For those selling a house, if you have dogs please open windows before your viewings!!

[Darkandstormynite]

Just come back from viewing another property where the smell of dog really hits you as you walk through the door. Do people not open windows or clean carpets anymore??

Honestly this is the third property we've viewed where it's just been so over powering. I'm desperately trying to look past it to look at potential whilst viewing the house, but honestly it's difficult when you just are fighting down the urge to open windows and doors.

One house tried to mask the smell with air freshners, which just made it worse and more overpowering!

Just open windows, wash dog bedding and shampoo the carpets. Not that difficult really. We've had dogs and this is what I thought people did as standard when trying to sell, it's what we did.

I’m so glad my dog doesn’t smell 😂 my mum hates dog smell (so do I tbf) but she’s really sensitive to it and even she can’t detect a whiff of dog in my house.

Litter trays are another one! I’m forever paranoid that visitors can smell wee

Honestly? You can clean it if you want to buy the house. It’s a bit dramatic to get so up in arms about it.
I don’t understand why so many people o mumsnet have dogs who absolutely reek? Many of my friends have dogs and fresh smelling homes

Haha this is turning quite funny - people declaring houses don't smell of dog if you clean etc.

I think a) mostly, people with dogs just don't smell it and b) it really does depend on the dog - most smell, a SMALL number don't - dogs like whippets I think are MUCH better than labradors or cocker spaniels, for example. Anyone with a labrador who thinks their house doesn't smell is I'm afraid sorely mistaken, it's just everyone is too polite to say!

My favourite dog related house viewing tale is the house I looked around that a relatively elderly man lived in with his dog - a small terrier-type. Having been instructed to admire the pine cladding in the kitchen that he had done himself, I was shown the stairs for the basement and told not to worry about the damp patches - it wasn't actually damp, it was just where his dog took itself downstairs to pee whilst he was left alone in the house!!!!

This ^

When I bought my house the smell of dog wouldn't shift until I'd had all the carpets replaced. Gross.

Are you ok? You must factually know we are not in the middle of a pandemic, right? It’s over. The who announced the pandemic was over a couple of weeks ago.

I have a Lab, so my house must stink! I do my best with windows and washing Throws etc but i
aware that as I have a dog my house will have a dog smell. Think people gagging though is an Exaggeration.
I am however shocked that people would move into a house without changing all carpets/flooring first.

Anyone with a labrador who thinks their house doesn't smell is I'm afraid sorely mistaken, it's just everyone is too polite to say!

I agree with this - I have a friend with a Labrador and the minute I walk through the front door that musky dog smell hits me. I don’t mind it but I’m not sure I could live with it. My friend is fastidious about cleaning too so I guess it’s just the dog breed.

Every house has a 'smell'. Not necessarily unpleasant but every house has its own smell when you enter one. My friend's house (no pets) has a very distinct smell that isn't massively pleasant to me personally but isn't because anything is unclean, it's just not a smell I like (I imagine it's just a combination of what cleaning stuff they use, air fresheners, and other environmental things; their house is always clean).

As a dog owner, I just don’t know. I hope not just based on the way I have more doors and windows open than other people and the smells I can smell- coffee baking and the fireplace.

Your house smelled of dogs when you had dogs, you just didn’t notice because they were your dogs.

Are you a time traveller from 2020? Top tip for you - lock in a 10 year mortgage at the rates you have back there in the past

Think people gagging though is an Exaggeration.

You've never smelt bad stink then. Not everyone cleans their house and dog and when it's really strong, it is vile and can make you feel queasy

Yes we viewed a flat that stank of cat pee. We ended up buying anyway but when the living room carpet was lifted a big patch of damp crumbling floor boards needed replacing. Bloody disgusting

I am however shocked that people would move into a house without changing all carpets/flooring first.

Really? Why? It’s a huge expense that most people would prefer to avoid, and environmentally unsound if they’re not on their last legs.

We bought our house from a couple that both smoked and had a Labrador. A perfect blend of long-lasting pong.

We moved in two years ago, and only got rid of the final, faint whiff of dog after we replaced the landing carpet in February.

I know dog owners always come on to these threads and swear blind that their houses don’t smell of dog, but honestly if you have them indoors and in direct contact with soft furnishings, it’s inevitable.

Is this just new angle for the dog haters, it’s reached the property section. 😅

When we buy houses, we change all flooring, decorate and have cleaners do a deep clean so it wouldn’t bother me.

I agree OP. Dog smell is 🤢 to non dog people

I've never been to a dogs house and not been able to smell it, open windows or not. It's disgusting and dog owners don't seem to notice it 🤢

I bet it does smell

And this is why even more landlords will see up when this stupid bill becomes law to force landlords to accept tenants with pets. Turns a beautiful fresh house into a stinking cesspit!

We viewed a house a couple of years ago that absolutely reeked of dogs. The sort of smell that makes you gag and retch.
The owner didn't live there and was just coming back and forth with the dogs every few weeks to give viewings. Yet it stunk so bad.

My mum has dogs and I'm dreading having to sell her house when the time comes. Only one comes into the main part of the house, the rest are in the kitchen (and their fancy dog log cabin) yet the whole bungalow stinks of dogs. The carpets look clean but they're really not.

We bought off a dog owner but they'd not lived in the house for 5 years. The kitchen still stunk of dog - had to gut it to remove the smell. There was dog grease on all the doors too.

My cousin had a dog she absolutely adored.
Her house absolutely reeked of dog - it was terrible, awful, horrible, suffocating.

The dog finally died and I guess someone finally told her, but she had to repaint and re-carpet her entire house to get the smell out.

It can be expensive to de-dog a house.

@JandalsAlways I viewed a house where the owner owned 2 dogs and 1 cat, it was absolutely immaculate, didn't get a pet whiff at all!

I have been to friends houses too where you can't smell they have pets, some of course do but not all pet owners have the pet smell in their homes.

I once viewed a house where the man was a pipe smoker. I left with a headache. And spent a fair bit of time 'admiring the lovely garden' before I had to go back in and recommence the viewing.

Lovely house, awful smell, it would have had to be gutted to get rid of it.