How to Remove Pet Odor From Your Car - September 16, 2021
Many of us pet-lovers delight in seeing a fluffy dog head poking out of a car window when we’re out on the road.
Perhaps it’s even your pet’s cute face greeting fellow drivers!
Regardless, we love to carry our pets along with us wherever we go, but this can present some pretty stinky problems. Pet odor can get particularly bad in your car.
Increased heat and cramped quarters can quickly combine to turn mild odors into nearly unbearable ones!
As you might have already put together, smell-creating microbes thrive in hot environments, making your car the perfect habitat for nasty odors.
And odors don’t necessarily have to result from pet urine or feces; sometimes, your pet’s dander or skin oils can cause musty smells to become embedded in your car’s upholstery or carpet.
So what is the solution?
Remove the source of the odors: the smelly microbes themselves.
In this article, we’ll explore how to do just this!
There are several different types of material in your car where pet odors might become embedded—either through messy accidents or simply daily dander.
Before You Begin
While the pet odor issue in your car is likely coming from urine, feces, dander, or oils, it’s always a good idea to prepare the area for treatment by removing all residual pet hair or other refuse.
The easiest and best way to do this is to vacuum your car. This can be done at home or at any public car wash which offers vacuum services.
While removing hair and other residues from your car’s upholstery and carpet is not an essential step, it will ultimately make the cleaning process easier in the long run.
PRO TIP: clean your car on a clear day and out of direct sunlight if possible, opening the windows or doors to allow the vehicle to air out after the treatment period (more on this below).
How to Remove Pet Odor From Your Car’s Fabric Upholstery
The easiest place for pet odors to get embedded is in your car’s fabric upholstery, but luckily, it’s fairly easy to remove.
Your first task will be to locate the specific areas of upholstery where odors are especially noticeable.
This could be a simple task if your dog loves to sit in a particular spot, but it can also be difficult if your pet likes to range around the vehicle. The obvious prevention for this is to limit your pet to a certain area of the car, making future treatments that much easier.
Once you’ve identified the areas where odors are particularly nasty, it’s time to treat!
We recommend that you use one of Unique’s top-notch pet odor-eliminating products. Our products contain effective bacteria and enzymes that eat up and completely eliminate odors and stains at their source.
No masking the real issue. No overpowering fragrances that are worse than the original smell. Powered by Nature, and Formulated with trust.
For cleaning upholstery, we recommend that you use Pet Odor and Stain Eliminator—although our other products will also do an excellent job.
Simply follow these steps, using Pet Odor and Stain Eliminator, to remove odors:
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Saturate the smelly upholstery area with Pet Odor and Stain Eliminator.
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Use your hand, a soft brush, or the bottom of your Pet Odor and Stain Eliminator bottle to work the product into the fabric upholstery. By pressing down on the fabric and rubbing the product in, you’re making sure that the bacteria and enzymes within Pet Odor and Stain Eliminator make contact with and remove all those disgusting odors!
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If you have a specific stain or an area where you know your pet had an accident, it’s best to cover the area with a damp, white towel for a few hours. This creates the perfect environment for the bacteria within Pet Odor and Stain Eliminator, helping them to break down stains and odors.
During this period, you should keep your car well-ventilated and out of direct sunlight if possible.
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If you placed a towel over your problem area, remove it after the treatment period and allow the affected upholstery to air dry. Again, make sure your vehicle is well-ventilated, preferably with a few windows or doors open on either side of the car, and out of direct sunlight.
How to Remove Pet Odor From Your Car’s Carpet
Another likely place your pet may have either had an accident or otherwise left some smelly DNA is in your vehicle’s carpet.
Luckily, Unique has you covered here as well!
Carpet Shampoo is Unique Clean Home’s quintessential odor eliminator for carpets of all types, and your car is no exception.
Carpet Shampoo functions much like other Unique products, It can be used on your carpet floor mats to easily and effectively remove stains and odors. It also removes pet pheromones, which are essentially odors only your pet can smell.
If the source of these odors isn’t removed, your pet may continue to resoil the same spot more than once.
If you have a carpet extractor, you can use Carpet Shampoo as a cleaning solution. A carpet extractor is an industrial carpet cleaning machine that forces water and a cleaning solution into the carpet and extracts it back out, leaving the carpet like new. (If you don’t have a carpet extractor, no problem! See below.)
To clean your car’s carpet using a carpet extractor machine, follow these steps:
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Mix 4 ounces of Carpet Shampoo to every gallon of warm water.
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Let the mixture sit for several minutes. This causes the bacteria in Carpet Shampoo to come out of spore form and start working.
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Clean your car’s carpet using your extractor machine. Be sure to follow all instructions for your particular machine.
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If odors are particularly nasty, we recommend that you leave some water and product in your carpet. In other words, don’t extract out as much as you normally would. This will leave the carpet a little damper than normal, allowing the bacteria in Carpet Shampoo to continue working for a longer period of time.
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Keep your car well-ventilated, with windows or doors open, throughout this process.
If you don’t have access to a carpet extractor, you can still clean your car’s carpet! However, we do suggest that you use a slightly higher concentration of the product. This is because you won’t have a machine forcing the product deep into the carpet fibers and therefore cleaning more thoroughly. You can compensate somewhat for this factor by using a mixture of Carpet Shampoo with a stronger concentration of bacteria.
To clean your car’s carpet WITHOUT a carpet extractor, follow these steps:
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Mix 1 part Carpet Shampoo to every 10 parts of warm water. It’s best to mix your solution in a pump-up sprayer or spray bottle.
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Allow the mixture to sit for several minutes, giving the bacteria time to activate.
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Spray the mixture onto your car’s carpet, making sure to saturate the affected area.
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Agitate the carpet to work the product deep into the fibers.
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Let the carpet air dry. Be sure your vehicle is well-ventilated throughout this process.
How to Remove Pet Odor From Your Car’s Leather Interior
While most vehicles may have fabric upholstery, there are a growing number that bypass traditional fabric for the sleek look and feel of leather. But many people find themselves at a loss to know how to clean leather upholstery or other interior vehicle materials made of leather.
In reality, however, while you may need to take some extra precautions when cleaning leather, the process is quite simple and effective!
Important Note: While we are confident in our products, we do recommend that you test the procedures outlined below on an inconspicuous area of your vehicle’s leather material. Certain types of leather can react differently to products, so it’s a good idea to see how your particular material behaves before attempting to clean a more visible area.
First, like with other materials, you must identify the area most affected by a stain or odor. This can be more difficult with leather since odors or stains can be fainter and harder to detect. Again, odors will likely accumulate in your pet’s favorite spot, but it can also be a good idea to lightly treat a wider area of the leather material just to cover your bases.
Cleaning your car’s leather interior is simple:
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Saturate a sponge, white microfiber towel, or traditional white towel with Pet Odor and Stain Eliminator. A microfiber towel is not essential but can be gentler on your leather upholstery.
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Apply the product to the leather surfaces of your car with a towel or sponge, being sure to do so as evenly as possible.
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Work the product into the leather slowly by applying pressure in a circular motion. Passing over the affected area several times with your towel or sponge can help the product to fully absorb into the leather. You may need to add more product to the towel or sponge as needed.
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Remove any excess liquid from the leather by wiping it away with a dry cloth.
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Allow the leather to air dry. Preferably, your car will be well-ventilated at this point. We suggest that you open at least one window or door on either side to create a draft and keep your vehicle out of direct sunlight if possible
Our pets form an integral part of our lives, and of course, we want to take them everywhere we go! But pets are also smelly sometimes, so it’s no surprise that odors can start to become an issue, especially when combined with the close quarters and, frequently, high temps inside our cars.
Unique Pet Care has you covered every step of the way with products that are extremely effective and easy to use.
We pride ourselves on helping our customers solve any issues they run into, which is why our friendly staff is ready to assist you anytime with any issue!
Simply reach out to us at support@uniquemm.com, and we’ll do our best to get you back on track!
How To Clean Up Pet Vomit
You are asleep in bed when you hear that gagging, coughing noise that causes you to jump out of bed to try to get your dog or cat outside to safely vomit away from your carpet. But, you are just not fast enough and now you have vomit on the carpet or worse yet the bed, couch or any other surface.
Maybe your dog ate something that didn’t set well with them, or maybe the cat coughed up a hairball. There are any number of reasons your pets will vomit on your floor. None of them good for you or your pet. As gross as it is, we can help making the clean up really easy. If the vomiting persists, we recommend consulting your vet.
Step 1: Clean up as much as the vomit as possible.
Step 2: Use the Pet Odor and Stain Eliminator you can use the Ready to Use or the Concentrate. To saturate the area.
Step 3: Agitate the area, using the bottom of the bottle is quick and easy.
Step 4: Take a white towel or washcloth, run it under the sink with lukewarm water. Wring out so it is damp. Place on the vomit area.
Step 5: Use the bottom of the bottle to agitate the damp towel, this helps it to really get down into the area to really get it clean. Leave Towel overnight.
Step 6: Remove the towel and let the area dry naturally.
That’s it you will be left with clean fresh carpeting or furniture, or whatever was the recipient of the vomit.
If the stain is stubborn, depending on what cause the vomit, it may take a second treatment. But rest assured it will remove it!
A fun aside, this sound is so good at pulling us out of a deep sleep that a company created an app called Odd-Alarm and Dog Vomiting is one of the sounds you can use. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/odd-alarm/id1413644452
Your Dog Got Skunked!
Oh no! You hear your dog out in the yard make some strange noises and then, they are at the door scratching to get in. On opening the door, the dog runs into the house acting crazy, rubbing on furniture, rolling on their back, then it hits you, the SMELL. Noooooo! Your dog just got skunked. You quickly grab the dog and put them in the garage, but now what? You go to the internet and start a search.
You find a home-remedy recipe and start running around the house, hoping you have these items.
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¼ cup of baking soda.
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1-2 teaspoons of mild dishwashing detergent like Ivory Snow or Dawn Detergent
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1 quart of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide solution.
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Mix in a bucket and use immediately.
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Work the foaming mixture well into the coat.
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Leave on for five minutes.
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Rinse with warm water.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually have 1 quart of hydrogen peroxide handy. I also wouldn’t be confident putting this mixture on my furniture or on other surfaces the dog rubbed on. Hydrogen peroxide has a tendency to bleach colors.
Or for an easier solution, you could pull out your bottle of Unique Skunk Odor Remover. Mix it 3-1 with warm water and sponge on the dog. Let it sit on the dog for 15 minutes or so. Yes, they will shake but some will stay on and the bacteria will go to work breaking down the odor. It will usually take 2 applications to completely remove all odors. So, after the first round and waiting 15 to 20 minutes reapply. Using a sponge is an easy way to get it on the dog and into the areas specifically affected. Usually, it is the face and neck. While you are waiting, mix up some Unique Skunk Odor Remover in a plastic or glass container put the dog’s collar into the solution and let sit for several minutes. Then take out of the solution and let dry naturally. That’s it!
Skunk Spray is actually an oil that contains smelly chemical compounds called thiols or thioacetates. Unfortunately, when mixed with water they will smell worse because the less noxious thioacetates turn into thiols which smell worse!
Unique Skunk Odor Remover starts working by creating enzymes which break the odor into small enough particles for the bacteria to eat or biodegrade. It will penetrate the odor so it can break it down and really remove it. Through this process the bacteria will eat the oils, thiols and all.
Did the dog make it into the house and rub on any furniture? If so, take the solution and saturate the area where the odor is present and allow it to dry naturally.
Or, did you decide to drive the dog to the dog wash and now your vehicle smells like skunk. If so, just saturate the seats or anywhere you can smell the odor.
We know skunk also like to spray on the landscaping or even under decks, trailers or buildings. That is no problem. Mix up the 3-1 solution of Unique Skunk Odor Remover, if it is a large area you can use a pump up garden sprayer and saturate the soil, grass, plants wherever the smell is. The Skunk Odor Remover will not harm the soil, grass or plants it will just remove the smell. So, your dog, house, car, and yard can go back to smelling nice like it did before you had the visit from a curious skunk.
If you live in an area with skunks, it is good insurance to keep a bottle of the Unique Skunk Odor Remover in the house. Skunks usually seem to come into the yard late in the evening. When stores are closed. You may be able to help a friend or neighbor if you are prepared. Trust me they will consider you a hero!
Headed Back to the Office? Separation Issues
Finally, the world feels like it is opening back up. Now you have to go back to an office rather than work from home and getting your pets back into the routine has some challenges you may have to overcome.
Some pets will have separation anxiety and it has several possible symptoms. Here are some of the most common.
Urinating and Defecating
Some dogs urinate or defecate when left alone or separated from their family members. This usually happens shortly after you leave even if your dog has just recently been out and eliminated. This is a challenge, but we have a solution to help it not be too big of a problem. Our Pet Odor and Stain Eliminator makes clean up quick and easy. Blot the area, spray and lay a damp towel over the area. That’s it: spray, lay, walk away. Use some of the techniques in the article to combat the anxiety to help stop more accidents.
Barking and Howling
You don’t want to upset any neighbors, nor do you want any added stress on your dog.
Chewing
Chewing or other destruction may also be exhibited when you leave to go to work. There are many puzzle toys for dogs that help keep them from being bored. Using their mind actually wears out a pet, allowing them to relax. Stuffed Kongs, or West Paw treat holders filled with peanut butter, yogurt, canned pumpkin, and fruit are a few favorites. Using a variety of different foods keeps the challenge interesting. Be sure to consult your vet on what safe and healthy foods you can give.
Poop Eating
You also may see your dog has separation anxiety-induced Coprophagia. Read our blog to learn more about this.
So, what can you do to help your dog deal with your new schedule?
Don’t make a big deal out of when you leave and get home. It helps to even ignore the dog for just a few minutes when you come home. I know this is hard when they are so excited to see you but the calmer you can make your energy the calmer they will be. Then, after they calm a bit gently pet them.
Some experts suggest that you leave them an article of clothing you have recently worn will bring them comfort.
Another idea from the experts is to have a word that you use when you leave and that lets them know you will be back. I started using the term “Later Gator” when I leave.
DogTV
I also like to leave DogTV on for them when I have to leave. It does seem to keep them happy and give them something to focus on. I have a code for you to try DogTV to see if keeps your dogs as happy as it keeps my two. Use this link to sign up for a free month.
One thing to keep in mind: Punishment doesn’t work and may make the situation worse so please try to use some of the ideas to make the transition a little easier for both of you.
These are our recommendations based on our experiences. If you’re ever in doubt, it’s always smart to check with your vet.
Also, watch on June 12 on DogTV. There will be many experts who have great ideas and solutions for making the transition back to your office easy for both you and your pets.