Having a dog is fantastic, but cleaning up after him is not so fun. When you’re wondering how to clean dog urine so that he won’t go there again, it can seem like a nightmare you just can’t wake up from (even to go outside and go potty). There are lots of tricks that you can try in order to get that urine smell out of the carpet, but the most important thing is that you stop your dog from going there again, because no matter how well you clean it, he’ll like to go in the same spot over and over again.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that your dog is getting outside on a good schedule. This might not seem like information on how to clean dog urine, but it’s an important part of it because peeing in the house is a pattern, and in order to get the spots cleaned and make sure that they don’t reappear, you have to break the pattern. So, make sure that you’re taking him out often. If he’s loose in the house while you are work, and likes to pee in the living room, see if you can find a way to keep him confined to one room of the house, like the kitchen, while you’re gone. It just might be that your dog doesn’t get full reign of the house without his humans around. The kitchen floor is much easier to clean, anyway.

Next, you have to address the spots where he’s going. Unless you’ve got an old dog that simply can’t hold his urine for very long, your puppy is probably peeing in one or two, or maybe three spots throughout your house. Male dogs tend to mark territory, and females do as well. Even once they’ve established a house as theirs, they will still go inside, just to make sure that everyone knows it. So, see if you can identify the places that they go. You have to make sure that you clean them carefully, and not just on the surface. Use a carpet cleaner for spots on the carpet, and a surface cleaner for spots everywhere else. Get the entire spot, and get it down deep. However, this isn’t good enough. You also have to use something like vinegar, or another agent that will actually get rid of the smell. Even if you can’t smell it, your pooch can, and he’ll continue to go in the same spot.

If you can, you might want to do a little rearranging. For instance, if your dog likes to pee on the TV stand, move everything that he’s peed on (after it’s been cleaned) to a higher shelf, and see if you can get some doors for the stand. The more that you change things up, the less likely he’ll be to have the same habits. Try some products that you can find at your pet store, the ones that are meant to actually eliminate urine smells so that your dog won’t go there anymore. And above all else, watch your dog. If you can keep him from going in more places, that’s the best way to know how to clean dog urine that you can think of.