If you are a pet owner, you understand. Pets have mishaps. Sometimes you don’t see it happen, which means you can’t tend to it right away. So what do you do? Get rid of Fido? Nooooo way… Get rid of the rug? Wrong again. This article will help you manage your pets accidents, minimize damage to the rug, and your pets self-esteem (we’ve all seen the sad dogs on TV, and they look.. sad).

Before we get into what you can do, let’s talk about a few things

Why do dogs pee in the house?

1. There are a few reasons. One is because the dog wasn’t trained properly. But we know that’s not the case with you, so we won’t go into details with that.
2. They did it as a puppy and can still smell and sense it, so they need to “re-claim” it. Could you imagine if that’s how people showed ownership of something? 
3. Wool… yea, unfortunately dogs love to pee on wool. Even the best trained dogs love to pee on wool rugs from time to time. It’s a catch 22, because wool is the most resistant and longest lasting textile when properly cared for. In fact, the oldest rug we know of was found frozen in the Himalayan Mountains, running about 2800 years old (and to think we can’t make cars that last longer than a few years). So buying wool is a great idea, but it can have some draw backs. 
4. The dog is too old to know what it’s doing. 

Why do cats pee in the house (or more specific, why anywhere other than their litter)?

1. They have a UTI. It is very common. And if you can rule that out, theres really only one other reason
2. There is a neighborhood cat roaming outside and marking the outside of your house, and your cat is displaying sings of a threat. So it will spray inside your house. This is a worst case situation, because a cats spray is lethally strong in odor. And absolutely the most difficult to clean out, even for a professional. 

What can be done about pee on your rug?

From here you have a few options, do nothing, clean it yourself, hire a professional rug cleaner. NOT a carpet cleaner, but someone that works with rugs specifically. 

It’s unlikely you can 100% clean pee out of your rug, from your pet (or husband who had too much whisky last night). Especially considering when a dog uses the bathroom inside once, its likely they have before or will again. In which case theres probably more than you know about. 

Hiring someone- Having someone that knows how to deal with pee in a rug, usually can remove all of the odor causing bacteria. The stain it leaves behind can sometimes be tricky, but the important thing is the bacteria comes out. Bacteria can cause a host of issues. 

Knowing the age of the pee (because urines chemistry changes over time) can help a rug profession determine what to do. Also being able to identify if the pee is isolated to one spot or if there are secret spots you don’t know about can be helpful. We don’t worry if every single spot is identified, because the entire rug will get treated and washed. It does help to locate the problem areas though. 

Doing nothing- Its your rug and you can clean it if you want too, or not. Just know that pee can turn create strong alkaloids that will cause colors to bleed, and even damage (actually it will create a chemical burn)  the fiber permanently. 

Doing it yourself- it’s possible and there are a lot of store bought “pet stain solutions” that will also cause damage. So the best route is to blot up the wetness with paper towels until nothing else comes out.