How do you get your house/apartment to NOT smell like animals??

[S1969]

[QUOTE=wendy;7029088]
I have short double-coated dogs- think lab-type coats, or on the malinios, a bit longer outer coat. Sure, they occasionally roll in something gross, but the rest of the time they have no body odor at all- you can put your nose right down into their fur and smell nothing much. I’m quite lax about grooming- run the brush over them once a week, wash them once a year. I wash dog beds once a month or so. Nothing smells “doggy”.
I’m very familiar with the stinky dogs- one meets them at petsmart and the dog park fairly often- and it’s always related to a poor quality diet, or to filthy teeth (also correlated with a poor quality diet), or to allergies (also correlated with a poor quality diet) causing skin or ear infections.
Healthy dogs don’t have a smell to them, other than certain breeds of hound that produce a water-proofing oil that has a bit of a rank scent.
If your dog smells bad there is something wrong.
if you walk into a house and smell “dog” you can quite accurately predict they feed one of the popular low-quality dog foods.

I suspect most of the OPs problems come from the litterboxes. I don’t keep cats anymore because I think letting them run free is unethical, and I can’t stand litter boxes. Animals that poop and pee inside get a one-way trip to the vet.[/QUOTE]

Perhaps the people I know who have perpetually stinky dogs feed corn-based foods…who knows? But I don’t, and I know that if I don’t bathe my dogs they will start to stink. Is it “doggy” smell? Eventually I guess I lump it into that same category…but they do not typically smell. However, after enough running outside, swimming (which is definitely a stink producer), hunting in swamps, etc., yeah, they smell like “dogs” to me. (Wet dogs, to be specific). If I didn’t bathe them, I’m sure my house would eventually smell like “dog”.

However, I think there may be a correlation between people who feed lower quality foods and those that wash their dogs via garden hose once a year or less… They are also the ones that don’t bathe their dogs because “they are so bad in the bathtub and will wreck the house” when they do bathe them.

In my opinion a good bath will help out a stinky dog, no matter what you feed it. Maybe it wouldn’t last as long as your dogs last without needing another bath…but certainly won’t hurt. And, if you go to a dog show, you will see thousands of regularly bathed dogs without coat damage…so I don’t really buy into that theory.

[DarkenStormy]

I think there are a lot of factors that play into the stinky house/animal smell. I have a friend who has one dog and I can barely stand to go in her house to visit. She feeds her dog a good food but they NEVER open their windows to let fresh air in and she doesn’t bathe her dog that often. AND he’s allowed on all the furniture

We have never had an issue with animal smell in the house. We only allow the dog on one piece of furniture and it’s leather. The rest is off limits( and he NEVER gets on them when we’re not there - I know that for a fact.)

He gets a high quality dog food and he gets bathed pretty regularly since he’s always out in the field rolling in the grass and it kicks up my allergies. That being said - when he hasn’t had a bath for a couple of weeks the only thing on him that smells bad is his head and that’s from being pet all the time.

We have people over all the time and I am constantly asking if the house smells like dog

[Sannois]

I only have 3 cats, and 4 litter boxes in the basement, And in the summer everyone is outside a lot. The litter boxes stay mostly empty.
I am a freak for smells. I have no worries with Animal smells, but living in the woods, in a log home When it is humid or damp this house just smells “Funny” I clean all the time. Makes me nuts!!!

[MistyBlue]

You need to clean the litter box daily. Get a Little Genie/similar type thingy to keep next to the litter box. Scoop daily directly into the Litter Genie. Cat smell permeates the house like crazy. I adore kittehs, but boy can they stink! Also look into cleaning or refreshing all the fabrics in your home. Fabric soaks up smells like a sponge. Carpets, furniture and drapes are the worst offenders. A good carpet cleaning/de-stinking, same with the furniture and launder the drapes. If you have fabric furniture, look into washable slip-covers. I like the ones at surefit.com. Affordable, washable and stretchy so they stay on better and don’t look like slipcovers. That way you can pop them off once a month and toss them in the wash. Bath dogs regularly. Brush them out once weekly. A good carpet refreshing trick is to buy baking soda and sift it onto your carpets. Use a broom to sweep it down into the nap and leave it on for the day. Then vacuum well. It soaks up oils and odors. Works on furniture too. Or you can spring for a carpet cleaner to come out and many will do furniture too. Wash down any area that cats or dogs have marked or had “accidents.” Use a specialized product from a pet store to de-scent these areas. Otherwise those areas will keep releasing scent into your home. (and pets may re-mark them too) It’s a bit of a project to de-smell your home, but once done it’s not a big deal to keep it up. But you have to keep it up.

[meupatdoes]

[QUOTE=Event4Life;7029067]
I think (and this is purely observation based on two dogs, neither are/were hounds) that breath is where you notice smell the most. The two dogs I’m comparing had/have very similar care, except food quality. Belle gets high quality food and her breath does not smell at all. Sawyer got lower quality food. His breath always smelt, and it wasn’t because of his teeth.[/QUOTE]

???

Wellness CORE is one of the highest quality foods money can buy.

[Casey09]

I agree with S1969 on baths. I bathe the dogs about every 2 weeks. In the winter I bathe them in a white tile shower, and I can see dirty water rinsing off of them. They do have long hair and get dirty, stinky faces from their food and they get muddy feet, etc. If they haven’t been bathed and I walk them in black pants, the sides of my pants get gross. Both of the dogs eat very high quality food and don’t really smell doggy, but their hair will start to feel dirty.
I don’t have indoor cats but I will say that from visiting others, I can smell the boxes if they aren’t cleaned constantly.

[Bicoastal]

Do you worry about your washer clogging up with all of the pet hair? I, too, use fleece throws on top of dog beds and fleece is a hair magnetic. Shaking it out before tossing into the washer does nothing.

I try to sneak dog laundry when I don’t think the landlord will see. I doubt she’d be happy about it and I can’t blame her. The dryer, especially, ends up with a coating of black Lab-like hairs on the bright white interior.

So I’ve fallen behind weekly dog laundry because I want to be sneaky about it and my dogs’ beds are gross.

[S1969]

[QUOTE=Bicoastal;7029923]
Do you worry about your washer clogging up with all of the pet hair? I, too, use fleece throws on top of dog beds and fleece is a hair magnetic. Shaking it out before tossing into the washer does nothing.

I try to sneak dog laundry when I don’t think the landlord will see. I doubt she’d be happy about it and I can’t blame her. The dryer, especially, ends up with a coating of black Lab-like hairs on the bright white interior.

So I’ve fallen behind weekly dog laundry because I want to be sneaky about it and my dogs’ beds are gross.[/QUOTE]

I try to shake out dog beds, crate pads, dog towels and my bedding (since the dogs sleep on the bed too) before washing. But then I just throw them in. I have a front loading washer and hair balls will accumulate between the rubber lip of the opening and the washer itself, so check there regularly and remove any built up hair.

I think my dryer catches more than my washer. I recently bought one of those lint hoses for my vacuum and was astounded what I got out of the vents. Yikes! Definitely something to keep up with as well, for efficiency as well as safety.

ETA: editing to say - my dogs are predominantly white, so maybe I can’t tell if there is hair left behind in the dryer!

[MistyBlue]

I used dog beds with zip off covers and I’d just vacuum the bed before removing the cover to wash. Helped a ton with excess hair. I’d vacuum the dog beds every time I vacuumed anyway, helped keep them a bit cleaner between washings. I’d stand on one corner of the dog bed and just run the vacuum over it a couple times like vacuuming the floor.

[SonnysMom]

For litter boxes we only use Fresh Step clumping or Multicat clumping, we clean at least once a day. There is a 3rd one we use from CostCo- also clumping but I am blanking on the name. These seem to have the best odor control. We have 3 indoor boxes but 2 of the 3 get used more. We have 6 cats.
One of the main boxes in in the laundry room which only has a half door so we don’t fully close it off. We have one of the automatic air fresheners that spritz every so many minutes. I find that helps a lot.

We have gotten rid of the carpet in the house. Before that we would rent rug doctors. DH felt the best carpet shampoo was actually a solution of Tide. He would make a solution in a yellow pump spayer, spray the carpet, let sit and use the Rug Doctor to rinse. He would normally rinse twice. A professional rug cleaner suggested this method as the soap residue will attract the dirt. If you put the carpet shampoo in the machine you never get it rinsed enough so it re-attracts the dirt.

Dog beds get washed regularly. Covers on the sofa get washed regularly.

I hate the smell of OdoBan and it takes time for the smell to go away but it does seem to do a good job with getting rid of tough set in smells.

I will use Frebreeze occasionally in parts of the couch. The covers for the couch pillows get washed about once a year. The dogs mostly stay off of the fabric couches. They prefer the leather one and the leather recliner.

We feed a mid-quality dog food. Canidae until about 9 months ago and 4 Health Salmon/Sweet Potatoe now. They get about 2 tablespoons of Pedigree wet food twice a day.

This week I am just starting to think it is time to wash the Eskimo Spitz since he smells a little. DH & I were trying to remember the last time he got a bath. We were coming up with a year and a half. He has had his belly and legs rinsed of MUD a few times in that time, as in maybe 3 or 4 times but no soap.
The lab is coming on 3 years old and I can count the number of baths with soap he has had in his life on one hand.

[bits619]

In addition to some of the things said already (no carpeting, leather furniture, throw towels on top of dog surfaces) we put the inserts/mattresses inside two lawn and garden trash bags. It’s not perfect but since we’re always housebreaking some dog or another, it protects them from messes. It also helps keep the dirt out and dust down.
We also have to clean our ac vents and filters very frequently. In addition we have those big round air filter things in each room. We turned them off for a while and didn’t have the air on in the spring. Once we turned it all back on with clean filters, the air quality difference was amazing.
The only time our house smells doggy is when it’s raining and the dogs may have gotten caught in the rain before we could bring them in, or after a rousing game of fetch and there are twelve panting like there’s no tomorrow… Well, then there’s the fart fests if they’ve gotten into something and then you have twelve digestive tracts working to poison the air… Gross.

[danceronice]

I try not to wash the dogs too often (as they have topical anti-flea/tick and I REALLY don’t want to get rid of that too much-ticks are a nightmare around here) but I brush them, especially the Corgi. But generally, they only smell if they’ve gotten into something unpleasant-next door has a steer and pigs (ick), there’s some kind of plant around here in the brush that has a horrible smell to the leaves–and then it’s bath time. The long-haired cat gets a “bath” with waterless shampoo as he’s a giant poofball and brushing alone doesn’t help.

I wash the chair covers, the dog bed slipcovers, vacuum the carpet, and the BIGGEST thing is keeping up with the litterboxes. I put dog piddle pads under the boxes to catch any accidents, I clean all the boxes every day, I sweep the cat room, I dump any uneaten wet food with the litter, and if the boxes get too stinky I toss them and get new ones (eventually no matter how you wipe them out the plastic absorbs odor.)

[Bicoastal]

Odoban…in laundry?

Ok COTHers I found Odoban! I didn’t realize it was like a masculine, less expensive Febreeze. Anywho, did I read that some COTHers use it in their laundry? Like as a detergent additive.

If so, about how much?

[MistyBlue]

Also with litter box smells…feeding fish based foods often causes much smellier waste in general. But considering how finicky some cats can be, if you have a fish-only cat you’re kinda stuck. But if the cats don’t care on flavor so much, swapping out fishy foods can help a lot with the smell. Now what’s this Odoban?

[Bicoastal]

I did a search trying to answer my own question. One poster added 1c to the laundry. That seems like a ton! I have an HE washer.

[QUOTE=MistyBlue;7038235]
Now what’s this Odoban?[/QUOTE]

MistyBlue, it’s been suggested in other ‘smelly’ threads such as this one.

[trubandloki]

Where does one buy Odaban?

[spotteddrafter]

[QUOTE=2LaZ2race;7027462]
how can I improve the smell![/QUOTE]

Well, I can tell you what I do, but it’s not feasible for everyone. For me, it was getting the boxes away from all general human living space.

There is a “room” on the back of my house, that was described as a sunroom or Florida room…it even has the original 70s wood paneling! It has windows everywhere, so while it’s not the most beautiful of rooms, it IS perfect for my cat boxes (and cat food, so the dogs can’t get to it)! Here’s a view of the room from the far end, facing towards the door to the inside: As you can see, I use it as storage as well, but the boxes out there make perfect spots for the kitties to lounge on to look at the windows. There is a door in between my laundry/pantry area and this room, so I had a cat door installed in it. I have 4 cats, and they all learned to use the door very easily (even the very shy, scared one did). I do have 6 cat boxes out there, and clean them daily. If I didn’t have this room, I would’ve installed a cat door in my door to the garage, and placed the boxes out there. Not ideal, but still it would be out of our living area. Just having them out there made a world of difference.

I also have 2 large dogs. The one is a 70# goldendoodle - but she doesn’t shed and really has no odor at all. She does get regular baths either at the groomer (when getting shaved down) or at the barn. My other is a 70# golden retriever - and she’s the one that can stink. She doesn’t go to the groomer, but I do give her regular baths. She still sleeps in her crate at night, so the bedding in there is completely washable - I wash it at least once a week. I have found that spraying her with a doggy detangling spray seems to help with her stinky smell in between baths. Because she sheds so much, and that combined with 4 cats, I have found that I have to vacuum twice weekly.

All of that combined leaves my house pretty smell-free…at least as far as I can tell. I think I tend to get used to the doggy smells, so I always ask my mom for her honest feedback.

[Roxyllsk]

I have 2 shelties and 2 rabbits living in my house, along with assorted birds.

I bath my dogs pretty regularly - I don’t have a set schedule, but if I sniff them when they are dry and they are starting to get stinky, they get a bath. Sometimes they need a bath every other month, sometimes it can be 6 months. It just depends. Dog are not allowed on the furniture, they have their own beds to sleep in (and these get washed pretty regularly too - oxyclean, baking soda and Nature’s Miracle).

I vaccuum a lot, and I use my carpet cleaner a lot. The whole house gets done 2x a year. For accidents, I love my Spot Bot. I spray the spot with Nature’s Miracle, squirt some oxyclean disolved in water, then let the Spot Bot do its thing.

As far as my rabbits - they are litterbox trained and their large multi-level condo is in my family room. I change out the litteroox every few days, but I actually use Woodypet as the litter. It does a fantastic job of keeping the urine smell down. If I am on vacation the litterpan does not get cleaned for a week, and while all the woodypet is wet, it still does not have a urine smell. Bunny poo does not really smell. Also, bunnies that are not nuetered have stronger smelling urine than those that are.

I do not have cats, but a good friend has always had cats in her apartment. She gets the flushable clumping cat litter, and cleans the litterboxes 2x a day.

It’s really hard to get the stinkies out of carpet and furniture once it’s in there. But if you plan ahead, prevent as much as possible (by covering or keeping critters off) and then keep on top of it, you can manage it.

[yellowbritches]

One thing I learned from my mom (who used to have a home cleaning business and is a fastidious house keeper, even with dogs) is to KEEP YOUR VACUUM CLEAN. That means, if you have a vacuum with a bag (Do they even make those anymore?) change your bag often. If you have a canister, dump it often (I try to dump my every time I use it), and rinse out/wash the filters regularly. This makes a HUGE difference. I know when she had her business and used a vacuum with a bag, she would sprinkle a little of the granulated potpourri in every new bag, which also helped a lot (can’t do that with canisters).

I live on a horse farm with a dog who rarely gets bathed and is always doing very farm doggy type stuff. I also have two cats (lucky me, they RARELY use their box and prefer to go out in the great outdoors like real men). And we all live happily in my 650sq ft house. It’s not that you can’t tell I have animals, but as long as I put a little effort in, it is never overwhelmingly doggy smelling. But I vacuum often (including the couch and the dog bed), and always, always, always try to keep air moving (I have AC, but I don’t use it unless it is consistently over 80-85). I try to keep stinky barn shoes to a minimum in the house, try to keep up with the laundry, and keep plug ins, Febreeze, and linen spray in constant use. I am very much a big girly-girl when it comes to my house, so I like it to smell pretty and look nice (even though I’m not the greatest of house keepers). I don’t like walking in and smelling stinky dog. I like smelling lavender. And I can do it if I keep up with it. :yes:

My brother and his SO have 3 large dogs and 4 cats…and you can’t really smell them. My brother takes after our mom (a little OCD in the house cleaning). It can be done…you just have to stay on top of it.

[SonnysMom]

[QUOTE=trubandloki;7038424]
Where does one buy Odaban?[/QUOTE]

I think I got mine at Sam’s Club or Costco. I know I have seen it at Sam’s. Walmart may have it also.