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Has your pet left "scent marks" of urination and/or defecation
on your floor or furniture? To successfully re-train your pet to avoid
those areas, follow these basic steps:
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Find all soiled areas using your nose and eyes. A
black-light bulb will usually show even old urine stains. Turn out
all lights in the room; use the black-light to identify soiled areas
and lightly outline the areas with chalk.
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Clean the soiled areas appropriately to remove the
odors (see below).
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Make the areas unattractive and/or unavailable (see
our handouts on dog and cat aversives).
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Make the appropriate "bathroom" area attractive (see
our handouts regarding positive reinforcement, house soiling and/or litter box issues).
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Teach your pet the appropriate place to eliminate
by using positive reinforcement (see our handouts mentioned above).
These steps work as a team! In order for your efforts
to be successful, you need to follow all of these steps. If you fail to
completely clean the area, your other re-training efforts will be useless.
As long as your pet can smell that personal scent, he’ll continue to return
to the "accident zone." Even if you can’t smell traces of urine, your
pet can. Your most important chore is to remove (neutralize) that odor.
Methods To Avoid
You should avoid using steam cleaners to clean urine odors
from carpet or upholstery. The heat will permanently set the odor and
the stain by bonding the protein into any man-made fibers. You should
also avoid using cleaning chemicals, especially those with strong odors,
such as ammonia or vinegar. From your pet’s perspective, these don’t effectively
eliminate or cover the urine odor and may actually encourage your pet’s
inclination to reinforce the urine scent mark in that area.
To Clean Washable Items
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Machine wash as usual, adding a one pound box of baking
soda to your regular detergent. If possible, it’s best to air dry
these items.
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If you can still see the stain or smell the urine,
machine wash the item again and add an enzymatic cleaner. Be sure
to follow the directions carefully.
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During the re-training period, a good way to discourage
your pet from using the bedding is to cover the bed with a vinyl,
flannel-backed tablecloth. They’re machine washable, inexpensive and
unattractive to your pet.
To Clean Carpeted Areas and Upholstery
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Soak up as much of the urine as possible with a combination
of newspaper and paper towels. The more fresh urine you can remove
before it dries, especially from carpet, the simpler it will be to
remove the odor. Place a thick layer of paper towels on the wet spot
and cover that with a thick layer of newspaper. Stand on this padding
for about a minute. Remove the padding and repeat the process until
the area is barely damp.
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If possible, take the fresh, urine-soaked paper towel
to the area where it belongs -- your cat’s litterbox or your dog’s
designated outdoor "bathroom area" -- and let your pet see you do
it. Don’t act angry when you do this, but try to project a "happy"
attitude to your pet. This will help to remind your pet that eliminating
isn’t a "bad" behavior as long as it’s done in the right place.
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Rinse the "accident zone" thoroughly with clean, cool
water. After rinsing, remove as much of the water as possible
by blotting or by using a "wet-vac," "shop-vac" or "extractor."
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If you’ve previously used cleaners or chemicals of
any kind on the area, then neutralizing cleaners won’t be effective
until you’ve rinsed every trace of the old cleaner from the carpet.
Even if you haven’t used chemicals recently, any trace of a non-protein-based
substance will weaken the effect of the enzymatic cleaner. The cleaner
will use up its "energy" on the old cleaners instead of on the protein
stains you want removed.
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To remove all traces of old chemicals and clean old
or heavy stains in carpeting, consider renting an extractor or wet-vac
from a local hardware store. This machine operates much like a vacuum
cleaner and is efficient and economical. Extracting/wet-vac machines
do the best job of forcing clean water through your carpet and then
forcing the dirty water back out again. When using these machines
or cleaners, be sure to follow the instructions carefully. Don’t use
any chemicals with these machines – they work much more effectively
with plain water.
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Once the area is really clean, you should use a high-quality
pet odor neutralizer available at pet supply stores. Test the affected
surface for staining first, and read and follow the instructions.
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If the area still looks stained after it’s completely
dry from extracting and neutralizing, try any good carpet stain remover.
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If urine has soaked down into the padding underneath
your carpet, your job will be more difficult. You may need to remove
and replace that portion of the carpet and padding.
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Using the suggestions in our aversives, positive reinforcement and housetraining handouts, make the "accident
zone" unattractive, the appropriate "bathroom" area attractive, and
teach your pet where you want him to eliminate, instead. The re-training
period may take a week or more. Remember, it took time to build the
bad habit, and it will take time to replace that habit with a new,
more acceptable behavior. Treat your pet with patience and give him
a lot of encouragement!
To Clean Floors and Walls
If the wood on your furniture, walls, baseboard or floor
is discolored, the varnish or paint has been affected by the acid
in the urine. You may need to remove and replace the layer of varnish
or paint. Employees at your local hardware or building supply store can
help you identify and match your needs with appropriate removers and replacements.
Washable enamel paints and some washable wallpapers, may respond favorably
to enzymatic cleaners. Read the instructions carefully before using these
products and test them in an invisible area.
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