How to Get Dog Pee Out of the Carpet?

Removing that stinky pee out of your carpet can be challenging, but don’t worry, here’s how to get dog pee out of the carpet the all-natural way.

Can you smell that? Oh no, your furbaby made an accident on your carpet again! Whether you’re still practicing potty training for your puppy or noticing frequent accidents with an older dog, pet parents can agree that dog urine smell isn’t pleasant.

Accidents are inevitable, especially if you have a new puppy or older dog in your home. Getting rid of the smell of dog pee out of the carpet is a tremendous task.

Although there are several products to help get rid of that awful pee stink, do you necessarily need these chemicals? 

Knowing how long your dog can hold pee will help you in determining the appropriate time when he is likely to create an accident, hence you can prevent it.

Whether on the carpet, tiled floor, or anywhere else, prompt action is always the best way to ensure that dog urine won’t leave a lasting smell. With the correct cleaning agents, there are still things you can do to remove the lingering odor.

In this article, we will give you some efficient and straightforward homemade solutions to clean dog pee from the carpet without worrying about chemicals and additional expenses!

Is Your Dog’s Pee Normal?

In humans, some food can make our pee smell bad, such as asparagus and coffee. However, a dog’s pee stinks without even eating these food items. So, why does it smell strong?

The more concentrated your dog’s pee is, the stronger it will smell because of ammonia. Visually, the color would appear a very strong shade of yellow. The main reason for this is low hydration. 

Dehydration is easily manageable, obviously by providing water to your furbaby, but if your dog had such concentrated urine more than once, say after a long trip or walk, take measures to keep your furbaby dehydrated immediately.

As pet parents, we are also the immediate caretaker of our dogs whenever they are sick. We need to devote more attention to their health as our children. When it comes to bathroom habits, we have to be observant of its quality, as this will determine if there are any health concerns that our dog is having. 

1. Urine Color

Dogs typically have yellow urine with varying shades, depending on how much water your furbaby has been drinking. Clear-colored urine means that your furbaby is well hydrated, or it’s a sign that your dog is unable to concentrate urine. 

If the urine is a color other than yellow, then it is likely due to a problem. Each shade can tell you a lot about a dog’s health. If your furbaby’s pee is any of these colors, consult to your veterinarian immediately:

• Reddish or pinkish urine – The most common cause for this urine color is a urinary tract infection. Your dog could also be suffering from bleeding or clotting disease, blunt trauma, and even cancer. 

• Orange urine – This color may show if your furbaby has jaundice, liver disease, gallbladder issues, damaged red blood cells, or extreme dehydration.

• Brownish urine – This color could be an emergency medical situation. There’s a probability that your furbaby is suffering from bleeding in the urinary tract, a breakdown of red blood cells, the possibility of exposure to toxins, or muscle damage from physical injury or other types of trauma.

2. Urine Odor

Any change in your furbaby’s urine odor should be a reason to have their urine analyzed by a veterinarian. Foul-smelling urine is often a sign of infection, while concentrated urine will have a stronger smell.

3. Urine Clarity

A cloudy pee can point out infection, bladder crystals, or stones. It could also indicate the overproduction of protein in the urine.

4. Urine Quantity

If your furbaby urinates a much larger quantity, that may signal that the kidneys are not doing their purpose well to concentrate urine. This could be due to kidney disease or a hormonal influence on the kidneys. Immediately contact your veterinarian to help you manage or resolve the problem.

What Neutralizes Dog Urine Smell?

The pheromones in dog urine are part of a complex system dogs use to communicate with other dogs. Pheromones teach dogs boundaries and respectable places to urinate; however, once a dog has had an accident in the house, smelling those pheromones may encourage your dog to pee again in the same spot.

You may smell a foul odor from your furbaby’s pee due to bacteria that produce ammonia. If you are not confident where the urine odor is coming from, try using a UV or black light to find the areas the accident happened and ensure proper cleanup.

Enzymatic cleaners can destroy the proteins and enzymes that make up the pheromones in our dogs’ pee. This helps to get rid of the dog urine smell and also decreases the chances of your dog peeing again on the same spot.

Have a look at the best pet odor eliminators for more options on cleaning products.

How to Clean Dog Pee From the Carpet Using Hydrogen Peroxide?

In case you need a fast-acting solution, you may use hydrogen peroxide as it works well to remove stains and smells; however, it is most recommended that we use all-natural cleaners. 

• Mix half a cup of hydrogen peroxide with about a teaspoon of liquid dish-washing soap that you use for hand washing dishes in the sink.

• Pour the solution into a spray bottle, spray it onto the stain, and work this into the carpet with a brush. Leave to dry completely.

Why Is An All­-Natural Solution Important to Clean Dog Pee From the Carpet?

The less we use manufactured cleaners as our cleaning materials, the less we expose our beloved dogs to harmful chemicals. They’re nearer to the floor than we are, and any harsh chemicals will affect them much more than us.

Next time your furbaby leaves a bit of a mess for you to clean in the middle of your living room, give this homemade all-natural cleaning method a try and let us know how well it worked at removing dog urine stains and odor from your carpet.

How to Get Dog Urine Out of the Carpet Using Natural Ingredients?

Materials you’ll need

• Paper towels
• White vinegar and water
• Baking soda
• Vacuum cleaner

STEP 1: Blot, don’t rub

• Use a paper towel to soak up the pee stain. Keep in mind to blot the liquid, don’t rub and wipe the pee across your carpet. Rubbing the stain with a paper towel only serves to spread the stain more.

• Replace the paper towel if it’s no longer soaking up the dog urine with a fresh one.

• Keep patting the stain until the spot is relatively dry.

STEP 2: Apply the diluted vinegar solution

• In a container, mix a solution of 50% water and 50% white vinegar. Soak the area with this vinegar solution.

• Vinegar helps to cut through the pet stain if it’s especially stubborn while the water re-hydrates the stain to make sure that all the pet urine is lifted off the carpet. Vinegar also helps in neutralizing the ammonia present in dog pee, cancels out the strong pee smell, and cleans it from your carpet.

• Scrub hard to make sure you get deep into the fibers below the carpet’s surface to remove any lingering pet urine.

• NOTE: For particularly bad smells or stains on your carpet, use a more concentrated 75% vinegar solution

STEP 3: Pour baking soda and wait

• While the area you scrubbed is still wet, apply baking soda and a little of the vinegar solution and mix it on the surface. Right away, you’ll see it fizzing as it starts to work at lifting the pet stain and urine smell from your carpet. For maximized effectiveness, rub in the baking soda with your hands or a brush to deep down the carpet fibers.

• Leave the baking soda on the carpet until it is completely dry. This might take a day or two, depending on how much of the vinegar solution you put.

• Once it’s completely dry, clean out the baking soda from the carpet using a vacuum cleaner, and ta-dah, your carpet should look as good as new.

• It is important to remember not to use a steam cleaner in this stage as hot steam will permanently set the stain and odor.

How to Clean Dried Dog Urine From Hardwood or Tiled Floors?

For dried urine stains on hardwood or tiled floors, consider following these steps:

• Soak a paper towel with a hydrogen peroxide-based cleaner. Leave the paper towel and cleaner on the stain for 15 minutes.

• Repeat the first step using an enzymatic cleaner. 

How to Clean Dried Dog Urine Out of Pillows, Rugs, and Couch?

• If the affected fabric can be put into a washing machine, use an enzymatic cleaner with laundry detergent to effectively eliminate pee stains and smells.

• If you still see stains and a lingering dog urine smell after cleaning it in a washing machine, it is best to consult with a professional dry-cleaning company for improved cleaning.

Re-training your Furbaby with Potty Training

Troubles with potty training or chronic leaking may be a sign of a medical or behavioral concern. Frequent urination, urinary tract infections, submissive urination, and urinary incontinence are just a few issues that could affect your dog.

If they are still having accidents on your carpet, you may consider re-training your furbaby.

Adult dogs usually need to pee between three to five times daily. But puppies need pee breaks more frequently. Here are the average time limits for puppies of different ages:

• 8 to 10 weeks: One hour or less. Puppies at this young age simply cannot hold their bladder for more than an hour. It is recommended to start crate training at this age, but you can’t leave a young puppy for more extended periods.

• 10-12 weeks: Bladder capacity is getting bigger, but 2 hours is still the best time for most puppies to hold it.

• 3-6 months: At this age, start using the “one hour per month rule.” Three-month-old puppies can wait for three hours, four-month-old puppies for four hours, and so on.

• After six months: An older puppy, similar to most adult dogs, can hold it for up to six hours. If you don’t have a doggy door, be sure to go home at lunch or get your trusted dog walker to pay a visit if you’re unable to do so.

The above estimations can vary depending on your puppy’s size, health, and habits. But any dog enforced to hold their pee for too long is at risk for stones, crystals, or urinary tract infection. Like what we experience, holding the bladder for too long is uncomfortable and can lead to unwanted accidents.

We have an article that will help you in revisiting how to potty train your dog. By reading our step-by-step guide, we can assure you that you and your pet will have a stress-free potty training process. 

When Does My Dog Most Likely To Pee?

Dogs are consistent when it comes to doing everyday activities on a regular schedule. They have a scheduled routine on when to eat, to sleep, and surprisingly to pee.

According to an animal behavior specialist, a puppy can control their bladder for about an hour for every month of their age.

If your puppy is about three months old, they can hold it for three hours. Don’t go longer than this period between potty breaks, or they’re sure to have an accident that may happen again on your carpet or couch. You might need to wake your puppy up at night.

The following are the best time to take your puppy to pee:

• When they wake up, once your puppy is up, get him into his potty place immediately if they need to pee. 

• After eating: Most dogs have the urgent need to release after eating. It is recommended to bring them outside 5 to 30 minutes after they’ve eaten.

• After playing: The good thing about this is they could already play in your yard, so the potty place is just nearby.

• After napping: The same thing with waking up, they will have the urgency to pee, so you have to bring them outside.

• Before bedtime: After a day of being active, it is advisable to let them pee first before they go to sleep.

We hope that you have found this guide useful, and you have gained some tips on how to clean dog urine in the carpet and eliminate the evidence of those accidents that could happen anytime. Dog urine odor removal could be much more of a breeze than you thought!

Do you have other cleaning tips on how to get dog pee out of the carpet that you can share with our pet parent community? Comment down below!

Written By

Laura

Laura is the founder of Furs'n'Paws. She is a pet expert with more than 20 years of experience working with dogs and cats. She developed a very strong love for animals at a young age. Her passion led her to establish a thriving pet sitting and dog walking business in Dubai. As an expert in pet training, behavior, and nutrition, Laura is committed to helping pet owners and pet lovers by offering high-quality information on a wide range of topics.