Homemade Dog Urine Repellent: The Complete Guide

Homemade dog urine repellent is an efficient way of preventing dogs from going about putting urine stains everywhere in your house. Preventing these stains will save you the cost of buying new furniture as they could be damaged with urine

Dog owners sometimes struggle with things such as controlling where their dogs pee. Dog pee has an unpleasant smell and disgusting stains that can make owners spend extra time cleaning up leather furniture or spend more on getting carpets cleaners.

Keep reading as this post will explain why dogs pee in the wrong places, how to get rid of dog pee stains and smell, how to prevent your dog from peeing in the wrong places and how to make dog urine repellents at home.

Why Is Your Dog Urinating In The Wrong Places?

Before attempting to stop your dog from urinating in the wrong places, it is important to first know why your dog is doing it. Although many new dog owners will need to be patient enough to train their dogs to urinate in designated places.

However, well-trained dogs that pee in designated places formerly can suddenly start to pee in the wrong places and here are some of the reasons why this may happen.

Your Dog May Have A Health Condition

If you notice that your already trained dog is starting to urinate in the undesignated areas around the house, it is important to first reach out to the vet. Sometimes, it could be that your dog has a bladder or urinary tract infection.

Your Dog Is Not Spayed Or Neutered

Apart from the health benefits of spaying or neutering your dog which include reduced risk for cancer, uterine infections and prostate disease, it also reduces the chances of them marking their territories by urinating.

If a dog goes too long before being neutered or spayed and develops the habit of urine marking, neutering or spaying may not be effective in stopping the habit anymore.
Also, some early neutered or spayed dogs may still sometimes mark their territories using urine marking for other reasons. Some of these reasons include:

Your Dog Feels Threatened

The presence of an unfamiliar object in the house such as a new piece of furniture, a visitor’s purse or jacket may cause your dog to urine mark, especially if said object carries the scent of another animal.

The addition of a new member to the home such as a romantic partner, a roommate, a baby or other pets may also trigger this response from your dog.

Your dog may also feel threatened after it has seen unfamiliar dogs in the area either through the window at the park.

Your Dog Is Establishing Dominance

This usually occurs when there are other pets such as other dogs or cats in the house and your dog conflicts with them. The dog may urine mark to establish dominance around the house.

Your Dog Is Stressed Or Anxious

Dogs may sometimes urine mark when feeling stressed or experiencing anxiety. Different things could be making your dog feel stressed or anxious and it is important to identify them to permanently solve the problem.

How To Get Rid Of Dog Urine Stains And Odor

Now, your dog has made the mess and after you have identified the cause, you will want to get rid of the smell and stain properly and as soon as possible.

Dog pee contains pheromones which dogs use as a complex mechanism to communicate and set boundaries. The pheromones are beneficial to potty training dogs, this is why once a dog smells those pheromones and it will decide to ‘go’.

The pheromones in urine may encourage your dog to continue urinating in the wrong areas around the house after doing so in the past.

It is thus essential to completely neutralize the pheromones while cleaning the urine stains and smell to prevent your dog from remarking the area.

Below are some steps to take to properly clean up dog urine stains and smell around the house.

For Hardwood Floors, Carpets And Couches

• Use a handheld vacuum cleaner if there are pet hairs around.
• Soak a cloth in hydrogen-peroxide based cleaner.
• For carpets, you might consider getting a good carpet cleaner for pet urine.
• Lay the wet cloth on the floor and leave for about 15 minutes, this will remove the urine stain from the hardwood floor
• Remove the cloth
• Soak another cloth in an enzymatic cleaner
• Lay on the same spot for another 15 minutes, this will absorb the smell from the hardwood floor.

For Pillows, Beds And Dog Beds

• Remove all sheets
• Soak sheets in enzymatic cleaner and detergent
• Lay a wet cloth soaked with hydrogen-peroxide on the spot (pillow, bed, dog bed)
• After 15 minutes, replace with a cloth soaked in an enzymatic cleaner for another 15 minutes
• Open windows and put on fans to dry the items properly; you can sun-dry if possible.

For Tiles

• Soak up the puddle as soon as possible
• Pour about ½ cup of white vinegar on the stain and leave to sit for about 10 minutes
• Add some tablespoons of baking powder to the vinegar, this will cause some foaming to appear
• Leave about 2 minutes
• Wipe with a paper cloth
• Get a good vinyl mop and clean the floor properly with lukewarm water.

Here is a brief video explaining how to get rid of pet urine stains and odor.

How To Stop Your Dog From Urinating In The Wrong Areas

See A Vet

See a vet if your trained dog is suddenly urinating around the house as this could mean the dog is suffering from a disease or infection.

Neuter Or Spay Your Dog

As many as 60 % of male dogs stop urine marking after getting neutered, it is thus important to consider getting your dog neutered when you notice this habit.

Clean The Urine Marked Areas Properly

Clean already marked areas properly with enzymatic cleaners to ensure that all pheromones are neutralized as the presence of pheromones could trigger your dog to urinate in those areas again.

Use A Synthetic Hormone Diffuser

A synthetic hormone diffuser can be used to calm a stressed or anxious dog. There are some electric diffusers in the market which have been known to calm dogs and reduce their urge to urine mark.

Train Your Dog

Teaching your dog to sit or lie down and positive reinforcement with snacks will establish you as the pack leader and reduce the dog’s need for urine mark.

See A Certified Veterinary Behaviourist

Sometimes you will need the help of a professional to truly identify the triggers around the house, this is also helpful in identifying the stress and anxiety triggers around the house.

Use A Dog Urine Repellent

When a dog urine repellent is sprayed on a spot, it stops the dog from urinating in that spot in the future. There are many commercial dog urine repellents to buy from the market but at times, these products may not be as effective as you would like.

Thus, it is advisable to make a natural repellent at home.

Keep reading to discover how to make effective dog urine repellent using harmless home ingredients.

Other Tips

• Place snacks around the marked area to change the meaning of the area to the dog.
• Make new members in the home befriend the dog.
• Give the dog snacks whenever the baby is around, to establish that the baby is not a threat.
• Use curtains or blinds to prevent your dog from seeing unfamiliar dogs on the street.
• Keep new items and visitors’ jackets and purses out of reach to your dogs.

How To Prepare A Dog Urine Repellent At Home

After properly cleaning the spots where your dog has urinated, using urine repellent will ensure that the dog doesn’t pee in that spot again, as dogs are known to do.

Preparing your repellent at home is safer and more effective as it ensures that all products used are not toxic to dogs and in the right concentration to deter them.

Before going into the steps to prepare the ingredients, here are the items you will need:

• A Clean Spray Bottle: Make sure the bottle is properly clean as many chemicals can be harmful to dogs. It may be best to buy a new spray bottle from the market to be safe.
• Water: About 1 to 2 cups of cold or lukewarm water.
• Essential oils: Dogs hate the scent of lemon, orange and other citrus fruits. Thus, using citrus-based essential oils will be an effective way to keep your home clean.
• White vinegar: Another smell dogs cannot stand is the smell of vinegar, adding this to your repellent will make it very effective.

Here is a step-by-step guide to making the repellent.

Step 1: Measure The Water Into A Bowl

You can make your repellent in a bowl, a measuring cup directly in the spray bottle. Measure about 1 ½ cups of water into a bowl.

Step 2: Add White Vinegar

After deciding on where to make the repellent, the next thing to do is to add white vinegar, two tablespoons of white vinegar are sufficient for 1 ½ cups of water.

Step 3: Add Essential Oil

The next thing to do is to add the citrus-scented essential oil. About 20- 25 drops of the oil are sufficient for 1 ½ cups of water.

Step 4: Shake In A Spray Bottle

After putting the mixture in a spray bottle, it is important to shake it properly to ensure that the ingredients are evenly distributed in the bottle.

Step 5: Spray On Previously Marked Areas

Spray the mixture on carpets and other objects your dog may have previously marked.

Note: While the spray may not cause carpet, couches or clothes to stain, it may stain furniture therefore it is important to first spray on a small portion of the area to be sure that your repellent will not cause a stain on the item you want to spray.

Additional Information

• Do not punish your dog after it has urine marked. Dogs are not like humans and thus, it may not make the connection between what it has done and the punishment. Dogs will instead feel confused and scared.
• Avoid using naphthalene, hot pepper chilli and chlorine in your repellent as these can be dangerous and even fatal to your dog.
• Avoid using ammonia and bleach on the urine marked spot as this can encourage the dogs to pee on the spot again and ammonia is also toxic to dogs.
• Protect yourself by using a face mask and gloves when cleaning up dog urine stains and odor.
• After trying the methods above to remove smell and stains, call a professional cleaning company if the stain and smell persists.
• Use the homemade repellent for a minimum of 6 months only and shake well before every use.

Protect Your Carpet And Your Dog

While many dog owners have concluded that homemade urine repellent is extremely effective in stopping dog’s urine marking habit, some dog owners have complained that their dogs like the smell of citrus and vinegar thus rendering the spray useless.

In situations where this is the case, buying commercial repellents which are known to deter dogs from urinating may be the way to go.

It is important however to research properly before getting one of those repellents to avoid buying a product that could be toxic to your dog.

I hope you enjoyed this post and if you want to share your experience about stopping a dog from staining the house with urine, do drop your comments. And remember to share the post.