5 Ways to Get Rid of Dog Smell In Your House

We all love going home to a cute, furry companion after a tiring day out, but sometimes, the hint of pet odor reeking throughout the house is too much to ignore. During days like this, you might find yourself sitting at a computer and looking up ways to get rid of it.

If you’ve ever tried aggressively cleaning the house or going through every way possible to clean every piece of your dog’s fur and still find no success in achieving a fresh and fragrant home, here are a few tips you can try.

Causes of Dog Smell

Before going straight to remedies and pet odor elimination, it’s important to understand what causes the lingering smell in your house despite the amount of cleaning and pet care you do. Most of the time, the root of this problem is the dog itself; because a good-smelling dog isn’t always as simple as hygiene.

According to Walkerville Vet, causes of bad dog smells include:

1. Skin Disease

If you notice that your dog always has a bad smell even after a fresh bath, your dog possibly has chronic dermatitis. This could be due to yeast overgrowth and bacteria that have overtaken the dog’s skin. Despite how that sounds, antifungal or antibacterial shampoos aren’t enough as it is a skin condition that needs to be medically addressed.

2. Ear Infection

Similar to chronic dermatitis, ear infections are a specialized form of skin disease rooted in yeast and bacterial overgrowth. It has a strong smell and is probably more difficult to discover than skin disease as the ear canal tends to look perfectly normal on the outside unless you specifically look deep into it.

3. Skin Folds

Skin fold dermatitis, historically called fold pyoderma, is a common infection where two layers of skin fold over one another, creating space for warmth and moisture where bacteria can overgrow easily. As a result, it can get badly infected and smell like rotten meat.

4. Urinary Incontinence

According to WebMD, urinary incontinence is when your dog involuntarily loses control of their bladder. This can range from small leaks to large amounts of urine.

Incontinence is a separate issue from behavior-related urination problems as the former is usually caused by a medical condition, and your dog probably isn’t aware it’s happening.

How to Get Rid of Dog Smell in Your House

Having your dog checked up is the easiest and most effective way for smelly dog treatment. If you are most certain that a skin, ear, oral, or any other type of disease isn’t what’s causing your home to reek of dog smell, then it’s safe to assume that maintaining a much cleaner and well-kept home is key to solving the problem.

Here are 5 tips to keep a clean home free from dog smell:

1. Sweep and mop

Sweeping and mopping seem like the most basic chores that you probably think wouldn’t help in the direness of the situation. But to thoroughly clean layers and layers of germs to get to the source of the persistent dog smell, starting with the first, most basic step is more crucial than it seems to be.

Sweeping makes sure that you get rid of all pet hair on the floor that may carry the strong smell of dogs. If you have a vacuum cleaner that can be used on the couch, bed, or walls, the better. Mop right after to get rid of stubborn hair, dust, and any faint smell.

2. Clean dog bed

This is a highly neglected part of the cleaning process. Cleaning the dog bed should be done even more often than you bathe your dog, as this is where they spend most of their time, clean or dirty.

3. Use Deodorizer

For the successful elimination of pet odor, make sure to use deodorizers along and after the cleaning process. This guarantees that you truly get in those stubborn surfaces and neutralize any foul odor. 

A notion not often talked about is that effective deodorization is through sanitation, but doing the former after the latter can be too much even when desperately trying to get rid of the odor. In inconveniences like this, a heaven-sent product is a 2-in-1 deodorizer and pet sanitizer spray to effectively neutralize unpleasant odors while protecting your pets from harmful microorganisms.

Pawlished from O-Superstore offers a similar product with a gentle yet powerful formula. Convenient and easy to use!

4. Bathe dog regularly

As mentioned above, most of the causes of a smelly dog are due to diseases and bacterial growth. In cases like this, no amount of dog spray you use can get rid of the smell but taking your dog to the vet and having it treated.

Once your pet receives the necessary treatment, make sure to maintain its cleanliness and prevent it from acquiring such diseases for another time. Maintain it properly with Pet Shampoo & Conditioner from Happy Life — made to keep fur moisturized and smelling nice while soothing and healing burns. It also protects against ticks and fleas!

To lock in the fragrant smell of your pet's fur after bath, add pet cologne to their routine and have them smelling fresh, pleasant, and snuggle-ready any time of the day.

5. Make sure no pet waste is hidden

Now this one is more of a reminder. Even if your pet is a litter-trained baby that knows where to go when nature calls, you can never rule out the possibility that they could’ve felt like pooping in a different area on a random day. Pets can be like humans sometimes, moody, stubborn, or just plainly not feeling well.

If there’s a lingering dog poop smell or urine smell in the house, maybe it’s time to do a recheck on all corners and make sure no waste is hiding!