When Upholstery Smells Like the Dog (but it's not urine!)

Summer brings warm days and humid weather, and with that warmth and humidity, unpleasant odors in upholstery become more apparent. Your pet loving customers (and the majority of your customers as well as prospective customers own pets!) may not be aware of these odors in their upholstery until humidity amplifies them to the point of being noticed. 

When a cleaner is called to treat an pet related urine odor, what they frequently detect isn't urine at all, but instead an odor that cleaners refer to as “doggie odor”.

“Doggie odor” is the smell that comes from 'decaying pet hair and dander (from cats as well as dogs)' that accumulates deep in upholstery yarns. This hair and dander is never completely removed by the pet owner's vacuuming, and as bacteria begins the decomposition process of the hair and dander, the resulting odor is one that is said to smell like “dirty socks” or “an old mop”.

Pets on furniture = Pet odors on furniture!

The most effective treatment in removing “doggie smell” is to treat  upholstery with a  botanical odor treatment before cleaning. Botanical odor treatments are labeled and sold as botanical disinfectants for hard surfaces, but may be classified as sanitizers or simply deodorizers when used on textiles.

The best procedure to follow when you've determined that upholstery is contaminated by “doggie smell” and not urine, is as follows:

STEP #1. GROOM AND VACUUM: 
The more animal hair you can remove using a pet hair removal tool made for upholstery, the better your results will be. At a minimum, use a velvet groomer to vigorously (within the durability of the fabric) brush out the hair. After removing as much hair as possible with either of these tools, vacuum the upholstery thoroughly with a vacuum cleaner that uses HEPA filtration. The more hair and dander you remove from the upholstery fabric now, the less organic material will remain to support future bacterial activity.

STEP #2. APPLY BOTANICAL ODOR TREATMENT:  
Apply the treatment to the upholstery, and then groom it in. If the fabric is not heavily soiled, this will also act as a preconditioning step.
 
Despite the fact that your botanical odor treatment may contain an EPA registered disinfectant, be very clear to state that 'you are not disinfecting the upholstery fabric'.

STEP #3. RINSE EXTRACT:
Rinse extract the fabric with a “Pet Friendly” rinse agent appropriate for the fabric type.

STEP #4. POST CLEANING ODOR TREATMENT:
For severe contamination apply an encapsulating odor treatment and groom it into the fabric. Excess moisture should be removed by towel extraction.

STEP #5. SPEED DRY:
Use air movers or fans to dry the cushion(s) and frame of the upholstery. The faster the upholstery dries, the less odor that will remain.

 SUMMARY:
This “Pet Fresh” service is over and beyond a standard cleaning job.
You will be taking extra steps to provide a fresh, clean, and pleasant home environment, and should be paid for the additional time and steps involved.

Remember This:  
Most other cleaners are making homes smell WORSE this time of year.  As the Cleaning and Odor Control Specialist in your area, you will be setting yourself over and above such cleaners when you offer this important service as one of your cleaning service packages.

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