymatic cleaner to absorb it and thoroughly cleanse the area. Weight the towel with a heavy object and leave it alone. Allow the towel to sit overnight. When you pull it up in the morning, the visible stain should be gone, as well as the smell.

5. Using Homemade Deodorizing Vinegar Solution to Clean Dog Pee from Carpet

Step 1: Blot Up the Urine Immediately

The job is so much easier if you can get to the pee while it is still wet. If you can remove the majority of the urine right away, bacteria will not get a hold, and it is the bacteria which causes the worst of the smell, not the urine itself.

Grab a length of around six sheets of kitchen roll (paper towel).

Fold this into a six-sheet thick square, and press it down onto the wet area of the carpet with your foot.

Repeat with a fresh paper towel until the area is as dry as you can get it.

The trick is to make sure you get as much of the dog urine blotted up as possible before you start.

Step 2: Use a Homemade Deodorizing Vinegar Solution

After you have blotted wet stains or located the dry stains, it is time to tackle the odor! I like to keep a spray bottle handy containing a 50/50 mixture of white vinegar and water. The vinegar does smell a bit strong, but it does not last long and is definitely the best dog urine odor remover because it neutralizes the ammonia.

Put on your rubber gloves.

Spray the vinegar solution from the outside edge of the stain towards the middle.

Work the vinegar solution into the carpet fibers with your fingers or a clean, lint-free cloth.

Use a paper towel to blot up excess wetness.

Step 3: Use Baking Soda to Remove the Vinegar Smell

Thirdly, once you have got the area as dry as you can, liberally sprinkle on baking soda, and work it into the fibers of the carpet with your fingertips (while wearing rubber gloves) or use an old, soft toothbrush. You need to be generous with the baking soda; give the carpet a good covering so it is completely white! Leave the baking soda for 30 minutes to soak up all the vinegar and smells.

Step  4: Vacuum the Area

Once the baking soda you put on is dry, you just need to vacuum this out of your carpet, and you’re done! If you have a pet hair remover attachment on your vacuum cleaner, use it! It breaks up any hardening of the baking soda. If you don’t have this sort of attachment, you can use a small, stiff brush or the back of an old table knife blade (not the sharp edge) to break up any stubborn bits.

If you can still smell the odor once the area is dry, you may have to repeat the process, which is a bit of a pain but is still the best method for removing the smell of pet urine smell in your carpet.

Bonus Way: Using Hydrogen Peroxide to Clean Dog Pee from Carpet

Does hydrogen peroxide work to get rid of dog pee smell? Yes, hydrogen peroxide works to remove stains and smells.

Mix around half a cup of hydrogen peroxide with about a teaspoon of dish soap that you use for hand washing dishes in the sink. Pour the mixture into a spray bottle and spray onto the stain and work this into the carpet with an old, soft toothbrush. Leave it to dry completely. Only use 3% solution and always check for color-fastness on an inconspicuous area first as it could bleach the fibers of the carpet, leaving a permanent light patch as a reminder of the accident!

What if I Can’t Find the Smell?

Furthermore, in case you are one of the many people who walk into a room and ask, “Can you smell something?”, here’s a tip. When you know your dog or cat has peed but it’s already dried and there is nothing left but the odor, you can always use a blacklight to reveal the offending area of carpet or upholstery.

In conclusion, here is a clever way to track down those urine stains you can smell but cannot see!

Use an LED/UV Cat-Dog-Pet Urine Stain Blacklight Flashlight. The gadget is ultraviolet or ‘blacklight’ that has an LED, low-energy bulb. Just shine it over your carpet or upholstery, and those little ‘whoopsies’ will become visible, so you can deal with them.