Dog Days (and Messes!) of Summer

Friendly. Furry. Sometimes downright filthy. We love our four-legged friends like they’re part of the family, but they sure do know how to make a mess. That’s why we’re dedicating this blog to covering how to get pet stains out of carpet, how to remove pet odors, how to clean car upholstery and more.

Follow along below to find out how to keep your favorite mess-maker from ending up in the doghouse with this guide to our best floor cleaners.

First things first: accidents happen.

If you’re a pet owner, you’ve been there. Whether your dog is full-grown or just a pup, accidents are bound to happen, especially on carpet. That’s why here at Rug Doctor, we always keep Pure Power Urine Eliminator on hand. Its pro-enzymatic formula eats the bacteria found in feces, urine, blood, vomit and more, meaning it truly does the dirty work for you. Simply clean up any excess liquids or solids, then spray the remaining mess with Urine Eliminator. Cover with a damp paper towel over night, and voila! Follow with the FlexClean All-In-One Floor Cleaner to extract and deep clean any remaining pet mess from carpets and sealed hard floors. We recommend filling FlexClean’s clean water tank with hot water and powerful All-In-One Pet Concentrated Floor Cleaner for best results. Bonus: FlexClean’s Upholstery Tool easily attaches to the front to spot clean stairs, pet beds and even car upholstery.

Happy as a pig… err, dog in mud.

April showers bring May flowers plus plenty of muddy paw prints all throughout the house. But who can blame Fido? Dogs and mud were pretty much made for each other. That’s why we love Pure Power Spot & Stain Remover, perfect for treating mud messes right when they happen. This versatile spray removes mud and tough ground-in stains but is free from the bad stuff that can harm kids and pets. To clean a few muddy paw prints, we recommend the Portable Spot Cleaner. Its lightweight, portable design and powerful suction combined with motorized brush are the perfect match for tracked-in mud.

But what about BIG mud messes? The ones that happen when your yellow lab comes back looking completely chocolate? You need the best-in-class cleaning power of our Pro-Deep Carpet Cleaner with Motorized Upholstery Tool. Put the machine to work, cleaning mud messes with ease; the Pro-Deep easily cleans back and forth over big messes and pairs with a motorized upholstery tool to tackle spots, too. Pair with Pure Power Pet Carpet Cleaner for best results.

Here’s the dirt on dogs.

Sure, your dog tracks mud in from outdoors. But what about what’s already IN your carpet? Most household dust is a combination of dirt, human skin cells, and — you guessed it! — pet dander. That’s part of the reason why the Environmental Protection Agency recommends an annual deep, wet extraction carpet cleaning to improve air quality inside homes*. We recently surveyed Americans on their floor cleaning behavior and learned 31% of pet owners never deep clean or shampoo carpet within their home. YIKES. If that sounds like you, don’t despair. Put our Deep Carpet Cleaner to work. With 75% more suction than other comparable upright deep carpet cleaners and DIY carpet cleaners, this puppy packs a powerful punch that will rid your carpets and rugs of pet dander fast. Use with Pure Power Pet Spot Cleaner to break down pet hair oils for the deepest clean.

Oooh, that’s gonna leave a mark.

So what about pet messes that are so deeply stained and embedded they might as well be part your floor’s DNA? Stubborn spots don’t stand a chance against the Portable Spot Cleaner no matter whether on carpet, in upholstery, embedded into pet beds or even throughout your vehicle. Let the powerful motorized brush do the scrubbing for you to lift and extract pet mess particles and odors, plus wine spills, coffee spots and more. Got an especially egregious pet mess? No worries. We’ve got you covered with our Spot Clean Pet Odors solution, included with our Portable Spot Cleaner and Platinum Urine Eliminator in the Faux Paw Pack. Simply use with your Portable Spot Cleaner to permanently remove pet odors from all the places pets love most. Our odor-neutralizing formula is designed for homes with kids and pets and ideal for cleaning pet beds, pets’ favorite laying spots, stairs and auto interiors.

You don’t have to work like a dog to keep your floors clean.

For all the messes they make, you’d think there’d be less pet owners around. But dog gone it, we just love our furry friends, especially now that there’s a machine that can keep up with them no matter where messes happen. To keep ALL your floors clean, depend on the FlexClean All-In-One Floor Cleaner. Our first ever true all-in-one machine, FlexClean easily deep cleans both carpet and sealed hard floors with just one machine, one cleaning solution. Tackle messes across soft surfaces, plus sealed hard wood floors, tile, laminate, stone, concrete and more. FlexClean moves and steers like a vacuum making it so easy to use for routine carpet and hard floor cleaning. It makes cleaning pet messes so easy, it might as well be man’s … uh, dog’s best friend.

And right now, you can enter to win one during our Rug Doctor FlexClean Dog Days of Summer contest! Head to this link to find out how to enter pics of your pup in order for a chance to win a FlexClean, fun pet prize packages from BarkBox and others and even a VACATION for two humans plus one pet to The W Ft. Lauderdale’s Dog-Gone-It Suite, where you’ll enjoy a specially crafted doggie room service menu, Tinkle Turf pad, BarkBox delivery, plush in-room doggie bed and plenty of fun in the sun on Ft. Lauderdale’s beaches!

Follow us on Instagram @RugDoctor for more info!

*Source: National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine