Carpet Care For Households With Pets

Carpet Care For Households With Pets

Pets are part of the family. Whether it is dogs or cats, you want your furry friend to be comfortable in your indoor space. While they are cute and great companions, the ‘accidents’ they have on the carpet can put you on edge. Unlike tiled installations and other kinds of hard flooring, dealing with pet messes on carpets is more troublesome, especially since the material readily soaks things up, and stains quickly form. Maintaining your carpet in optimal condition is critical to prolong its life. For the households that have cats and dogs around, the stakes are higher. Let’s delve into the different kinds of messes that there are to deal with.

How Your Pet Affects Your Carpet

Shedding

Mounds of fur are bound to wind up on the carpet. Even the short-haired breeds still shed. The fur and dander, as well as the body oils from the pets as they roll around on the carpet, are deposited onto the fibres and held by the material, increasing the amount of gunk accumulating in the unit.

Dirt from the outdoors

From their escapades out in the yard, running around the neighbourhood, and mingling with other pets, the home’s cats and dogs can bring in grime as they get back into the house. This is inadvertently deposited onto the carpet. Even grass that gets caught in the paws or on the body of the pet, carpet or dog, then gets rubbed against the lush carpet pile as the pet plays indoors, will lead to grass stains forming. Whether it is gunk that rubs onto the fur as the pet runs through fences and bushes, or a case of your furry friend stepping on poop while out in the dog park – you don’t want this gunk that is transferred onto the carpet continuing to build up in the lush pile, thus the need for deep carpet cleaning.

Urine stains

Perhaps the most troublesome, urine stains on the carpet are something that you just can’t ignore. Covering the spot with a rug doesn’t help, since there will still be odours permeating into the room. While they appear as surface stains, the urine will also have soaked into the material, and in cases where it is excessive it can reach the underlay and floorboards. The longer that the spots are left unattended, the more difficult they are to remove. When dealing with urine stains, the carpet cleaning needs to be thorough. If crystals are left behind in the material, these will still emit odours when they get moistened – which is why you detect a stronger stench from the spot whenever it gets wet.

Moreover, the urine odours become more pungent over time as the urea breaks down. This makes the living space uncomfortable for all occupants. For an effective carpet cleaning, the entirety of the spot needs to be scrubbed off, using products that will break down the stain and neutralise the odours, and systems that flush out the contents from the carpet’s fibres.

Tips For Carpet Owners With Pets

Avoid placing the feeding and drinking bowls on the carpet

Instead, this should be on sealed floor surfaces, preferably with a pad underneath. The floors will be easier to clean compared to the carpet, making handling messes less of a hassle. It’s also recommended that you avoid tossing the pet treats on the carpeted areas, especially those that are likely to crumble easily and leave particles in the fibres.

Potty training

Without proper bathroom habits, your pet will ruin your carpet. You don’t want your pup picking out a spot on the carpet to be its go-to area. Speaking of which, whenever the pet pees on the carpet, the spot should be dealt with before the pet assumes that it has the go-ahead to use that particular section for its bathroom needs. When potty training, it is recommended that you place absorbent mats on the carpet to mitigate the risks until your furry friend has a firm grasp on how to relieve themselves.

If the pet has already been trained and suddenly begins peeing on the carpet, then this could be a pointer to underlying issues, which can be behavioural or health problems. For instance, pets that develop separation anxiety can make messes on the carpet after the owner leaves the house for the day. Others may feel threatened when new cats or dogs are being welcomed into the house, and feel the urge to mark their spots, asserting their dominance and showing that this is their territory. It can also be a urinary tract infection, which is why it is recommended that you visit the vet when there is a sudden onset of urine accidents all over the household. Incontinence is also a cause of this, and it is typically witnessed in elderly pets that lose bladder control. Getting to the root cause of the urine accidents will enable you to put in place the required measures to mitigate it, which in addition to the carpet cleaning, will enable you to protect your unit and preserve the comfort of the household members.

Grooming

Regularly brushing your pet to remove the dirt, dandruff and shed fur from the cats and dogs will reduce the amount that gets to the carpet. This, coupled with the occasional bath, will also contribute to maintaining a healthy coat and fur for your pet. Moreover, with a well-groomed pet, there will be far less odours to worry about, many of which would have otherwise been absorbed by the carpet.

Schedule professional carpet cleaning sessions

Having a professional come in and give the carpet a thorough wash is key to maintaining suitable living conditions for both you and your furry friend. It also has the welcome benefit of taking away the intense workload that is typical of the carpet cleaning process. Here, powerful equipment is needed to flush out the gunk that has accumulated in the pile, and also extract the moisture so as to reduce drying times. With the professionals, you also get to ensure that the products and systems used are safe for the kids and pets in the household.

Carpet Care For Households With Pets