Monday, August 27, 2007

An anti-dog cleaning spree

Well, not anti-dog but anti-dog smell. The dogs are confined to one room and one hallway, but between one of them being a partially incontinent old man and the other being a testosterone-poisoned obsessive marker, it wasn't pretty.

So on Sunday we had a Cleaning Marathon and tackled it all with a vengeance. Step 1 we actually did last weekend, when we took up the carpet and put down the vinyl in the hallway. Yes, a marking dog and a carpeted floor is a really nasty gross combination. This weekend's tasks included deep-cleaning the crates, deep cleaning the floors, saturating everything that ever touched Dog with Nature's Miracle, removing the area rug, removing all dog bedding ( no matter how much they loved it) that wasn't easily tossed in the wash or that was made of some nasty synthetic that held onto dog smells now matter how well you washed it. I also cut in half and sewed up the cut edges of some way over-sized comforters that we used for dog blankets to make them more easily washable and to make it easier for us to swap out a stinky blanket for a clean one.

Oh yeah, and we cruelly tortured washed the dogs. What a concept, eh? Of course, Obsessive Marker Dog was seen shortly thereafter lifting his leg on Tiny Brat Dog as she peed. Oy.

Other than that, I got some stuff freecycled (some picked up, some scheduled for this week), we did a full dust/walls/floors cleaning of the house, and I spent several hours getting my sewing room put together which included *gasp* unpacking three more boxes!!! We've only been here, what, going on 15 months now?!?

Ahhhhh :::taking a deep whiff of the air::: Do I detect a hint of minty freshness?!?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel you, I did this same thing over the weekend. Only, we stuck to area rugs and hardwoods downstairs to be safe. I have an OCD min pin who marks, and the best solution I've found (short of leaving him outdoors 24/7) is to make him wear a belly band when he's indoors. I make my own out of fabric scraps, but if you search on ebay you'll find tons of them for cheaper than PetCo.

Just a tip from the dog pee trenches :)

Leslie said...

Mindy, thanks for the understanding!

Unfortunately, boydog has yet to encounter a belly band that we can get on him (someone recommended this one type that's basically like a large ace bandage - no WAY can we get him to hold still enough to get that on him!) AND that he can't get out of. Now that I'm back to sewing, I'm going to experiment with adding velcro straps that attach the belly bands to his harness so that he can't slip out of them.

Now if there was only something that we could line it with that would make his little peepee REALLY uncomfortable the moment he peed inside the belly band, but that wouldn't really harm him...

I'm actually also glad to talk to someone else who is dealing with this. I don't know about you, but I'm a little tired of folks who respond as if we're just clearly not willing to take the little bit of effort it would require to "properly house train him." They don't at all understand that he's totally house trained! I don't think it's a coincidence that there aren't any well-regarded dog training books or "experts" (such as "The dog whisperer") who tackle this topic; it's just too hard to deal with. I have no doubt that it's why Mr. Pugface ended up in rescue, which is where we adopted him from.