Do you have an adorable baby hamster or a regal 15-year-old cat that has claimed every square inch of your home? Maybe you have two giant floofs that jump up and lick and greet every guest that they meet? It doesn’t matter which pet you have, one thing that’s for sure is you’re going to be getting close and personal with some unpleasant pet odors from time to time.
Knowing that our best friends sometimes will be a bit on the smelly side, we’ve put together a number of tips to help you deal with any unpleasant pet odors.
How to Remove Dog Odors
Tip #1: Determine What’s Producing the Smell
While cat odors tend to be pretty straightforward (litter boxes or litter box misses), dog odors can be all over the place.
Which dog odors do you deal with on a regular basis?
- Smelly Breath
- Oily Skin/Stinky Fur
- Smelly Glands
- Wet Dog Odor
- Make-Me-Gag Gas
- Urine Accidents
- Feces Accidents
- Chowing down on “litter-box treat”
- Stepping in smelly things outdoors
- Rolling in weeds/grass/pollen
There’s probably a dozen we’ve forgotten, and even more that we don’t want to think about.
Tip #2: Determine If The Smell Can Be Removed Directly
Give Your Dog A Haircut
Giving your dog a haircut can clean them up a lot. Shorter fur will help reduce some of the amounts of dirt, debris and odors they collect on them while outside and also make it easier to wipe them down when they come inside.
Give Them Bath/Trim
What do you think you would smell like if you only bathed once a month? Probably not that great! Just like with body odor, some smelly dog odors can be resolved by simply giving your pooch a nice bath on a regular basis.
While you may get lucky and be able to eliminate a lot of odors simply with a bath, many other odors will not be as easily addressed. Oily Skin that contributes to smelly fur, and wet dog smell, may require changes to the diet, or may not be addressable at all. And washing your dog won’t do much to remove the smell of a pet accident from the air. If the smell can’t be removed with a good bath and trim, follow these other tips. Remember that older dogs will usually need baths more often, but be careful not to overbathe them, as it can dry out their skin.
Change Your Dog’s Diet
Often you can switch up the types of food you are giving to your dog, resulting in a positive effect on the oiliness of their skin, or the other odors they produce (such as gas!). We once had a little terrier with a digestive problem that required a special enzyme powder to be added to everything she ate. We could quickly smell when we forgot!
Be sure to consult your veterinarian before making any big changes to your dog’s diet.
Tip #3: The Secret to Finding Pet Spots
Sometimes our pups have accidents. Whether they are young and still being house trained, or whether they’re full grown and just decided they were going to chug half a gallon of water as soon as you left the house, and they couldn’t hold it until you got back home. When they have an accident, many times, you’ll be able to tell quickly where it happened. However, sometimes it won’t be so easy.
A Smelly Side Story
Years ago, we paid a neighbor to watch our two dogs while we were out of town for a week. “Bring them in at night and put them in their crates, then let them out in the morning” were our instructions.
Well, our neighbor was nice enough to ignore our request, deciding that “the dogs seemed sad in the crate” where they peacefully slept every night for the prior two years. After not putting them in the crate, she then took her time coming to the house to let them outside, arriving late in the afternoon the next day. Repeat for 7 days. When we got home, the dogs had urinated in the home more than a dozen times!
At that point, it was impossible to tell with our nose alone where they had gone. Hopefully, you’ll never encounter this situation. But if the unfortunate circumstance arises in which you are hunting for elusive pet spots, there’s an easy way to find the pet spots:
Use a Blacklight Flashlight
The fastest way to find a urine spot on the carpet is by using a high powered black-light flashlight. Black lights produce a wavelength of light that will illuminate the spot on the carpet, even if you can’t see it when the lights are on. So grab a high powered black-light flashlight, turn off your lights, and walk around. Warning: You might be a little grossed out by what you find!
A Black Light Flashlight Revealing Pet Stains On The Carpet
Tip #4: Focus on Long-Term Odor Elimination
While wiping, bathing, grooming your dog and changing their diet can all contribute to a reduction in odor, that often that won’t be enough. You won’t always be fortunate enough to have just bathed and groomed your pooch before they come running in the house soaking wet. You also may not be around to catch and prevent an accident from happening before the smell permeates your entire house. Therefore, it’s great to have a solution that works to remove odors all the time.
This is where an air purifier can really come in handy. Be sure to check out our selection of air purifiers. Alen True HEPA (H13) medical-grade filtration captures 99.99% of harmful particles down to 0.1 microns—including allergens, dust, mold, bacteria, aerosolized viruses, and more, which means that even the most persistent smelly dog odors can be consistently controlled.
How to Remove Cat Odors
Cats are great for lots of reasons, not the least of which is keeping everyone's social media accounts adorable. In certain areas, they're pretty self-sufficient—the litterbox is a great time saver. However, that can make our furry friends a chore in another way: odor control. We've got several hints to help you banish the odors and love your kitties even more.
Tip #1: Removing Odors Instead of Masking Them
Most solutions for pet or litter box odor are aimed at masking the odor, not taking it out of the air. An air purifier is a safe and consistent way to remove those odors from your air. Alen’s best-in-class Air Purifiers for Pet Odor & Dander specifically target the odors from cats and their litter boxes, keeping your air clean and smelling fresh.
AIR PURIFIERS FOR PET ODOR & DANDER REDUCE:
- Litterbox smells including urine & feces odor
- Odor from accidents outside of the box including urine
- Dust & dander
TIP #2: Prevent Desensitization of Cat Odors
Your home can harbor odors without you even noticing it. When we live in a home with a persistent cat odor, or one that gradually accumulates over time, we can become accustomed to it. It becomes harder to smell, to the point where you might no longer notice them at all.
This is why a persistent cat odor solution, like positioning the air purifier from your Fur Family Smart Bundle near the litter box, makes so much sense. This is a preventative measure you can take to avoid being desensitized to odors that your guests might not appreciate.
IDENTIFY ACCIDENTS
Sometimes mistakes happen. We don’t blame Princess Caroline, but we do need to deal with the aftermath. Whether it’s missing the litter box, or ending up going somewhere entirely different, the smell can become an issue. When you can smell that your cat has missed the box, but you don’t know quite where it occurred. One thing you can do is use a high powered black-light flashlight. It will make the urine glow. And you can identify where it is whether on carpet, wood, or around the litter box.
REMOVE PET ACCIDENT SPOTS
Once you’ve identified where your kitty has missed the mark, you can use a number of pet cleaning products to spot clean. This is important as cats will tend to go back to their previous "spots" and repeat the process unless they are thoroughly cleaned.
How to Deal with Long Term Pet Odors
Long term smelly pet odors can become a serious issue if left alone. Have you ever gone to a friend's house and wondered “what is that smell?”. Odds are they didn’t know their home had a smell because they’ve been living with it for so long. Don’t let your guests come over thinking “is that dog smell?”
The Alen Fur Family Smart Bundle is designed specifically to neutralize (not just cover up) unpleasant pet odors. The air purifier’s filters contain a specially formulated odor powder which reacts with and eliminates the chemicals found in urine and feces odors. This patented odor powder makes the Fur Family filter especially effective at neutralizing unwanted pet smells. These filters also provide highly effective allergen and dust removing capability that is standard on all Alen filters.
This bundle comes with an additional discounted filter, so you get double the filter life for a great price.
The Fur Family Filters can remove:
- Urine Smell
- Feces Smell
- Wet Dog Smell
- Oily Skin odors
- Smelly Gland odors
Activated Carbon vs Alen Fur Family Filters
The filters included with the Alen Fur Family Smart Bundle are unparalleled in their ability to remove the specific chemicals contained in these odors. Other air purifier solutions fall short because they either have no odor removal additives in their filters or they use simple activated carbon to remove odors. Unfortunately, activated carbon is surprisingly ineffective on the specific combination of chemicals that are found in pet/bathroom odors.
Keep Your Air Fresh and Clean
Being a pet owner can be one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives. We take care of them and in many ways, they take care of us. By keeping your air clean and pet odor free, you can promote a healthier, happier lifestyle in your home or business. Just remember to follow our cleaning suggestions and consider investing in an air purifier that will consistently remove unwanted pet odors. Speaking of pets and air purifiers, our air purifiers are also great for mitigating pet dander and allergies!
Be sure to check out our Alen Fur Family Smart Bundle and selection of True HEPA Air Purifiers today!
Leave a comment