How to Get Dog Poop Out of Carpet
Every new puppy owner has done it… the “how to get dog poop out of carpet” Google search. Look, accidents happen. Dogs will be dogs, puppies will be puppies, and puppies will poop where you don’t want them to. And that’s perfectly fine, as long as you can actually clean it up effectively!
If your dog has made a little mistake on your carpet or rug, don’t fret, you can get it cleaned up! If you’re needing help with housetraining don’t fret either! Our Dog Savvy course can help you out, and our Ultimate Training Library is here for those of you needing extra reading material!
First Things First…
The very first thing you should do when your dog poops on the carpet is getting the dog outside ASAP. Especially if you catch them in the act, the last thing you need is another pile of poo across the house while you clean up the initial accident. Take the dog out to let them finish their business if they still need to.
Next, you’ll need to remove all the solids from the carpet. Hopefully, your dog’s accident was rather solid and you can simply pick it up with a paper towel. Regardless, you’ll want to do your best not to smear anything deeper into the carpet. Remove as much as you can before moving forward.
Deep Cleaning The Fibers
The best thing you can do next is getting yourself a spot cleaner or carpet cleaner. You can also rent one from home improvement stores and sometimes local grocery stores as well. With a carpet cleaner, most of the hard work is taken out of your hands. It’s the best option for getting as much residue out of your carpet as possible.
If a carpet or spot cleaner isn’t an option, a bit of elbow grease can suffice. Using some warm soapy water and a scrubbing brush can help you remove the remaining debris from the carpet fibers. You can alternate between scrubbing the carpet out and soaking up the liquid with paper towels until the water comes up clean when you scrub
Using an Enzymatic Cleaner
Even after you’ve removed as much residue as possible, you’re going to want to use some type of enzymatic cleaner to eliminate any leftover scents that your dog might pick up on. Dogs love to potty where they’ve pottied previously, so really thoroughly cleaning the spot with an enzymatic cleaner is important.
Follow the instructions on the bottle to ensure that you use the cleaner safely, and be sure to purchase a cleaner designed for pet stains.
Going Into Housetraining Lockdown
Unless you want to replace all your rugs, you’re going to want to work on going into puppy lockdown until your dog is fully housebroken. Take any rugs you own, roll them up, and safely stow them away until you’ve fully housetrained your dog.
For carpeted areas that you obviously can’t just pick up and put away, you’ll need to implement some security measures. Use gates and playpens to block access to any area with carpet so that your dog can’t access it.
Stop grumbling about the inconvenience and start working on your housetraining! The more accidents your dog has, the longer it will take.
Why is Your Dog Pooping on the Carpet in the First Place?
This brings us to our next step, actually housetraining your dog. Why do you need to get dog poop out of the carpet? Why isn’t your dog fully housebroken?
If your dog is fully housebroken but has accidents when you leave the home, it could have separation anxiety. Other signs of separation anxiety include extended periods of barking or whining, salivating, and destroying things.
If you have a puppy, the answer is probably simply that they just aren’t quite there yet… but you should still get on that! Use our Dog Savvy course and start working on preventing those accidents today.
House Training Your Dog
The problem with house training is that every single accident sets you back. Lots of new puppy owners don’t understand that. They expect a puppy to have accidents and those accidents to slowly decrease on their own. Many puppy owners think it’s a win when their dog only has a few accidents per week.
The truth is every single accident sets you back to “day one” in your housetraining. Dogs are creatures of habit, and this is especially true for housetraining. There’s no conscious thought occurring when your dog goes potty, they just go where they usually go. When the dog usually potties outside in the grass, they want to go outside in the grass to potty.
Conversely, when the dog potties outside, and in the dining room on the carpet, and in the spare bedroom… they’re going to continue to do so. There’s no reason for them not to, because they’ve not gone there. The only true way to housetrain a dog is to make sure that they don’t potty in the house.
Once they reach a point where they haven’t gone in the house for a long enough period, it becomes something they just don’t do because they only potty outside. There’s no thought. There’s no learning, just habit, and repetition.
Addressing Separation Anxiety
Where a non-housetrained dog might have accidents any time, not just while you are gone, a dog with separation anxiety only has accidents when you leave them. They typically also bark, whine or howl for long periods when you leave them alone. Pacing, drooling, and chewing things also indicate separation anxiety.
Dogs who have separation anxiety have accidents out of panic. They do so involuntarily and typically don’t know or understand that they’ve even gone to the bathroom. If your dog potties on themselves when you leave them alone, they could have severe separation anxiety and you should seek help immediately. Our Separation Anxiety Challenge can help you teach your dog how to cope with being left alone.
