How to remove dog smell from our new house

[GurlWithACurl]

We are moving into our new home in a couple of weeks. As we own it already, I am spending the time until moving day cleaning and generally getting it ready. The previous owners had a lovely large dog and there is quite a doggy smell in some of the rooms, my son’s bedroom and the lounge in particular. As my son has ASD and OCD he is worried that he might find the smell difficult to cope with. Can anyone recommend products that will help eliminate the smell? The rooms both have thick carpets. TIA

My house had their smell to it when we moved in. I hated it, got rid of it once we pulled the majority of the carpets up and curtains etc. was the only thing that stop me being able to smell them when I came into the house.

Get the carpets and sofas professionally cleaned if you can afford it. It makes a huge difference.

If you can stretch to it, I’d get rid of the carpets and put wooden (or pretend wooden) floors down.

My SIL had this problem, she lodged somewhere and had the whole house stripped of its carpets, had everything repainted, new kitchen, the lot. I’m not totally convinced it worked.

Our house had really good condition carpets, so we were loathed to replace. Before we moved in, we had the carpets professionally cleaned with pet specific cleaner. It did help a bit but once dry it was noticeable again. Especially on the landing and in the living room where it seemed the dogs slept.

Then we bought big tubs of bicarbonate of soda from Amazon and really brushed it into the carpets and left overnight before vacuuming. We followed this with some Neutrodol powder. This actually worked!

Then 6 months later, we got our own dogs...

I know this sounds obvious but make sure you're airing the house out properly by opening all windows. It can make a huge difference.

Or replaced!

Bicarbonate of sofa, sprinkle on and brush into carpets with a broom. Leave for a day and then hoover. If still a smell you could try professional carpet cleaning after this.

We had terrible dog smells in our house when we moved in, previous owners had a very old Alsatian, n and could not afford a new carpet at the time so did this and it did the trick but I was delighted when we could put down new underlay and carpet a couple of years later!

Thank you all for your suggestions. They are really helpful. As the carpets are almost new, we will not be replacing them. So, I will air the place out as much as possible before we move in and then have them cleaned if the smell is still there. We will probably get used to it anyway.

We had ours professionally cleaned, the colour of the water was absolutely disgusting. They had two Labradors.

The cleaning helped, but it took a year for the smell to fully go on hot days, we used one of those shake and vac things as well to help as much as possible, but it was mostly time.

Dog smells and strong cooking smells (Indian food for example) are notoriously difficult smells to get rid of. My Mother had to get a new kitchen to get rid of the Indian food smell. Dog smell removal will involve change of carpets and decoration in my opinion. Non-dog owners do smell dogs where the owners don’t notice it. Smells are more bothersome than folk think. You can notice it as soon as the front door opens.

My house smelt a bit doggy when we had our lovely boy. When we got hard floors everywhere a new sofa you could only really smell dog around his bed and our room (still carpeted). He died in April and the doggy smell has gone.

Even from our bedroom. Though I havent been able to hoover the last of his hairs off the foot of our bed (material) 😢

I sprayed a pet smell killing enzyme everywhere (loads of brands on Amazon) let it dry and did it again, then had the carpets professionally cleaned. The smell did go. Every single surface has to be cleaned, too. Every wall, every skirting board, window etc smells stick to everything. My house now has wooden floors and my dog has his feet and bits bathed every day and is fully bathed every few days and never smells. You can have a dog that doesn’t stink, I promise my house is not doggy!

Neutradol powder, you sprinkle onto the carpets, leave overnight or longer if possible. Works well.

Worth sprinkling flea powder on the carpets too.

You have to deep clean everything, get a professional in to clean the carpets as a minimum. If you can, repaint the walls, if not, wash down with sugar soap thoroughly. The smell will go eventually, but you need to keep cleaning & cleaning.

Professional carpet clean, then ozone machine.

You're half-way there. Just get the dog now.

Don't wait until you move in, get the carpets professionally cleaned whilst the house is empty. Airing won't clean dog smell out of those carpets.

Ç02 cleaners for pets!

End of Tenancy clean!

New carpets and clean under them before you replace.
Wash or replace any curtains too.

As others have said - copious amounts of bicarbonate of soda - brush in and leave overnight- then vacuum. Try this before spending a lot on other methods.

Shame that the carpets are new as I’d be replacing them - pay for a professional cleaner to come and completely clean them and paint the property to freshen it up!

I would also put the carpets in the skip, even though they are new. My worry is animals likely released a lot of "fluids" that soaked through under the carpet and into the underlay below and possibly the base floor.
Bought a similarly dog smelly house and when I ripped the carpets out, there was very obvious staining on lots of the underlay - smell didn't go until it was all out of the house and all floors underneath thoroughly scrubbed with chemicals.

The only product I've ever found that totally kills every smell is Zoflora. Stinky trainers, cat piss, vomit, the underlying stench just vanishes. Find a Zoflora scent your son likes, hire a Rug Doctor and along with the pet carpet shampoo add a couple of capfuls of Zoflora each time you refill the tank.
Imo Neutradol does nothing except overlay the bad smell with the smell of Neutradol but Zoflora actually kills it.