What is the most common reason why you get your area rugs cleaned?

The typical answer is not because your rug is dirty. Area rugs are dirty way before they look dirty.

I am in the dog house

The most common reason why you get your rugs cleaned is pet accidents. Our pets know that the rug will work as a great indoor bathroom, as their napkin or to let you know they are not happy with you. It doesn’t seem to matter if you only have one rug or many rugs, pets know that the rug is the place to use.

I know first hand how frustrating it is when your dog pees on the rug. My sweet little Chihuahua, Texas (see picture) likes to forget why we go outside, that is why I only have one rug in my home.

There is one big mistake that you need to stop doing, especially if you have a new puppy and that is waiting. Waiting for puppy to be fully trained before you get your rugs cleaned.

The longer pet urine is in your rug the harder it is to remove the smell and the stains. Plus when your pet starts using your rugs as bathrooms it is harder to get them to stop. There is a myth that if your dog or cat can smell the urine they will continue to keep going on the rugs. That is marginally true. The truer statement is that once they get away with peeing on the rug they think that it is okay to go their. It is more behavioral than odour, unless another animal comes into your home and then they will mark the rug because they smell the urine. Having pet urine, vomit or feces in your rug is not healthy for you, your home, the air you breath, your pets and your rug.

If your pet did any of those things on an article of clothing you would clean it right away, so why would you want to wait weeks or months before you get your rug cleaned?

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary-pet and rug lover

>Luv-A-Rug gets Rid of many different Odours from Area Rugs

Today we have the theme day of smells and they are not pet urine smells. On this sunny day of May, Luv-a-Rug has received a Turkish rug that is a week old and got wet from a salt water aquarium.

The rug resides in a law firm here in Victoria and yesterday it was discovered that the fish tank had a leak and the rug was soaking up the water. There is no colour bleed. The lawyer who owns the rug rolled it up and called us immediately to pick it up, which we did first thing this morning.

Other than the rug smelling strongly of salt and algae there is no other water damage. Once we do a thorough rinse of the rug and dry it completely the rug will be nice and fresh to enjoy again.

The next smell we got in was a carpet from a trunk of a car where gas additive leaked. The owner of the car tried to wash out the spill, but it wasn’t budging. The smell got to be to the point where she couldn’t have the carpet in her car at all.

She brought it to Luv-A-Rug for a deep cleaning. We can do a thorough wet wash on the trunk carpet because it is synthetic nylon. The only cleaning concern is there are three pieces of stiff under pad glued to the under side of the carpet. These may or may not remain glued on. This was explained to the client and if they do come off we can easy re glue them, or if they fall apart the client knows she can replace them.

Luv-A-Rug cleans car mats as well, if they are removable from your vehicle.

The third smell to come into Luv-A-Rug was a hand tufted rug with a strong latex glue smell. When they make hand tufted rugs they glue the fiber loops and the cotton backing on and this glue can give off a smell from moderate to very strong. 

If your hand tufted rug has a latex smell it cannot be removed since it is part of the rugs construction. The best thing to do is when you are purchasing a rug with a cotton backing is to fold back the fibers and smell the rug. That way you will know before if the rug has an odour already.

No matter what odour your rug may have due to spills, pet accidents, or flooding chances are Luv-A-Rug has cleaned them all.

Here’s to your rug not having an odours and being clean and healthy, RugloverMary

>Pet urine and your area rugs…not a match made in heaven

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This is my adorable Texas, who as cute as he is has forgotten to wake me up in the middle of the night when he has had to go outside. So what can we do to protect our rugs from midnight accidents?

It seems that our pets enjoy our rugs just as much as we do, but sometimes in a different way than we would prefer. They like to use some rugs as an indoor bathroom. Not the best use of our rugs that is for sure.

I have recently had an article about Pet Urine and area rugs published on the site Ezine Articles.

Here at Luv-A-Rug, we receive a lot of area rugs for cleaning because of pet accidents from mild to sever. No rug should ever get to the sever point. Pet urine damages your rugs. As soon as you notice that your rug has been peed on get it cleaned. The longer you wait the harder it is to get all the urine smell out, especially on wool and shag rugs. When you are puppy training try to not have any rugs on your floors. Puppies will find your rugs very convenient and the more they use your rug the more they know to always use your rugs.

The best way to not have your rugs used as a bathroom is to deter pets from your rugs right from the start. Sprinkling pepper, either white, black or cayenne, when you first lay your rugs down works as a good deterrent. Remember that nothing is full proof, but if you have pepper in your rugs for the first few days and your pet inhales it, they are not going to like it.

Dogs have been known to not pee or vomit on rugs that they use as a place to sleep. They don’t want to lay on a dirty rug either, cats don’t seem to have that same sense. It is good to have a nice soft warm blanket or rug just for your dogs to use and keep them away from your nice area rugs.

Have you tested and had success keeping your dogs from using your rugs as a bathroom or napkin?

Do you agree/disagree with what I wrote?

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary and pet lover.

>Pets+Pepper+Rugs=Happy Home

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A good way to deter pets from having accidents on your precious rugs

 You finally found the perfect area rug, it is everything you needed for your home. You proudly take your rug home and put it in place. As you are sitting there chatting with your mom about what a great area rug you found, cute adorable Rover walks over to the rug and lifts his leg.

You are in shock at what you just saw happen.  You jump up and quickly clean up the accident.

It can happen to the best trained pet. When they discover a new item in their house, they have to mark it as theirs. If this went unnoticed your pet could start using your precious rug as a bathroom, thus possibly ruining your rug.

Thankfully, there is a way deter pets from your rug as soon as you put it on the floor and that is Pepper.

I know sounds a bit weird, but after your pet sniffs the pepper they will avoid that area. You don’t need to use a lot, nor do you usually need to put it all over the rug. Sprinkling it just around the edges usually works. One application of pepper should be enough to keep pets away from the rug.

As long as the pepper doesn’t get wet it won’t stain your rug and it is easily vacuumed up. Pepper can also be sprinkled any where you need to deter pets. 

For your cats favorite chair to scratch, take some clear packing tape, make a loop with the tape with the sticky side facing out, stick the tape to the area they scratch at and sprinkle pepper to the side facing out. 

In rare cases your pet may not be detracted by the pepper, but it isn’t very often that this would happen. Pepper doesn’t feel very nice when it is inhaled. 

When using pepper of any kind make sure the area is kept dry, so that no staining occurs and vacuum it up after a couple of days so it doesn’t attract other unwanted pests.

If you have other methods of keeping pets from bad behavior please share them. It is a common problem that may pet owners are faced with. It is frustrating when our precious items get destroyed by our beloved pets. Any suggestions you have are greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary, your Victoria and Vancouver Island BC Canada,  rug cleaning expert! 

>Area Rugs, the Internet and Animal Behavior

>Nothing gets me madder than all the false information that keeps getting perpetuated over and over again on the Internet. Today my beef is with pet behavior and why they keep using the same area rug as a bathroom.

It is widely believed and told by experts that your pet will go back to a previous peed on rug because of the smell. This is FALSE! Why do I say this? I see it every day.

If it was just the smell of the previous urine they wouldn’t go back to the same spot after you changed the rug. It isn’t because of smell it is because they got away with using the rug as a bathroom. They now know this is where they can go. It becomes habit for them.

Smell comes mostly into the equation when you have other dogs visit your house. They smell the urine from your dog and they mark the spot with their scent.

It is frustration when you are explaining this to clients and they look at you like you know nothing. I just had that happen and it compelled me to write about pet urine and area rugs. The best part is that her issue was about dog smell and not urine. I found this out after I told her that is wasn’t smell that made them go back to the rug and after the client had that look on their face that said you are lying and know nothing.

 There isn’t a lot that can be done about dog odour if your dog lays on the rug, except get the rug cleaned more often that once a year. Please do not use air fresheners to mask the odour. Air fresheners open up a whole new set of health issues.

If you do see your pet pee on your area rug it probably isn’t the first time they have done it. Check the back of your rug for urine stains, they will look like yellow water marks on the back of most rugs. If you cannot see any urine stains because of the colours, design, or type of backing your rug has, get down and start smelling other area of your rug. You may be surprised at what you find.

Pets, especially dogs love area rugs just as much as we do. Rugs are a good warm, soft place to go to sleep and they can also be a convenient indoor bathroom. A good thing to do to deter your pets from going near a rug is to sprinkle some cayenne pepper on the rug. Dogs usually don’t like to smell pepper, so they may avoid going near your area rugs.  This is a good trick to use when you bring a new rug home and when you move to a new house. Dogs like their routines and every time their routines get messed with they will act out.

Now as with most advice it is never set in stone and not every dog will react the same way, but there are a few things that you can count on:

• New Puppies will always find your rug the perfect place to pee
• Even if you only own one rug, your pet will always vomit or pee on it if they have to go
• Water and vinegar are safe to clean pet urine spots

Even the best pets can have accidents all we can do is clean up after them and try to not let them make it a habit.

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary