Why does my carpet smell like wet dog?

Carpets are soft, comfortable and warm underfoot, but all that fluffy fabric can hold onto dust and dirt, leaving you with stains or bad smells that need to be dealt with.

Once you get the carpet shampoo out and give it a good clean, you might notice a lingering wet dog odour that’s even more unpleasant. If that’s the situation you’re facing, here’s what we recommend you can do to sort it and why it happens in the first place.

How to get rid of wet dog smell from carpet

Before we delve into the culprits and causes of your funky-smelling floor, we thought you’d be most interested to find out how to banish that bad pong for good. First up, you’ll need to gather a couple of vital bits of equipment. Grab a cloth or paper towels to soak and wipe them with an enzyme cleaner, like Bio one™ to properly tackle the smell at the root.

Removing wet dog smell with Bio one™

1. See if you can find the area or areas where the smell is worst so you can focus your cleaning efforts on these spots.
2. Once you’ve found the section you need to clean, spray it thoroughly with Bio one™ until it’s entirely covered and very damp.
3. Leave the carpet for five to ten minutes to allow the product to fully soak down into the fibres.
4. Dab off the excess product with your cloth or paper towels. If you feel the smell has lifted, just leave the area slightly damp and you’re all done.
5. If you feel the odour is still strong, give it an extra spray and leave it for a further five or ten minutes before repeating step.

How does Bio one™ work? 

Bio one™ is an all-natural enzyme carpet cleaner that also works on other materials, clothes and hard surfaces. It uses 100% natural, organic and active enzymes to eliminate dirt, stains or bad smells that are often hard to treat. The product is vegan and free from nasty chemicals so it’s kind on the planet and totally safe to use, even with your pets. When surfaces are damp, the enzymes inside Bio one™ break down waste particles and work with friendly bacteria to digest and destroy them. It cleans, degreases and disinfects to remove bad bacteria and any mess.

Why does my carpet smell like a wet dog?

Going to the effort of spending hours deep cleaning just to be left with a nasty pong is really frustrating. Your carpet may even look brand new, but it certainly doesn’t smell it. And when you don’t actually own a pooch, that damp dog smell is even more confusing. There are a few reasons why this might be happening:

Pet urine

If you do have a dog, cat or any other pet – this is the most obvious culprit for that distinctive smell. Urine can penetrate deep down into the carpet fibres, padding or as far as the underlay beneath it. Getting rid of wee odours requires a bit more effort than simple shampooing and the smell is often released by wetting the carpets when you clean. In the future, if you do catch your precious pet making a mess, act quickly and soak it up to stop the urine from leaking down into the fibrous carpet.

Old stains

Old stains and smells will have plenty of time to penetrate down into the padding and underlay of your carpet. This makes them harder to remove and cleaning them often means the pong resurfaces. Regularly clean your carpet to give stains and their smells less of a chance to develop.

Overwetting

Using too much water on your carpet will usually leave you with a whiff of dampness. When cleaning, be sparing with how much water you use or invest in a vacuum carpet cleaner which will suck out excess moisture. A professional cleaner will use these machines or even dry cleaning methods which won’t leave your carpet soggy. Try and air the room if you have windows but don’t use a hoover on a wet surface as this is dangerous and could cause an electrical fault.

Mould

Mould has a distinctively damp and soggy smell. Leaks from pipes underneath the floor or an overwet carpet can easily develop mould as it only needs a little bit of water to grow. Mould can be dangerous – causing allergic reactions or other symptoms after prolonged exposure. Check for signs of mould as you may need to replace the carpet or consult a professional if you’re concerned.

Cigarettes

It’s unlikely that cigarette smoke will be the cause of a wet dog smell as they have different odours, but it does have the power to sink down into carpet fibres. Even once the smoke has left a room, anything that’s absorbed into your sofa and soft-fittings will stay there. Avoid smoking inside where possible as regular exposure to cigarette smoke will be very tricky to remove.

What are enzymes?

Don’t be fooled to think that because enzymes are natural they are less effective than chemical cleaners. Enzymes are nature’s very own powerful cleaning tools. Making them the go to choice for pet owners who do not want to spray harmful chemicals around their pets and their home.

Simply put, enzymes are all around us performing millions of important tasks in our bodies and in nature every single day. They are a type of protein that act like a biological catalyst to speed up the break down of organic compounds.

Similarly to how saliva, (which contains enzymes), initiates the digestion process by breaking down food in our mouths, cleaning enzymes use the same ‘enzymatic digestion’ to effectively break down and eradicate the organic proteins present in urine, faeces, vomit, drool, dirt, food, and more.

This process not only makes cleaning easier but also prevents the growth of bad bacteria – the root cause of those unpleasant odours – in the air, on surfaces, and within the fibres of your soft furnishings.

Try out Bio one™ today, vomit and the other nasties is what nature created enzymes for.